Safe Place #8

Do you ever feel so scared that no matter where you go, you don’t feel safe? In this gentle practice, you are guided to a safe place, a place you can return whenever you need it. In doing so, begin to teach your body how to cultivate inner strength, and relax into comfort, connection, play, ease, or flow.

Transcript

Guided Meditation 8.

1 Finding Your Safe Place.

Take a breath.

How far into your lungs can you breathe with absolute ease?

If you have spent any time being on guard or vigilant,

You may not breathe in very far before you feel a constriction.

If you feel any limitation at all,

Allow your resonant self-witness to turn into a gentle light that visits the cells of your lungs at the area of the constriction.

Ask your cells if they were once so frightened that they stopped breathing.

Ask them if they long to know that things are safe,

That you survived,

And that you are well.

Continue to breathe where it is easy to breathe,

Following your breath wherever it moves,

Not forcing it,

Just bringing gentle warm attention to the shape that your breath naturally makes in your lungs.

As you breathe,

As usual,

You may find that your attention is drawn to other things like worrying about sudden noises,

Feeling an anxiety about social balance,

Remembering things you should have done,

Or making plans.

Gently and with warmth,

Invite your attention back to your breath whenever you notice that it has strayed.

Your attention is supposed to wander everywhere,

Making you safe,

So let your attention feel your gratitude and your warmth,

Gently inviting it back to your breath.

Now invite yourself into your imagination and let yourself see a place that you love.

It can be a real place in nature,

A particular house,

Or even a made up dreamscape.

Allow yourself to make this place unreachable by ordinary means.

Let it be surrounded by an unpassable moat or a forest that makes anyone who enters it that you don't want to see,

Or who flies over it,

Who you don't want to greet,

Get lost.

Or let this place be high in the mountains or in an unknown valley.

Make sure that only you and people you invite can come to visit or live in this place.

What does it look like if you are inside this place,

This building,

This home?

What are the furnishings like?

How does it express your sense of beauty?

This is your safe place and it gets to be as beautiful,

Comfortable,

And nourishing as you can imagine.

What are the smells here?

Who is cooking?

What sounds do you hear?

What does it feel like under your feet?

When you sit down,

What kind of surfaces are here for you?

Outside,

What is the weather like?

The temperature?

Is there wind?

Mist?

Sun?

Are there clouds?

What kind of landscape surrounds this place?

Rivers?

Rocks?

Trees?

What kind of plants?

Moss?

Grass?

This is your place and it gets to be exactly the way that you want it.

Inside,

What are your favorite foods,

Books,

Music,

Films?

What and who will you bring to this place to make you feel happy?

Who are you comfortable with?

Are there people that you love?

Are there animals that you love?

And now that you are here,

What does your body do in this place?

Does your stomach relax?

What happens with your heartbeat and your breathing?

Allow yourself to enjoy this place for a few moments with your eyes closed,

Introducing this place of safety and comfort to the parts of you that need a secure place to rest.

Let these parts of yourself know that they get to decide who comes here and who has to stay away.

How does it feel to have choice?

Let these parts of yourself know that they get to choose exactly what they want to do and when they want to do it.

How does it feel to have freedom?

If there are people that you are worried about that you would feel that you would have to bring with you,

Send them to their own safe places so that this place gets to be just for you,

Unless their presence brings you relaxation and comfort.

And then coming to the end of this meditation,

Whenever you are ready,

Bring your attention back to your breath and the shape that it makes in your lungs.

Come back to the warm connection with your attention and gently bring yourself back to the present moment.

Open your eyes.

What do you see around you?

Is it possible that just for this moment you are actually safe here and now?

If it is possible,

Give yourself another minute to enjoy this unusual sensation.

If it isn't possible,

Remind yourself that your safe place exists within you,

Ready to hold you at a moment's notice.

Reviews

This meditation gives me so much peace. Thank you, Sarah. 💛

Absolutely beautiful. Love the words you use and your nurturing voice. Thank you!

I loved this meditation—so reassuring and comforting. Thank you so much, Sarah 🙏🏻❤️

Beautiful meditation, just what I needed. Thank you 🙏

Great fast but well done to establish a safe space within

Thank you! Love this concept!

Thank you so much to this medication. I struggle with PTSD and this really helped

Thank you for the safe place you helped me create. 🙏🏻

Another excellent and effective exercise from a talented teacher.

This one can be used metaphorically as a visualization, but I took it more literally as I sat in my actual “safe space” and used the questions posed in the recording as tips for improvements I can make to it and as an opportunity to appreciate what I have already done with it.

Probably not ideal for absolute beginners in the midst of crisis, but maybe. Definitely lends itself to multiple listens.

Safe place meditations usually just make me frustrated and less safe, but this one didn't. It might be the first one that actually helped.

Beautiful. Thank you!

Beautiful and extremely helpful!! Thank you 🙏🏻

Thank you I found my safe place and I am there and I am here as well! 🌅🙏Namaste

First safe place meditation I could relate to and really feel

Simple, but deep

Thank you for this gift!
I’m so grateful for your kindness 🙏🏻

Great meditation! Definitely helped me reach a safe place

Only thing I’d change is to make this meditation longer. More spaces between the same talk.

This was very nice and calming. I very much appreciate it, thank you!