Depression Connected to a Critical Default Mode Network #13

Do you have a critical inner voice that seems to accompany or precede feeling depressed? This meditation is a practice in self-warmth, designed to support with healing our depressed selves when the root is a vicious Default Mode Network that is criticising or otherwise beating up on you. *See Inner Critic Meditation for more work with the Default Mode Network.

Transcript

Guided Meditation 12.

1 Working with Depression Connected with a Savage Default Mode Network Start with your body and be very gentle.

Instead of following your breath this time,

Invite a sense of a golden protective aura to form around you,

To form around your heart.

Let this aura become tiny glowing rays of care that are capable of protecting you,

Even from yourself.

Take a moment to see what this might be like,

This sense that there is part of you that is worth being protected and cared for,

Even against yourself.

Now bring support in to hold that angry,

Bitter voice of self-hate.

Ask this self-hating part if it is at its wits end,

Completely exhausted and bewildered and hopeless about how to support you.

Ask this part if it longs for your invulnerability,

For you to be bulletproof and beyond reproof in this life.

Ask this part if it's angry at you,

So angry at your weakness and your pain and if it longs for the strength of steel.

And ask this part if its standards are so high that they are inhuman.

How is this part responding to your care and understanding?

If there are more feelings and needs guesses for this part of you,

Follow your body to see what emotions and truths are there to be named.

Now come back to your heart and see whether your heart is willing to receive the sweetness that you are offering it.

Does your heart feel healthy and whole or is it giving you imagery of being ill,

Exhausted,

Burdened or another color besides pink?

Or maybe it is being made from another material other than heart tissue.

Whatever you find,

Ask yourself if this communication were letting you know about an emotion,

What emotion would it be?

And what is the longing or need or deep truth that lies behind that emotion?

Is your heart exhausted and needing replenishment and support?

Is it almost like it has been creating the blood that has been nourishing you all by itself without anything coming in from outside and its worn out?

Is your heart needing and longing to be loved just for itself even if it were just in a state of rest?

Does it never want to work again?

Does it need a cradle of clouds or a nest made of spun oxygen and dreams?

Is your heart broken and split from grief?

Does it need acknowledgement of the losses it has endured?

Of how little it enjoys continuing to live when those it has loved are gone?

Ask to see if it is carrying other broken hearts or other pain besides its own and consent to the release of these pieces of pain that are not yours to carry.

Let the rays of self-protection resonate and hold your heart with care and acknowledgement even against your own angry voices,

Not needing any truth other than your heart's truth.

Now as we complete this meditation,

Let your attention return to your full body with affection and care,

Not expecting anything to change,

Just holding your whole being with acknowledgement and if possible a little bit of gallows humor about the way we humans can make our own lives unlivable.

Reviews

Thank you for helping me to get to the root of why I feel so angry with myself, that root being perfectionism. Onto the next step in taking care of my brain.

🙏🏼🩵 many big breaths of recognition as this brutal part felt seen

Lovely thanks

Very beautiful and supportive practice, thank you for sharing!

Wonderful! There is more here in 4 minutes than I ever expected! Thank you Sarah 😊🌻💛

It went very quickly! I loved it but I think I'll need to pause to really focus on the wonderful words being said.

Thank you. Realization that my gentle loving heart has been fighting my demanding mind forever and I seen it as a real sword duel of two masters ... never-ending

Great guidance and really great questions to use to open dialog with self. I love it!

Resonated a lot for me

The visualization about protecting your heart was triggering for me because of a past self harm event. I cried, but it was a good release and I felt a little better by the end. Thank you very much.

Helped me connect to the parts of myself that need my compassion.
Thank you so much

As always, Sarah is insightful in completely unexpected ways that are always dead on. It was very helpful and I am going to listen to it on repeat.

Very witty and grounding. The humor was unexpected fun

Short but sweet. Is your heart carrying others broken ❤️? Thank you for this.

A well needed meditation session. This was the perfect one for me. Thank you.

I think this is a wonderful meditation. There is so much good stuff here. If you slowed down a bit and included quiet spaces between suggestions there are enough thoughtful contemplations to fill up 20 minutes or more. I hope you will continue and am looking forward to hearing more from you.