Hello and welcome to this guided meditation session.
Today we're going to experience a guided meditation on dealing with rejection.
Rejection is almost inevitable.
It's a human experience most of us will encounter.
No matter how good,
Successful,
Or skillful you are,
Chances are you will meet rejection in one form or another at some point in your life.
In this session,
We will mindfully work our way to some practices and perspectives that might help us to better prepare to deal with rejection whenever we happen to stumble upon it.
First,
We'll invite you to settle into a comfortable seated posture.
Any sitting position allows you to be relatively comfortable the duration of this session.
Now that you're sitting comfortably,
Go ahead and gently close your eyes as you bring your awareness and breathe.
Let's take a few deep breaths now.
Inhale fully through your nose and exhale also through your nose,
Releasing and relaxing.
One last time,
Breathe in and breathe out,
Feeling relaxed and present.
Now bring your awareness to any sounds that you might notice around you and simply let them come and go.
There's nothing that you need to do other than stay present and aware in this moment,
Allowing any sound to register as it is.
We're not thinking about these sounds but simply experiencing them as raw sensory input.
Be heard as if you were observing them from a distance without judging them,
Without thinking of them as pleasant or unpleasant.
Let a sound simply be sound.
Notice how you can observe them from this place of pure awareness,
Without getting involved in whatever is arising.
Stay present for a moment with this vast awareness.
From there,
Everything else can come and go.
Notice sounds may change and transform,
But this awareness stays open and broad as the container for all you experience.
When the time comes to face a situation of rejection in life,
Know that you can always come back to this place of pure awareness,
Allowing you to detach from the emotional pull of the situation,
Giving you a higher ground of perspective to act in appropriate ways.
Oftentimes,
The negative emotions that trigger my rejection have more to do with our past experiences,
Our conditioning,
And our own projections and distortions than about the situation and people involved.
Learning and cultivating the capacity to access this ground of pure awareness can help us meet any feelings of rejection from one more neutral or less reactive perspective,
Without the emotional charge of our past experiences or insecurities.
So let's stay as this broad and clear awareness for a few moments.
Allow any feelings to arise and any bodily sensations,
Everything that you can be aware of as it arises,
Within this broad space of consciousness.
Any adjustments,
Let them be.
Any judgments,
Emotions,
Or thoughts can also be observed in this way.
When you tune into this place of awareness as the observer,
Notice that when you identify with this place,
When you identify that which observes,
It automatically takes away some of the emotional pull of that which is observed.
We can meet rejection from the place of all-encompassing awareness,
Instead of getting entangled in the stories or the narratives that we create in our minds.
Let's bring to mind a situation of rejection.
It could be a past or recent experience,
Or even some fictional scenario.
Whatever comes to your mind at this moment,
Picture the scene clearly in your mind.
Where are you?
What are you wearing?
Who is with you?
Allow your mind to get immersed in a situation.
You are pursuing something you had hoped for.
Maybe a romantic relationship.
Maybe a project from work.
Maybe you were applying for a position.
Maybe you worked and prepared for it,
And inevitably,
As a consequence,
You created expectations.
This is the first part of the process where we can start to imply mindfulness.
It's natural to have expectations.
They come as part of having desires and pursuing the things that you want.
They can also be unhealthy and create a lot of unnecessary suffering for ourselves.
The key is being able to hold expectations loosely,
Fully knowing that at the end of the day,
We are not in control of how things will turn to be.
Acknowledging this fact doesn't mean that we should not pursue or want things to happen.
It's simply accepting that we will not always get what we want,
And that learning to let go of the outcomes can save us a lot of suffering.
Now let's continue our visualization,
Bringing to mind the moment of rejection.
Picture it vividly in your mind.
How do you feel in that moment?
Where exactly in your body did you feel the rejection?
What are the sensations in your body that came to mind as you were experiencing the rejection?
In observing and visualizing the situation,
You might feel some changes in your body,
Your overall mood.
See if you can stay present with these sensations.
You're in a safe place to do so.
Notice what your mind is doing.
Now,
As you've practiced before,
Let's meet all of these sensations and emotions from a place of pure awareness.
Examine them as they occur.
Accept them as raw sensory input,
Keeping yourself as uninvolved,
And judgmental as possible,
Simply an observer.
We're not turning away from these sensations.
Quite the opposite.
We are examining them directly,
Staying neutral as this all-encompassing sense of awareness.
Let's take this moment to practice this way for a few more moments,
Allowing the sensations to exist.
When you come across a moment of rejection and those feelings are familiar,
It's okay to come back to this practice at any time that you need,
Simply by bringing your awareness back to the present moment and acknowledging the expectations that you had and allowing yourself to observe the feelings and then accepting that disappointment and rejection happens to all of us.
It does not change your worth.
It does not change who you are.
When you're ready,
We'll close this session by taking a couple of deep breaths at your own pace.
