Hello and welcome to this guided meditation on releasing grief and bringing in the positive.
So far today,
Have you brought kind awareness to your thoughts,
Heart,
And body?
To begin this meditation and the process today,
I'd like for you to bring your kind awareness to why you chose this topic and how are you feeling about your grief today?
How does your body,
Your belly,
Your chest,
And your head feel today as you are experiencing the grief that you may be feeling?
I invite you to bring your kind awareness to the visceral emotions and feelings of grief.
And I'd like for you to bring your kind awareness to the fact that many others are feeling similarly and are grieving as well.
You are not alone in this moment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said,
I wish that life should not be cheap but sacred.
I wish the days to be as centuries,
Loaded and fragrant.
For times of grief,
It can be helpful to allow what's there to just be there and to open into a space of wonder and gratitude.
You may ask,
How do you allow what's there to be there?
When you feel very challenged by something,
All you can do at times is just be there and to simply wait it out,
To be with our actual feelings as they happen,
To experience them in the body and then let them flow and sometimes let them go.
Oftentimes it means allowing yourself to cry,
To express yourself to a friend,
And to allow yourself to fully express your grief with all the complex emotions that want to present themselves.
In a safe,
Protected place with loving people by your side,
It can be very healing to allow yourself to fall apart,
To sense the humility and the humanity in yourself,
Knowing that many terrible things have happened in the past and will likely happen again in the future,
And that you have the courage and acknowledge your loss,
To know that it's a cycle of life,
And in fact,
It is a hard,
Bitter truth and fact of life,
That we're all imperfect and we all will face trials and tribulation.
So you ride the waves of grief with mindfulness and self-compassion over and over,
Breath by breath,
Moment by moment.
There's no way to know when grief will end,
But with caring presence,
It will.
It's also important to remember that what is moving through your mind is part of a vast,
Complex physical,
Emotional,
And mental process,
Which has many faucets and sources.
As you know,
Grief has its own way of unfolding.
No one can plan it or get rid of it.
Sooner or later,
It can feel appropriate to want to let go,
To release those heavy feelings,
And that's okay.
Sometimes the grief might be so heavy that we have to set it down for a while and take a walk outside or eat some healthy food,
Talk to a friend,
Watch something funny,
Play with an animal,
Something,
Anything positive that doesn't remind you of your sadness and your loss.
Being a friend to yourself will give you the energy you need to come back to process your grief.
After that,
It can become possible to bring awareness to some of the positive aspects of your life,
Which can empower you to see more of your mental experience more clearly and also to feel the bodily sensations more viscerally.
After a while,
It's meaningful that there can be an underlying sense of the unknown,
The uncertain,
The mysteries of life in which we find ourselves in the middle of with a sense of wonder and gratitude.
It's important to be loving in ways large and small,
Like a balm to your own heart,
And reflect on and receive the caring support of others.
So with all that in mind,
Let's begin a guided meditation and mindfulness exercise to release the grief and embrace the positive.
Let's begin by finding a positive posture that feels relaxed and alert.
Perhaps you feel as though you would like to lie down on a bed or a floor,
Or maybe sitting rooted upright on the ground with a tall spine,
Crossed legs.
Perhaps you prefer a seat with a supported back.
Take a moment to find your comfortable seat and settle in with a deep breath.
And now see if you can observe your mind and your body from a distance,
Allowing the sensations to be however they are,
Trying not to be negative about anything that doesn't feel good,
But just allowing your body to settle in and be aware of how you're feeling.
As you continue to breathe and settle in,
Shift into gently releasing the negative thoughts and feelings,
And then really open your heart and your mind to encourage the positive flow of energy.
And remember that you can bring attention to feeling the positive even when you're sad or have other feelings that are present.
Opening your heart and your mind to wonder and to gratitude for the mysterious ways that life unfolds as we allow our grief to unfold alongside of our kind awareness.
Allowing yourself this moment to sit quietly and simply experience and fully embrace and accept your emotions and your grief as they are in this moment.
Allowing yourself full expression of that grief,
Whether through movement or tears or smiles or singing.
Allowing yourself in this moment to simply be aware and accept the complexity and the unfairness of the life that has unfolded with such loss.
And then allowing the reality and the surreal,
Visceral feelings of grief to simply fade and let go as you prepare your heart and mind to experience gratitude for the ability to feel and the ability to search for love and experience self-compassion.
Reminding yourself as you continue to breathe that in times of grief,
It can be helpful to allow what's there to simply be there.
And open into a space of curiosity,
Wonder and gratitude as you learn to process the emotions and accepting your own self-compassion and the support of others.
As you continue to breathe,
Stay in this position as long as you're comfortable and as long as you need.
And when you're able and when you're ready,
Bring your awareness back to the present moment,
Allowing yourself to prepare your heart and your mind to move forward with resiliency and grace.
Thank you for your courage to be with your grief today and to be with caring awareness.
That is mindfulness and that is releasing grief.
Thank you for being a part of this practice.
