Lying down,
This practice starts with some very light restorative stretches to begin your journey inward.
After,
We'll begin a feelings-focused meditation,
Reflecting on the typical response of outsourcing pain or blaming oneself for it,
And instead experimenting with viewing the emotion with greater openness,
Tolerance,
And love.
Throughout this practice,
You may continue to hear some sounds to help you deepen your journey inward.
So let's make a start.
Lie down in a comfortable position and begin to observe in detail your surroundings.
We'll now move to some gentle stretches and shapes to cultivate body awareness.
Feel free to close your eyes.
Place a hand on your navel,
Another on your heart.
Notice your breath.
Feel each breath undulation through all points of your hands and fingers.
And return your arms to your side.
Bring your left knee in towards your chest.
Hold it here.
And release your leg back down.
Take a pause.
Same with the right knee.
Bring your right knee in towards you.
Hold it there.
And release.
Notice how each side feels.
Bring both your knees in towards your chest.
Hug them in.
And rock side to side,
Massaging your lower back,
Rocking like a pendulum.
Plant your feet closely behind your seat,
Reaching with your fingertips to make sure you can tickle your heels.
As you inhale,
Press your tailbone down,
Creating a small cubby hole between your back and the ground.
And as you exhale,
Release the lower back,
Back,
Tucking your tailbone in.
Inhale to tilt the tailbone down.
Exhale,
Release.
Repeat this sequence,
Tuning deeper each breath into your lower back region.
After your next exhale,
Come to a neutral back.
Bring your arms both out to your sides.
Keep your knees bent in,
Feet behind your seat.
Now allow your knees to fall over to your left side,
Arms straight out.
Gaze over your right shoulder.
Noticing a twist here.
New sensations perhaps in your middle and upper back.
Return your knees back to centre.
Take a pause.
And perhaps shuffling your hips a touch to the left.
Allow your knees to fall to the right side.
Gazing left as you do so.
As you exhale,
Deepening the twist if it serves you today.
Now,
Turn your upper body over to your right side,
Following your knees into a seat of full potential,
The fetal position.
With your eyes closed or a soft gaze,
Push up into a comfortable seat.
Legs can be gently crossed,
Wherever steady for you.
That comfy place to deepen your awareness inward.
From here,
Fold forward with the hands over crossed legs,
Allowing the upper body to sink down.
Giving a nice stretch to your lower back,
An area we often perhaps could send more love and attention.
Take a nice deep inhale and exhale,
Fully folded forward.
Start to walk your hands back up to a cozy upright position.
From this stillness,
This defigited body,
Let's begin the reflection.
Assume that true position as a witness to your mind and body.
Bring your awareness within to your inner universe.
Notice thoughts,
Images,
Narratives buzzing around and fleeting bodily sensations.
Feel free to notice your breath too,
Wherever your attention naturally falls along its rhythm.
This is a feelings focused reflection exercise.
We often readily outsource pain onto someone in our supply chain.
It's akin to a game of hot potato where once an unpleasant emotion rears its head,
We immediately seek to find a link between it and someone or something else and then push and package that emotion onto them.
It can often seem rational.
One passing comment can trigger this well of pain,
So we attribute the sum total of that pain to the originator of the comment.
Maybe the flip side feels scary to say that we are the cause of our pain,
But maybe this quest for causation isn't needed and is unfair on self and others.
Perhaps this feeling that arises from a comment,
An action is just that,
A feeling.
An energy set off inside that you can notice without creating a train of causation either inwardly or outwardly.
Letting this pain shuffle around,
Move around a bit,
Like a sensitive kitten who's gone into your neighbour's garden thinking it's her home.
Then,
Just as the kitten,
Let's call her Beatrice,
Sorts a whole location out and finds her cat flap and dreamies,
This energy within you also releases.
Deepak Chopra said beautifully that owning your own feelings rather than blaming them on someone else is the mark of a person who's moved from contracted to expanded awareness.
I think it's also about letting feelings be.
One of the most courageous things we can do with pain is to entertain it.
Not lavish it with canapes and pets,
But provide space for it to move and release.
For the pain to begin and end of its own accord.
To arrive and depart like a flight and depart it will,
It will.
So for this visualisation exercise to realise your own resilience to house feelings,
Bring to mind an unpleasant episode or interaction from the past few weeks.
Something that triggered degree of emotional discomfort.
A brief interaction,
Something you saw or sensed.
All feelings are valid.
Now let's get granular with your memory.
What's happening in your chosen scenario?
Who are you with and where are you?
How are you feeling and where are you feeling it within?
How are you talking to yourself in this interaction in this scenario?
Immerse yourself in the moment,
In your emotions.
How do your emotions manifest themselves?
What sort of thoughts do they set off?
Are they changing as you sit here?
Depict your emotions,
Depict the scene like you have the paintbrush of Hieronymus Bosch or your favourite Renaissance painter in your head at your disposal.
Whenever your awareness naturally drifts,
Drifts away to something else.
Lovingly redirected back to this memory,
Using your breath as an anchor for your journey inward.
Realise your resilience,
Your ability to house this discomfort.
The space,
The universe within for these energies to arrive and depart.
When you feel collected,
Allow this discomfort,
This innocent energy to release,
To flitter away lightly and enjoy the stillness,
The unstirred bliss that you've cultivated within.
When you feel ready,
Following cues from your inner wisdom,
Listening to what you feel you may need right now,
Gently start to flicker your eyes open.
Take a moment,
Take as long as you need to enjoy the cosiness of your head,
That pleasant fog of the mind.
Begin to recenter in your surrounds,
Noticing some new details of your immediate environment.
Thank you for listening.
