Allow Your Emotions To Arise & Release- Trust Your Strength

This is a guided relaxation intended to guide you gently to feel whatever emotions are here for you to feel. You do not need to shove down your feelings, you are strong enough to allow your emotions to arise from within you, and release away from you.

There are fewer moments of silence in this one, so it will be helpful for someone who is wrapped up in their own thoughts and is looking to listen to comforting words outside of them. If this is too much talking for you, I do have other recordings with more silence, which leaves more room for you to listen to the silence and what is coming up from within you.

Sincere apologies if any background noise is distracting, I edited out as much as possible.

This is a recording from an Insight Timer live session. I hope you find this helpful for you!

Transcript

You can listen to this practice wherever it is you find yourself today.

You can be sitting down or laying down or even stretching and doing things if that's what you got to do.

And hopefully wherever you're at,

When you listen,

This will still be helpful to you in some way.

If you would like to listen in a still position,

Feel free to take all the time you need to arrive there.

Just allow yourself to fidget,

Adjust,

Stretch or move in whatever ways your body wants to.

Just doing your best to not think about the movements,

But more letting your body move you in the ways that intuitively feel good in your bones,

Muscles,

Joints,

Not worrying about what the movements look like at all,

But just coming more fully into your sense of feeling and following the yummy sensations you might get when you do some neck rolls or bring the shoulders up toward the ears,

Maybe some torso twists or side body bends,

Just anything at all that feels good physically for you.

Maybe it even feels good to reach the arms overhead and take a big morning stretch,

Just getting that space between your hip bones and the bottom of your rib cage,

Getting that space really long,

So giving your organs lots of space to expand and breathe.

So there's no rush whatsoever.

You can continue to move even throughout this practice whenever you feel the need to,

But at any point,

If you haven't already,

You can make your way to a still position with the spine nice and straight,

And if you're in a space where you feel safe and would like to,

You can allow the eyes to gently close at any time if they aren't already.

Now mark your arrival into your practice today,

Into your body today,

With a full,

Intentional cleansing breath.

As you welcome in a long and slow inhale in through the nose and almost watch yourself fill up to every corner and edge of you as you just hold that for a moment once you're full to sit in that sense of fullness and without straining as you need to slowly let all of that go.

Exhaling bit by bit as you gently pull the navel toward the spine at the bottom of your exhale to really push that last bit of stagnant air out of you as you again pause for a moment to now sit in this sense of emptiness,

Allowing your next breath to come to you as it's needed.

And you can continue to breathe just like this for as long as it feels good and helpful to you.

Not worrying about the length of your inhales,

Exhales,

And pauses on either side,

But just letting these four parts be exaggerated,

Whatever that means for you today.

So when the body would naturally stop inhaling,

Seeing if you can open yourself up a tiny bit more to just take in one more moment's worth of air.

Get even fuller.

And then when you would naturally roll over to the exhale,

Seeing if you can hold off on that for an extra moment to stay in that fullness a little bit longer.

And then as you exhale,

Even when you think you're empty,

Seeing if you can push out just a tiny bit more air to truly empty yourself and stay in that and stay in that emptiness for an extra moment before letting your next inhale come to you.

As we just consciously and intentionally slow down the four parts of the breath,

Communicating to our nervous system that now is the time to slow down.

And at any point if you haven't already,

You may release this guidance over your breath altogether.

And allow yourself to almost step back and up in the mind as you come into that role of the observer or the witness.

As you release all the voluntary guidance we just had over the breath,

And you now simply observe the automatic process that is your body breathing you.

Remembering how your body does breathe all on its own,

Without any of your direction or doing.

But even when you are in a deep sleep,

Your body breathes perfectly.

Your body functions perfectly to keep you alive without any of your doing.

And just reminding yourself that this is not a doing process or a thinking process.

But this is one of listening and observing.

One of feeling.

And so just let some attention rest on your face.

And even with the eyes closed,

Just making note of any expression that could be resting on the face right now.

Making note of any emotions that could be communicated by this resting expression.

And then just choosing to let these areas soften a little bit more.

So allowing your jaw to hang into place.

Allowing the tongue to release from the roof of the mouth.

And the lips to rest softly on one another.

Feeling the softness in the mouth and how that naturally allows your chin to soften a bit more.

The nostrils as well.

And feel that sense of release naturally spread outward and upward.

As you feel the cheeks relax a bit further.

The ears,

The eyelids,

All of those tiny little muscles along the lash line that scrunch up when you squint,

Even feeling those soften.

As you allow the corners of your eyes to get a little bit wider,

Just with this release.

Feeling your hairline soften back as you allow your forehead to be wide and deep.

And even if it's just for a split second,

Feeling a deep sense of stillness in the face.

A deep sense of acceptance with the face.

And trusting that when you let go,

Absolutely everything will be held exactly where it needs to be.

And so it is safe for you to let go.

It is safe for you to release.

Your body holds everything together perfectly without any of your extra help.

And so maybe even feeling a sense that all of the tiny muscles on the face are just ungripping from the bones,

Releasing back and away from the bones and releasing into the support of your skin.

Again,

Reminding yourself how even when you are in a deep sleep,

Absolutely everything is held where it needs to be.

And the natural intelligence in your own body keeps everything functioning exactly how it needs to.

And so just letting go of that extra pressure you may put on yourself to hold yourself in a specific way or to feel something specific.

And just remind yourself that whatever it is you are feeling is exactly what you should be feeling.

Simply because you are feeling it.

And reminding yourself that this practice,

Any meditation or any healing practice,

Is not about ignoring all of our pain and suffering and putting love and light on top of it,

Everything.

But these healing practices are simply about showing up for yourself exactly as you are.

Knowing that as humans,

As living creatures,

We are constantly changing.

And so each and every time you show up for this practice,

You will have different findings.

And so releasing any expectations that you put on yourself to be feeling how you felt yesterday,

Or how you hope to feel.

And just allow yourself to feel what you're feeling.

And allow that extra heavy layer of resistance to be lifted away from you.

Even if there is intense physical pain in the body,

Or emotional pain in the body,

Any form of discomfort.

Seeing if just for a moment,

You can allow yourself to feel it.

Oftentimes I find for myself,

When I'm in intense physical pain,

The heaviest layer of my suffering is the constant want or need to change the way things are.

It's the constant voice that's saying,

I don't want to feel this way.

I wish I was feeling better.

The constant need to escape what's happening.

And so if I can catch myself in the middle of one of those thoughts,

I can remind myself to exhale into what I'm feeling,

Knowing that whatever I'm feeling needs to be felt.

And I will not escape that feeling.

Needs to be felt.

And I will not escape feelings by shoving more things on top of them or by ignoring them.

But knowing that the only way we allow feelings to truly release from us is by feeling them,

By allowing them to arise from the depths of us and release in whatever way they need to be released.

Whether that be through tears,

Through screaming,

Punching a pillow,

Dancing,

Laughing,

Whatever way your body releases them,

Versus when we shove them back down inside of us,

They only echo louder and control us more insidiously.

And so just take a moment to almost zoom in your awareness on a part of you that is resisting.

If you can find any parts,

Maybe in the stomach,

Maybe in the hands,

In the pelvic floor,

In the jaw or the forehead,

The shoulders or the neck,

Just taking some time to zoom in close into an area of resistance in the body.

And as your body exhales,

Allow these areas to soften just a little bit more.

Allow your body to be a little bit heavier.

Allow one layer of pain to float away from you,

To peel off of you.

And remind yourself that the one thing that all of us can count on in life is change.

Absolutely everything changes.

And so that can be a great comfort to you to feel the things that are hard to feel because they are temporary.

And all the good feelings in your future are on the way to you.

And that same fact can be great permission for you to feel all the good stuff you're feeling right now,

And just to truly soak it all in and make the most of it.

Because it is also temporary.

And you can let go of any guilt you may feel for feeling good when others in your life are hurting.

And instead use that goodness that you feel,

That strength and love you feel to shine that light for others who may be in darker places.

Trusting that when the tables are turned,

Someone else will be shining a light for you.

And just allowing yourself to be a human.

Knowing that as humans,

We will live the human experience.

We will experience the full range of human emotions.

And we are not meant to escape either of these things.

We are simply meant to experience,

To live through these lives with as much grace as we can,

To allow ourselves to ride the waves of ups and downs that we will inevitably experience.

And if you think about anything else in nature,

This is how everything is.

Every flower moves through seasons of growth,

And blooming,

And death and decay.

Even our days,

We have cloudy days,

Where the sun is still there,

It's still shining,

But it's behind a thick layer of clouds.

And then we have beautiful sunny days.

We have dark nights with a new moon,

And we have nights with a full moon,

Where it doesn't even get that dark.

And we are not meant to have bright sunny days all of the time and have bright full moons all of the time,

Or blooming flowers all of the time.

We are just meant to experience life.

And what we are feeling when we experience happiness,

Love,

Joy,

Connection,

Beauty,

What we are actually feeling there is the contrast between our depths and our heights.

And so the heights of your highs are directly related to and affected by the depths of your lows.

And so the darkness that you have felt and experienced allows for you to experience the exact opposite,

The contrast between the bright,

Loving light that you also experience.

And it's part of being human where we almost convince ourselves that whatever we're feeling right now is exactly the way we've always felt and exactly the way we always will feel.

But that will never be true.

The only thing we know to be true is everything changes,

Especially our feelings.

So just let more of your awareness make its way into your heart center.

And let your awareness gradually sync up with this steady rhythm that is your beating heart.

This steady background beat to every single moment of your life.

From before you were even breathing air,

From the time you were in your mother's womb,

Up to this exact moment.

This heart has been pumping life into you.

And this heart is your direct line of connection to the source that all of life comes from,

Wherever you believe that to be.

You are directly connected to the source that all of life comes from,

Simply because you are alive.

And it is part of being human to forget this connection.

And it's also part of being human to remember this connection.

And a very helpful metaphor I like to think of when I'm feeling maybe in darkness,

Or honestly,

Anytime it's helpful,

Is a metaphor that comes from Hellenistic astrology.

And it's of the sun and the moon.

The moon is the representation of our physical body.

Just like the moon,

Our body is simply matter.

It does not have its own light.

But it reflects the light of our soul,

The spark that is within us that animates our body and brings it to life.

The moon reflects the light of the sun.

The sun is that representation of our inner spark,

That soul within us.

And there are times where the moon is fully illuminated by soul,

By the sun.

It is bright,

It is whole,

It is connected,

And it shines light for others in the darkness.

And there are other times where this exact same moon is a new moon.

And it is completely in the shadows,

Not reflecting any light whatsoever.

And then there are all the phases in between the new moon and the full moon.

And there's nothing wrong with the moon when it is a new moon.

There's nothing wrong with it when it's in the shadows.

And so there's nothing wrong with you,

If you feel like you're in the shadows,

If you're in darkness and feel disconnected.

It's just another phase that all of us will move through.

The moon is not meant to be full all of the time.

And neither are you.

And sometimes that expectation that we put on ourselves to be feeling good and motivated,

And whole and loving and loved all of the time,

Is a lot of pressure to put on yourself.

And that in itself can impede us from feeling that exhale into life,

Into happiness.

And so you are allowed to do whatever things you need to do to comfort yourself when you need to be comforted.

And you are allowed to make the most of the good things you're feeling.

You are allowed to trust your instincts on action,

Trusting the urges you feel when it comes to creating and to interacting with the world.

And so just take a moment now to let your awareness gradually make its way to whatever part of your body is making contact with the surface beneath you.

And zoom in close on this place where your body meets the ground beneath you.

And as you exhale,

Allow yourself to be held by this surface.

Allowing yourself to be held and supported by the earth beneath that surface.

By the force of gravity all around you.

Reminding yourself that when you let go,

You will not be crushed,

And you will not float away.

But with the earth and gravity,

You will be held exactly where you need to be.

Almost remembering a time where you exhaled into a hug of someone who you love deeply.

Maybe a person or maybe an animal.

Just a time where you have allowed yourself to be loved,

Allowed yourself to be held,

And just feeling that same sense,

Simply with the earth and gravity.

Allow yourself to be held and loved.

Held and loved.

And trust that the fact of your existence is the proof of your worthiness.

You can let more of your awareness come back into your heart if it's left.

As you once again remind yourself of this innate connection you have to the source of all life and all love.

And remind yourself that you never need to earn any more love from the world outside of you.

Because you have a direct connection to the infinite supply of love within your own body.

And so you always have the option to connect to that source of love.

And reflect that outward to the world around you.

And you'll see how that naturally allows it to expand and multiply and awaken within the people we interact with.

So if it feels like something you would like to do today,

You can let your hands come and find each other in a prayer position toward heart center.

You just feel this contact of your palms and fingers to one another.

And let your heart lift toward your thumbs as your thumbs press back toward the heart.

Just feeling once again all of this power generated through you.

And allow yourself to take a final deep and full breath into the body.

Filling up the most you have today to every corner and edge of you.

And as you exhale,

Letting go of anything you're ready to let go of as you allow the head to gently bow.

And taking this moment to bow to the source of energy that allows all of our hearts to beat,

Whatever you believe that to be.

And bowing to everyone else in this space who has listened and completed this practice right alongside you.

And then finally bowing to yourself for choosing to show up today and taking the time out of your busy life for this pure act of self love and self care.

And may this act continue to heal you through the rest of your days and nights.

And may you bring the same love and understanding to everything you do and to everyone that you see.

Thank you.

Reviews

So much wisdom, thank you 🙏
Love the metaphor of the sun and the moon, I shall remember that ☀️ 🌙 💕