The World Inside You

This meditation is a reminder that no feeling is final or too hard or too sad for you to be inside. May you teach yourself it is safe to be in your body, safe to be human, safe to be alive because you are awake and open to it all. Our real journey in life is to not heal or replace or rid ourselves. It's to include, to love, to be whole. And to summon the part of ourselves we know is inherently at the core of our being. And from there, bring in our suffering, under the wing, to be held and to be loved.

Transcript

Let everything happen to you,

Beauty and terror,

Just keep going,

No feeling is final.

This is one of my favorite poems by Rainer Maria Rilke.

It helps me pivot and orient to all of my feelings and my different mind states in a way that feels generous,

Kind,

Strong,

And capable.

One of the hardest things for me to live alongside is the intensity of feelings and emotions that I can experience on a day-to-day basis.

I'm a deeply feeling person and I'm highly influenced by my emotions.

And the cost of that can sometimes be a burden on my psyche and my mind because of the intensity of these feelings and these thoughts and how I approach them.

The thing with being a human is we are these incredibly complex and dynamic beings with different personalities and embodiments in us.

And I find I know at least two very strong parts of my personality and my humanness.

And one part of me I know is resilient,

Strong,

She has a very strong root,

Her spine is strong,

Her energy is wide and generous,

Her seeing penetrating,

Her body very soft and open and malleable and unafraid.

She is who I consider to be my ultimate form and true self.

She's the sense of self that I've come to rely on in a lot of the hardest moments of my life.

But I also have another part of me who's really limping alongside this greatness and the two of them are almost walking hand in hand in this journey.

But what I see with this weaker,

More prone to suffering part of me is that I tend to focus on her a lot,

Meaning I tend to invest a lot of my energy in healing and soothing this part of me while completely forgetting this other very strong,

Able-bodied true self.

So if we have this deep knowing in us of this strong self,

Strong spine,

Loving,

Impenetrable self and we also have this suffering,

Sorrowful,

Sad self,

We have to find a way to have both of them included.

And what I mean by included is not overly focusing on the healing that needs to take place,

But finding a way to bring the two together into our body at the same time.

So that this sad part of us doesn't take over,

Dominate and lead our lives,

But rather is brought in under the wing of our strongest,

Most truthful version of ourselves.

So everything is really an energetic investment of our intention and time.

And I find when I am stuck in this hyper-vigilant focus of this suffering part of myself,

I can forget entirely the wisdom of my being and I can invest all my time and energy into a dialogue or a conversation with this part of me that's having a really hard time.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that,

But it is a slippery slope in that if we don't pivot to find our root while dealing with this part of ourselves,

This smaller part of ourselves,

We can lose our anchor and kind of fall into the maw of this suffering.

So for me,

I've been given the gift of seeing these two parts of myself and knowing that I must weave them together in a sense,

Meaning I must find ways to not silo and compartmentalize and wish to amputate this suffering part of me because she is part of my strong self.

In a way,

They are each other's twin or mirror image.

They're part of the same coin.

So the biggest discovery for me is that I don't get to get rid of this part of me that suffers,

This part of my mind that has its habits of negative thinking.

So this part of me is part of the other sense of self.

So they are intertwined.

So that's a really big understanding to have when you're doing this kind of work in embracing your whole self and your wholeness,

Is finding ways to actually let these elements of our personality belong to us,

Let them be brought into the room of us.

The reason we experience pain and suffering is often because we feel the pain and suffering come and we push it behind a door.

And then we use all our will and power to kind of hold that door closed.

And that's where the pain lives in that division,

In that separating off,

In that pushing away,

That wishing away of that part of us.

As you can see how flawed this would be,

How damaging this would be to our entirety.

And what I'd love to do today is guide you through a meditation where we're gently going to be learning to bring in and bring close to us all the elements of our being.

We need to let the experience of our life come in and flow through our body in a way that says,

Yes,

In a way that says,

I am okay with all of this.

I have the strength and resources I need from this true self in me to be with and live alongside this other part of me that feels overwhelmed by life a lot of the time.

These two parts of me,

They belong.

So we have all these filaments of our being kind of fracturing off and they have to be included.

They have to be included.

They can't be cut off from us and we don't want to cut them off from us because that would be essentially refusing what life is,

The way of things.

And the way of things is we are born in these human bodies with these complex minds and emotions and feelings to experience all of them with a smile in our being,

With a strength and resilience and an open heart and open arms to all of it.

And the best way I've found to do that is to just gently find ways to not abolish what is happening for me when I am suffering,

But to bring her into the room and under the wing of my most generous heart and soul.

So if you'd like to join me in a guided meditation now,

Just come to rest inside your body somewhere comfortable,

Somewhere safe,

Somewhere quiet,

And bring your eyes to a close.

And I want you to bring your breath all the way down into your feet as if you're breathing from your feet,

Bottoms of your feet,

Out through the toes.

Don't look down at your feet and imagine they're breathing.

Try and go all the way down into your feet and come up into your ankles and your calves.

Breathing into your ankles and calves and into the knee.

Breathing gently into the knee until it softens,

Until your knees soften.

Into the thighs and the hip sockets,

Feeling what's here.

There's a hum of life.

Can you feel that hum?

It's a neutral energy,

A life force energy living in your legs and toes and hips.

Feeling into your pelvis,

Letting the breath fill the bowl of your pelvis.

Up into your chest and belly,

Moving into the home of your body,

Reclaiming the body by just coming into the body.

Now breathing into the heart,

Very center of the chest,

Into the shoulders until all edges become soft.

Down into the arms and forearms,

The wrists,

Fingers,

Feeling the hum,

The gentle hum of life living in your body.

Into your throat,

Feeling your neck,

Allowing your neck and throat to soften.

Now I want you to inhabit your mind,

Your brain,

Behind your face.

Inhabit every part,

Cheeks,

Lips,

Nose,

Ears.

And now we just rest for a moment,

Fully embodied,

Fully in our body.

This is our body.

Welcome home.

Welcome yourself home into this body,

Feeling the natural harmony that comes.

If there's tenderness or emotions that have bubbled up,

Know how good that is.

Imagine them just needing release and let them do as they wish and as they ask.

So if I were to ask you to envision your essence,

I'm sure you could probably come up with an image of who you really know you are.

This doesn't mean in your life.

This doesn't mean who you are as a mother or as a parent or as a teacher.

This means who you are in your root,

In your energy,

In your being.

When I think of my strongest self,

My highest representation of myself,

I just see her looking at me with the clearest eyes,

Strength,

Nobility,

Acceptance,

All the qualities of this very able being living in me live inside her eyes and I can feel them.

This is the part of you that knows you love life and knows you are here to be in your life and is open to any way that life shows itself.

So I want you to look this highest,

Highest version of yourself in the eye,

Knowing if push comes to shove,

You will always find this part of you because it is your taproot,

It is your birthright,

It's who you are underneath everything else,

Fear,

Terror,

All those feelings.

This part of you lives under them.

And let this part of you inhabit your body,

So bring this part of you into your body with your awareness,

Filling toes,

Legs,

Pelvis,

Belly,

Chest,

Shoulders,

Arms,

Fingers,

Head,

Face,

Let her or him or they come all the way in,

Let it have space in you.

And then I want you to bring forward this kind of seed of suffering living in you,

This suffering self,

These patterns of thoughts,

These worries,

These fears,

They're usually habitual,

They're usually repetitive,

They're usually focused on something in particular,

Very painful,

Very loud,

Dominating,

Very consuming,

But very small,

Like a wound up tight ball or storm,

Really,

That can sweep into your mind and take up all the space.

And I want you to bring this tiny storm into the body too,

But into the body of your deepest strength,

Bring it right in to the heart center,

The core of you,

And let it live inside your essence with,

Beside,

Non-reactive,

Nothing to push away,

Nothing to heal,

Nothing to react to,

Just bring it under the wing of who you know you are,

And if it causes tension or upset in your chest,

I invite you to bring one hand into the back of your chest and one hand to the front and just live inside that,

Breathe with that tension,

Until it kind of disarms a bit,

It doesn't have to fight so hard because it's allowed to be here,

It doesn't have to be so persistent because it's let in from outside the door,

So immediately you might sense some of that pain subsiding,

Some of that restriction subsiding,

And you just soften the tantrum,

The fear,

Keep going,

Let everything happen to you,

Beauty and terror,

No feeling is final,

Dear one.

We summoned the highest representation of you forward,

And then we brought in the suffering,

And not from a place of needing to heal or get rid of the suffering,

But just to include,

To be with,

And to let the highest essence of us soothe and embrace what feels overwhelmed and sad and alone on the outside of us.

So it's as if we brought in all these fractals of our being into one whole center where it could belong.

The other day when I was deeply invested energetically into my suffering body,

And then I sat down to journal,

Because journaling has always been a way for me to kind of break the trance of being completely invested in this suffering self,

In my mental pain,

And my journal said that this is your life unfolding and unraveling before you,

And that no feeling is final or too hard or too sad for you to be inside.

In every direction you sprawl out like a sun with many beams,

And you are in strength and in poverty at the same time.

Deny not one extension of yourself,

Not one beam of light,

For how sad the sun of you would be without all of its beams intact.

Take away anything from who you are,

Condemn yourself for any thought or manifestation of thought is akin to taking a knife to your own arm.

Dear one,

If the fear is here,

Listen to the fear as many times,

And not once,

Wish it away.

For one day,

Along the rugged path,

You will find a web of love has been making your path,

And finally,

Finally,

You will be able to see that even your repetitive pain was lacing itself into the shape of a brilliant starlit sun.

After I wrote that in my journal,

The trance stopped.

The pain was not gone or healed,

It was just included in my experience without resistance and condemnation,

Judgment.

So our real journey is to not heal or replace or rid ourselves,

It's to include,

To love,

To be whole,

And to summon the part of ourselves we know is inherently deeply in the core of our being.

And from there,

Bring in our suffering under the wing,

To be held,

To be loved,

From our strongest root,

Slowly,

Slowly,

Slowly,

Teach yourself it is safe to be in your body,

Safe to be human,

Safe to be alive,

Because you're awake and open to it all.

Let everything happen to you,

The beauty and the terror,

Keep going,

No feeling is final.

Reviews

Excellent guidance on working with troubling thought patterns. Thank you. 🙏🏻

This is so enlivening. I cal that small part of me my chaos demon. She sheds chaos. Bringing her into my heart allows her to grow md be loved. It gives her permission to whisper her wisdoms in my ear. We all need a little chaos demon in our lives, no? 😉

Beautiful. Really resonated to this guided meditation bringing all parts of me together. Takes practice to love that deeply feeling emotional self. Perfect guided meditation for this morning. Woke up again with my chest pounding. I am often fearful and feel I am not enough. I tell myself all is well, I am safe. I find it difficult to be that person I am during meditation and the person I am in this thing called life, this chaotic world. I have lost my strong confident self in my chronic cancer journey.
REMINDER: A feeling is not final!
I have followed you for years and love your guided meditations.
In Gratitude Sarah 🙏🏼🌷

Amazing. A new way of seeing the whole getting better journey - a more harmonious and real than anything I’ve experienced before. Thank you so much !

As always such a beautiful way of making my soul feel soothed! 💕

A positive and heartfelt message that let's me know that our life is like a onion with many layers and and many journeys of self acceptance. Thank you 🙏

Sarah has once again touched me deeply. I am very grateful for her wisdom.

Just what i needed, accepting life changes, negitive self talk serves no purpose. Thank you for sharing your beautiful self with us each and every day- today I heard you🙏

This became my new favorite track, it just speaks directly to my heart, my mind, my soul, and invites me to include all of me, specially my strong, resilient, fearless self that I seem to forget… Thanks Sarah❤️

Giving myself permission to acknowledge and accept my anger and express it in a healthy way, so that it doesn’t overwhelm me, and I can set boundaries in order to diffuse, my anger, is a way that I can embrace my whole self.

I’m left in tears of acceptance at the beauty of this practice.

Spiritually, and emotionally therapeutic. Thank you! So helpful.

Embracing only the good has plagued me my entire life, as if the darkness within me can’t fully be supported by me.
What a beautiful way of helping me realize that the wholeness within me is capable of supporting those broken parts as well.

Serendipitously this was precisely what I needed to hear, to learn, today. Eloquently delivered, landing so softly to my inner, ( hurt ) me, who WAS at conflict with the outer peaceful, joyful, me. Thank you.

Your meditations are always so powerful in a gentle and loving way. Thank you 🙏

Sara is the best on this app! So knowledgeable and so honest! I appreciate her and just love all of her meditations!

“If the fear is here, listen to the fear as many times and not once wish it away.

The pain was not gone or healed. It was just included in my experience without resistance, condemnation or judgement. Our real journey is to not heal or replace or rid ourselves, it’s to include, to love, and be whole. Let everything happen to you, the beauty and the terror. Keep going. No feeling is final.”

Holy mackerel! Thank you so much for your willingness to share your human learnings with all of us. Such an honest and amazing lesson to guide my day, one day at a time.

Wonderful, soothing, wise words… Thank you, Sarah! 🫶🏻

This meditation was so beautiful. We get so wrapped up in our thoughts and feelings that we forget to be kind to them all. This meditation realigned my body and mind.