So,
To begin,
You might just allow your body to settle into a posture that supports you,
Feeling relaxed but also alert,
Present.
And we'll begin just by taking a few conscious breaths here.
And taking this moment to pause is really just an invitation for the body to arrive here.
And so you might,
With that,
Invite the breath to soften and deepen a bit.
And again,
Just taking a few full deep breaths here and seeing if there's anything ready to soften or relax a little bit.
Just inviting a kind of quality of spaciousness here.
And so you can go ahead and bring to mind some kind of challenge or problem that you're having currently that feels particularly stuck for you.
You want to choose something that's not too intense but intense enough that you know you can really connect with the suffering that it contains.
So for now,
Just kind of letting yourself really feel the suffering of this issue and just how it feels really stuck.
With that,
Kind of noticing any of the kind of predominant thoughts or emotions that accompany this issue.
You might notice if there's a sense that it's your fault somehow,
A sense that there's no resolution,
Kind of a certain despair about how is this going to be resolved.
Noticing any feelings that accompany this issue.
Could be some sadness,
Hopelessness.
Could be some anger,
Anxiety.
Great,
So you can go ahead and kind of let that reflection go for a moment.
And we're going to shift entirely actually to call to mind something or someone that you truly appreciate.
And just letting yourself feel the appreciation.
If your mind starts to take you into thinking about it,
Just bring yourself right back to the actual experience of being with this person or this thing that you're appreciating.
Just really getting a felt sense of really the richness that it brings to your life,
The goodness that's here.
And from there,
You might call to mind something that actually someone that you truly,
Truly appreciate that brings you so much joy and love.
And just for a moment,
Note how incredibly lucky you are to have this person in your life,
What a blessing it is.
And you might let your mind imagine kind of your favorite way of being with this person.
You might let yourself just go there for a moment if it's a particular place that you enjoy being with this person.
It may be an embrace,
Maybe just holding them,
Playing with them,
Smiling with them,
Laughing with them.
You might even imagine telling them how grateful you are that they're in your life,
How life would be so different without them.
You know,
It's really quite infrequent that we tell the people we love the most just how much they mean to us.
So just noticing how it is right now to let them know how much they mean to you.
How does that feel inside of you to express that?
Would that be Honorable One would be Honorable Two would be Honorable.
Then how's that feel to me?
So you can widen your focus now to take in just whatever naturally arises when you think about kind of all the small and big things in your life that you have to be grateful for.
And even all the problems that you don't have right now that so many people do.
You might notice kind of trivial things,
Well seemingly trivial things like access to resources,
Food,
Shelter,
Heat,
Having an income,
All of the resources and many,
Many things in your life that are supporting you.
No doubt millions if not all of us in some way are supporting the life that you have right in this moment.
Even wider still you might just notice what a miracle it is to be alive.
How mysterious in fact it is that you've somehow arrived on this planet in this body.
It feels okay you might actually turn to your body,
Turn your focus and feel your body breathing.
Perhaps your heart beating.
And just notice how much of a masterpiece you actually are.
All of the millions and billions of cells and processes happening inside of you right now that support you,
That support your life.
All happening beyond your conscious awareness.
And even for those of us who are struggling with ill health in this moment it's still the case that this body,
This very body with illness is functioning exquisitely,
Is working and doing its absolute best to try to heal whatever it is that afflicts us.
We can count on that.
And taking a step further back imagining that you are in space right now kind of looking back at the earth and just let yourself kind of hold this awareness of our home.
This beautiful planet suspended in the middle of we don't know where.
A giant spaceship floating through an abyss that we've somehow been gifted the opportunity to occupy.
We often feel so separate from each other but from this perspective,
From seeing the earth as one beautiful sphere,
It's quite clear that we're all together.
All equally vulnerable.
So you can let that go and return to where we started with this issue that you chose.
And for a moment just notice all of the people in the world who are suffering in very similar if not exactly the same ways as you in this moment.
And as you become aware of the shared nature of this issue just notice how that is.
Understanding what happens inside your heart when you're no longer suffering alone but suffering with countless other people.
Just take a few breaths with that.
You might even notice that all of the people suffering in a similar way are breathing with you right now.
Just like you,
We are also trying our best to meet the challenges.
Sometimes we feel incredibly stuck.
We don't know what to do.
We don't have the resources we need.
And yet we're trying.
Just notice that essential kind of goodness.
All of us trying our best to meet this life,
All of its beauty and its challenges.
Doing our best.
And failing a lot.
So now you can kind of turn back to the particulars of your challenge and just kind of let it come back into focus for you.
Again kind of noticing what this challenge has been like for you and the stuckness that it kind of brings up.
And this time just kind of noticing what comes up in response to this reflection.
What I really need to remember about this is.
.
.
What I really need to remember about this issue is.
.
.
So you might just notice kind of the freshness of the wisdom,
The perspective that you gained about this issue.
It's likely that your perspective through taking a moment to kind of pause and reflect has widened some.
So the stuckness probably feels somewhat reduced.
You might even have access to some kind of what feels like higher or deeper wisdom.
And there could be some reassurance that comes up,
A solution that you hadn't thought of.
Yeah,
Or some level of relief.
So just taking a moment to kind of be with this perspective,
This wisdom that's arisen in you.
It's very likely that no matter the particulars of your situation that the invitation has been to relax a little bit in some way about this issue.
Thank you for your attention and for your practice.
I hope to be with you again soon.
