Hello and welcome in the class.
This is a meditation practice and today we are going to do a meditation that will help you to befriend your difficult emotions.
Please go ahead and find a comfortable seat.
You can either sit cross-legged like me on a block or sit on your heels or on a chair.
Really anything that is comfortable will do.
Place your hands down on your legs and gently close your eyes,
Drawing your attention closer and closer towards yourself,
Disconnecting with the world around you so that you can reconnect with the world within you.
Begin to observe the area of your body where your body touches the floor or your seat.
Feel the weight of your body against the floor.
Feel the gravity that is pulling you down,
Creating a beautiful,
Strong and grounded sense of stability.
The gravity pulls you down but then the ground doesn't let you fall through.
The ground is holding you.
Remind yourself that right now you are being held and supported.
Right now you are safe and you can allow yourself to soften and let your guard down.
Your back body is long and strong,
Strong back,
Soft front.
Feel your collarbones widen,
Creating a sense of spaciousness in your front body and around the area of your heart.
Feel your temples expand,
Creating a feeling of spaciousness in your mind.
And also feel the top of your head reaching up towards the ceiling so that there is the downward pull from the ground and then there is the upward pull.
And these two pulls help you to feel spacious across the entire body.
Begin to breathe into this space,
Allowing your inhales and exhales to come and go very naturally.
Inhale and exhale,
Come and go like the waves on the beach coming onto the shore and then returning back into the ocean.
And now you are in this quiet and safe space.
Begin to ask yourself what is the emotion you want to work with today?
What emotion is present the most in your life right now or in this very moment?
Is it sadness or anger,
Jealousy,
Frustration,
Loneliness?
What is the emotion you want to work with today?
Begin to bring yourself to the moment when you felt this emotion.
Begin to recreate a scenario where you felt it in your mind's eye,
Watching it like a movie,
Playing at the screen in your mind.
And perhaps as you recreate this movie,
In your mind,
You begin to feel that emotion again.
And that is alright.
You want to be able to feel that emotion right now,
Maybe not to its fullest intensity,
Maybe around 5 out of 10 on the level of intensity.
You want to allow yourself to feel this feeling again so that you can become more familiar with it and explore it.
Everything your body tells you,
Every signal it gives you is a message.
The feeling in your stomach can tell you that you're hungry.
When you're tired,
Your body is giving you a message to take time off and rest.
When you're thirsty,
Your body gives you a message that you need to take a sip of water.
Similarly,
All the emotions we feel don't happen by accident.
They are there to communicate something.
So right now you want to open the door and allow this emotion to be in your field of awareness.
You want it to be there and you want to observe it without judgment.
See if it's possible to find where in your body you feel this emotion the most.
Is it in the area of your heart?
Is it around your shoulders and your neck?
Is it in your belly?
Or perhaps in your hips?
Or your legs?
Ask yourself,
Where do I feel this feeling the most?
Then you gently place your awareness at that part of your body and send your breath that way.
Our breath allows us to create more space.
When the mind feels cluttered,
When you take a few conscious breaths,
You can think more clearly.
Today your breath will help you to create a little bit of distance between you and your emotion.
Knowing that this feeling does not define you,
But it is a part of you.
Keep breathing into the area in your body where you can feel your emotion the most.
Creating a little bit more space between you and the emotion.
So that you can almost look at it.
You can see it for what it is.
And you can begin to ask it questions.
You can tell your emotion,
I see you,
I feel you,
And I welcome you.
Please tell me your story.
How did you come to be?
What triggered you?
What do you want to tell me?
What is really going on?
And you just sit and listen,
Holding space for this part of you.
Ask this part of you,
This emotion,
What do they want you to do?
And I always like to imagine this part of me that's feeling a difficult emotion as a child.
As a child that's either sad or angry,
Frustrated,
Disappointed,
Jealous,
Or anxious.
View this part of yourself as a little child that you welcome with warmth.
And ask it what it needs.
What does this part of you need?
And again you quietly listen for the answer.
Still you keep breathing into that emotion,
Into that area in the body where you feel it.
Notice how the intensity of the sensation changes.
And you remind to that part of yourself one more time,
I'm here,
I'm listening,
I see you,
I hear you,
I accept you.
You are valid.
You are important.
And still imagining this part of you as a child in your mind's eye,
Imagine you're hugging this child or holding this child's hand,
Giving it what it needs.
Maybe you're protecting this child.
Give this part of you what it needs in your mind.
And you slowly begin to deepen the breath.
You're going to inhale through the nose,
Sigh out through the mouth,
Softening the shoulders.
Again,
Inhale through the nose,
Sigh out.
Inhale,
Lift the shoulders up,
Sigh out,
Drop the shoulders.
Inhale,
Shoulders up.
Exhale,
Let the shoulders fall.
And sometimes inhale.
Last one.
Gently close your mouth and continue to breathe softly through the nose.
With your next inhale,
You're going to reach both arms to the sides,
Right arm to the right,
Left arm to the left as if you're hugging a wall.
Spread all of your 10 fingers,
Take a deep breath in.
On your exhale,
Wrap your arms around you,
Feeling your palms touching your back body and maybe you want to stroke your back body softly or give yourself a pat on the back.
And then you release the embrace.
And blink your eyes open.
I thank you for practicing with me.
I wish you a beautiful,
Beautiful day.
Namaste.
