Hello friends and welcome to our weekly exploration of mindfulness meditations.
This week we're going to be doing an emotional awareness meditation.
It's similar to a yoga nidra where we do a body scan,
But we're just going to take a moment of mindfulness and notice anything that's showing up,
Acknowledge the emotions and the breath patterns as we move through our body,
And give you an opportunity to let go of anything in that moment.
This is a beautiful meditation to be able to just process,
Do some emotional identification.
Notice some thinking that will occur that's natural and normal.
Let's come into our meditation,
Come into your space,
Come into your place,
And come into your breath,
Remembering there isn't anything that we need to do in this moment.
Just noticing your breath,
Noticing anything that's coming up for you in this moment.
We'll begin at the top of the body and move our way through.
Beginning at the top,
Our head,
The eyes,
The eyebrows,
And the forehead specifically,
Notice anything that's showing up for you in this area.
Staying in a place of curiosity,
What's showing up in the top of your head?
Allow yourself this time to release,
Let go,
Or relax.
Continuing to breathe,
Allowing any processing to occur,
Anything that's showing up with what you've seen,
Allowing yourself just to feel the emotions of any attachment.
And if you're ready,
You can release and let go.
We'll gently move down our awareness to our neck and our shoulders,
Noticing anything that's showing up for you in this space,
Recognizing that this is a hot spot for many people.
In the Western culture,
It's common to hear things and phrases like,
That's a pain in the neck,
Or carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.
So there may be a lot of tension in this area.
Allow yourself in this time and this space and this place to relax,
To release,
And to let go of some of those things that have been caught up and held in this area in the body.
Continuing to breathe as you allow yourself this opportunity to let go.
As you continue processing anything that's hanging out in the neck and the shoulders,
It might feel good to move them,
Tense them up and physically release them.
Allow yourself to let go,
Release and let it go.
What's done is done and what will be,
Will be.
Continuing to breathe and allowing yourself to release whatever you're willing to let go of in this moment.
Let's move down to the low back and the hips,
Noticing anything that's showing up for you here,
Any emotions that you're carrying.
This is a place that a lot of people carry stress.
Perhaps you can process a little bit of that now,
Just by bringing some awareness to any tension that's showing up.
It might feel good to bring your hands to your low back area,
Processing of your adrenal glands,
Maybe add a circular rotation,
Physically bringing some release to anything that is being held in this area.
Allowing yourself to process any emotions that might be showing up.
Women especially tend to carry a lot in their hips,
So if that's you,
Maybe you shake it up a little bit,
Loosen up some of the pressure of everything that you're carrying.
Continuing to breathe,
Adding that physical movement or motion if that feels good.
And then we'll move down,
Moving down the legs,
Acknowledging the knees,
The ankles and the feet,
And all the places that we have been and all the places that we will go.
Allow yourself to experience whatever emotions are showing up,
Staying in that place of curiosity,
Maybe bringing in a little gratitude,
Staying in that place of curiosity.
Is there anything that you can let go of?
Is there any pressure that you're putting on yourself that you can release?
Allowing yourself to experience all of the emotions that are showing up in the ankles.
Continuing to breathe.
We're going to come up into our heart space.
So coming all the way up into the heart space,
Recognizing this is another area where we hold on to a lot.
There's a lot of emotion attached to this large area of our body.
Allow yourself to experience whatever emotions are showing up in the center of your chest.
Continuing to breathe,
Creating the space if you're ready to let go of anything in this area.
Maybe a lot of different thoughts that come up when we talk about the emotions attached to the heart space.
Allow your breath to heal anything that needs healing.
Allow yourself this time to let go of anything that you might be ready to let go of.
Bring some additional compassion to your heart space.
Now we'll spend about a minute just doing a full body scan.
Just allow the inhale and the exhale of your body to scan through.
Scan anything that needs additional attention.
Using the exhale to let go,
The inhale to bring the attention to the area,
And the exhale to release anything that you're ready to let go of.
I'll give us about a minute of just active breathing.
Remember there is no right or wrong way to do this.
However your breath is showing up for you is absolutely perfect.
As we bring it close to our practice,
Continuing to breathe,
Give yourself some additional acknowledgement for showing up for your practice today,
For allowing yourself to let go of all of the things that you were able to release.
Remembering that any time you feel yourself feeling tight or tense,
You can always come back to this practice.
Bringing attention to a specific area of your body,
Allowing yourself the space to process anything that's showing up for you emotionally,
And then allowing your breath to be the vessel to release and let go of anything that you're ready to let go of.
You can return to this practice anytime.
Let's take a few collective breaths together.
Inhaling deep,
Exhaling long.
Inhale deep,
Exhale long.
Last breath.
Inhaling deep,
And exhaling long.
Thank you friends for the journey today.
Thank you for staying in a place of curiosity with yourself.
And remember you can always come back to this processing anytime you like.
You have the power through your own meditation practice.
We'll see you next week.
Bye.
