I invite you to find a comfortable position,
One which allows your body to fully relax and let go.
Allow your shoulders to drop and melt.
Allow your breathing to become fluid and easy.
Finding yourself that meditation isn't about trying to create a particular state,
But a relaxing,
A letting go,
A remembering of the peace that is already here.
Allow awareness to reveal to you now your natural,
Uncontrived state.
Allow yourself to fall into this peace which surpasses all understanding.
If you are not currently feeling a challenging emotion,
I invite you to bring one to mind.
It may be a stressful situation or something that's been bugging you that you've been unable to shake off.
It may be anxiety or worry or deep sadness.
Maybe it's a feeling of hopelessness,
Anger,
Or depression.
Whatever the disowned emotion,
We are ready to meet it now.
We will begin by stepping outside of it and shifting our perspective from small to large by saying,
Something in me.
When we use the words,
Something in me,
To refer to an emotion that we're caught up in,
We're actually shifting our whole perspective from small to large.
We're evoking our true nature,
The spacious field of pure being,
Which has no argument with reality.
So instead of saying,
I'm feeling blank,
We will practice saying,
Something in me is blank.
Instead of saying,
I'm angry,
We will try saying,
Something in me is angry.
I now invite you to try it for yourself,
Filling in the blank with the same uncomfortable emotion you're feeling or that you felt recently.
Let's try it now.
Something in me is.
Something in me is.
Something in me is.
Now that you've shifted your language,
Notice any difference it may have made.
Perhaps you're feeling calmer,
More spacious and greater distance from your emotions or feeling less defined by them.
Next we will say hello to our emotional state.
This is our way to gently acknowledge what we're feeling.
We don't have to love it or embrace it,
We only have to become aware of it.
So let's try combining the two together.
Hello and something in me.
I invite you to repeat something in me is feeling blank and I'm saying hello to it.
Something in me is feeling and I'm saying hello to it.
Something in me is feeling and I'm saying hello to it.
And simply notice any shift that has taken place now.
How is the emotion feeling now?
Our third step will be to place a gentle hand on the part of the body where we're feeling the emotion most strongly.
Trust your hand and see where it is drawn to go.
It may be a tension in the throat,
A heaviness in the heart or somewhere else entirely.
Let it be okay to stay there,
To keep that contact for a few moments or more.
This is a relationship of trust that builds over time.
Notice how it feels to make physical contact with this part of you.
You might even notice that this disowned part is glad that you are there.
How does it feel to bring physical comfort to your emotional body?
Has the emotion shifted in any way?
Our fourth step will be to use our grounded relationship with the body to begin describing the emotion itself.
I invite you to say,
I'm sensing something in me feels and describe the feeling.
How big is it?
Is it heavy or light?
Feeling or still?
If it is moving,
How rapidly is it moving?
Feelings that have a texture,
A color,
A sound.
Notice how this simple step changes your relationship to what you feel.
We will now add our fifth and final step.
No wonder I feel that way.
This simple phrase,
No wonder,
Is the quintessence of compassion and self-acceptance.
When we fight our emotions,
They fight us back.
They resist,
Persist,
And become more stuck.
But when we say no wonder,
We're opening a space where something new can happen.
A new solution,
A new approach,
Or just a new sense of softening around the emotion.
Let's try it now.
Bring the same emotion or situation to mind and repeat.
No wonder I feel that way.
And simply see what images boil up.
No need to judge or interpret them.
Simply noticing and allowing all the associations,
Memories,
And visual connections that this emotion may evoke.
And notice now how you're feeling after completing these five steps.
Feel free to repeat these steps as many times as you need.
You are in control of transmuting emotional pain into greater awareness.
No one else can do it for you.
May you be well.
May you be at peace.
Namaste.
