Hello and welcome.
I'm so glad you're here.
My name is Shelly and I will be your guide in this meditation in hopes that you will be able to release some of your physical pain and perhaps becoming friends with it.
So if you have not done so already,
You may wish to listen to the short Dharmet talk that I gave about pain in another recording.
However here are some highlights that I'd like to share with you and then we'll get started with the meditation.
Pain is a multi-dimensional and subjective experience that you are experiencing in your reality.
When we experience this pain in our physical body,
We begin to judge it as something that is bad and something we want to eradicate.
This negativity builds in our minds which can inflate the pain,
Making us more anxious than the sensory experience alone.
Our identities become contracted,
Tightly gripped and wound up focusing and judging the pain.
The pain takes control and can own us and then we forget our own hearts.
Consider that this meditation is a time to connect with your body as well as its pain and a time to nurture your heart connecting all the parts of yourself.
So let's get comfortable in whatever posture that looks like for you,
Whether it be lying down,
Sitting up with a cozy blanket and pillows around you.
This is your time now.
You're putting your oxygen mask on first.
It's so good.
There's nowhere to go,
Nothing to do but be here now.
So collect your attention and settle in.
Let's begin with a few deep breaths,
Fully sensing your body.
That's good.
Continue to notify your body that it is now time to relax with another full breath.
Take some moments to breathe into your body,
Feeling that sense where there may be some particular discomfort.
Breathe.
If there's an area where there's unpleasant sensations calling your attention away,
Just bring some awareness to it.
Be present with those sensations.
Notice it.
It's okay.
There may be a desire to push the pain away or to do something with this pain.
Notice if there are any particular emotions arising with this pain.
Invite your mind to stay,
To be present with it.
Perhaps say to this pain,
You belong,
Or yes,
This too,
Or it's okay,
I know.
Allow it to be there with you.
Regard this sensation with a gentleness and curiosity.
Alright?
Is there anything new to notice?
Can you sense if there's a change,
A movement?
Is there more or less intensity?
Perhaps you choose to deepen the attention right to the center,
Right where you feel the most intensity and you give this attention bravely,
Kindly,
Curiously.
Sense it from the inside out.
Does this sensation have a name?
What are some words that you would use to describe it?
Perhaps it's burning or twisting,
Aching,
Tearing,
Stabbing.
Is it throbbing?
Care to be with it?
Is there more to say?
Does it want to say more to you?
It questions and be with it.
You may wish to put a hand on your heart and come back to the words,
This too.
It's okay,
Honey.
You belong.
Indeed,
It smells wonderful in here.
Wonderful.
Be with it with all of your anxieties.
Sensations are too strong and in the intolerable zone.
Take some moments to explore another place to focus your attention.
Finding another anchor to focus on with your breath that is neutral or pleasant.
A part of your body is not feeling this pain.
Perhaps it's your eyes and you just focus on your eyes or your ears.
Perhaps it's your fingers and your hands.
You can begin to touch each finger to your thumb one at a time.
Breathing into the index finger and thumb.
Now shifting and feeling the contact of the middle finger and the thumb.
Breathing,
Feeling the ring finger touching the thumb.
Feel the smooth,
Soft skin as you touch and breathe your pinky and thumb together.
And you can continue this anchoring,
A pleasant sensation.
Breathing into whatever place that brings you more ease.
This too.
This too.
This can help with resilience or gaining some balance and perspective.
You might explore going back and forth between sensing the zones of resourcing in your body.
Where is it pleasant?
Where is it unpleasant?
And then back and forth again like a swing.
Gently swinging back and forth.
Gently swinging back in,
Sensing again some of that discomfort.
Feeling the back and forth giving you some space.
Might you be able to sense into the space more immediately around the area of discomfort and allowing the sensations to float above it in a soft attention.
Notice the dance of change.
Sometimes you can sense the space around this sensation and the interior space of this sensation as if it were a nucleus of an atom.
This space where sensations arise,
Flow in and out of the nucleus and dissolve into.
Allowing the body to become this open space,
Floating with plenty of room and tenderness and compassion for all the unpleasant sensations to arise and then fade or intensify and then dissolve or shift or change.
Releasing that tightness.
Release that gripping.
No tensing up.
Allow this space to be permeated with a loving awareness of wakefulness,
Understanding,
Allowing the uncomfortable sensations to float and expand and move and shift into accepting with a loving kindness.
May kindness rise up like a warm sun,
Limitless and abundant,
Radiating all from within,
Especially the tight,
Dark places.
May this light illuminate your path into well-being.
May you know you're supported by the solid ground beneath you of love on this earth,
A safe witness and may it be so.
Namaste.
