Welcome.
We offer these meditations freely and your donations make a real difference.
So thank you.
Let's get ourselves comfortable.
So sitting in any position that suits you where your spine can be tall.
And you're allowed to let this be easy.
So if sitting cross-legged is not easy,
Even though you might not want to admit that it's not easy,
You are allowed to go and sit in a chair or even lie on your back.
To give yourself permission to make this be easy,
You don't want to be thinking about the pins and needles and the dead leg.
You want to be able to actually dive into the practice,
Minimising the distractions.
There's plenty of distractions anyway,
Aren't there?
So finding your comfortable position,
Making sure you're warm.
And we'll start by just softening the gaze,
Perhaps the eyelids are down,
Maybe you're looking towards the ground.
And letting yourself become aware of your breath.
So today we're going to be practising RAIN meditation,
As shared by Tara Bragg.
And our theme for the month is surrender.
So perhaps we might use this as an opportunity to explore what's happening when we refuse to surrender.
So for me that feels like when I'm in control,
Trying to be in control.
Maybe pushing against what is naturally unfolding because I want it to go a different way.
You'll have your own relationship with surrender and control.
Maybe it's different for you.
But we'll take a little while to feel into that before we begin the practice.
RAIN meditation gives us the opportunity to explore our responses,
Our feelings,
States and emotions.
And to accept them,
Come to terms with them,
Investigate them.
And finally to ask them what it is they need so that we can become their allies,
Their friends,
Their supporters,
These feelings that aren't always so great.
And nourish them.
Usually that process is enough to let our hearts soften and open and expand,
To invite compassion.
And to allow our ancient self,
Our highest self,
To take the lead.
So starting by thinking of a situation perhaps recent where you could feel the tension,
The edge of you trying to control an outcome and it not going the way you want it to go.
It might be that you think of a conversation or an email or it might be a story about a time when.
You might be able to remember the other people involved,
Where you were.
Where you were.
And what we're looking for is the charge in the moment,
The little spark of discomfort.
As you start to explore moments that come to mind,
Let your breath support you.
Let it remain deep and slow.
And repeating.
And just notice how this comes up,
How it presents itself inside of you,
This charge.
And I wonder if it's possible to say yes to that experience.
To allow it.
To not try to change it or dismiss it or make an excuse for it.
Just to be with it and say yes,
I allow,
I consent.
This is how it felt,
This is what happened.
And I can allow all of that.
So now we start to investigate.
Whereabouts in your body is it that you feel this?
So is there a texture or a weight?
What words would you use to describe the way that this feels?
You might explore your throat.
Can you find a residue of this feeling sensation here in your throat?
Or perhaps in your heart?
Perhaps in the sternum?
Or the belly?
Maybe you feel it in the pelvis?
Or the thighs?
Perhaps your hands?
If the part of you that's feeling it most keenly could talk,
What would it ask for from you?
If you could give it a voice,
What would it want you to know?
Can you let it know that you're listening?
Not trying to change it,
Not talking it down but just listening,
Feeling,
Allowing it,
Saying okay.
You're true,
You're real,
You are a part of me.
I can hold you.
And you can call in some help if it feels too much.
Call in your future self or someone who you feel cares for you and protects you.
It could be someone close to you,
It could be a deity or mother nature herself.
Just call in some help and bring that support to this place so that this place can be held by that too.
You might imagine warm light wrapping itself lovingly around this feeling,
This experience.
You might imagine taking it in your own arms and hugging it like a small child.
Whatever comes up as a source of nourishment,
Let that unfold in your way.
And sometimes this whole practice is an experience of just allowing how much resistance you feel to the practice and saying yes to that.
Our minds,
Our bodies,
It doesn't always let us go there.
And that's okay,
That can be held in light,
In warmth,
In tender care.
And then letting the practice go,
Take our time to rest in after the rain.
To just notice how it feels to be here.
No expectation.
Maybe nothing's changed,
Maybe it has.
Let your breath move through you like a calm ocean.
As you sit with what is.
So so bringing your hands to your heart and dropping your chin to your chest.
Opening up the invitation to connect inwards more often as we move through our day.
And perhaps we can find that charge as it rises throughout the day.
And on occasion be with it.
Allow it.
Listen.
And bring our nourishment to it.
Namaste.
