Hi loves,
Before we get started,
I wanted to gently say that there are different kinds of pain.
There is sensation that arises with a regulated body in a safe setting,
And then there is harm that requires immediate safety and external support if possible.
This practice is for the first.
If your body is not safe,
Physically,
Tending to your safety comes before tending to the sensation of pain.
Okay,
Let's get started.
This is a short guided meditation to be with pain in whatever capacity it shows up.
The art of holding space for yourself takes time to learn,
But we come back again and again.
So just give yourself a moment to find a comfortable place,
Quiet space where you won't be disturbed.
Take a moment to let yourself arrive in this space.
Let the weight drop into whatever is holding you.
Notice where your body meets the ground,
The temperature,
The pressure,
The undeniable fact that you are here in this moment.
Let's start by taking three rounds of breath together to ground our energy.
Breathe in through your nose,
Fill up,
Up,
Nice,
Exhale through your mouth,
Slowly.
Again,
Breathe in,
Exhale through your mouth.
Breathe in again,
Breathe out.
Now let your breath return,
Move to its own rhythm.
I'm just noticing the breath here as it comes and goes.
I invite you to continue the breath in and out through your nose here.
A couple more cycles of this on your own,
Just noticing the breath as it enters and exits.
Somewhere in your body,
There may be a sensation that asks for attention.
It doesn't have to be super intense,
Maybe it is.
It might be dull,
Tight,
Heavy,
Warm,
Or just quietly persistent.
If there is a pain or discomfort,
Can you take a moment to acknowledge where it lives?
Pain has its own sense of time.
It does not move quickly.
It doesn't respond to urgency.
Let yourself slow down here to meet it with your attention.
Not to understand or try to unravel.
It may come on its own.
Just to give it a loving container.
Drop into that space.
See if you can notice the edges of the sensation.
Where it begins,
Where it softens.
Where it changes with breath.
Nothing needs to be done here.
This is not something to push through.
The body is asking for a different rhythm.
A slower one,
A cyclical one.
Lunar time.
Somatic time.
Sometimes when these heavy emotions arise,
They are simply just asking for a witness.
Maybe a time in your life or experience they tried to show themselves before and you weren't in a place to acknowledge them.
Not out of self-denial,
But out of protection.
When these heavy thoughts or painful states arise,
You can ask yourself or the sensation itself,
What are you protecting me from?
Sometimes,
Most of the time,
It might not answer.
So can you give yourself permission to allow the sensation to set a pace just for a moment?
Your only task is to stay present without rushing toward resolution.
Coming back to your breath or the place where the sensation lives over and over again.
Give you a moment to be with yourself here.
If the mind pulls away,
Gently return to the body.
To contact,
To sensation.
Just as you are,
Take a long inhale in.
Long exhale out.
Really nice.
One more just like that.
Long inhale in.
Longer exhale out.
Notice if anything shifts when you don't try to rush pain.
Maybe you feel a softening,
Spreading of the sensation.
Maybe it dissolved a little bit.
Maybe you feel just a simple,
Deeper sense of being here in your body in this moment.
Know that there is no right outcome.
Know that the act of you witnessing yourself and all your forms,
Making space for phases and emotions,
That that is the medicine.
When you are ready,
Begin to widen your awareness again.
Feel the contact point of the ground beneath you.
Notice your breath.
The feeling of your body as a whole.
Nothing was fixed because nothing needed to be.
You met what was here.
When it feels right,
Gently return.
Thank you.
