It is recommended to do this practice in a sitting position if your body allows.
So taking your seat,
Finding a comfortable sitting position,
Bringing the awareness to the posture,
Stable base from which the spine can rise tall,
Opening to whatever is present in the mind and body,
Acknowledging your experience right now,
And moving the awareness to the breath,
With helpful,
Deliberately slowing and lengthening the breath,
Allowing a soothing breathing rhythm to emerge.
And then allowing a situation to come up,
Preferably something you have recently experienced,
Which caused a sense of fear,
Aversion or resistance.
Remembering you do not have to choose the most difficult situation.
Choosing something that has been troublesome and that you feel the space to work with right now.
It can be around a physical or emotional difficulty or around difficulty in relating to another person.
So when you've found something to work with,
Then allowing your imagination to reconnect with the situation,
Letting it come alive,
As if you're experiencing this difficulty right now.
What is there to see?
Hear?
Feel?
Knowing the inner landscape of this sense of threat and your reaction to it.
What bodily sensations?
Which emotions?
What thoughts arise?
Having yourself to be surprised by the details of this landscape,
Looking around like an explorer would,
Discovering unknown territory.
And now you're invited to do an experiment and mindfully explore its effects.
Explore meeting the situation and your experience of it with an attitude of no,
I don't want this and really embody this no.
Whatever you encounter,
Meet it with the energy of resistance.
No to the situation,
No to the physical sensations,
To emotions,
To thoughts.
No,
No,
No.
Embodying the attitude of not wanting whatever shows up.
Even if you have difficulty connecting with the situation or feeling reactions against the exact exercise itself,
You can respond with no,
I don't want this.
No to whatever sound,
Thought or feeling that shows itself right now.
Even no to the breath.
And then sensing the effects of no.
What effect does this no have on you?
What effect does no have on the body?
Its felt state,
Its temperature.
What are you noticing in your face,
Jaw,
Throat,
Chest,
Belly,
The muscles of your arms and legs,
Hands and feet?
What effect does no have on your mood state and on your mind?
What does it do to the imagined situation?
And what would it be like if you would persist in this state of no for a longer period?
And now letting go of the no and allow for a shift towards a neutral position,
A neutral attitude.
Maybe opening the eyes for a while,
Looking around,
Taking a few deeper breaths,
Allowing the body to move if it needs to.
Resetting the mind and body in this way.
And then when you're ready,
Reconnecting with the same difficult situation as before,
Allowing it to come alive in your imagination.
Allowing the landscape to reveal itself again in every detail,
Bodily sensations,
Emotions and feelings,
Thoughts.
And now experimenting with another attitude to meet the situation and your experience of it.
The attitude of yes,
I welcome this or it is okay.
Embody this yes with your whole being,
Meeting every experience with a yes,
Welcome or okay.
Yes to the situation,
To images,
Emotions,
Physical sensations.
And when the situation itself is not so vivid,
You can let a yes flow to whatever you encounter right now.
Yes to sounds,
Thoughts,
Feelings,
Yes to the breath.
And while embodying yes,
Explore what effects it has on you.
What effects do you notice in your body,
Your face,
Chest,
Belly,
The muscles of your arms and legs,
Hands and feet.
What effect does yes have on your state of mind and your emotional state?
What does it do to the imagined situation and your experience of it?
And what would it be like if you were to embody this yes for a longer period?
And then allowing yourself to return to a neutral attitude.
Adjusting your position,
Allowing the breath to flow freely with whatever arises.
Resetting once more.
And you may wish to reflect on the following question.
What would be the most compassionate and wise attitude in this given situation?
The no or the yes?
Or perhaps something in between?
Yes.
This experiment is meant to be an open exploration of possible attitudes,
A mindful investigation.
There is no underlying judgement that one is better than the other.
It will depend on the situation you have chosen,
What the most compassionate response would be.
And there may be more than one level to explore.
Yes or no to the situation,
To your experience of the situation.
Or to whatever the exercise brought up.
There may also be a difference between yes and OK.
Or there may be different types of no,
A fearful resisting no or a wise limit setting no.
Gently reflecting on whatever arises.
And now letting go of this reflecting,
Returning your awareness to the points of contact between your body and the surfaces supporting you.
Coming back to an awareness of the breath sensations.
You may like to end by allowing a kind wish to flow through you.
Then you may start feeling imagine date of?
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