Feel The Fire - A Six Elements Meditation (12-10-20)

Feeling the fire of life, sensation, and emotion. How to use mindful meditation to transition from suppression to integration. Earth and Fire: part of the Six Elements Meditation series. (Improved audio quality - March 2021.)

Transcript

So we're going to begin by just connecting to the body.

Become aware of your body as it is right now.

And to connect to the element of earth,

I'd invite you to particularly become aware of the sensation of connection.

So being aware of all the parts of the body that are in contact with something else.

So noticing the sensation,

That feeling of connection between your feet and the floor.

And that connection with whatever you're sitting or lying on at the moment.

Noticing exactly how that feels.

Then maybe noticing the contact with your clothing.

Scan through the body and notice all the certainly different sensations,

Different points of contact.

And then feel the weight of your body,

Feel the heaviness or the lightness.

And allow the weight of your body to be held and supported by all those things you've just noticed that you're in contact with.

So the floor,

The chair.

And allow these things to completely take the weight and completely hold and support your body.

And feel the connection.

So at the beginning,

This meditation,

Connecting to the body,

Connecting to the present moment through the body,

And feeling that stability,

That security,

That safety of the body being held.

And feeling grounded and connected through those sensations in the body.

Okay,

Now we'll spend a few moments on the second element of air before moving on to fire.

So become aware of the breath and feel the breath in the body.

Really feel the sensations in the body arising from the breath.

Noticing exactly what happens as you breathe into the body and noticing what happens as you breathe out.

So notice the movement the breath causes in the body,

The expansion and movement as you breathe in,

And the contraction and letting go as you breathe out.

See if you can really allow the breath in with each in-breath.

So not making any effort to change the breath,

But just checking that you're not restricting the breath.

So allowing the breath in,

The element of air to enter the body as freely and as fully as it wants to.

And notice how that feels to really allow the oxygen and the air into the body.

Now just check the out-breath and just check to see whether or not you're maybe holding on to the breath as you breathe out.

And see if you can really release the breath.

So again,

Not forcing the breath out or making any change,

But allowing,

Releasing and letting go,

Allowing the air to leave as freely and as fully as it wants to from the body.

So allowing the breath in and letting go as you breathe out,

Connected to the body.

And I'll just briefly touch on the element of water and the thoughts.

Just a reminder to always allow your thoughts in the same way that we're allowing the breath.

So allow your thoughts into the mind,

Allow them to be there,

And release them and let them go just as we let go of the breath.

So allowing the mind to be open and welcoming to any and all thoughts.

Just allow your thoughts to flow freely just as your breath is flowing freely through the body.

So for the element of fire,

Firstly become aware of the energy or the presence of your body.

So getting an overall sense of your body,

Of its position,

Its presence,

The sensations and energy within the body,

How your body feels right now,

Exploring the sensations,

The energy of the body,

Feeling your physical presence with the body.

And then see if you can get a sense of the aliveness of the body,

That feeling of just knowing that you're alive in this moment,

Your body is a living organism,

Seeing if you can really touch and feel that sense of aliveness in the body.

And you may want to think of it like an inner fire,

An inner flame,

Burning brightly in the body,

Giving the body life,

Energy,

Sensation.

That inner fire that gives your body power and energy and makes it animated,

Makes your body alive.

So this is the basic or the foundational energy of the body,

That simplicity of aliveness.

On top of that we can feel many different things in the body,

Sometimes we can lose the simplicity of that basic aliveness.

So for the next part of the meditation,

Checking in on how you feel emotionally,

Noticing what emotions you're experiencing at the moment,

Quite often it's a mixture,

It won't just be one thing or another.

So spending a few moments just acknowledging,

Feeling into different emotions that you may be experiencing right now.

I always try and connect the emotion with the body,

With the sensations in the body.

If that's something that works for you,

See if you can locate or sense your current emotional state with the body and sensations in the body.

It can be in a general vague way,

It doesn't have to be a precise identification of this or that,

Here or there.

A general feeling,

A general noting of how you feel and how that feels in the body.

Keeping the breath flowing nice and freely,

The oxygen of the breath helps keep that fire burning in the body.

So you may be experiencing very gentle,

Quiet,

Subtle emotion and sensation,

So giving yourself time to become alert and sensitive to that.

Or if there's a lot going on,

It feels like there's strong emotions,

Then being open to giving those space to be just as they are.

Allowing your awareness to be open and broad,

So there's plenty of space for the emotion to be there,

Just as it is within your awareness.

So the idea is not to try and experience any particular emotion,

You're not going to make effort to try and be happy or peaceful.

Spending this time to really get to know ourselves and our emotions more,

Being attentive to,

Open to our emotional state exactly as it happens to be in this moment.

And if possible,

Locating that as energy or sensation within the body.

Connecting emotion to the body can help you feel more grounded with the emotion,

More contained,

More safe and secure.

By experiencing emotion as energy or sensation in the body can really help us take a neutral approach to the emotion,

We don't need to name it or wonder if it's positive or negative.

We can just feel it for what it is,

For the energy that it is.

Giving ourselves time and space to be,

Become more acquainted with our emotions,

With the energy that lies behind them.

Being courageous and fearless whenever we encounter any negative emotions.

So the idea is not to suppress any experience by feeling grounded and connected with the body,

By allowing the breath to flow freely.

We can give our negative emotions time and space to work themselves through,

Work themselves out,

Resolve themselves and integrate themselves so we can feel more whole and complete.

And doing that by simply being open to whatever is there.

Connecting to the body and the breath as we allow the emotion to do whatever it needs to do.

So we're not fighting against any emotion,

Not creating any conflict or added tension.

Being present,

Open,

Welcoming,

Fearless,

Whole and complete.

And the idea is to adopt the exact same approach for positive emotions.

We can often suppress positive emotion.

We may feel we're not worthy to experience them,

We may be fearful of expressing them too fully and freely,

How that may affect other people.

We may just be out of the habit of really allowing the most positive emotions to fully and freely express themselves.

It may feel a little strange.

So again using this time,

This space to become more acquainted,

More sensitive and alert to all the positive emotions that are within us.

Allowing them to grow gradually and naturally.

Giving them space and time to radiate through us without restriction,

Without us imposing any artificial limits on that natural expression of positive energy,

Positive emotion.

And again if possible,

Noticing any sensations in the body,

Energy in the body related to positive emotions.

Thereby grounding them,

Integrating them,

Allowing them to really become part of yourself,

Part of your body,

Allowing your body to benefit from that positive energy.

So for the last few moments of the meditation,

Allow your breath to flow freely,

Allow your thoughts to flow freely.

And allow that sense of aliveness and emotion to burn steadily within the body.

Allow your inner flame of aliveness to be fully present in your body right now.

Enjoy that sense and that simplicity of simply being alive,

Feeling the aliveness in the body.

The source of all sensation and emotion.

Allowing your body to be fully present right here,

Right now.

Fully present and fully alive.

So you can feel like you're completely inhabiting your body at one with your body,

Fully connected to your body and sensation.

And concluding the meditation by coming back to those points of contact and that sensation of connection.

And all the parts of your body in contact with something else.

Feeling the ground again beneath your feet,

Feeling the weight of the body.

Noticing how you feel at the end of this meditation.

Noticing any difference to how you felt at the beginning.

If there's any emotion still swirling around that you feel it's maybe not had time to resolve itself,

Then give yourself as long as you need.

Keep the breath going freely and keep that awareness of being connected with the body.

And just be open and gradually the emotion will calm and quiet and resolve itself.

Reviews

This is a wonderful meditation that helped me to relax and enjoy the sensations brought by the elements in both body and mind. I was completely grounded as I anchored myself with the rhythm of my breath.

I felt at peace as my open self-awareness was in touch with all the elements which Stephen guided us very gently and meticulously to them - sensations came and I let go with my cleansing exhaling breath.

Stephen’s commentary is as good as it gets as in my consciousness space I felt energised and connected in the present moment.

Thank you, Stephen, for another excellent and sublime meditation practise🙏🏻✨💚

Grateful for your very insightful relaxing meditation.
Blessings with love