A warm welcome to you.
If your body is changing faster than you can keep up with.
And your emotions swing from tears to rage to gratitude in the same day.
This practice is for you.
Perimenopause can feel like everything is shifting at once.
A practice that can really help with this is called dual awareness.
It's staying in touch with what's happening inside you.
Whilst also staying connected to something steady in the present.
Think of it as holding both the storm and the sky.
The storm might be snapping at your partner over something that wouldn't have bothered you last year.
Or your changing body.
The sky is the wider awareness that can hold it all.
Sunshine through your window.
Your dog asleep at your feet.
Flowers in Bloom This practice is designed to help you be with what feels hard.
Whilst also staying aware of what's steady and grounding around you.
So in your own time.
Settling in.
Allowing your body to find a comfortable position.
Sitting or lying down in a way that feels supportive for you today.
You might like to close your eyes or have a gentle gaze.
And can you take three nice cleansing breaths.
Perhaps even sighing it out on the exhale.
Letting yourself arrive here.
Really feeling the support beneath you.
The surface that's holding your weight.
And what would it feel like to let go just a little more into this support?
A reminder that you don't need to white knuckle this stage of life.
That you're safe to let go,
Even 5%.
Now together seeing if you can notice something that feels steady in your present moment experience.
Perhaps the feeling of your feet on the floor.
The presence of a pet.
The feel of sunlight streaming in.
And if you want to open your eyes to really connect with something,
Well,
That's okay too.
Really taking in this element of your world that feels steady.
And now gently allowing something that's been changing for you lately to emerge.
Perhaps it's something to do with your energy levels.
Your hormones,
Your body.
A relationship.
And just offering yourself a moment to be with this.
Really acknowledging the truth of what's here.
Of what is changing,
Of what feels hard.
You might like to whisper,
This too belongs.
And now,
Without pushing the difficulty away,
Gently widening your awareness.
Can this change,
This difficulty and everything it brings with it be here?
Alongside the feeling of your feet on the floor.
Can the heaviness,
Pain or confusion be here?
Alongside the experience of breath moving in the body.
Can the uncertainty be here alongside the view from your window?
The comfort of your room.
It's not one or the other.
It's both.
Awareness expanding with each full cycle of breath.
Making room for both the storm and the sky.
Let's try it again.
In your own time allowing an uncomfortable emotion you've been feeling lately or maybe something you've been pushing down to surface.
Maybe it relates to this season of change.
Maybe it's something totally different.
We don't need to jump right in to the dramas or the stories.
Just gently inviting the emotion in.
Again whispering,
This too belongs.
Now let's practice Jewel Awareness.
Seeing if you can find that place of comfort you identified at the beginning of this meditation.
Or another aspect of the present moment that feels grounding and steady.
And allowing this experience to touch you also.
This experience of steadiness.
Now as best you can,
Allowing the uncomfortable emotion to be here.
And also something supportive to be present to.
Awareness making room for both the storm and the sky.
And noticing what happens when you stop asking one experience or emotion to cancel out the other.
Has something shifted?
Maybe you feel it in your body.
Or in your heart.
And seeing if you can also layer into your field of awareness another emotion.
A quality perhaps like gratitude,
Compassion,
Trust or reverence.
At once you can hold the pain,
The present and something more wholesome or steady.
Breathing with life just as it is.
Meeting the ebb and flow of sensation and experience with a warm smile.
Bringing your awareness back to your body as it sits or lies here.
Sensing into the room around you,
The support beneath you.
Opening your eyes.
Thanks for sharing your practice with me today.
You might like to save this meditation and come back to it anytime you're feeling overwhelmed or pulled in by the challenges of midlife.
