I'm Tim Fortescue,
A life coach coming alongside of folks in their personal and spiritual development.
And today I'm going to lead you through a guided meditation exercise to help you access more self-energy using the internal family systems approach.
And if IFS is new to you,
Check out my recorded talk in meditation on the basic assumptions of the model.
The concept of self is taken from the internal family systems or IFS model and describes the essence of you underneath all of your protective and defensive adaptations and strategies.
Self is you when you first came into the world and who you are when you're feeling things like in the IFS model we call the eight C's of self-leadership.
And those include curiosity,
Calm,
Confidence,
Compassion,
Clarity,
Creativity,
Courage,
And connectedness.
And this concept of self can be framed in many different ways.
For example,
Buddha nature,
True self,
Core,
Or essence,
Among many other ways.
And from a Christian perspective,
I like to think of self as my beloved self,
The beloved child of God that I was created to be.
And so I invite you to use a framework and terminology that works best for you as we do this exercise.
And so as we began,
I invite you to get settled and know that if your system needs more time,
Then I allow that you can pause and restart this recording as often as you need to.
But as you get settled,
It's best to have both feet on the floor.
If you can't notice where your body comes into contact with the ground,
Where you are,
You can close your eyes if you'd like to,
But if you'd prefer,
You can just let your gaze rest softly in front of you and take a couple deep cleansing breaths.
And as you continue to get comfortable,
Let your attention go inward.
As you get oriented to your internal world,
Begin to notice which of the eight C's you feel.
Do you feel some curiosity,
Calmness,
Confidence,
Passion,
Clarity,
Creativity,
Courage,
Connectedness?
Focus on how that feels in your body.
Notice too what other things you're thinking or feeling.
Is there any nervousness,
Apathy,
Fear?
Maybe there are some parts that come up around just this process,
Or maybe there's numbness,
Anger,
Sadness,
Or other things that are similar.
And if you do notice these things,
Realize that these are parts of you and ask them if they could step back to give you a little more space.
You don't have to go far.
If they did give you some space,
Send them some self-energy and remind them that when they blend completely,
They're all alone without self.
When they give you some space,
You can extend self-energy and let them know that they can come to you at any time.
Thank them for their willingness to unblend and to provide some spaciousness.
Thank your parts for anything they let happen.
Thank them for their courage and let them know this isn't your last visit.
Let them know that you'd like to spend more time with them if they'd like that.
Maybe later today or in the next couple of days.
And when it feels right,
You can go ahead and bring your attention back to the present moment where you are and take a few final deep cleansing breaths.
You can open your eyes if they were closed and you can continue about your day.
But thanks so much to you and to all your parts for your courage and joining me in this exercise.
And take good care.
