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 connect with your body.
And I get it from Dick Schwartz's book,
No Bad Parts.
And I'll be using the internal family systems approach.
If IFS is new to you,
Check out my recorded talk and meditation on the basic assumptions of the model.
And as we focus on parts that come up around the body,
I want to make it clear that I don't want you to get the indication that I assume that any of your symptoms or tensions are necessarily the result of parts.
I also don't want to stir up any shame by suggesting that you're doing all this to yourself.
That's not the intended message at all.
It's not you who wants to have a symptom.
It's just a little part.
And often that part has no clue about the overall damage that they're doing to your body or to your family.
And once you finally listen to that part,
It tends to give you some space and stop doing what it's doing to you.
Know that as we go throughout the meditation,
You can pause this recording as often as you need to give your system more space that I may not provide here.
So I encourage you to do that.
And as we begin,
I invite you to get settled.
It's best to have both feet on the floor if you can.
Notice where your body comes into contact with the ground where you are and take a couple deep cleansing breaths.
And as you get comfortable,
Take some time to let your attention go inward and focus on your body.
And if you have a medical condition,
Feel free to focus on the manifestation of that.
If you don't,
Then just find a place in your body that doesn't quite feel like you.
Any spot of tension,
Pressure,
Congestion,
Achiness,
Or fatigue.
We're looking for a trailhead that you can sense,
A point to focus on and begin this exploration.
I'll give you a bit to check in and see if you can find one.
And when you've found one,
Place your attention on it and notice how you're feeling toward it.
You may feel frustrated or defeated,
Or you may wish you could just get rid of it.
All of this is understandable,
But for our purposes in this exercise,
We're going to ask those parts to give us a little space so that you can just get to know this part that you sense in your body.
And if it's possible to shift into that curious place,
Ask the part that you're sensing what it wants you to know and just wait for an answer.
All of your thinking parts who want to speculate can relax a little bit.
And if no answer comes,
That's okay.
It could be just a physical issue that's not related at all to your parts.
If you do get an answer,
However,
Then just stay with the sensation as if it were a part of you and ask it the kinds of questions that we ask parts like,
What are you afraid would happen if you didn't do this to my body?
If it answers that question,
Then you learned about how it's trying to protect you somehow,
And you can show it appreciation,
But it may be that it's not a protector and that's it just trying to get a message to you.
So another useful question could be something like,
Why do you feel like you have to use my body?
Or maybe why doesn't it feel it can talk to you directly?
And one final question could be something like,
What do you need from me to not have to do this to my body?
Then ask this part if it has liked having some attention and spending some time with you.
If it did,
Let it know that it's not alone and that you'd like to spend more time with it if it would like that.
And when the time feels right,
You can thank the part for whatever it shared,
If it shared anything.
Then check in with your other parts as we begin to close for now.
See how they're reacting as they witness this conversation with the part that you sense the most in this exercise.
Thank your parts for anything they let happen.
Thank them for their courage.
Let all of your parts know that they're not alone and 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 few days.
And when it feels complete,
You can bring your attention back to the present moment where you are.
Take a couple final deep cleansing breaths.
You could open your eyes if they were closed and you can continue about your day.
Thanks for joining me for this exercise.
I hope it was helpful and take good care of yourself.
