Welcome to another episode of IFS Meditations and Insights,
A podcast exploring personal
growth through the lens of internal family systems.
I'm Tim Fortescue,
Your guide on
this journey,
An IFS trained practitioner dedicated to nurturing spiritual wholeness
and healing.
In this compassionate space,
We delve into self-discovery,
Uncovering inner
wisdom.
When we embrace all parts of ourselves with love,
We can better receive divine love
and extend it to others.
My hope is that what I discuss here will illuminate your path,
Bringing you inner peace and a deeper connection to the sacred.
Together,
We'll learn how
IFS gently transforms our relationships with ourselves and the world.
So settle in,
Open
up your hardened mind,
And let's dive into another episode.
Today I'm going to lead you in one of the exercises from Dick Schwartz's book,
No Bad
Parts,
And it's a body exercise or meditation.
And this meditation relates to ideas about
your body.
You've likely thought about your relationship with your body,
Perhaps about
symptoms you've had.
I don't want to presume that any of your symptoms or tensions are
necessarily the result of parts.
Additionally,
I don't want to kick up any shame by suggesting
that you're doing all this to yourself.
That's not the message at all that we're trying to
get across here.
It's not you who wants to have a symptom.
It's just a little part.
Often
that part has no clue about the overall damage they're doing to your body or to your family.
And once you finally listen to that part,
It will tend to lessen or stop doing what
it's doing to you.
And so let's begin the meditation.
I'm going to invite you to focus
on your body.
And if you do 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
sensate trailhead,
A point to focus on and begin this exploration.
I'll give you a second
to find one.
And know that I encourage you to pause this recording as often as you need
to if your system needs more time than I allow.
When you've found one,
Place your attention on
it and notice how you're feeling toward it.
You may feel frustrated or defeated by it or wish
you could get rid of it,
All of which are understandable.
But for our purposes for this
exercise,
We're going to ask those parts to give us a little space so you can just get to know the
part that is manifesting most in your body right now.
And if it is possible to shift into that
curious place,
Ask what it wants you to know.
And again,
Wait for an answer.
All of your thinking
parts who want to speculate can relax and if no answer comes,
That's fine.
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 we ask parts.
For example,
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.
You can show it appreciation.
But it may be that it's not a protector and that it's just
trying to get a message to you.
So another useful question here is,
Why do you feel like you have to
use my body?
That is,
Why doesn't it feel like it can talk to you directly?
And the final question
could be something like,
What do you need from me to not have to do this to my body?
And again,
When the time feels right,
You can thank the part for whatever it shared.
If it
shared anything and begin to shift your focus back outside,
Taking deep breaths,
If that helps.
This is one way to practice a new relationship with your body.
Whenever a sensation or symptom
comes,
Pay attention to it.
What message is it trying to send you?
Thanks for joining me for
this meditation.
Well,
That wraps up another episode of IFS Meditations and Insights.
I hope
you found today's episode helpful.
If you did,
I'd really appreciate it if you'd share it with
anyone else who might benefit.
Additionally,
Please leave a positive review.
