Meditation For Sadness Or Grief

A body-centered breath meditation to help you release sadness and grief. Timothy Long combines the healing power of guided words with somatic body sensing so you can let go and process the pain of sadness and grief.

Transcript

Hi, This is Timothy Long and today we're going to do a meditation mindfulness release of sadness and grief. So go ahead and find yourself a comfortable position that might be lying back or sitting up on some pillows. Whatever makes you comfortable, Better not to have anything crossed. Just kind of lay your arms down on your sides or rest them upon your thighs or your stomach and chest. And go ahead and begin to just track your breathing. At this point just take notice, Just observe. Don't try to change anything. Take a scan of your body. Feel your feet. Feel your legs. Feel your pelvis. Feel your back. Your neck. Throat. Face. Your whole head. Shoulders. Your arms. Your hands. Feel your legs and arms, Hands and feet together at the same time. Feel your whole torso. Now I want you to focus on your navel area. About two inches below your navel, Two inches inside your abdomen. Just keep your focus there. You can see a ball of light. Maybe like a tennis ball or a golf ball. Just keep your attention or your concentration there at your navel center just below. Keeping part of your attention there, I want you to focus on your breathing. Keeping the air coming up into your nostrils, Down into your chest and belly. Notice the rise. Notice the contraction. Follow the air back out. Really notice the air when it comes in and out through your nose, How it feels, The temperature, How you sense it. You likely sense it differently as it comes into your nostrils than when it goes back out. It's a different place, Feels a little different, The temperature's a little different. You can follow it in, Down into your chest and belly, All the while keeping part of your focus on your navel center. Following the breath back out, Noticing the inhalation and the exhalation, The expansion, The contraction, The rhythm of the breath. Now I want you to notice your whole abdomen coming up through your stomach, Through your solar plexus, Up into your chest, Your throat, Your cheeks and your eyes. Just keep scanning from your eyes down to your navel, The whole front center channel. Just notice wherever you feel the sense of sadness or grief, It might feel like pressure or heaviness and just tightness. I just feel kind of dark and numb. There's many reasons we carry grief and sadness, Some can be old reasons, The loss from a long ago or maybe not that long ago, Going through a period like COVID, Just feeling disconnected, Can feel like grief and sadness, Something very acutely we're facing in our lives. We do so many things to try to escape, To try not to feel. Really you want to take this time to really allow ourselves to sink down into our bodies and really observe, Feel, Sense any sadness, Any grief. I would say everyone carries all emotions and everyone has some layers of grief or sadness in their bodies. Just find it in your own body, Most likely in the chest and throat area, Around the heart. You might feel it in your belly. At some point, It might start to move. When we focus, It's kind of like melting an ice cube by putting fire or light on it. Focus of your consciousness into the places in your body where you sense there's grief and sadness. It might start to melt, Might start to move. It's just energy, Just frozen coagulated energy. It may flash up into your face and you may want to cry, Just allow it to happen. Your eyes just might tear up, Cheeks might get warm. Sometimes there's anger behind the grief. Whatever comes up, However it starts to move, Just be calm. Keep observing your breath. Don't allow yourself to get distracted. Don't go off thinking all about it. You want to stay with the sensation through the somatic sense, Through the body. The breath is your key, Your key way to stay in touch, Bridge the mind and the body, Stay connected. You can at this point encourage your breath by taking a little bit longer inhale and a longer exhale, Being sure they're about the same length or even better that the exhale is a bit longer. If you felt a lot of emotion, You could blow it out. You could, On the exhale, You could blow it through your lips just forcefully. You can make a sound. You can let it out on sound. It's very helpful to try to make a sound that feels like the sensations that you feel in your body. It's an amazing way to move energy, To break up old, Frozen, Stuck energy. Humming, Just humming even internally inside the throat. Making vibrations with your humming in your lips so the vibration goes down into the bones and into the chest, Into the ribs. Wonderful way to start to move it, Move the stuck energy, To move it out. Another thing you can do is start to do bilateral movement. You're following your breath. You're sensing your body. You're sensing the emotion, Feelings in your body. You begin to squeeze your right hand and arm, Then let it go and squeeze the left hand and arm and let it go. Go back and forth. You can add in the leg and the foot. On the right side, The right foot, You can pedal the foot or just squeeze it in your whole left leg. I don't know, I might have mixed that up, But stay on one side or the other so you're all on the left side, Squeezing arm, Hand, Leg and foot and letting it all go. Then going back to the other side, Squeezing, Tightening, Letting it go. Just back and forth. Not allowing your mind to drift off, Staying with your breath, Staying with the sensations, Feeling around your heart and chest and throat, Cheeks and eyes, Maybe your belly, Wherever you feel sensation of tension or stuck energy or emotion. Continuing the left, Right, Bilateral movement. And whatever memories, Thoughts, Feelings just arise, Accepting them, Loving them, Being with them. If you had a child who was hurt and sad, You wouldn't disconnect from them. Maybe you want to hold them, Check in with them, Have them express what they're feeling. The same with your body, The same with your inner feelings. As adults, We tend to disconnect. We want to hold ourselves, Feel, Connect, Articulate, Observe, Be curious, Stay with the feelings. Eventually they'll let go, They may let go pretty quickly, They may let go over some days, At some point they'll move out. You can stay with this after the recording goes off as long as you like. At some point, You can just stop the bilateral movement and just stop the deep breathing and just feel, Allow yourself to feel whatever peace, Whatever amount of pleasure, Whatever amount of relaxation you can feel around this exercise that you just did, Any letting go that you experienced, Any realizations you may have had, Any release you may have had. And again, The release may come later because you spent this time with yourself. You may release some tears as you're falling asleep or taking a shower or just spontaneously at some point. Not always immediate. Changes in transformation through breathing, Mindfulness, And meditation are not always immediate. Some people say, Oh, That didn't do anything for me. Over time, It lays the groundwork for the change to take place. I always like to end any release, Any meditation that we go deeper into things that are hurting, That we're suffering from, With calling up into your mind something beautiful, Something very peaceful, Something to remind yourself of the good in your life, What you're grateful for. And to help deepen that, You can begin some bilateral movement again. Left, Right, Left, Right, Pedaling the feet, Squeezing the hands or the entire side to the other entire side, Or just shifting your eyes back and forth, Left to right. Any bilateral movement or just tapping. You can tap the sides of your legs or top of your legs. Right, Left, Right, Left, And feel and sense something beautiful. Okay. I wish you peace. I wish you love.

Reviews

I have hope

Very helpful, thank you. Love and blessings 💜 x