Let's close our eyes and practice being with whatever is arising.
The main challenge in meditation is to embrace what is.
And basically it is challenging because sometimes what is is painful,
Uncomfortable.
So a lot of our meditation is allowing discomfort to be there.
Underneath that resistance to discomfort is fear,
Fear of discomfort.
I think that if something is painful,
Uncomfortable,
We need to resist or we unconsciously resist.
So here is an easy tip to meditation.
Allow discomfort to be there.
And actually become intimate with it.
Just allow yourself to feel it,
Whatever is uncomfortable.
It might be the cold in the skin.
Or it might be tension in the joints because of the cold,
Soreness.
Or it might be emotional inner tension,
Inner pressure.
Can you allow them,
Just allow them to be there?
You don't have to fix them.
You don't have to make it go away.
You just have to let it be.
Sometimes the discomfort is not physical but psychological.
Things not going the way you want them to go.
Worry,
Guilt.
All of that is emotional and mental.
So notice it as it arises in your mind.
And you can label it.
Oh,
This is worry.
This is guilt.
This is anger.
Whatever it is,
Just notice it.
Notice the places where we tend to resist.
The jaw,
The tongue,
The eyes,
The hands,
Even the feet.
Sometimes even the pelvic floor,
The anus.
We all have different ways of holding tension,
Resistance.
Shoulders,
Another place.
We practice softening the body and allowing the sensations to be what they are.
Especially the uncomfortable sensations,
We allow them.
It doesn't necessarily mean you focus on them.
It just means that you allow them to be there within all the other sensations that are arising.
You allow the noises as well as the silence beneath the noises.
You allow the thoughts as well as the silence between the thoughts.
You cultivate a spacious stance.
You're spacious enough to allow everything to be part of you.
Seeking nothing,
Rejecting nothing,
Just being with all of them.
Notice which is the most predominant sensation within.
The most predominant sensation is often signals your own resistance.
As you feel,
Become curious on the feeling of the sensation.
Almost like you are drawing an inner map of what is arising.
How intimate can you be with everything that you are experiencing?
How vulnerable and open can you be to your experience?
The more you feel,
The more you release.
The more you allow,
The more you discover your innate freedom to simply be.
There's a pleasure,
There's a joy in simply being with whatever is arising.
Even if it's uncomfortable,
Can you allow it fully?
Of course,
This is a practice.
Some days we can.
Other days might be overwhelming to allow.
If it's too intense,
You can direct your attention to something else,
To an area of your body that doesn't feel so intense.
But if you feel that you're able to allow,
Then go for it.
Allow and feel.
Allow for the free movement of sensations within you.
Everything seeks to move and express itself and then dissolve in the field of awareness that we are.
If you allow for the movement,
Then everything arises and dissolves in the field of awareness.
If you resist,
Then you maintain the discomfort.
So allow for the movement.
Allow for the sensations.
Allow for the whole of your experience.
Notice the changes.
Notice the nuance of the movement.
Notice how the inner landscape transforms itself as you allow.
Soften.
Releasing control.
