Healing The Pain Of The Past - Personal And Collective

It's unlikely you were shown effective ways of dealing with pain and suffering as you grew up, we tend to hide from it. But to ignore the pain is to store it inside for later. To heal it we must feel it! And it really works. In this meditation, we attend to our own painful past and allow the emotion to flow through us. And then choose what we wish to feel next.

In an act of service, we consider the shared past pain of humanity and use the same technique to heal a small portion of it. We have this power!

Photo by Irene Ortiz on Unsplash

Transcript

Let's have a little fidget and find a comfortable place for our body. Allowing our spine to lengthen and our shoulders to soften. Finding a place we can be comfortable, We can rest. We'd like our mind to be alert. Body at rest, Mind alert. And when we find that place, Take in a few deeper breaths. Bringing our attention inwards. Greeting ourselves. Greeting our body. Greeting our body with kindness. Looking into our mind. And looking into our mind with compassion. Greeting our emotional self. With love. And our energy, Our motivation, Our spiritual self. And accepting what we find. Let's relax our body a little. Take us into that relaxed alpha state. Our softening, Our scalp and our forehead. Our cheeks and our jaw. Tuck the chin in a little, Extend the back of the neck a little, If that's for us. Shoulders softening. Allowing our shoulders to hang on our spine without holding them up. Our arms soft and heavy. Chest and upper back softening. Let's see if we can give plenty of room for our breath. For our chest. Stomach area, Mid-back softening. But we don't want a slump. Belly, Lower back softening. Belly, Lower back softening. And yet the front of the body is still spacious. Our hips, Our lower legs heavy, Softer. Softness flowing into our lower legs. Our ankles and our feet. Let's check round. Check round our body, Looking for tightness or tension. And we're going to take a little bit more time over this than we might normally. And go into our body a little bit deeper. Feeling your feet, Not thinking about the feet, Feeling. And any pain, Discomfort, I invite you to consider today as past pain that we've not dealt with and stored in our body. I invite you to feel compassion. So let's feel our legs, Our knees. A lot of people have knee joint pain. That inflammation, If we find any. Considering it as past pain we've not dealt with and stored in our body. Are we able to hold that with love? We didn't know we were doing it. Can we look upon our innocence, Ignorance, Kind of the same thing, From different perspectives, With compassion? Feel our hips now. We just feel compassion for our hips, Those delicate organs, Our lower back, Which holds so much tension in many of us. Easily injured. Our back, Our spine, The muscles that support it. Has such a job to hold us up. It's such a job to hold us up. It's such a job to hold us up. It's such a job to hold us up. Has such a job to hold us up. In what feels like very heavy gravity sometimes. We courageously continue, But it's difficult. Feel compassion. Feel the courage that it takes to continue to stand up. Against the weight. The soft organs of our belly. Inside our chest. A metaphor for our delicate emotions. Our vulnerability that we seek to protect. Look upon that part of us with love and kindness, With compassion. And our head. Our head, Our mind, Can often be full of difficult energy. Painful thoughts. Fearful, Habitual thoughts. So much so, We are blind to our own inner nature. Our strengths. The abilities that are completely innate to us. Poor humans. And yet, We get up every morning and try again. Very strong. Very, Very able to persevere in the face of adversity. Most of us have been taught to hide from pain. Physical pain, We take pain relief. And that's no judgement, If that's part of your experience. Emotional, Mental pain. We push away, We ignore, We distract ourselves from. That's our conditioning, That's how we've been raised. Most of us have been raised to approach pain of any kind. But when we do that, It doesn't go away. It gets put away in our body for later. Stored as stiff muscles, Maybe in the first instance, Poor digestion, Because we're anxious. And it gets put away deeper into physical structures like joints, Illnesses. Ultimately ageing. Ultimately ageing. And the metabolic dysfunction that most of us experience. There is another way. We feel our pain. It's actually very simple. To acknowledge the pain that we experience. And that feels too much for us, It feels like we might be washed away and overwhelmed. Unable to deal with such intensity. But we are so strong. And you can. Because when we approach it with openness, With honesty. It flows through us, Is processed and flows away. Even physical pain, We can approach without the fear of it increasing. Without the fear of consequences in the future, Which multiplies any pain in our present moment. So, I invite you to bring to mind some present suffering. Physical pain, Emotional pain, Mental pain, Because we deal with it all in the same way. Maybe a small one to practice on, Or a big one if it's right in your face in the moment. To bring it to mind now. Allow it to be there. That's all we need to do, We acknowledge it and feel it. As best you can. It may be difficult if that's your first experience. As best you can. It may be difficult if that's your first experience of approaching pain in this way. But you are able to do this, You are strong enough already. It's just new. Allow it to be in you, Wherever it is. Usually we label such things as wrong, Shouldn't be here, Don't want it. Push it away. If it is in your experience, And this is a practice one. Sit with it, Sit in it. And it is my experience that it passes more quickly. It will flow through rather than get stuck. That may take minutes. Hours. Big things take longer than little things, Of course. Give it some time. Give it your tears if that's what it needs. Allow it. You are brave enough. You are strong enough. Even if it feels overwhelming, It will be only so for a short time. And then you will be free. Till the next time. Take yourself into a private space. Attend to it with love. If you can't bring love to the pain you are experiencing, Then you may be able to do that. We may be able to feel love for the one who experiences the pain. And once it has passed, Once we are refreshed, Empty, Because it will pass, You are free to choose. The choice is very interesting, Because we can choose to stay in that pain. It's still in our memory. We can sit with how painful it was. How difficult it was. But wait. When you do that, You bring it in again. Can we choose now something different? This present moment might contain something beautiful. Or we could choose something beautiful. We could choose joy. We could leave the pain in the past. Let's try that now. If your present moment is without pain, What would you like to bring in? And I invite you to try out love. Peace. Abundance. Joy. Feel yourself. Feel your mind. Imagine these feelings and they flow in. Imagine feeling peace. And there it is. Maybe small to begin with. Focus on it. Let it grow. Breathe it in. You are so powerful. It can even be a courageous act to bring in peace in the face of difficulty. I invite you to try this. When the flow of life brings in difficulty. You don't have to invent it. There's plenty of it already. So when the flow of your experience brings in difficulty towards you, Sit with it. Experience. Courageously. And then to choose again. And I invite you with me on this day. And I invite you with me on this day. To an act of service for all of humanity. The pain, The shared pain of humanity is immense. You cast your mind back. You cast your mind back. Into the history of the humans. The pain is, Well, Indescribable. And for two minutes, I invite you to let it flow through you. To heal it. Just a little portion. Heal a small portion of it with me for two minutes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And now, We've made a little bit of space. We're courageously healing, Attending to some of that shared pain. What would you choose? What do you choose? What do you bring in for all the people? Just the same stuff as you bring in for yourself. And I invite you now to focus on that. Imagine peace and feel it. Imagine sharing our joy. And there it is. Sharing the love we feel for one another. We do not realise how powerful it is to focus on love. As the pain filled you before, Let the love fill you now. The hope. And as we deliberately fill ourselves, We get to be a light for those around us. We might not yet have realised it, For those around us. We might not yet have realised they get to choose. Resting with your body and your breath and your choice. Being conscious of what you are choosing in this moment. And so, Let us begin our journey back to the external world. A little bit stronger, A little bit more creative. There's no hurry though. Taking a few gentle stretches. Slowly taking in your surroundings. And moving your body. Thank you for practising with me.