Meditation For Anchoring Self-Compassion

Coming into a comfortable seat,

Finding a position of ease.

Somewhere you can melt into the earth and let go of your day,

Of your week,

Letting everything fall away.

And closing down your eyes,

Taking the adventure within.

Begin to notice your breath,

Taking your awareness to the inflow and the outflow,

The rise and the fall of your belly.

And finding space to soften the inhale,

Soften the exhale,

Lengthen the inhale and lengthening the exhale.

Drawing in and feeling each inhale reach down into your belly before surrender of the exhale as the breath releases back upward.

Becoming aware of the presence within you as you take your focus to your inner world,

Using your breath here as an anchor,

As a bridge to presence.

Using that presence to body scan,

Taking a sweep of awareness from the top of your head to the tips of your toes,

Just checking in with your body.

Seeing if there's anywhere that's asking for your attention.

And if you notice anywhere,

Just stopping and pausing briefly,

Taking a few deep breaths and finding space and softness to surrender and give permission to that area,

Allowing yourself to relax,

To release tension and let the earth beneath you absorb it.

This is particularly helpful for moments where you feel discomfort,

Frustration,

Guilt,

Sadness,

Anger,

Or just moments where you don't feel aligned.

Another way to return home,

Particularly in times where it feels hard to come home,

Hard to find that stillness within.

We're going to be using a technique that was introduced to me by Tara Brach.

It's called RAIN.

The R in RAIN stands for recognize.

The A stands for allow.

The I stands for investigate.

And the N stands for nourish.

And through these four steps,

We're cultivating a beautiful bubble of compassion where we can meet ourselves in our discomfort.

Look into the root,

Into the cause of this discomfort and offer ourselves the loving support and guidance we so seek.

Finding comfort and resolution and self sourcing that.

So you may have noticed in your body scan some places that feel stagnated,

Stuck,

Painful.

We hold our pain and our discomfort in different places within the body.

So the first step is to recognize any place in your body where you can feel stagnation in this moment.

Any place you'd like to bring a healing presence to.

Can you notice any areas that call your attention that you'd like to bring a warm hug of present awareness to?

Compassion.

Where do you need?

What area in your body is calling out to you?

And with this awareness in this area of your body,

Sense the space that arises around this tightness,

Around this discomfort when you bring your awareness to it,

When you give it space to be,

To acknowledge it.

And noticing if there's a particular trigger for this physical pain or discomfort,

What's being held here?

Is there a thought that comes to mind?

A trigger that's in your field today?

Perhaps an experience,

An encounter,

A memory?

Sense the context for what triggers you here.

It could be something to do with relationships,

With your health,

Something at work,

Self-judgment,

Your relationship with yourself,

A fear of what's going to go wrong or what didn't go to plan,

Something that doesn't feel right,

Something that doesn't make you feel worthy or accepted.

What is it that feels painful to be with in this moment?

What is that area of your body communicating to you?

Can you put a name to it or a feeling?

And if there's no words that come to mind,

That's okay.

Just be with that sensation and with that feeling,

Giving it space to exist.

And if you've sensed a location in your body,

Just bringing your hand to that area.

And if not,

Just a hand to the heart space.

And here is a compassionate witness to this space.

Begin to shift gently from my pain,

My suffering,

My story to the pain,

The suffering.

Can you create space between your experience,

The physical reality and the mental attachment,

The ego's voices?

Can you even just for a moment become the witness to your experience?

Take a step outside of the experience,

Finding some space and some relief,

Giving yourself permission to do so.

And here we move on to the next step,

Allow.

We're allowing for this discomfort to exist.

Taking our focus back to our breath and breathing into the textures,

Breathing into the discomfort,

Using your breath as a tool for acceptance,

Breathing into that space into the stagnation,

The stuckness,

The pain and breathing out a sense of coolness,

Surrender and allowing the exhale to bring about space and openness,

Allowing yourself to soften and dissolve into this spaciousness.

Can you let it soften just for this moment,

In this moment?

And your mind might be coming in,

It's natural,

But just here right now can you allow yourself some relief?

Can you allow your body to relax?

Can you welcome this space to be exactly as you are,

For the pain to be exactly as it is?

Just releasing that extra tightness that we may be subconsciously holding around it so that we can reveal the truth,

The message.

And step three,

Investigation.

This is the I in RAIN.

What story,

What belief is being attached to this trigger,

To this pain,

To this discomfort?

Pain,

Discomfort and stuckness energetically are just sensational experiences,

But it's the mind stories that creates that added suffering that we want to release and investigate.

So what story or belief are you attaching to this trigger,

This discomfort that you're experiencing?

It could be I am not good enough,

This discomfort will never change,

I will be with this discomfort forever,

I am a bad person,

I did wrong.

Sense what feels intuitively like it's living within you,

What story is alive right now?

What words are running through your mind?

And sense what it feels like,

How does it feel to hold that belief in that story?

What does it feel like,

Does it feel heavy,

Does it feel dense?

And sensing where you feel that,

Has the space within your body moved?

Has it multiplied?

As you become in contact directly with the source,

Do you feel contraction?

Just noticing your body and how your body is responding,

What are you believing to be true for this discomfort to exist?

And moving into step four,

The N in RAIN stands for Nurture.

Can you breathe with what's there?

No pushing away,

No denying.

They say that letting it go is the mantra of the avoidant,

We must let it in,

Let it through and let it be.

Can you allow it to be?

Can you allow your in breath to open where you have space to open and on the out breath create as much space as you need,

As much compassion and love as you need to nourish the space within you.

Following your breath into the deepest needs of your vulnerability,

Is your vulnerability asking of you?

How does your vulnerability,

How do these spaces want you to be with it?

What does it want the most?

Does it long to be seen,

Understood,

Loved,

Accepted,

Forgiven?

How can you show up for this part of yourself?

And beginning to offer yourself compassion,

Nourishing yourself with compassion and sending it to where you feel most vulnerable,

Offering yourself words,

Words that you need the most,

Being that person that you need,

That your inner child so desperately needs,

Imagining light and love washing over you,

Over your whole body and rippling out of your entire being.

What does your inner child need from you right now in this moment?

It could be words like I'm here,

I'm not leaving,

I'm with you,

You are held in love,

You are so worthy of love,

You are never too much,

You are so enough,

You are always enough.

Sensing what resonates,

What words bring comfort to these deepest most vulnerable spaces within you,

Sense what belief is pulling you away from that truth,

From your innate wholeness.

Remind yourself right here that you are whole.

Even if you don't fully believe it in this moment,

Offer yourself words that you'd offer your children if they were feeling how you are now.

What would you say to them?

And sensing the quality of presence here as you're with yourself in this way,

Offering yourself love and compassion.

This part of you that is so able to connect with your needs and to nourish the parts of you that can often tell you otherwise.

Bathing in this loving kindness,

This presence,

This conscious awareness,

This part of you that knows that you are already whole.

You are whole in all of your phases,

All of them.

You are so loved.

You are so enough.

Your journey home is a process of remembering again and again and again that you are enough.

You are already whole.

You are not broken and you are so loved.