Come into a comfortable seated position in a chair or on a cushion.
Take your time to feel settled.
Adjust your seat so you can remain as alert as possible but relaxed in the body.
Allow the eyes to soften or gently close.
Feel your feet touching the ground.
Feel the support of the earth beneath you.
Feel the air surrounding your body.
Feeling the air on your skin.
Does it feel warm or cold?
What can you smell right now?
What can you taste in your mouth?
Be here now.
Be present here in your body.
Turn your attention to your breath.
Notice the breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils.
Notice where the breath turns,
Where the inhale becomes the exhale and then when the exhale becomes the inhale.
Stay here for a while,
Just watching,
Being a witness to your breath.
Now bring your hands over your heart and join me on a journey as we explore fear.
Fear.
Just saying the word induces more fear and anxiety and maybe your heart beats a little faster.
Feel the fear in your belly,
In your heart and in your head and turn towards it bravely.
Keeping the breath smooth and steady and staying grounded as we do this practice.
Now just bring the hands back down to rest.
Don't feel like you are alone.
We're in this together.
We're walking side by side as you turn to face what has been sitting on your shoulders all this time.
What's there in the dark?
What's keeping you awake at 3am?
Use the breath to support you and if it feels too uncomfortable at any time,
Bring your fingers to the ground,
Breathe from the ground and let the earth support you.
Before we move past our fears,
We have to face them.
There's the story of a woman who kept dreaming she was being chased.
She would always wake up before she confronted her assailant.
But this one night she didn't.
She stayed in the dream.
She turned to look at the dark shadow behind her to realise the dark shadow was actually herself as a child.
She was just three years old.
She was all alone at the fairground.
She'd let go of her mother's hand and she was lost.
She was just standing there in the dream,
Asking her adult self the way home.
Breathe for that little girl,
So scared and frightened.
And for her mother,
Who for an anxious few minutes thought she had lost her most precious love.
And breathe deeply for you.
Breathe into your dark shadows,
Your secrets,
Your fears are being found out.
Your fear of illness and death and losing your loved ones.
As you breathe into your fears,
Just see if they change.
See if they evolve.
Do new fears get louder?
Or do you start to see these fears as the mind projections and nothing more?
Fear is false evidence appearing real.
Stay here for a while,
Just focusing on the inhale and exhale through the nose.
Feel the breath ground and support you.
It's time to come out of the practice.
Just take a moment to feel gratitude to yourself for doing this challenging practice.
Knowing that as you have faced the dark,
So now you can turn to the light.
Feel the lightness in your heart and the steadiness of your breath as you start to bring yourself back.
