This is a meditation to work with strong feelings.
Please just take a comfortable seat.
You want your sitting bones moving back and apart.
Whether you're on the floor,
Whether you're seated on the edge of a chair,
Just make yourself comfortable.
And as you rest your hands in your lap,
You're invited to make the okay signs.
The next finger and thumb tips come together,
The gesture of consciousness,
Chin mudra,
With the palms face down,
That provides a subtle sense of grounding,
Stability,
Present moment awareness.
And as you rest your hands in your lap,
Then the invitation is to close your eyes or just keep a soft gaze,
Gently downward.
As your eyes soften,
Bring awareness to your breath.
Allow a gentle inhale,
A gentle exhale,
Effortless.
Bring awareness to your foundation and let your foundation,
Hips and legs and feet,
Become even more steady against the earth.
Imagine they're kind of sinking down a little bit,
Being planted into mother earth.
As your foundation grows steady,
Then the spine can lengthen from the base to the crown.
Elongate your spine and lift the collar bones a little bit.
On an exhale,
Let the shoulder blades settle down your back.
At the same time,
The side ribs draw slightly back,
So there's just a slight tone in the core to help maintain your upright seat.
Again,
The breath flows freely,
Effortlessly.
There's no hurry here.
Just let your awareness collect in this moment in your body.
Now,
Begin to follow your breath from your nose to the center of your chest,
Your heart center known in Sanskrit as Anahata Chakra.
It's not your physical heart,
But a subtle center located just to the right of the physical heart,
Just behind the breastbone right in front of the spine at the level of your physical heart.
Follow your breath from your nose to your heart center,
The middle of your chest,
The middle of your body,
Exhaling just as fully.
Let yourself enter the space of your heart center.
Imagine now that you're breathing directly into the heart center as though there is a nose right at the center of your chest.
Exhale and exhale directly to and from the heart center.
Let the inner space of your heart expand with the breathing,
Softening,
Widening.
As you hold your awareness in the heart space,
Notice what is arising for you.
Any feelings or emotions arising are just the manifesting state of your very own consciousness.
There's no need to fight these feelings or push them away or resist them.
Just allow these feelings or emotions or sensations to arise.
As you internally observe an emotion,
Perhaps you may name that emotion.
If it is fear,
You can name it.
Internally greet it,
Hello fear or anger or anxiety or jealousy,
Resentment,
Whatever the emotion might be,
Name it,
Greet it.
This is your practice.
There's no right and no wrong here.
It's all your own experience.
Name whatever might be arising for you and then notice how it starts to settle again.
Just like a gentle wave in the ocean,
An emotion arises and then it subsides.
If the emotion is stronger,
It might take longer to subside,
But as you observe it,
If you can name it,
If you can greet it without resistance,
Sometimes things start to shift.
As emotion fills your awareness,
Let go of any thoughts that you have about that emotion.
Let go of the storyline or the drama about that emotion.
Let go of any tendency to obsess about the situation that brought up the emotion.
In other words,
We're practicing releasing attachment.
Let go of the story around that emotion and bring awareness to the energy of the emotion.
Bring awareness to the energy or the feeling of the emotion within your body.
Where is the feeling located?
Is it in your head or your heart,
Your belly,
Somewhere else?
Become aware of the feeling associated with the emotion inside your body.
What sensations do you notice?
Is there heat or sharpness or heaviness?
What sensations do you feel?
Bring awareness to these sensations.
Allow them without resistance.
Now,
As you maintain awareness on the feeling experience of your emotion,
Become simultaneously aware of the heart space,
The field of awareness that contains the feelings.
Awareness of the feeling experience of your emotion and awareness of the heart space that contains the feelings.
Hold the emotional feeling within the heart space as though you were cradling it within your own awareness.
Tenderly,
Gently,
As a mother holds her child,
Hold the emotional feeling within the heart space as though you were cradling it within your own awareness.
Letting go of any resistance so that you can allow the emotion,
Maybe not exactly welcoming the emotion,
But allowing it.
If tears feel like they want to arise,
Let them arise.
Let the tears flow.
If you're feeling some other feeling,
Just allow it.
Again,
This is your practice,
Your own experience.
There's no right or wrong.
Simply experience,
Simply awareness within the heart space,
Allowing what arises for you to be.
Sit with the emotion,
Feeling its energy while simultaneously keeping your focus opened out into the widening spaciousness of your heart.
As you sit,
Allow the energy of the emotion to dissolve into the heart space of awareness.
Whatever feelings,
Sensation,
Emotion that arises,
Allow it to dissolve into the heart space of your own awareness.
Your own awareness is expansive.
A welcoming space simply allowing your experience to be.
Like an ocean wave,
That experience arises and then it subsides again back into your own heart space.
Letting go of any resistance.
Slowly now,
We'll bring palms together,
Hands to your heart center.
Internally,
You may choose to offer this practice not only for the benefit of your own self,
But for the upliftment of all beings.
We'll close with the universal sound of om one time.
You can join in or simply listen.
We'll inhale fully.
Bow your head to your fullness within your own heart.
Then you can release your hands and soft gaze as you open your eyes and lift your head.
It may be that you want to take a few minutes to just journal a little bit about your experience.
Please feel free to do that now.
Thank you for your practice today.
