Joy Of Basic Needs

This meditation connects with our basic needs as a mammal.

So we kind of investigate the present moment to see how many of our needs are not being met and how worried we should be about that in any given moment.

So allowing yourself to have a comfortable position,

Having a sense of uprightness in your spine,

This lovely sense of vitality coming up from the base of your spine up to your neck,

Allowing the rest of your body to relax off your living spine.

And just taking a couple of breaths and really focusing on the out breath so that you know that it is a safe moment to rest.

We'll do this meditation as a series of questions.

And the first question we ask ourselves is about appropriate shelter.

You know,

Do we have appropriate shelter right now?

Is where I am appropriate for me,

For my needs?

Or if you're doing this outside,

Do you know that you can get to appropriate shelter if needed?

Just allow your mind to explore the space where you are.

If you're in a building,

You might remember that it has very solid foundations that architects and builders designed it in order to be as safe as possible for human beings.

And that actually lawmakers came together to make sure that buildings were really safe for us,

For our needs.

So there's kind of quite a lot of support built in to a shelter for us.

There may be things like a fire alarm or carbon monoxide alarm.

Maybe these little devices in this space,

Whose only job is to keep us really safe.

So we're just checking like,

Do I have appropriate shelter?

And if you're in a home,

You might sense kind of the different spaces that actually here is somewhere that's not just a shelter,

Like a bus shelter,

But this is somewhere that you could also eat and you could sleep like it's safe enough to be able to fall asleep and be safe.

Safe enough that if there was a bad storm,

That you'd be safe.

And how does it feel to be sheltered?

Is it possible to receive the protection of being sheltered?

To feel safe and protected?

And then you can release the sense of shelter.

And we'll look at temperature.

So how safe are we in terms of temperature as warm blooded mammals?

It's really important to us.

So we can ask the question of,

Is the temperature okay for my body at the moment?

And if it's not,

Is there anything I can do about that?

So in some instances,

We just change the temperature of all of the air in the room.

Sometimes we put on a jumper or tick off a jumper,

Sensing how much agency do you have to make sure that the temperature is safe for your body.

And if that need is met,

It may be possible to sense the goodness of that.

And if it's more difficult,

You can draw in a memory of a time when that need was not met.

Time where your body was really uncomfortable in terms of temperature.

When you were freezing cold or way too hot and you didn't have kind of immediate control,

You weren't able to help your body quickly enough.

So we know what it's like when this need is not met.

Allow ourselves to savour when this need is met.

And then we can allow the sense of temperature to recede and we'll reach out to sense in our mind how far we'd need to go to access fresh,

Clean water.

How worried should we be in terms of accessing fresh water today?

And you can simply imagine how far your body would have to move.

It might be literally within your reach.

Or you may know actually in the room next door,

There is fresh water.

And there have been times where we've suffered from thirst,

Right?

Like really strong,

All we wanted was some fresh water.

So allowing maybe a memory of discomfort to kind of energise the sense of comfort that's available in this moment.

And we know that many people on the planet,

If they did this,

They would imagine themselves as walking quite a distance.

And that even if they walked there,

There might not be a guarantee of it being fresh water.

So we're very lucky to have such clean fresh water with such ease every day.

And then allowing our water thoughts to recede.

And we will explore how worried we should be about food today.

How difficult might it be for us to obtain food?

And again,

If your mind kind of moves to a place where there is food,

You know there is food,

You just deepen your attention there for a moment to know that actually that food is there because hundreds of other people made an effort to grow the food and move the food to where you could get it.

There were a lot of conditions that made that food possible.

And again,

We can use memory of being starving,

Really uncomfortable.

And then sense the gift,

How easy it is to have food so close to hand.

Then releasing the sense of food and we can explore threats.

And please do this very gently.

And if there's any,

You know,

Sharp pain or memory that comes up,

Please don't continue with it.

Please head back down to your toes and give them a wiggle.

And stay there until you have a sense of being safe in this moment.

So we can explore,

Are there any physical threats in this specific place that we're in right now?

So it can only be kind of like within the room that we're in,

Or if we're outside and the immediate vicinity.

And you can imagine this in a humorous way.

This taps into a very primal sense of safety.

So you can imagine it's like a cave person with a spear or a saber-toothed tiger.

Like we can get very primitive with this.

Just sensing,

Are there any physical threats,

Like deliberate physical threats right now?

And if you can't find any,

How wonderful is that?

That's so great.

This is moment of physical safety.

We know our ancestors,

You know,

Their physical safety was a huge focus every single day that they really needed to worry about.

And here we are,

Very safe.

See is it possible with that sense to allow your body to kind of rest in a little more deeply?

So that you increase the weight of your body print against furniture,

The floor,

The earth.

So that we can let go and allow ourselves to be fully supported for a moment.

And then our final search is to scan for any emotional threats in this moment.

So is there any thing in this space?

And it has to be in this space.

So even if it exists on the world,

But somewhere else,

Doesn't count.

So you stay where you are and then check to see are there any emotional threats?

And that can be verbally aggressive or even snide or sarcastic.

It can be a sense of,

You know,

Just being asked too many questions,

Feeling a bit harangued,

Just emotionally not having the space that you need.

Take a look at this moment to see,

Do you have the space you need?

You know,

There have been times when we have been in spaces that haven't been so emotionally safe.

You know,

There have been undercurrents to conversations or maybe outright aggression or maybe people not listening or asking too much.

So is it possible to feel the space that's here,

If there is space here,

And really savour that?

And we take a moment to sense how it feels in our body,

To feel no,

Like in our bones,

That we have appropriate shelter,

That we have the water and food that we need,

That the temperature is okay,

And that there are no major threats.

When we explore this,

We often discover that in the most fundamental ways,

We are being fully supported in this moment of our life.

So just starting simply as a mammal,

As a human animal,

What we need,

That those needs,

Those most fundamental needs are being fully cared for.

And it's good to be able to notice it.

And over time,

The sense of appreciation grows a little.

So it becomes very easy to notice and to feel grateful.

Thank you for practising together.