Hello friends,
This is David.
In today's meditation,
We'll be practicing relaxed engagement with pain.
And to begin,
We can take a moment to just make sure we're feeling comfortable in our posture.
Whether that's lying down or sitting up,
Just feeling at ease.
And then when you're ready,
Taking three slow,
Deep breaths.
And then inviting that relaxation more deeply into your body.
Softening any muscles that might be clenched or tight,
Places like the forehead and eyes.
Relaxing the jaw and tongue.
Relaxing the shoulders and hands.
Relaxing the tummy,
The pelvis.
Completely free of any clenching,
Tightening.
From your head to your toes,
Completely relaxed,
Resting into gravity.
It's also important to relax the mind.
And we do this by channeling an attitude or a mindset of allowing.
Where for the course of this meditation,
We really just give total permission for how we feel to be how we feel.
There's not a need to change it,
Make it go away.
A radical acceptance,
A total allowing of however your body feels right now.
To help deepen this allowing,
This relaxation,
I invite you to bring your attention to some sort of grounding anchor.
Something like sounds,
Particular sensation in the body that is obvious and also easeful.
This might be the sensations in the feet,
The sounds in the room,
The feel of the body on the ground.
Just take a minute to let your body ground into an anchor,
Relaxed.
And in just a moment,
We are going to direct our attention right into the heart of the pain.
But before we do this,
Know that if at any moment it becomes overwhelming or too much,
You can always direct your attention back to your grounding anchor.
So in going towards your pain,
We mostly just want to get curious.
What does it feel like?
Is it pulsing,
Sharp,
Tense,
Throbbing,
Dull,
Hazy?
You might imagine you're feeling it from the inside out.
What's it like?
If any resistance or disliking comes in,
We again just relax the muscles,
Relax our mind.
Practice this radical allowing.
If it's too much,
We shift back to our anchor.
But if it feels okay,
We just continue to feel it,
To dive into the heart of the discomfort,
Noticing how it changes.
Maybe it tingles or vibrates,
Intensifies or de-intensifies.
Just continuing to curiously feel,
What's this pain like?
And now really let go of any of the analyzing,
Any of the trying to figure it out,
And we'll take this final stretch here to really let yourself just be with it,
To feel it with a radical allowing,
A radical relaxation,
To just rest amidst the discomfort.
Here it is,
Relaxed.
And with that,
You can bring your eyes to open if they're shut.
Prepare to come out of the meditation.
And as you go into your day and life,
Know that at any moment you can turn towards the discomfort.
You can have a relaxed engagement with how we are right now.
