Facing Fear & Welcoming Change

Hello and welcome.

The following is a guided meditation by René Sills,

A somatic movement educator,

Energy worker and astrologer.

This meditation is intended to help support your embodied meditation practice.

If in the recording you are prompted to do something that doesn't feel good for your body,

Please adapt and modify to make it work for you.

Please also note that the content of these meditations sometimes explores deep and subtle states and memories,

And sometimes guided visualizations.

You are encouraged to work with discernment as you practice with them.

If any of the guidance René offers feels too activating or uncomfortable,

Please listen to your body's knowing and pause the recording until a later time if you wish to return to it.

These guided meditations range anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes and do not require any supplementary equipment to participate.

We hope you enjoy.

Greetings and welcome.

Thanks for joining me for this guided meditation.

This is a somatic meditation and that means that it's based in the body.

So while we'll be practicing potentially a seat,

Watching our breath and other techniques of more traditional meditation,

I'm going to ask you to also pay attention to your body sensations and maybe to let them move you.

So to set up for this experience,

The first thing to do is to make sure that you're comfortable.

And sometimes people listen to these meditations out in the world while they're taking a walk or driving in their car.

And sometimes you might listen to this meditation while you do a movement practice,

Yoga or dance or maybe just free movement.

And you're definitely welcome to lie down or to take a seat.

But let's begin first by simply bringing attention into the body.

And what I'd like you to do is actually use your eyes and use your hands.

So you can look down,

See your body,

Use your hands to touch your body and wherever you see,

Just place your hand and see your hand touching your body and feel the sensation of your own touch.

When you touch your body,

Say hello.

You might say that out loud or you might just say it in your head.

But greet the form that you're in.

And in some way,

You might say this literally to yourself or it might be more of just a feeling.

But remind yourself that this is your body.

So you can say,

Hello body.

You're my body.

Hello.

You might say,

Thanks for being here.

Thanks for being a home.

And in doing this,

There is a really practical sense of grounding and an acknowledgement that this is the physical space that you're residing in before any kind of dwelling that you might find yourself in or other kind of environment.

And as you greet your body and as you see it and touch it,

Also consider the many,

Many experiences that you've gone through with this being,

With this form and the way that your body has changed over time.

And if you have judgments come up when I say that and I say change over time and you go into a self-critique place,

Then notice that,

But also try to not nurture it.

And rather,

Can you see this form that you live in and feel this form that you live in as an intelligent collection of lots of different tissues and cells and an evolution,

A constant state of growing and learning and adapting.

And that even as your body ages and gets ill or injured and starts to break down,

That your body is just following the natural course of all life.

So everything on earth is formed,

Has some kind of experience of stability.

And then unforms itself,

Breaks down.

And so as you look at your body,

You might just marvel at the fact that the beginning of your body was just one cell and then there were two cells and then there were many.

And those cells continued to multiply until they formed this really complex and quite astounding structure that you call your body.

And one day you'll stop breathing and your organs will stop working.

And then whatever the life forces that resides in you and the consciousness that now is looking at your body and saying,

Hello,

You're my body,

Something will happen.

And the physical home of your body will reintegrate itself and go back to the physical home of the earth.

And as you feel your body,

You might also just imagine and marvel at the fact that your body is formed from all organic materials.

Somehow your DNA knows what to do with the nourishment of food and water,

Sugars of light,

Oxygen and turn it into this thing,

Which is pretty amazing.

So let's just take another minute or so and finish up this greeting and make sure that you touch as much of your body as you can and that you bring attention and just say hello and with as much respect as you can.

And maybe even with as much love and wonderment as you can.

Wow,

This is my body.

How did that happen?

And then when you're ready,

If it's comfortable to close your eyes and close your eyes and let's start to just bring our attention into the breath.

So as you breathe,

It's your body that's breathing and the inhales bring the space from outside of you,

Inside of you.

And the exhales move what was inside of you into the space outside of you.

And as you breathe,

Can you just feel this rhythm,

This simple exchange coming in and going out?

There is no need to do anything with your breath.

You don't need to make it deeper or fuller or longer.

Just notice it.

And in your breath,

Feel the relationship that you have to this space around you,

To oxygen,

To atmosphere.

This is an entirely dependent relationship.

You depend on this to survive.

So as you breathe,

Can you welcome your breath in?

As you exhale,

Can you welcome the exhale?

Can you feel the air and the space around you as a presence,

Slightly different than your body,

Very different than your body,

But a presence nonetheless.

And this is a presence that you're in relationship with.

And there's an exchange.

There's a give and a take.

We don't know if there's sentience in the air.

If you're someone who believes in a holographic universe and sacredness everywhere,

Then you might believe that there's sentience in the air.

And you might just imagine it,

That the atmosphere,

That this,

It's kind of like a membrane that encompasses the entire earth.

And it's protective.

And it has a lot of things that we need in it.

So atmosphere is its own kind of substance.

It contains oxygen.

When we leave the earth's atmosphere,

We're just an ether,

We're an emptiness.

In the atmosphere of earth,

We have gravity.

And this is part of what keeps us earthbound and what gives us rebound so we can stand upright and run and walk and move around.

So simply in breathing,

There's an acknowledgement that this is a special kind of place.

And you feel the relationship to whatever that is,

That specialness,

That difference of our atmosphere and the emptiness or the vast,

Etheric space outside of our atmosphere.

So continue to just feel your breath and let it move in and out.

And now let your mind and your imagination travel outside of the atmosphere and into the huge expanse and unknown of the universe.

And you can call up all the Carl Sagan that you've ever watched and kind of imagine yourself as a little satellite that's traveling out and into and see planets and stars.

And there is infinite space and we don't know where it ends and we don't know where it began.

And there's plenty of reasons to believe that there are other dimensions that we can't perceive.

There's absolutely nothing that would tell us that there isn't life in other places in the universe or the galaxy.

So as you imagine yourself in this unknown space,

Let the unknown seep in.

Wow,

There could be anything.

And we don't know why and we don't know where and we don't know when.

And as you let that settle into your body,

Notice if the inner body or your inner sense of being becomes a little bit more spacious.

If you just let your mind open in the unknown,

That there are actually no answers.

We really don't know.

And then let your awareness travel back down,

Your little spaceship,

Back down through the layer of atmosphere and back onto the planet and now in your imagination just kind of cruise around the planet and see all the different terrain,

All the different topography.

There are mountains and there are oceans and there are valleys and there are vast deserts and there are rainforests.

And of course there's human development and sprawling cities and little towns.

There are mines.

There are places where the earth has been dug into and opened and extracted from.

And imagine the earth in as much detail as you can,

But kind of generally as well.

And then imagine the weather.

So the wind and the ocean currents act together.

The warmth of the currents as they move influences the wind patterns.

And if you could just imagine that kind of gazing over the earth for this moment,

Seeing the way that the currents flow in the ocean and then seeing the way that the clouds form above the ocean,

Condensation rises and groups together.

And then there's movement in the air and wind travels.

And with the wind,

All of the life forms respond and so you can see leaves rustling and maybe tree limbs breaking if there is a big gust.

You might see people's hair flying around.

It depends on what kind of wind you're imagining,

But there's all kinds of wind.

And see the way that the wind moves the clouds and the clouds bring shade and they bring rain and then they reveal the sun.

And see the way that the water and the earth respond to each other.

So the rains come and the earth is saturated with water and the rains leave and water evaporates from the earth and it gets dry.

And imagine all of that and the ways that you might imagine it in a beautiful garden going through the seasons.

You might have experienced recently with floods or fires,

There's been a lot.

And so those images might be fresh in your memory and those are examples as well of what happens with water and earth and dryness.

And in the dryness when there is heat,

Then often there is also electricity.

And through electricity or potentially through human error there is fire,

There is sparks.

And so you might now just imagine the element of fire.

Fire burning through a forest,

The hot sun baking on rocks in the desert,

Humans pushing leaves and dead branches together and creating a bonfire.

See the way that the fire produces smoke,

Ash,

Carbon and that that moves into the air and down into the soil,

Gets carried on the wind.

And then from your bird's eye view imagine all the animals.

So humans are animals too.

And then all the land animals and all the sea animals and all the sky animals.

And kind of in a like time lapse imagination or you know a little bit of a fast forward can you see in your mind's eye the birth and the development of animals and then their death.

And the way that our bodies are responding always and influencing always the elements.

That we move earth around,

We move water around,

We put things in the air,

We put things in the water and the earth.

Fire and heat influence us and we do a lot of different things to manage it.

Some animals make caves that they crawl into,

Others live or are awake at night.

Some of them just go out and soak it all up.

And imagine how bodies respond and you can feel this in your own body or you can imagine all kinds of different animal bodies responding to heat and fire and wet and dry and heavy earth and wind.

And then again just feel your breath and this exchange,

The inhale and the exhale.

And as you breathe there's a kind of an alchemy that happens.

You breathe in air and it comes into your body and it moves into your blood and then the oxygen gets carried to all of your cells and there is a kind of a heat that happens at the center of your cells and the nucleus where they take that oxygen and transform it into energy.

And that energy is your vibrancy,

It's your alertness,

It's your awakeness,

It's your strength.

And of course you have this dense body,

This material body,

Your flesh suit that you're wearing and it's made of earth substances of different foods and nourishment.

There's a heaviness in your bones and a heaviness in your muscles and fluids move through you,

All kinds of different fluids.

There's blood and there's an amazing kind of,

It's a rarefied blood that's called cerebral spinal fluid that's a clear liquid that travels through the center of your spine.

There are your tears,

The exocrine glands,

The fluids that leave your body and the endocrine,

The fluids that stay in.

There's this kind of undifferentiated interstitial,

Like a ground fluid that's in your body.

And of course your inhales and this breath and the idea that there's a lot of space in every single molecule,

That something like 99% of the material world is actually empty space and so you might feel that as well,

This dark matter or emptiness.

We live in a constant state of change and that's the nature of our lives here on earth and it's the truth of our bodies and it's the truth of our environment.

And everything is always looking for balance.

So there's floods and then there's fires and they're responding to one another,

They're opposing forces,

But there's always a looking for balance.

There is equal action and reaction,

Cause and effect.

And it's easy sometimes to get out of balance when things feel extreme and to forget that there's actually a really amazing,

Pretty incredible balance all of the time that has allowed the things that we take for granted really to exist for as long as they have,

Like continents or a mountain.

But continents and mountains will also change and we know this from studying the history of the earth that the earth's crest has changed many times.

That where there's high desert mountains now used to be under the ocean.

You can imagine that,

Those of you that live in Denver,

Colorado.

And our bodies are these little microcosms of our environment and they're always changing and they change rapidly.

If you remember being young or if you have the blessing to be around young people,

You see how fast they grow.

How quickly they learn,

How quickly their bodies change.

And when we're older,

We realize this too.

Gosh,

It was just yesterday that I was able to do that and now I can't anymore.

Or gosh,

It was just yesterday that I couldn't do that and now I can.

We become stronger and we become weaker in different ways and that will happen throughout the life.

Even as our bodies become weaker,

We might find that we become stronger spiritually or that our capacity to understand becomes fortified.

So often when there's change,

Our first response is fear.

And this makes sense because we have an instinct to survive.

And when things change,

That immediately threatens the idea of permanence,

The idea of survival.

So it's kind of just that simple that things will change,

That everyone you have ever loved and cared for,

They'll get old and they'll get ill and injured and someday they'll die and so will you.

And relationships will change.

You'll find love and comfort and companionship and priorities will shift and the nature of the love will evolve.

The capacity for companionship will change.

It might become deeper and stronger in moments,

It might become less.

Bonds between people will come and go.

The houses that you live in will someday deteriorate.

The home that you invest in at some point will become meaningless.

Everything that you own,

You will at some point have to let go.

So when change arises and the natural instinct is fear and grasping,

It's normal.

It's a function of our biology and it serves a purpose.

It serves a purpose because we need to build things.

And if we were constantly in a state of just letting go all the time,

We wouldn't stay alive for long.

But there's this question or a little bit of a puzzle as to how to live fully present in the life and know that the life is always changing and the environment is always changing.

And at the same time,

How do we invest?

How do we give what we have?

How do we root and be grounded,

Build?

It's like making a sand castle.

The enjoyment is in making the details,

Making it really wonderful,

Building it up,

Showing your friends and then jumping on it and letting the waves come in and wash it away.

Come back to your breath and feel the roll in of your inhale and roll out of your exhale and allow yourself to imagine that everything around you in a constant state of change is also holding you,

That you are part of it and it is part of you and that there is a consistent togetherness.

That even though forms change and people change and elements change,

Even though there's death,

Even though there's unknown,

That all of this stuff that's moving around is doing it together,

That we're forming and reforming in unison.

And as you inhale,

You can feel the movement of your breath spread out into your whole body.

And as you exhale,

You can feel your entire body release.

And in the very center of your heart,

Can you imagine the quality of trust,

Whatever that might be for you and so it might be a sensation,

It might be pure light.

There is no way to know where you're going or where you'll end up.

All the plans that you make will change.

Any of the plans you make,

You'll be able to follow through,

But even in the course of following through with them,

They will change.

And in the big picture,

There is zero control that any of us have as to how things will change or what will happen.

And we could spend our lives feeling pretty stressed out and worried about what could might happen,

Trying to control the outcome.

Or we could breathe into this space of trust and breathe out and exude trust and consider that there might even be the possibility of this being a playful experience.

You don't know what's coming,

That you can meet it in the moment.

And just like a good improv game,

You have a choice of whatever is presenting to you,

You can say no,

Or you can argue,

You can say,

But this or but that,

And the flow will stop.

Or you can say,

Yes,

Yeah,

I'll try that.

And you can say,

And I'll try that.

And could we try this too?

That there's agency that we have,

Even though there's unknown and there's constant change.

There's still the creative spark that we each can bring,

The desire for exploration and the capacity for play.

And what choice we make will depend on what's inside of our hearts.

So if fear and doubt are inside of our hearts,

We'll probably say no and we'll argue.

We'll shrink away.

And most of us know where that experience leads.

It leads to resistance,

It leads to suffering,

It leads to feeling small,

Feeling kind of powerless.

And it can definitely be a challenge to see the opportunity and to say yes and to see the ways that we can contribute,

To have a good time with whatever it is.

But when we can make those choices,

Typically they feel a lot better.

There is some excitement,

A sense of adventure,

And an inner expansion.

So knowing that we'll all continue to make both choices again and again and again,

That there will be places we're going to resist and other places we're going to just jump off into the unknown.

Feel in your body that there is constant change.

And within that constant change and temporariness of any state of balance,

There are choices that you can make to go with the flow or to try and stop it.

And you might consider that the flow can just move right through you.

And all you need to do is steer yourself a little bit.

Navigate with it.

And that there is no reason to be afraid.

Thanks so much for listening to this guided meditation on confronting fear of the unknown.

This is a pretty crazy time on earth and a lot of us are dealing with a lot of fear and a lot of change and a lot of pain.

I appreciate how challenging it is to do these meditations and to integrate them.

And I appreciate how effective it can be to keep coming back and coming back and coming back.

The options that I've found seem to be that this is really the only thing that makes that much sense.

Allowing change to come in,

Looking for some kind of sense of trust and some kind of sense of peace.

That when there's a lot of focus on fear or worry and anxiety about the unknown,

Anxiety about all the potentially awful things that could happen,

It leads to a state of paralysis and depression.

So in as many ways as we can,

I hope that we can practice choosing the states of being that will allow us happiness and well-being.

And that that happiness and well-being is something that we choose to spread into our communities.

That if we have the privilege to sit and meditate and imagine how we can move forward with positivity and change,

That it's also something that we can do to try and create circumstances in our lives and in our world so that change is positive for as many people as possible.

So that the places where we see choices getting added up to potentially a lot of pain for the earth or for other people are places where we can also take some action,

Even if that's just reaching out,

Telling a joke,

Inviting someone in.

Thanks for practicing.

Please share this meditation if it's been helpful for you.

Until the next time,

Wish you a lot of love and all the best.