Finding a comfortable position to sit in,
And when you're ready,
Closing down your eyes or softening your gaze in front of you,
Taking a deep breath in through the nose and releasing with an audible sigh,
Allowing yourself to come into this present moment,
Letting go of everything that came before,
Noticing if there's any tension in your body,
Breathing into those places with intention now,
Making any final adjustments you may need before we move more fully into this practice,
Extending your breath slightly with an inhale on a count of four,
Exhaling for a count of six,
Continuing to do so on your own count,
Giving yourself permission to come out of your cranial analytical mind,
Moving deeper into your heart space now,
Imagining that you are breathing in and out from the center of your chest.
You may see that flow of breath as a golden white light moving in and out of your heart space,
Or you may simply have a shift in sensation,
Just noticing how that may be showing up for you and leaning into that,
Keeping your eyes closed,
Bringing to mind a stressful thought or physical symptom that you're currently experiencing,
And rating it on a scale of one to ten,
With ten being the most intense,
Just noticing what number shows up for you without needing to judge it.
Our aim with this practice is to bring this number down significantly,
Taking another deep breath in through your nose,
Letting it go out through your mouth with an audible sigh,
Allowing yourself to sink even more deeply now into your seat,
Bringing two fingers or the palm of your hand to the center of your chest,
Signaling to your nervous system that you are completely safe to be here,
Asking yourself now silently or out loud,
What is the fear behind this stressful thought or physical symptom?
You may see,
Hear,
Feel,
Or know the answer.
It may be as brief as one word,
An image,
Sound,
Or even a short phrase.
Your intuition is instant and precise.
Just allow it to come through to you in whatever way it's presenting,
Asking that fear now,
What's deeper than this?
Giving yourself the time and the space here to receive that answer from your intuition.
And as the answer presents itself,
Asking it,
What's deeper than this?
As that deeper fear presents itself to you,
Turning your attention now to feelings of deep compassion for this fear,
As if it were a hurt child that is looking to you for love and attention.
Imagine yourself embracing your fear with that deep compassion now.
Recognizing this fear is coming into your conscious awareness because it's ready to be cleared.
Breathing into that compassion,
Noticing now those feelings of compassion are shifting into gratitude.
Gratitude that this fear is ready to be released.
Bring to mind a person,
A place,
Or a memory that evoke the feelings of gratitude,
Joy,
Appreciation,
Freedom.
Giving yourself over to these feelings with your whole being now,
As if you were turning up the volume on them.
Experiencing that increase in vibration,
Allowing these feelings to expand in you with as much intensity as possible.
Gently bringing your mind back to these feelings of gratitude,
Appreciation,
Joy,
And freedom.
Releasing these feelings now and placing your hand back in your lap,
Taking a deep breath in through the nose,
Filling your belly as much as you can,
And releasing it again with an audible sigh.
Audible sigh,
Letting go of everything you've released here.
Looking around for the stressful thought or physical symptom that you rated on a scale of one to ten,
And when you find it,
If you find it,
Rating it again now.
If your number is above a two,
I invite you to come back to the second half of this meditation to move through the practice one to two more times to bring that number down.
If your number is a two or less,
Taking one more deep breath in through the nose and releasing with an audible sigh,
Letting go,
Letting go,
Letting go.
Bringing some gentle movement back into your body now,
Grabbing a sip of water,
And when you're ready,
Opening your eyes.
