A Somatic Tracking For When You Are Really Hurting

Hi,

I am so glad that you're here with me today to practice this somatic tracking for when you are really hurting.

So when you're ready,

Allow yourself to find the most comfortable position you can find right now.

And allow your body to settle in to wherever you are,

Bit by bit.

Allow your body just to relax in to where you are.

And if it feels good to you,

You can close your eyes.

Or just allow your eyes to rest.

And as deep as feels good,

Take a nice deep breath in.

It's OK if it's not to the bottom of your lungs.

Just whatever feels good.

With a longer,

Slower exhale through your mouth.

And then just allow your breathing to come back to its own rhythm.

Whatever is natural for you in this moment.

No need to judge.

Whatever it is,

Is just exactly what it should be right now.

So allow yourself to settle in even more to whatever you're sitting or lying on.

In this moment.

If you're here,

I know you're probably not all that comfortable.

If you're here,

I bet you're hurting in some way or another.

I feel you.

It is not easy.

Whether you are struggling in your body,

Your mind,

Your heart,

Struggling with what's happening in the world,

All of the above,

Each of those things can impact the other and bring a heaviness sometimes.

It's hard to be human sometimes.

And just allow yourself that grace.

Just know that that is true for all of us.

And you are not alone.

So I invite you now to place a hand on your heart,

Hand on your chest,

Both hands even,

If that feels nice.

If you'd prefer,

You can place your hand elsewhere,

Like on your own thigh,

Or sort of hugging yourself,

Or even just holding your own hand.

But give yourself a little bit of touch from yourself.

This is a gesture of self-compassion.

It embodies self-compassion.

And it gives you a nice dose of oxytocin.

When you do this,

It gives you that little boost of the oxytocin.

Which is the love hormone and the nurturing,

That feeling you get when someone you love hugs you.

And luckily,

You can do this for yourself as well.

So I just invite you to just feel that hand on your body.

Notice the weight of your hand there.

The pressure.

The temperature.

Maybe it's warmer.

Maybe it's cooler.

Doesn't matter.

And whatever the texture is beneath your hand,

Whether it's your skin or clothing,

Rough or soft,

Just noticing that.

And see if you can just feel that you are bringing some compassion to yourself in this hard time.

And as you sit here with me,

Please know that you are not alone.

In this very moment,

There are so many humans who are going through the same thing.

The details may look a little bit different.

But oof,

The experience of it can feel just the same.

And all these humans have this in common with you.

You're not alone.

You're not crazy.

You're not weak.

You're not undisciplined.

And any of those things you might be telling yourself,

You might be saying you're broken.

None of that is true.

You know what it actually is?

You're human.

You're just human.

So just allowing yourself to feel your hand on your body as you breathe.

There's nothing else you need to do right now.

So I invite you now to do an internal scan,

To go inside your body,

To bring your attention there,

And just to scan a little bit and see how you're feeling right now,

Physically,

Emotionally,

Spiritually,

In any other way.

What is your internal experience right now?

Allow yourself to really just see it just as it is.

And however you are showing up to this practice today,

It's OK.

It really is.

I know it doesn't feel like it sometimes.

But it is.

We meet ourselves here honestly,

Exactly as we are.

And we practice accepting ourselves here exactly as we are,

Right now.

Now.

Not our aspirational selves,

Not ourselves that believe that we have to earn our belonging,

Not the self that thinks that we have to just do,

Do,

Do to earn acceptance and love.

We meet ourselves here with all the love and all the acceptance of who we are,

Where we are,

How we are,

Right now.

Whatever it is,

It's OK.

So allow your mind,

Your attention to go now to whatever is calling you.

Your attention.

Anything inside of you that feels distressed and is asking for you to pay it some attention,

Some loving,

Caring attention.

Allow your mind to go there now,

Wherever it is.

Could be physical sensations.

Could be emotions.

Could be memories or stories even you're telling yourself.

Could be some,

All of the above,

Some combination.

But my guess is you feel it somewhere inside you.

Maybe some place in your body even,

Specifically.

Allow your mind to go there.

And see if you can just be there with this part that's so distressed.

Just be there,

Bringing your consistent presence,

Your reliable presence in this practice over time.

You're showing yourself,

Hey,

I got you,

I'm here.

I'm not leaving you no matter what happens.

So bring that kind of energy,

That kind of presence now as you sit with this distressed part of you.

Sensations,

Emotions,

Whatever it is,

Thoughts,

Doesn't matter.

Just being with it,

Knowing it's feeling some distress right now and it needs your care.

And that's what you're here to do today.

So going to that place again and just being with it,

Noticing what's happening with it,

Noticing the particular sensations or feelings,

Whatever they are,

Just really observing with a kind of calm and loving presence.

You might even imagine if this part is very distressed,

That it is a child,

A very young child,

Maybe even an infant.

But a child that is really before language,

Pre-verbal.

If it works better for you to imagine this distressed part of yourself as a distressed animal that you love,

You can do that.

And sit with this little being and see that they are distressed,

They're scared,

They're angry,

They're upset,

They're sad,

Whatever they are.

And how would you comfort an infant?

How would you comfort an animal?

Not with words.

You might use words,

But you know it's not about the words,

Right?

This little being doesn't really understand your words,

It won't understand any kind of argument you might make that they are going to be okay,

Right?

You just know that the words aren't really what it's all about right now.

It's your presence,

It's the quality of your presence in this moment with this little being.

And how do you comfort this little being?

Without words,

Without logic.

You might use a soothing voice.

You might hum or sing or say something,

But knowing that it's really about your tone of voice,

How soothing you sound.

The pace.

Not only the pace of your voice,

But the pace that you are moving around them.

You're just slowing way down.

You know that if you're with an upset child or animal,

You want to slow down.

You want to embody this kind of calm equanimity if you can.

I know it's not easy,

But just offering this presence to this distressed little being inside you.

You might even offer that touch that we started this with where you have your hand on your heart or another part of your body.

Just imagine that you're offering that same kind of touch to this little being.

This comforting,

Soothing,

Soft,

Gentle,

Kind touch.

You might even rock a baby or if you're holding the animal,

Rock just very gently,

Very subtly.

And you can do that now if it feels good.

Sometimes it feels good to sort of hug yourself and rock a little bit,

Even if it's very small movements.

You might offer this little being your love,

Just almost like you're breathing it in from the outside,

This warm light of love,

And you're breathing out and giving this little being all of your love.

Your very presence is a way of saying to it,

You're okay.

You're okay,

Whatever happens,

I'm here.

You're okay.

Whatever's going on,

I'm here and I'm not going anywhere.

And you know what?

This little being starts to get that message,

Especially when you show up again and again.

The consistency of your presence is the message.

It's like the medium is the message,

If you've heard that.

You're showing up again and again is the message that this little being is going to hear.

It's what this little being needs to hear.

This little distressed part of you that really needs to know that you are there and you're not going anywhere.

You hear it,

You see it,

You feel for it,

You send it love,

But you are not going anywhere.

And if there are other parts of you now that are piping up and wanting your attention as well,

That's okay,

That's normal.

Whatever's happening,

Maybe that little being that you've been tending to is getting louder at times,

And that's okay too.

It's all normal.

Sometimes when some part of us realizes that it has our attention finally,

It really wants to yell and tell us all the things.

So just allow that,

If that's what's happening.

Or if other parts are kind of clamoring to get your attention now too,

You can apply the same thing,

Just giving your loving energy,

Giving your attention,

Your consistent presence,

To be there for them,

To be their witness,

But mostly just to remind them,

Hey,

You're okay,

I'm here.

No matter what happens,

No matter what is going on,

Right now or anytime,

I'm here,

We're gonna do all of it together,

It's okay.

We can do this together.

I'm not leaving you.

I'm not going anywhere.

You can count on me,

Okay?

That's the message that your presence is bringing to these parts of you that are scared or upset,

Sad,

Lonely,

Ashamed,

Angry,

Whatever it is.

It's a reminder to these parts that you're there and you're not going anywhere,

So they can relax a little bit.

And just expand your awareness to see whatever else is happening inside your body,

In your internal experience,

And go to those places that are asking for you to pay them some attention,

Whatever they are,

That's okay,

And bring the same kind of attention,

The same energy and presence.

And notice that you,

This sort of adult,

Parental,

Nurturing self,

Is bigger than these really distressed parts of you.

All these kinds of internal experiences come and go,

They pass,

They do,

They don't even stay the same if we wanted them to.

So you know that you are here,

This sort of bigger adult,

Wise self,

And all these other little distressed parts,

They change and shift and come and go,

And you can just notice that,

That you are separate and you are bigger and more capable,

More powerful,

More empowered,

More able to just offer your love and your calm,

Your equanimity,

As this kind of almost parent self,

This nurturing self.

And just checking in once more with your body before we close today this practice.

Just checking in with your body and noticing what's there,

We're not trying to change it,

We're not trying to make it go away,

You're noticing it,

And you're seeing it as this little distressed being that you can offer your love to,

That you can come back to again and again to show it like,

Hey,

I'm here,

I'm not going anywhere,

You're okay,

You're building that trust with yourself,

Just as you would try to build trust in any new relationship,

Any new friendship,

You show up consistently,

Reliably,

You show up again and again with this kind of presence of compassion,

Not of judgment,

But this compassionate presence.

And over time,

All these parts of yourself will begin to trust you,

And that self-trust feels so good,

And your brain loves it,

And it helps your brain kind of settle down because it realizes,

Oh,

Good,

We've got our own back now,

I don't have to worry.

So just as you do this kind of last look around internally,

Just leave them all with a message that you're going to be back,

That you're in fact never gone,

You're just going back into your day,

That you're here for them,

And that you aren't going anywhere,

And you will get through whatever you need to get through together.

So when you're ready,

You can bring your attention back to your breath,

And if you have a hand on your heart,

Or still have a hand somewhere on your body,

Just as you breathe in,

Just feel the comfort of that self-touch,

Breathing in,

And breathing out.

And then when you're ready,

You can begin to reorient yourself to the place where you are.

You can move your body as you need to as you come back and orient yourself to the space that you're in.

And when you're ready,

You can open your eyes.

Thank you for practicing today.

Thank you for showing up for yourself.

And I invite you to repeat the practice to remind all those parts of yourself that you aren't going anywhere.

Thanks again,

And I will see you next time.