Resilience Meditation 04

Transcript

Resilience is knowing that you are always capable of recovery. That emotions will always change and pass. And that’s a hard day or week or even a hard year does not mean that life will always be hard. You have the capacity to move through this time with steadiness because that steadiness comes from deep within you. A place inside of you that is undisturbed by outside events. A deep center of yourself that knows only calm, and peace. settle into your comfortable meditation posture for today’s practice. Remember that the posture you choose today does not have to be the same as the posture you chose yesterday. You are adaptable. and adaptability makes you resilient. Take a deep breath in through the nose, and then say it out through the mouth. Allow the breath to return to a natural rhythm. Notice how the chest and the abdomen rise and fall gently with each breath in and each breath out.

Many of us have a tendency to attach ourselves to our worries and fears. And each time we go through a difficult time in our lives, we add new worries and fears. We tie them to us with strong thread. When we grieve a loss, we add a fear of more loss in the future. When we are left alone, we add a worry that we will be abandoned again in the future. When someone we care about is hurt. We add the fear that others we care about will be hurt in the future. When we’re lonely, we add the worry that we’ll always be lonely, and so on. What worries and fears have you attached to yourself. Take a few moments to bring your most frequent worries, or the ones that are bothering you most at the moment to mind.

And as you do so, imagine that each worry or fear is tied to the end of a piece of string. The other end of the string is tied to you to your body. picture it as if it were real. Notice where on your body each worry string is tied. Perhaps as you imagine each thread you feel it pull on your physical body. The pool might be subtle and gentle or it might be strong.

You may have many strings tied to you or just a few. Allow them to be there. feel the pull of them. Allow yourself to accept them. They are a part of your state of being in this moment.

And that’s okay. Then imagine that you have a pair of silver scissors. As you continue to sit here, you imagine that you take the scissors and choose one of the worry strings and cut it. So the worry or fear or thought on the other end of it drifts away from you. No longer attached. You choose another string and do the same as simple cut, and the thought is free to drift away.

It hasn’t disappeared. It still exists. It may remain for a while at least, very close to you still. But it is not attached to you. The deepest worries or the scariest fears you might tie them back on in the coming weeks, months or years. But you can return to this practice to cut them free again as many times as you need to. And gradually the string will weaken until it’s not strong enough for you to tie those thoughts back on to yourself.

Keep going with this act of choosing and cutting threads until you have got all of them. Your body feels lighter. It’s no longer being pulled by the threads of those thoughts. You are free in this moment. You still care. You still feel deeply but you are giving yourself a break. a break from worrying and from feeling fearful and a break from tension. You are remembering what it is to be free. Bring the awareness to the breath. Now. Note notice the rhythm of the inhales and exhales your awareness brings you back to the space you’re in to the world you’re living in and take a deep breath in through the nose and say it out through the mouth. When you feel ready, gently open the eyes. Give yourself a few moments to adjust to the light and to the lightness of your body. Your practice is complete.

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