Sitting With Fear Meditation
00:00:14 Welcome, welcome. Thank you so much for making this space and time to gift yourself this practice of sitting with, of being, with, of learning from your emotional experience. Today's an opportunity to sit with fear. As uncomfortable as fear may be, today is an invitation to build our capacity, our internal resource, to sit with fear and other strong emotions so that they may, uh, teach us, right? And be with us in right relation. The alternative many of us may experience is being led by or consumed by fear. And I've found in my practice that the more I make space to bear witness to, to sit with in a compassionate, nonjudgmental way, the less that strong emotion or that discomfort consumes me. So if it feels accessible to you, I wanna invite you to find some comfort in your seat and acknowledge the incredible will, determination, initiative that it took for you to be here in this moment. That it's taking for you to engage in this practice. If it feels comfortable for you, when you're ready, I invite you to close your eyes.
00:02:20 If closing your eyes does not feel safe or accessible, that is okay. You can soften your gaze or look around the room. There's something powerful about allowing the muscles in your eyes to rest. They're working on behalf of your protection and your safety constantly. If closing your eyes or lowering your gaze feels difficult, I invite you to make efforts to connect with your nervous system and say in your mind's eye to yourself. I am here. I am with you. I am safe in this immediate moment. I am here as my witness. I will not abandon myself.
00:03:44 Taking one slow, full, deep breath in, you can suspend your breath at the top of your head and allow a longer, slower exhale out your mouth. Two more times at your own pace. Inviting softness, release, presence to enter into your being, your physical state, your heart. Noticing where you are, yes, physically, but also emotionally. Noticing what you are holding in this moment, noticing the shape you are taking as you carry what you are holding. This practice is an opportunity to connect with our fear and maybe be in new relationship with it. In this practice, in this moment, we are not pushing fear away. We are not minimizing it or discounting it.
00:05:34 We are not judging our experience of it. We're also not diving into it. With whatever presence you can, we are simply noticing fear as a visitor and our body and our being. Maybe we're noticing it in the way that we would notice a boat or a raft gently floating down a stream as we're sitting on the bank, just noticing. And with the spaciousness, as we're noticing, the invitation is to bring our consciousness from the top of our head, slowly down through our body, inviting a scan. Where is fear visiting? Where is it dwelling? Where is it sitting? Where is it resting in our physical body?
00:07:00 Maybe it's your neck, or chest, or stomach, or hips. Where does fear live in your body today? Again, without shame or judgment, can we invite curiosity into the sensations, the texture, the state of fear as a visitor in our body? Is it bringing with it tightness or hotness, heaviness? With it, does it come a buzzing sensation? We numb. You don't have to change it. In this moment, we're simply bringing our awareness to it. We're sitting with it as a compassionate witness. Can you name quietly to yourself, “fear is feeling like…” Complete the sentence. “Fear is visiting in my…” Complete the sentence. If you can, in real life, place one hand in that area. If that's not accessible to you, you can imagine placing a hand on that area in your mind's eye. Let your breath move towards that space. Inviting softness, release spaciousness. Inhale and exhale. Spaciousness, softness, release. In this effort, you are not trying to change it. You are not trying to make it go away. You're actually creating just a little more room in your body for it to be. And in the softening around it, maybe fear itself begins to soften.
00:10:09 Can you now gently widen your awareness to your feet? Noticing the way your feet feel on the ground, noticing the layers of earth and rich soil, depth, earth beneath your feet. As you're continuing to breathe, as you're continuing to create softness around this part of your body where fear is visiting, can you also deepen your presence into the earth beneath you, acknowledging the ways in which you're always held, absorbed, gifted, resourced by the earth.
00:11:08 Take a few more deep, full breaths in and out. Acknowledging that fear may be here. Fear has something to teach me. Fear is my protector. There is wisdom in my fear, and as fear is here, so is my breath. So is the ground and the earth beneath me, so is the wisdom of my ancestors. Staying here with your breath, your resource, as long as you need to. Taking a few more deep, full breaths in. If you feel ready to bring this practice to a close, raise your gaze or open your eyes, looking around the room for signs of life, connection, belonging, safety. Thank you for making space for this practice. I invite you to please move slowly to the next thing that you do. Drink water. Thank you.