Sit,Walk,Work (SW^2)
Meeting Discomfort with Kindness: A Compassion Meditation
Welcome to the Sit Walk Work podcast, a show about paying attention. My name is Dominic and I'm your host and today is a guided meditation. And what you can expect is that the practice will open up with a brief recap, followed by the actual practice itself. If you find today's episode valuable, please share with your friends and family, and feel free to leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. The show will begin after the following times. Folks today was for us to touch a bit on how to meet some of the challenges that come up in our day to day life with a little bit of compassion. And so we started off anchoring with the breath. And we moved from anchoring into the breath into the anchoring in the body. And I moved you into just observing the idea of inviting in and sensing and feeling. Some of the minor discomfort you might have felt recently. And in doing that, I wanted to create the condition to allow you to offer yourself a bit of compassion. Often when those discomforts come up, we're very harsh with ourselves. We're very challenging with ourselves. And so we don't have many spaces in our daily life where we tend to offer up a bit of softness to ourselves. So we created that condition. And then we moved from that into just the awareness where the what I like to call the container that holds your whole practice, the steadiness to all of this changing, these changing elements of our practice. And then we touched on a bit of sound and to close out the practice, I just asked you to focus on maybe a part of the practice you found more comfortable than another. And that kind of took us full circle. Go ahead and begin the practice formally. The first thing you need to kind of notice as you start off practice today, is notice how you're sitting or your hands are resting. And you take a good breath in and really feel your breath move in your body. Even if you're lying down, you still want to be able to breathe. Well, breathing is an important part of our practice as breath is one of the doorways to kind of opening up these deeper parts of ourselves. So you need to be able to take a nice full breath. Then let your hands rest somewhere comfortably, either by your side, if you're lying down in your lap, if you're sitting up, but you want your hands to be still. The mind is going to be moving enough for you in practice. So to minimize your actual body movements helps to deepen your practice. And of course, if you need to adjust posture at any time, that's always welcomed. But don't always give into that initial desire to move. Because sometimes the desire to move is in and of itself can be a pointer, a anchor in your practice. And then if you haven't done so already, I invite you to close the eyes. If it feels safe and comfortable, close the eyes, you still will keep the vast open space of your, your visual field. And if it doesn't feel safe for concrete. And just take your vision slightly out in front of you and hold it as steady as you can. Arriving. That's a, it's an important part of the practice. Everything here, the work it takes to get yourself to even try to relax for a little bit is an effort sometimes. And you've already passed that gate because you're here. Now, regardless of what has happened prior to this moment, you made it to practice. Now, even though I said that by the nature of practice, you will still bring whatever happened prior to this moment with you. Only now it becomes an opportunity versus maybe a hindrance, an opportunity for you to observe the nature of all things and the stuff that happens in our experiences. Meditation is about you learning to work with instead of against the reality of things. And so I'd like for you to bring your attention to your breathing pattern, letting your attention notice a couple things about the breath. Notice where the breath is showing up in your body. Notice how you're breathing, the pace of your breath. And see if you can really feel where the breath starts and where it ends with each revolution. Thank you. a lot. Thank you. a lot. Thank you. a lot. Thank you. a lot. Thank you. a lot. Thank you. a lot. Thank you. and thank you very much for joining us today. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. Bye. Bye. Bye. We'll see you next week. that will occur throughout your practice today are meant to be the space in which you work with the practice itself. By focusing your attention on your breath, you also realize that there's more present in your breath in this moment. You might be pulled by thoughts. You might feel your body sensations or agitation or extra energy that wants to kind of move within your body. You might have a certain feeling or emotion that's weighing heavy on your mind or heart. The first thing you can begin to consider is that those things are okay to be present. We're not trying to wipe the slate clean. We're trying to notice when you're not focusing on your breath, when your attention has wandered away to any of those objects that are arising. We're going to see how we can start over with a bit of compassion and a bit of gentleness. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] Noticing where when you're observing the breath, you're fighting to be perfect to keep the breath focused or keep the attention focused on the breath. See if you can soften that a bit. Soften that need to get it right. Walk your attention back if it gets distracted. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] I'm going to notice any feelings of groundedness and support that are present. That might be something that begins to slowly bubble up as you settle into the breath. You can also physically feel how you're supported right now. The weight of your body as you lie back. [BLANK_AUDIO] The firmness of your feet or your sits bones on your mat are on the floor. [BLANK_AUDIO] If you're seated. [BLANK_AUDIO] The way your arms and hands are held and supported. [BLANK_AUDIO] But even with all of the changing currents of your experience, there's a steadiness that persists. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] Notice the parts of your practice where you're either trying to avoid or push something away, or grab or hold on to a certain feeling, a thought, a sensation, a moment. [BLANK_AUDIO] And if you see or witness yourself doing that, like your exhale breath, let that go. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] I'm practicing being the witness to your experience rather than being enmeshed in it. You can begin to realize that it's the holding on to impermanent things and expecting them to be there forever. It creates the discomfort, the suffering. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] And rather than grab or cling to them. [BLANK_AUDIO] You meet those moments of discomfort with a bit of compassion and empathy. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] And it might be helpful to even allow a thought of something that occurred today or this week or in recent memory. It maybe didn't go exactly how you wanted it to go or left you feeling a bit kind of unsettled. If you let that thought in, allow yourself to feel a bit of that discomfort in the body somatically. [BLANK_AUDIO] Trying to take a bit of an objective stance on that part of your experience. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] And as you observe the thought and sensations that accompany it. Let your attention focus more on how the body feels when you let in this kind of uncomfortable thought. And then can you bring a little compassion in, a little softness, a little gentleness. In the way that you would for something or someone you deeply care about. Can you offer a bit of encouragement or support to yourselves. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] Letting yourself feel what that bit of compassion is like. What it feels like to give yourself a bit of humanity and a bit of grace. That even when you're not perfect things are okay. Just like the breath moves and changes so do the thoughts and so do the sensations that you feel. And the things that stay are the things we grab onto and we hold. And maybe we don't need to anymore. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] As you've been witnessing your experience with the breath and the sensations of the body and movement of thoughts. That same steadiness that is persisted has held the space for your experience to unfold. Notice the compassion that that holds. As you witness these things happening that there is space within your awareness for all of it. [BLANK_AUDIO] That it naturally allows these things to come and go. Doesn't hold one to higher value than the other. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] That there's love and joy and gratitude present maybe for your next breath. [BLANK_AUDIO] Or the ability to feel what it's like to offer yourself a bit of kindness and gentleness. [BLANK_AUDIO] And the fact that you slow down to even be here and return to this practice or to try it for the first time. [BLANK_AUDIO] Feel the space that's here. Feel your breath move in the space, the sensations move in this space. There's an openness to it. Space that's in front of you and behind you above you, below you, beside you. [BLANK_AUDIO] The closer you observe your experience, the more the lines blur. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] As a matter of anchoring you back into your body and maybe into this moment. Notice the sounds that are happening around you. Hear the ambient noise that is present. It's been there for the whole practice, but maybe just wasn't top of mind until this moment. Treating a very similar to your breath, there isn't anything you need to do to hear sound. It just arrives. But you can notice qualities of that sound. It's distance, it's pacing, it's rhythm. The way you feel when you hear it in this moment. And the way it too moves through you, that even if you wanted to grab it and hold it, it would dissipate. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] Any of the objects we observed today are all anchors, doorways, opportunity. Building your mindfulness and your presence. So choose one and close out your practice with it today. Letting your attention softly rest there. Follow it until you're distracted and then return back to it. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] All for yourself a bit of gratitude for making the time showing up and sitting down and practicing today. When you're ready, you can blink the eyes open and bring your practice to a close. Thank you for listening to today's episode. I invite you to check out my sub stack where we are building a community of like-minded individuals to discuss all topics related to the idea of paying attention. I hope to see you there, but until then, with meta may you be well. [BLANK_AUDIO]