Tara Brach - Meditation: A Kind and Allowing Presence (2021-03-17)

Episode Date: March 18, 2021

Meditation: A Kind and Allowing Presence (2021-03-17) - When we're stressed our hearts tighten and we try to control our life. This meditation guides us to relax the controlling and discover the open, tender awareness that allows life to be as it is.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. We're going to begin our practice. Just find your way of sitting or if you have another posture you're in, that's quite fine. Any posture really that allows you to feel safe and present. As we know, when we're stressed, our hearts get tight and our body gets tight and we try to control

our life. And this meditation guides us to relax the controlling, to discover an open, tender awareness allows life to be just as it is. And the title is A Kind and Allowing Presence. So feel your posture. Feel how you're sitting or whatever the posture is. and feel from the inside out the sensations of it. For some people, the image of a tree is really helpful

to feel a sense of groundedness, gravity, the weight on this earth, and really rooting into the earth, part of the earth. Feel that stability, that support, and also to sense that rising up, sitting tall, feeling the space around you. the spaciousness that's here that can hold what arises. So with a sense of ease and alertness, you might begin becoming aware of your breath.

We'll breathe together a bit extending the in-breath now, inhaling deeply, filling the chest in the lungs. And then a slow out-breath, counting to five, releasing the breath slowly, letting go, letting go. And again, an in-breath, counting to five, filling the chest and the lungs. Slow out-breath, as you release the breath,

sense of letting go, a relaxing outward. And again, inhaling deeply. And then that slow-out breath, feel a sense of softening down the length of your body, letting go, letting go. and noticing as you resume your natural rhythm of breathing. You can just observe the breath and feel the breath with more presence. Still feeling the movement of the breath, you might begin scanning the body a bit,

let the eyes be soft and feel the area of the brow, let the brow be smooth. For some it can be helpful just to feel the breath coming in and out of the different parts of the body, releasing any tension with the out breath, slight smile at the mouth, relaxing all the little micro muscles through the face, letting the shoulders fall away from the neck, and perhaps letting that breath come in and out of the shoulders as you breathe in, sensing the areas of tension or tightness that might be there. With the out breath, letting go softening, taking your time, with the shoulders. There's often a lot of accumulated and habitual tightness there, letting the hands rest in a very easy and effortless way and softening the hands. So you can feel from the inside out,

the tingling, the vibrating there, perhaps feeling the breath, the movement of the breath at the hands with the in-breath, a kind of opening and loosening, even in a cellular way. and with the out breath, this is letting go, settling, bringing the awareness to the chest, feeling that breath at the heart, breathing in and receiving, being touched in the area of the heart. Breathing out and letting go of anything that's ready to let go of. Tightness, tension, holdings,

feeling from the inside out, perhaps the upper back, noticing if there's any tension there, feeling the movement of the breath, as a way of deepening presence, letting go of tightness, scanning down through the belly, letting this next breath be received in a softening belly, this one, and now this one, and again, breathing into the mid-back, letting the breath come to any areas of tightness or tension, and with the out-breath, letting go in the pelvic region. Again, feeling that movement of the breath deep in the torso,

releasing any tension in the lower back with the out breath. Aware of the length and volume and weight of your legs. Feeling the feet, the contact with the floor, tingling in the feet, and opening the aperture of awareness to feel the whole body, this energy, this constellation of sensation. breathing, opening with the in-breath, releasing with the out-breath, through the whole body,

and widening the attention further to be aware of the sounds that are here, listening, sensing the space the sounds are happening in, that you're listening to and feeling the whole changing flow of moments, of sounds, sensations, breath, sense the possibility of relaxing with whatever arises. And if it helps to breathe with and relax with whatever arises, letting everything be just as it is when you find the mind as drifted as it quite naturally does. And deepen your pathway of homecoming by relaxing home, noticing what's here, sound, sensation, feelings, breathing with and relaxing with the changing flow.

Noticing what happens when you don't try to change anything. Just letting the life that's here be as it is and you might notice what happens when with that there's a tenderness, a care, loving the life that's right here. This poem is called The Cure for It All by Julia Ferrenbacher. Go gently today. Don't hurry or think about the next thing. Walk with the quiet trees. Can you believe how brave they are, how kind. model your life after theirs blow kisses at yourself in the mirror especially when you think you've messed up forgive yourself for not meeting your unreasonable expectations praise fresh air clean water good dogs spin something from joy open a window even if it's cold outside sit close your breathe allow

allow the river of it all to pulse through eyelashes, fingertips, bare toes breathe in breathe out breathe until you feel your bigness until the sun rises in your veins

breathe until you stop needing anything to be different. As you're ready, if your eyes are closed, gently opening your eyes. And please feel free to bring the presence that's here into whatever's next. Listen to your body, if it helps to move around, please do so.