Guided Meditation: Absorption through the body (mindfulness)

When I teach people to meditate on the body, it's a wild ride!

States of expansiveness. Waves of energy. Bliss. The boundaries between inside and outside merge. Feelings of love, joy and contentment spontaneously arising.

Sometimes, even the sense of self can diminish.

And when these experiences appear, meditation feels rewarding. We like these experiences! But there's another side to this.

Working with the body can bring up challenges. Physical discomfort, emotional pain, anxiety, frustration.

Sometimes meditation has a purifying effect on the nervous system and the psyche and we taste the flavour of past pain as it's being processed and released.

These experiences don't feel enjoyable or rewarding, but a huge amount of the long-term benefit of meditation comes from learning to allow this process to happen without suppressing or freaking out.

Here's why . . .

As you develop your ability to feel unpleasant physical sensations and emotions without automatically reacting to them, you're developing something called equanimity.

Equanimity is the ability to remain open and balanced when inner turmoil is present. Developing equanimity means you wont be pushed and pulled around by every sensation, emotion or thought that appears.

Think about how much of our lives is spent trying to get away from certain experiences, whilst desperately craving others.

We don't want to feel anxious, so we avoid situations. We don't want to feel uncomfortable, so we distract ourselves. We experience something pleasurable and immediately want more of it.

But as your equanimity deepens, that changes.

You become less controlled by inner forces. You experience difficult emotions without being overwhelmed by them, and enjoy pleasure without clinging on to it.

Instagram: @that_meditation_guy

Website: https://www.delvedeep.com