EMBODIED PRESENCE
IN THIS LESSON
It is not just us and what we experience. It is us, what we experience, and how we relate to that experience. This week, we deepen the exploration of the Healing Formula (presence + warmth x generosity) and focus on relating to our experience with warmth. In this module, we use the breath as the vehicle of warmth; sending breath to the contracted regions of the body. This lays the foundation for future work within our emotional worlds.
Week 3 Meditation:
JOURNAL PROMPT: WEEK 3
The intention of this exercise is to make the idea of emotional warmth more of a felt reality. This way, you have an analog, a reference point to look to when it comes to relating to your experiences in a manner that will begin to introduce healing in your life. The more time you spend with this, the better the chance you will be able to open up to the feeling of caring to the tense areas of the body, your emotions, and thoughts in your practice.
Close your eyes and think of a time when you felt genuine warmth, caring, compassion or love for another person. It could have been a moment of admiration. It could have been a moment when someone was hurt or going through a rough time and your heart melted for them. It could have been in childhood or in adulthood. It could have been a moment in which you felt cared for by someone and so a reciprocal warm feeling towards them arose. Or something else. Take at least a minute or two to contact such a memory before moving on.
What does the experience of emotional warmth/caring/etc. feel like?
What is it like in your body?
What shifts in the way you feel when warmth flows out of you towards another? What are the sensations involved? What happens to the quality of your awareness?
Take some time to really sit with this and explore. Then write down as much as you can notice about the experience.
If you get stuck in looking for adjectives to describe the experience, here are some suggestions I find helpful. Does it feel: softer or harder? heavier or lighter? smoother or rougher? more warm? or more cool? pulsing or constant? tingling? electric? dense? numb? lighter or darker? Is there a color? An image?