Sleep Now - 4.6 - Pain Soothing Meditation

Welcome. You can listen to this anytime. You wake up in the middle of the night feeling a lot of pain or just feeling uncomfortable and not sure how to get back to sleep. If you can take a slow, gentle breath and you can put your hand on your heart if that feels good, or just imagine it if moving might wake you up more, guide you to be more alert, we're just inviting you to rest and be aware and connected with your body. So again, take a slow, gentle breath in. And if you are in the mood to tap, you're welcome to tap. You move to a new point with each of the phrases, or you can just gently touch a point as you move through if you want. So I'm not going to actually say the points, but I'd like you to take another slow, deep breath and notice how when you wake up with pain, it's really easy to feel agitated and stressed. And just notice that you can regulate your breathing. That's something you have some control over. And it's okay just to slow it down a little bit, maybe 10%, 1%, if that's all you can reach for. Slowing your breath will help your primitive brain feel safer. There's a biofeedback loop where your brain notices how fast you're breathing, how fast your heart rate's going, and it says, oh, they're fast. I should be scared. When you slow it down, it gives your primitive brain a chance to say, oh, maybe I don't need to run right now. Please notice that you have pain right now, and that is actually a blessing in some ways, because there are people that have no pain and they don't live very long. Pain is a way for our body to talk to us. It's a beautiful communication tool. And it can be so frustrating when it's coming up, when there's nothing you can do or there's not anything you can change in the moment. But I'd like you to be aware of your body talking to you. Even if you don't know how to fix anything, it's communicating, it's letting you know that there are things that don't feel good to it. So if you can take another slow, gentle breath and just be aware of your body, see if you can let yourself be connected. A lot of the suffering comes when we try to resist the pain, when we try to fight it and push it away. What I'm inviting you to do is be present with it, because it will change the texture of it. It will change it from suffering to a sensation. And it doesn't mean it's always pleasant, but it changes the way you hold it in your body. Again, take a slow, gentle breath and let that breath connect you with your body. Notice that there's probably parts of your body that don't hurt. There may be. I've had migraines where even my eyelashes hurt. But there are times, most of the time, there's parts of our body, our little pinky, the tip of our nose, our chin, our, you know, whatever it is, there are probably parts of your body that don't hurt. Let yourself feel supported by the bed or wherever you're sitting. And notice that while I do have this pain and it's scaring my primitive brain and does not feel good, there are parts of me that kind of feel okay. And I can let them rest. I can appreciate them. Now I'm going to tune a little bit into the parts of you that do feel bad. I'd like you to notice that they're holding an energy for you. The pain is there because something is happening. Whether it's an out of alignment physical structure or your muscles got pulled too hard, or they're holding a lot of energy for you, your body is there for you and it's doing something beautiful. It's doing its best to help you feel good and have an abundant life. And you probably learned as a child or quite young that the way to handle energy was to stuff it down in different parts of your body. And as you learn to release that often, you can shift the energy flow. You may always have that particular place as a barometer to indicate that there's stress going on or that there's something that needs attention. But you can change how your body hold stress. So I'd like you to tune into the part of your body that hurts. And I'd like you to imagine you don't have to actually physically do this, but I'd like you to imagine that you have your two palms and you've held them together and you've, with the intention of your mind and your heart, you filled them with power and energy. Like so. It's filled with a warm, clean energy. And then just again imagining you don't have to physically do this unless it feels right to you. Put your hands on the part of you that hurts and just let that warmth flow into it. Imagine it flowing into the skin and through the skin, to the muscles and the tissues and into the bones. And imagine that there's an infinite supply, the universe. Once you draw a little bit of that to you with your intention the universe follows it just like you would if you're priming a pump with water. Once you pour a little in, you can get a whole bunch out and you're just flowing that energy in and it's warming and loosening the old stuck energy that's there. Just like you can use soft water to wash away mud, imagine that you're just letting the energy you're sending in soften and release the energy that's in that area that hurts. Send in love, appreciation and if you can, don't judge the pain or try to force it away. Just let that energy go in and soften. And if that old energy wants to flow away with the new, like kind of washing it away, that's wonderful. But don't try to force anything, just be right there with it. Sometimes when we try to force it or push it, we miss some really important messages in there. So we're just going to wash away the gently, anything that's ready to go so we can see what's underneath. And when we washed away the soft mud, energy that didn't need to be there anymore. I'd like you to tune into what's left and take another slow, deep, gentle breath and tune into that part of you. If it helps you to touch that spot, great. If not, you can imagine mentally doing it or imagine Rick and I being there and sending you love and energy if you like and just tune into that spot and say thank you. That's part of you that really deeply loves you and is willing to be in pain to get your attention, to try to make things better. It's offering itself up to you and to your well being and we just need to listen and see what we can do to help it. So if you can tune into the pain that's right there and say, hey, I know you may have a lot of things to say. It's the middle of the night and I'm tired. I'd really love to hear you though. Would you tell me the first next best step I can take that would soothe you and help us move forward and take a gentle deep breath. You can breathe into that spot if you want. Just imagine that now, taking a breath and directing it to that spot and just let the thought come, be present with it if you can, of the sensations and let the information come to you on what the next best step might be? It might be that there's a worry you have or a concern. It might be that there's a conflict that you need to resolve and you have options here. You can actually get up and work on it, do some journaling or some tapping or share in the portal about what's going on. You could do some gentle touch and breathe right where you are, where you hold each point. Take a nice deep breath and be aware of the problem to allow new guidance in. That can be very relaxing. And you can also imagine a small trunk, little chest right near the side of your bed. Beautiful, like little metal mount, wooden box or however you want to imagine it. And you can imagine gently scooping up this issue, this conflict, this problem, and lovingly putting it in the box to work on tomorrow or the next time you have help closing the lid and turning the key. You're not trying to block it forever, but you're saying, I choose to set this aside for right now. This is okay to deal with tomorrow. And then I'd like you to come back to your body, whatever you've chosen to do. And I'd like you to put your hand on your heart, or imagine you're putting your hand on your heart and take a nice slow, deep breath and notice that you did something good for yourself. You were there with yourself in the middle of the night in a really loving way. You were present with what you were feeling and you made some steps forward, whether there's more work to do or not. For most of us, there's always another step we can take. But you have a clear direction to ask for help with or clear things out. And you can invite your body to notice that you actually are safe, that the physical pain you're feeling or the emotional pain, if your heart is hurting, it really isn't a sign that there's a leopard eating you right now. It's not a sign that you need to run frantically away through the jungle to get away from them, from some animal. It's an indication that there's energy that needs to shift. So I invite you to just notice the space around you. You may have a partner storing away next to you, or you might be in a room by yourself, it doesn't matter. But just notice that there's no leopards or tigers or hyenas in the room. Notice that the space is actually safe enough to sleep in. And then just tune into the sensations in your body and let them know you appreciate the communication. If you can notice that it's really trying, no matter how frustrated you are, it's trying to communicate, it's trying to help you with something, even if it might be misguided or from a long time ago. And then imagine that There's a radio dial in front of you, like one of those old volume controls on the radio, and just tune into the pain, the sensations that are in your body right now, and say it's time to sleep right now. It's okay to turn down the volume on this and imagine reaching over and gently and lovingly turning down the volume, taking a nice, slow, deep breath. This may take a little practice to get really good at, but it can work really powerfully, especially if the parts of you that are on the vigilant side that are trying to get your attention, if they feel heard, they're more likely to let you turn down the volume. And the more tapping and work you do on this, the more you clear old traumas and renew and refresh your energy, which you just did beautifully, by the way. Thank you for being with us. The more you do this, the easier it is to communicate with your body and have it be willing to dance with you. It wants your attention, it wants some help clearing stuff. And okay, it's three in the morning. Maybe it's okay to sleep, to turn down the volume because it'll build trust that you'll listen to it again the next time. You did wonderfully and I hope this helps you feel less pain and deeper. Rest through the rest of the night with warm wishes for sweet dreams. We'll talk to you soon.