Feel Everything

(air hisses) (button clicks) (gentle music) Headspace Studio. (gentle music) Hi, my name is Dora from Headspace and welcome back to the Sunday Scaries. I think that we can all agree that a lot happened in the last year. It was a lot for everyone around the entire world. Whether it was the pandemic, social injustices, inequality, or whatever else, tragedy was very present in the lives of so many. And something I struggled with was how do I return living my life knowing that so much is happening. How am I supposed to return back to work or start another work week and just continue on? Answering emails and attending meetings seemed insignificant in the wake of so much hurt, uncertainty, and pain. At times I felt hopeless. Other times I felt powerless. And there were times where I felt the exact opposite, and I also felt happy and extremely grateful. What I've learned over the course of the year is that these experiences can exist at the same time. It's not binary or mutually exclusive. When I fight those negative feelings, it actually makes me feel worse. With the practice of meditation, we're training ourselves to be with everything, in all things, and becoming aware of how we respond. It's our response to our emotions, thoughts, and feelings that truly matter. Some weeks are just more difficult to go into than others. It's difficult not to let problems in our community, the world, and personal lives influence our entire week. So it's really important that on these weekends, we take the time to recognize how we feel, to experience that vulnerability, and to make sure that we're not pushing it aside. And if it can't wait until the weekend, there's nothing wrong with taking a little time during the week to pause, breathe, and return back to the present moment. So take that time right now to pause. And just take a deep breath, breathing in through the nose. And as you breathe out through the mouth, just allowing the eyes to close, allowing the body to be still, and allowing the mind to be still if it wants to. And just allow whatever feelings that arise to come to the surface. It's so rare that we pause and allow these feelings any space, yet it's so important that we do. If it helps, as you sit there you can just gently place your hand on your stomach and just feel that rising and falling sensation of the breath. Know that as you follow that sensation, there's no real goal to the exercise. We're just pausing, allowing the body to be present with any sensations, any feelings, allowing the mind to experience any thoughts and any feelings. And just creating a space in which we can be quiet and still. And if you need to direct your thoughts to anyone, to anything in particular, just taking that opportunity now. And then just gently bringing the attention back to the...