Finding Solace in Stillness: How Meditation Can Ease the Burden of Grief
In light of the tragic events that happened this week in Sydney, I thought it would be appropriate to share my thoughts on how meditation has helped me process and deal with uncomfortable emotions, whether it be anger, grief or feelings of hopelessness, meditation can be a wonderful companion and vehicle to show you how to best navigate when confronting and dealing with difficult times.
First and foremost meditation can be used purely as a source of emotional relief. Where you’re not trying to understand, fix or heal anything. You’re just giving yourself a break from the uncomfortableness and distress you might be feeling. A simple body scan meditation can do wonders in shifting the mind out of worry and into a state of relaxation. In fact, I think it’s almost essential you practice this type of meditation first before using meditation to understand or process anything. The reason being is that if you go straight into a healing type of meditation when you are too emotional, it will be too uncomfortable for you to do. The mind and body have to feel safe first for it to confront anything.
Once you’ve given yourself some relief, you can then use meditation as a sanctuary for introspection and observation. Where you’re observing these difficult emotions. Looking at them for what they are and why they are present within you. This act of observing your emotions in itself is healing. As you are no longer consumed by the feeling but are the one looking at it. After observing these feelings through meditation you can then choose what you want to do with it. Is there a lesson to learn? Do you need to actually feel the pain a little longer? Or is it time to let it go? Either way meditation can provide a sacred container for processing our emotions, allowing whatever you’re feeling to unfold organically without the pressure to rush through or suppress it.
Lastly, meditation can nurture a profound sense of interconnectedness, reminding us that we are not alone in our suffering. As we cultivate compassion towards ourselves, we naturally extend this compassion to others who are also grappling with loss and sorrow. In the shared silence of meditation circles or virtual communities, individuals find solace in the collective embrace of kindred spirits, united by the common thread of human experience.
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