Whether we are aware of them or not, we hall have negative thoughts that on a subconscious and unconscious level stir up stress and tension within our mind and body. In fact, when we are not aware of them, uncomfortable thoughts can easily become repressed, suppressed, and denied. And while stuffing them down can be preferable to dealing with them, from a holistic perspective these disturbing thoughts can turn into chronic stress which can manifest as everything from chronic pain to cancer.
But, there is a way to heal from negative thoughts. Just like time heals all wounds, distance from thoughts heals us from the destructive nature of negative thoughts. When we think our thoughts, we experience the heavy drama of them. When we can view them from a distance, we can see them objectively, clearly, and impartially. This guided meditation podcast is designed to help distance ourselves from such thoughts so that we can see them, heal and process them, and move on with wisdom, peace and clarity.
Please enjoy other episodes where Todd shares meditation techniques, tips and spiritual lessons from around the world for peaceful and stress-free living. Remember to subscribe to stay up-to-date.
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Welcome to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. I'm your host, Todd Perelmuter our world is a projection of our collective consciousness. The more peace we bring into our lives, the more peace we bring into this world. So let the transformation begin and today we're going to do a guided meditation on how to deal with uncomfortable thoughts.
Find a comfortable chair or sit on the ground if that's comfortable and relaxing. Or prop your head up in bed with a couple pillows. Just get comfortable. Sink into your seat. Close your eyes. Slow down your breathing. deepen it to your belly. Breathe in through the nose and out through the nose.
And just allow yourself to relax as deep into your seat as you can. Relaxing all the muscles in your forehead and your eyebrows. Your cheeks in your lips. Drop your shoulders a bit more and loosen them up and relax your back as well. Just let every muscle in your body sink deeper
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put all of your attention on your breath. feeling the cool air come in. As your nostrils flare a little bristling by your nose hairs coming down the back of your throat, filling your lungs expanding your belly and then coming back out
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as you take your next inhale fill up your lungs again. And then allow your belly to sink and contract. Feel the warm air leaving your lungs coming up the back of your mouth through your nostrils feel that warm air bristling by your nose hairs and brushing by your upper lip
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the more you relax and allow your mind and body to become still the more subtle sensations will arise and the more we will raise our conscious awareness
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and as your mind drifts off to thoughts that may be uncomfortable or disturbing. Notice a tendency for your muscles to contract and stiffen. Notice how we may get those stress lines in our face. And then simply relax and let it all those thoughts and all that tension out with your next exhale and breathe in that cool healing oxygen and let it fill your body in the blood, carry that rich oxygen to every cell of your body and with each exhale, let go of whatever has been weighing on you
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and each inhale, breathe in that peaceful healing oxygen and when thoughts arise, let them arise, don't resist them, don't fight them, don't judge them as negative or bad and just allow them to be just witness them
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notice this space that is surrounding them as you simply witness and let them be notice a peaceful energy that surrounds them, when you accept them for what they are. Which is to say the thinking mind that great survival tool that we all have within us that is always looking for danger. And always thinking of fears and worries and just letting them be. Notice how they arise and fall away. Come and go. Like waves of the ocean, coming in and going out. Nothing to hold on to.
Nothing to fight against. And with each inhale they come in peacefully. And with each exhale, we let them go. With each inhale oxygen comes in that life sustaining energy and with each exhale we let it go. We're born with each inhale. We die with each exhale and each moment brings a chance to be present and aware to be reborn to let go of anything that doesn't serve us and to welcome in New Beginnings we let go of the past any trauma. Any story we're telling ourselves and we welcome the newness. The freshness of each moment grasping at nothing and resisting nothing
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we hear that oceanic quality of our breath just like the ocean. And we allow it to sue this, calm us and relax us, just like the ocean
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there's really no difference in the sound of the ocean and our own internal power to heal us as well.
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And as our minds begin to wander, as they will inevitably do,
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we just observe. It's totally natural. We just watched them, come and go. leaping from one thought to the next. maybe thinking about a stressful situation that happened today or yesterday
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are difficult memory from the past. Maybe we're worried about the future. Or maybe we find meditation very difficult and boring, and it's yelling at us to do anything else.
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And we simply and calmly, peacefully, and even joyfully, with a small smile on our face, as we become wiser to the nature of these stories in our head,
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let them go with our exhale. There's nothing to figure out right now. There's nothing to solve. There's nothing to plan. There's nothing to ruminate on at all right now. This is just the time for us to bring some peace and stillness into our day and into our lives.
To create some peace in space, around the negative stories we're clinging to. So that they can't bother to sturb or disrupt our internal state and we turn them into our peaceful companions. We don't fight them. We don't believe in them. We just witnessed them and allow them to be and the more we just witness without reacting to them without responding and stress in any way we overcome them.
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We don't fear them. We just give them space. And so we distance ourselves from these destructive emotions without any pressure on ourselves to force them out, which only creates more stress. We simply watch as the silent witness our true identity the watcher of our thoughts the witness of our lives. The one who experiences life itself
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And as you focus on your breath
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notice the thoughts as they arise. And don't be afraid to look deeply and closely at them
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normally, especially in our stressful, busy lives, when negative thoughts, scary thoughts, traumatic thoughts come into our consciousness, we want to turn away and distract ourselves. But here in our peaceful and calm meditation, where we are completely safe
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we can look at them and notice they are just stories of the past a past that no longer exists and can no longer control us when we remain mindful and present and we can look at these thoughts explore them and realize there was nothing ever about them. That was too unbearable are too scary to face
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and as these thoughts come up of someone who hurt us or someone who created a situation that was difficult for us
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we can meditate on the fact that if we had that person's brain, that person's life experience that person's physical body that we could act in the same way we would be in their shoes
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from whatever trauma they experienced, from whatever they were taught as children or not taught
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in from the experiences that shaped their lives, they turned out this way and they could not have acted any other way. Because we are all living out our karma which is to say our cause and effect the things that shaped us every instance in the past that led to this moment is why this moment of suffering happened even if we don't understand all the causes that led to the moment we understand the nature of cause and effect
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why the world looks the way it does
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and that underneath these bodies in mind we are all one we are all the same lifeforce energy, light of consciousness playing our role in this cosmic quilt part of the one cloth made of many threads and in this moment as we become mindful of our inhale and present, with our exhale we break free of these past experiences and conditions. We heal from our stresses and traumas. And we create new possibilities
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with mindfulness and presence so that we don't pass on these traumas and difficulties we've been having and we transmute them into love and positivity, peacefulness and joy. Love is the medicine for the mind. Not love based on a romantic partner or family member, but love, which has no recipient. It is love for life. Love for the universe. Love for self.
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And as we think those difficult thoughts and emotions we hold them up in our mind and we surrounded them with love. And we love them. Like we would love a troubled child
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because that is our inner troubled child. And all a child needs to heal and grow is love. And as hard as that may be, to love our battle scars. We must be tender and compassionate with ourselves first. And never judge the past based on what we know today and so we can love our past selves.
We can forgive our past selves and even others because we can recognize the shared consciousness within all of us. We breathe in love and light and let it fill up our hearts and our bodies with the radiating light of love and we breathe out the negativity as well as any hatred and resentment that we've been clinging on to because we know that it is only poisoning ourselves
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now in our mind's eye we see ourselves wolves as a body of light and love
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no dark corners in our body or mind. Each inhale we get brighter and brighter. And with each exhale, we free ourselves more and more
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from afflictive thoughts and emotions. Now will let out all the oxygen in our body and exhale everything out. Hold it for a second when your lungs are empty, and then take a deep, slow inhale, filling up your lungs and belly completely and then holding it in for a moment and then let it all out with an open mouth
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slowly open your eyes as slow as you can. And bring that peaceful state of awareness to your waking conscious life and through the rest of your day
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thank you so much for listening. This has been path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. Peace and love. You've been listening to path to peace with Todd Perelmuter. Being here and putting in this important and noble work is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself and others. If you found this podcast even a little helpful. Please make sure to leave a review so it can reach others who may be in need. And remember, the path to peace starts with a single step.