‘Happy Thanksgiving’ you say?
With the ever changing restrictions in travel and traditional family gatherings, Thanksgiving is taking on different tones this year. Tones familiar to the scores of people who struggle through the holidays without a loving family to cheer them on. Many young, many old, and many in-between experience the holidays with nary a home to gather in.
If you’re mourning the loss of a loved one – the constant reminders from others to “Happy Holiday” can foster up strong desires to go into hiding till the holidays are over so your tear-stained face baring sleepless nights can be hidden from public view. It’s not that you want pity or to ruin anyone’s good times. It’s just that it’s hard playing the game of happiness for very long. Putting a make-believe smile on a breaking heart isn’t easy to do. It’s utterly exhausting.
If you’re a sensitive soul who wants to reach out and help, well, it’s complicated from 6 feet away. Masks hide warm smiles. They also fog up glasses making kind eyes difficult to see. Zoom, Facebook (try as they may) don’t replace hugs or hand-holding considered by many vital gestures of hope and goodwill.
In an odd way, this tragic pandemic is putting us on sad equal footing.
Separation, whether physical or emotional, can be painful and heartbreaking.
I used to teach college courses in Yoga for Chronic Ailments. These classes filled up fast. People came with a host of various debilitating problems searching for answers they weren’t finding through the traditional medical system. My classes were largely focused on breath and movement. It’s amazing the way breath can bring us together – in seriously troubling ways like in the transmission of a virus, but also in incredibly inspiring ways like in the healing of pain.
One of the meditation techniques I taught in my classes I called “The Meditation of Tenderness.” Although I came up with the name, the actual meditation has been around since the 8th Century CE. It’s really quite simple, as many profound things seem to be. It involves the key foundational steps in Meditation – Awareness and Focus.
I encourage you to try this following meditation whenever you’re in pain and to share the exercise freely with others. You may be surprised to learn how many people are searching for answers to painful problems. In breathing a little tenderness, you may help yourself through your pain and possibly help someone else through theirs too.
In Thanks,
Giving…
The Meditation of Tenderness
Inhale: I am aware of the pain
Exhale: I surround it with tenderness
Inhale: I am aware of the pain
Exhale: I surround it with tenderness
Inhale: I am aware of the pain
Exhale: I surround it with tenderness
