Starseed Evolution: Embrace Your Emotions as Sacred Guests

Are your emotions truly yours, or are they borrowed from the world around you? Join me on Starseed Evolution as we unlock the secrets of emotional discernment, mastering the essential tool "Is This Mine?" for empathic and highly sensitive individuals. Learn how to identify the origins of your feelings and transform them into pathways for growth and healing. Guided by the wisdom of Rumi and Buddha, this episode promises to enrich your journey of self-discovery and emotional intelligence.

Together, we'll embark on a transformative meditation, drawing inspiration from Buddha's non-attachment and the grounding presence of the sacred Bodhi tree. With Rumi's "The Guest House" as our metaphorical guide, we'll uncover the art of embracing every emotion as a cherished visitor. Settle into a tranquil space and prepare to welcome each feeling with compassion, allowing them to teach and transform you in profound ways. Join us in this enlightening practice that encourages emotional freedom and holistic healing.

Thank you for music by: Chris Collins of Indie Music Box and Blue Dot Sessions

Artful Touch Therapies – my professional website

https://www.artfultouchbyshannon.com/ 

Shannon Sullivan, International Meditation Teacher on Insight Timer

(Download Insight Timer app. Then click link to my teacher page)

https://insig.ht/dlUov5SHgLb 

Link Tree Information:

https://www.linktr.ee/silverlunastarseed

10 Day Course for Empaths and Highly Sensitive People

https://insig.ht/38A3CwdPxNb 

Blue Heron Creates 

This is my music artist name where I share mantras and original songs from many different faith traditions.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4I0l8GxlFZ0dD5acKgsabs?si=hVSjJSt7Quudh0-yGBQEBg

Silver Luna Starseed Instagram Feed:

https://instagram.com/silverlunastarseed 

Indie Music Box – Chris Collins

https://indiemusicbox.com/ 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hi, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Shannon and this is Starseed Evolution, bringing the wisdom and insight of the cosmos to you. I'm grateful that you're listening. In our last episode, we learned the tools for empathic and highly sensitive people called is this mine? With this tool, we are referring to being able to check in with ourselves about whether the feelings and emotions inside ourselves are our own or if we're picking up those feelings from people around us. Once you discover where those feelings are coming from, whether they're your own or someone else's what then do we do with these feelings or emotions once we are conscious of them? That's what our episode will be exploring today sitting with our emotional body. The two spiritual teachers who will guide us through this process are the Sufi poet, rumi, and the wise teacher Buddha. I hope you enjoy this poem, this talk and this guided practice in our episode today.

Speaker 1: 1:28

If we have never learned to sit with our feelings or emotions, they can at times appear to be so overwhelming that, if we did sit with them, they might never stop or go away or change. And so often we ignore, displace or bury those emotions or feelings so that we don't have to deal with them. Deal with them. What ends up happening, though, is that they come up one way or another, in order for us to look at them or not, but they're still there. Today, we're going to be working with the energy of Buddha and the sacred Bodhi tree of grounding and enlightenment in order to find comfort in sitting in those uncomfortable places of feeling and emotion, and not staying there, but allowing them to move through us and be supported by Buddha's energy, letting us know that it'll be okay, so that we can feel them, acknowledge them, let them go and then be present for and with them. Of course, just doing this practice one time isn't necessarily going to change anything immediately. It gives you the ability to find comfort in allowing emotions and then learning how, when they do come to the surface, allow them to be present with you and then move them through, so this practice will give you a tool or technique in order to learn to sit in that discomfort, in order to shift it over time, because Buddha is all about non-attachment. In this guided journey that we'll be taking together to meet with Buddha, he is not attached to what you're experiencing. That way, he can sit in compassion, in listening and holding space for you, without being attached to whether you're having the emotion or not, whether you get over it or not, and just allowing you to be who you are in this moment. And because he can hold this space of non-attachment to the feelings that are coming up for you, he can then hold them for you and help you move them through your body, your mind, out of you and into a space that can learn to transform these emotions into a space of learning and healing and understanding about your own self.

Speaker 1: 4:42

Before we move into the guided meditation with Buddha's energy, I'd like to share this poem with you by Rumi, called the Guest House, which is a perfect representation or metaphor for what we'll be doing in our practice today. The Guest House by Rumi. Today, the Guest House by Rumi, this being human is a guest house. Every morning, a new arrival, a joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all, even if they are a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture. Still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whatever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

Speaker 1: 6:06

And now let's move into our guided practice to greet the feeling or emotion that wants to be heard and let in today, and I'll have you move into a resting position, whether seated or lying down, and just allowing yourself to find rest and comfort in this space, and just make sure your body is supported your head, your knees, your back and then beginning to connect with the earth beneath you, the earth beneath you and from this place of rest and connection with earth, taking a deep breath in and exhaling. And another deep breath in and exhaling. And now, when you're ready, closing your eyes, I'll have you take this time now to begin to scan your body. You can start at your head or your feet and just with your mind, scanning your whole body and see if there's a feeling or emotion present currently that would like you to be present with it as well. So take this time now just to scan your whole body and seeing what emotion is present that would like your attention.

Speaker 1: 8:50

And now, imagining that your body is your home and your heart is the door to your home. There is a knock at the door of your heart and in your imagination. You go to the door and you open it up. There is an emotion or feeling standing at the door who would like to be welcomed in, to be heard, to be sat with, to be felt. What feeling or emotion is at the door that you welcome in today? What does this emotion or feeling feel like inside of you and in your imagination? If that feeling or emotion were like a person, separate from you, what would they look like? How would they be dressed?

Speaker 1: 10:08

And now, welcoming that feeling or emotion into the door of your heart and into the living space of your home, of your body? And now, when you're ready, I'll have you imagine taking that feeling or emotion by the hand, walking through the house to the back door, opening the door, seeing that there is a porch door, seeing that there is a porch, you and this feeling or emotion stepping out onto the porch and down the steps. And in the distance, through a field of grass, there is a beautiful tree growing In silence. The two of you walk together, hand in hand, through the grass, up the hill to the tree. And as you arrive at the tree, whose canopy is wide and protective and full of beautiful leaves and brilliant branches, of beautiful leaves and brilliant branches. Imagine that you and this emotion or feeling sit down at the base of the trunk of the tree together, and your emotion or feeling is sitting to the right of you. And all of a sudden, you look to the left and there is Buddha sitting under this beautiful Bodhi tree of enlightenment. Buddha looking out towards the sky, the clouds, smiling.

Speaker 1: 12:41

And now that you are under the protection of the Bodhi tree, seated next to the compassionate heart of Buddha, you allow the feeling or emotion that has come with you to begin to speak to Buddha, to tell him how he or she is feeling, what it feels like inside. And so, in this next moment of silence, allow this part of you that wants to be heard to express him or herself, and as he or she does, you may feel the feelings throughout your whole body, but just allow From your head down your spine, through your legs and out your feet and into the earth, allowing the emotions to water the beautiful tree tree. Allow this part of yourself to share with Buddha how he or she is feeling now and taking a deep breath in and exhaling. And when you look to your right, you see that the feeling or emotion is no longer sitting to your right but is inside of you. Allow that feeling or emotion that was expressed to continue to move through you freely, without judgment, from your head, your neck, your spine, your heart, your chest, your feet, your toes. Buddha reaches out now and holds your hand. Buddha willingly accepts your feelings and emotions, not as burdens, not as ugly, but as a beautiful part of your human heart. Continue to allow that feeling or emotion to move through you and out of you and into Buddha, the more the emotion or feeling of calm and peace flow back into you from Buddha, from the Bodhi tree surrounding you, in this compassionate love and understanding, without needing to fix or change anything about who you are.

Speaker 1: 16:49

The feeling or emotion that you're having Breathing in the peace of Buddha, the enlightenment of the Bodhi tree. And now Buddha begins to point your attention to all the beauty that is around you the sky overhead, the clouds passing by, the breeze on your skin, the smell of the grass, the sounds of all this life, all this love. This being human is a guest house. Every morning, a new arrival, a joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all, even if they are a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture. Still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whatever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

Speaker 1: 19:03

And we'll close this guided practice by taking three deep breaths with buddha and the bodhi tree. We'll have a bell between each breath and take a deep breath in and exhale. And take a deep breath in and exhale, and exhale, inhale. And one more deep breath in and exhale and exhale. And may your heart continue to welcome all the guests who wish to arrive at your door so that you may experience the fullness of life, of your body, of all that it wants to share with you. Thank you so much for spending this time with me today, and in our next episode we'll be exploring the voice as a way of helping us evolve and heal. We will explore our voice through mantras, these ancient song practices that help us to heal and mend. I'll share with you one of the first mantras that I ever learned, and this is from the Buddhist tradition called the Green Tara Mantra. I look forward to sharing that with you in our next episode, and until then, I'm Shannon, you're listening to Starseed Evolution, and I wish you an amazing day.