Face Your Discomfort to Find Your Inner Self and Resilience

At the time of this writing, we all find ourselves in self-quarantine to combat the spread of COVID-19. It’s scary, isolating, and anxiety-producing.

Like many others, I scroll through Facebook to connect with others since I am unable to do so in person. I am finding many posts about how people are stress eating, feeling completely out of sorts working from home, feeling unproductive, feeling overwhelmed about homeschooling their kids while working, and general fears about what is happening in the world.

I have the same fears.

I am not letting my fear overwhelm me because I know my inner light is bigger than it. I know this because I have cultivated its strength through short daily meditation practices.

Meditation is not about life being still, balanced, and lovely all the time. It’s about getting real with things as they are. This is honoring the second yama of the practice of yoga as a lifestyle called satya, or truthfulness.

I learned a life-changing meditation practice from Pema Chrodon’s book When Things Fall Apart, a book I highly recommend to everyone. In it, she teaches how meditation practice begins when life’s turmoil hits the fan. Just as we feel our bodies tighten up in anxiety, fear, or discomfort, THAT is the place from which we start. Be brave, dive in, and sit with it. You will find you are much larger than that feeling.

In the guided meditation posted below, I share a 15-minute practice for feeling grounded, coming home to yourself, and sitting with discomfort. I led this meditation for a group online and wanted to share it with the world given the uncertainty everyone is feeling now. I hope it grounds you and brings you comfort in knowing that your inner light will always outshine what works to cloud it— you just have to recognize it and sit with the lamp within to feel it.

Enjoy the meditation. Please share this blog and/or the video to help others. We are in this together and can lift each other!