Hello hello, this is Sabrina Amina and I'm the host of the feelings pod. Yay! Let's talk about feelings.
Today's episode is about connecting with hope in moments and times of despair.
We are clearly in a time moment in this world where the collective is in deep despair and deep grieving and deep suffering.
And so, how do we find that glimmer of hope when we most need it? How do we stay connected to the power of the heart?
This hope comes from the heart space and how can we stay connected to our hearts and our humanity in moments of such deep despair?
I mean, I don't know, but I'm doing my darnedest, so I'll let you know how I've been returning to hope over and over again as we watch this genocide continue in Palestine, in the Congo, in Sudan.
How do we stay connected? How do we stay connected to ourselves? How do we stay connected to each other? How do we maintain this buoy of hope that keeps us afloat?
And I really believe that this hope is what keeps us in touch with one another, in touch with humanity, in touch with hope, in touch with God, in touch with spirit, in touch with this greater guiding force that I...
...always believe is ever abundant, ever gracious, ever generous, ever forgiving, ever merciful.
Now, my framework for connecting with God and spirit is Islam and Buddhism, but it doesn't necessarily have to be God if God is not really in your vocabulary or God is not, you know, a word that you necessarily connect with.
Connect with your heart. What's there? What's there in your heart?
Take a few moments throughout the day to check in. Be like, hey, little tender heart, I love you, how are you doing? And that language might not resonate with you, you know?
Maybe that cute, sweet, I love you, I love myself kind of language is not where you're at. It certainly wasn't where I was at when I started this whole self-healing, self-love journey years ago.
That's the language that resonates for me. And as long as I'm connected with my heart, as long as I'm checking in with her, as long as I'm checking in with spirit and God, and staying connected to something greater than me, to something greater than my despair,
as long as I stay connected to something greater than my depression, even if it means reaching out to my loved ones who I know can hold my hand in a dark moment.
That's how I stay connected to my hope, to my humanity, to my heart.
Yeah, it's just this tremendous heavy sadness that I carry with me and I acknowledge it and I hold it tenderly, I witness it and I do my best not to turn her away.
One thing I've learned is that our emotions are signals, they are messages. It's information for us to pay attention to.
And as soon as we start shutting down those difficult emotions, as soon as we start pushing them away, that's when they start to fester.
Imagine a child who's crying and that child, instead of getting love and care and attention, instead of having their feelings validated, instead of that child being heard, she gets punished and pushed away and told to sit in a corner and not come out until she stops crying.
I think that's a really wonderful way to conceptualize our most difficult emotions. There is suffering there.
And the only way to ease suffering is to look toward it, to shine a light on it, to give it tender, loving, compassionate attention.
This is how we stay connected to our hope. This is how we stay connected to our grace. This is how we stay connected to our purpose and our passion, is by continuously, consistently committing to turning towards pain and suffering and hurt.
So if it's been difficult for you to face the hard feelings, if you've been on autopilot or just trying to ignore whatever it is that saddens you or causes you pain, hurt, suffering,
I invite you to find that bit of courage to turn towards in whatever way that's possible for you.
And maybe it's brief. Maybe you can just kind of lift the lid on it, take a peek with curiosity, and then if you have to kind of turn away again, that's okay.
Maybe the next time you lift the lid, you lift the lid a little bit higher and you gaze on the suffering, on the pain for a little bit longer.
Maybe you gaze lovingly with tenderness, with understanding.
That's how I've been holding on to hope and it's a practice. Having awareness, building awareness of our emotions is a daily practice.
So let's get into our practice for today. Find a comfortable seat, find a position where you feel held and supported, grounded, and start to bring your attention to the heart space.
Go ahead and allow the eyes to close. Start noticing the breath, connect with the breath.
And as you take a deep inhale, imagine that inhale as a loving breath, as a loving guiding breath, surrounding the heart space, expanding the heart space.
Breathe into the heart, breathe into the depths of your belly, and when you feel like you can't take in any more breath, let it go with a sigh.
Take a deep breath in, into the heart, into the belly, and let it go.
Take a deep breath into the heart space, take a deep breath into the belly, soften, and exhale.
And as you sit in stillness, just allow this loving energy to flow through your entire body.
Allow that loving breath, it directed toward the heart space, to expand and grow with each breath. Inhale and exhale.
And each time you take another inhale, imagining the heart space expanding even more and more, take a deep breath in, and let it go.
Take a deep inhale and continue this until you feel that this expansive loving energy has expanded beyond the heart, beyond the outline of your body.
Imagine it circulating all around you with this luminous white light.
Imagine sitting in the softness of this light. Every time you take a breath, that light gets bigger and brighter.
Take a deep breath in, and let it go.
I invite you to sit in this space for as long as you choose. Whenever you're ready, send some gratitude to your heart space, send some gratitude to your entire loving being.
Send some gratitude to all of the loving beings that you're connected to and connected with.
And when you're ready, gently flutter the eyes open, looking around your space with new eyes, new hope, and knowing that you can carry this sense of ease, the sense of hope with you anytime you wish.
It's simply a practice of returning to the heart.
Thank you so much for practicing with me. Thank you so much for taking this time.
Have a wonderful day.