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A Stoic Morning Practice For Grief And Loss · The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Some mornings the weight is there before you even open your eyes.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Grief does that.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Distress.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Extreme stress.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: So does loss of other kinds.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: The job, the relationship, the version of your life you thought you were going to have.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: If that was your morning today, or you have mornings like that fairly regularly, this meditation is for you.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not gonna just ask you to feel better than you currently feel.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I would never ask that of you.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: So lie down or sit, whichever is easier.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: This one doesn't need you to be upright.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Breathe in and just let go without any effort.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Again, in and out.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if you're grieving, you may understand and resonate with the word loss, but loss can mean many things, even if you haven't lost a thing or a person.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Loss can be the loss of your happiness, the loss of yourself.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we are not going to try and remove anything this morning.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: We're just gonna try and create a bit more space.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Start with where the weight actually is.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Scan slowly chest, throat, the space behind the eyes, stomach.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Find the place where it sits heaviest.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you can, feel one thing that is simply warm your breath moving, the blanket, your own hands, sunlight if there is any.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Hold both at once.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: The heaviness and the warmth.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: They can share the same body.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Most mornings they do.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: If holding both is too much today, let the practice be just the breathing.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's enough.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: And you can come back to the rest another time.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Marcus wrote that the mind, when it is free from disturbance, is a fortress, a place a person can retreat to and be untroubled.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: That has been called the inner citadel, though that's the modern phrase for it, not his own.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: He did not mean a place where nothing hurts, he meant the part of you that keeps making choices even while it hurts.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: It survived this.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: It is still here, listen this morning.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself gently what is still mine?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: Not what was taken, but what remains there will be less than there was.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: One small intention.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's keep it small.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: What will yours be?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Not to heal, not to be over it, just one kind thing you will do for yourself in the next few hours.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Could be rest, it could be food or air, telling one person the truth about how you are.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Have a think about it.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's a thing that moves at its own pace.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: One more breath.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Move your fingers when you're ready, stretch if you think that helps, and open your eyes.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: You woke into something heavy, and you did this anyway.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's not nothing.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Come back tomorrow, and this can be part of the routine until you no longer need it.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Go gently.