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When we think of courage we often imagine a fierce energy. One that pushes obstacles aside, cuts through barriers and fights battles. But courage can have a gentle energy, too. Sometimes, courage can look and feel like steady, caring presence - especially during mindfulness meditation and the practice of feeling what we feel.
In this guided meditation, led by Sean Fargo, we are invited to sense into this moment, just as it is. With courage, we practice staying with our experience, allowing it to change and unfold as it is naturally inclined to do.
Listen in a safe, quiet place where you can be relatively free from distraction. Practice with eyes opened or closed, in a posture that balances comfort with alertness. May this meditation be of benefit to you in your mindfulness journey.
Find hundreds more guided audio meditations or download 200 meditation scripts to expand your personal practice, or to share mindfulness with others.
In this mindfulness meditation we are asked the question, “What could we move towards with courage?” We may relate courageousness to entering into a battle. In this case, courage serves a different role. With courage, we cease fighting against this moment and instead, allow it to unfold as we remain a steady witness.
We practice allowing this moment to unfold naturally, as is. At the same time, we actively witness this unfolding, tending to it with increasingly more expansive layers of awareness.
As we observe this process, we do so without inserting our will or any agenda into what is happening. Mindfulness meditation is not about conjuring any one type of experience, but allowing for whatever is unfolding in our experience right here and now.
Within this experience, we may notice and label some things as pleasant, others as unpleasant, while others get very little notice or feel like nothing at all. Typically, we want the pleasant to stay and avoid or suppress what’s unpleasant.
Courageously practicing presence is not a head-based activity in which we are trying to figure anything out. It’s simply allowing for the sensations and energies felt by the body to move as they need to. In fact, we are encouraged in this meditation to sense into the head, the face and the neck, as a means of remaining embodied.
With practice, we become increasingly more capable of meeting this moment just as it is. With the courage to face the truth, we can bring a loving and gentle awareness to this too, even if what is felt is unfamiliar or uncomfortable. We can more skillfully decide if a response to this moment is needed, and if so, which action would be most beneficial.
Learn more about meeting this moment with courage, and teaching others how to do the same, with the following free mindfulness resources:
About Sean Fargo:
Sean Fargo is a former Buddhist monk and the founder of Mindfulness Exercises. The online platform, which has shared free and premium mindfulness resources with over 3 million people worldwide, has now certified over 500 Mindfulness Teachers.
Sean is the lead instructor for the teacher training program, a unique self-paced approach which invites world-renowned mindfulness teachers to share their insights and experiences. Sean has taught mindfulness and meditation for corporations including Facebook, Google and Tesla and for health and government organizations, prisons and hospitals around the world.
