Making Space for All of You Allison Hart

Internalized perfectionism is when we want to control all our thoughts and feelings, eradicate "bad ones," or only live fully once they're gone. It's the drive to want perfect internal balance, to always feel good about ourselves, to never feel unworthy or inadequate, to never feel insecure or other negative emotions that scare us. People who have internalized perfectionism usually think that having negative feelings means something wrong with them. They've learned to over-identify with positive states as reflecting "self" and any other mental state as reflecting a threat to self. In this meditation, we are going to embrace unwanted thoughts and feelings through the use of embracing what we don't want to live with. By making space for what flows through us, we neither embody it nor overwork to suppress it. Instead, we give it compassion and let it be. Over time and practice, we are the observers of the negative and positive and neutral. We are not our internal experiences.

Sometimes we can get wrapped up in the stories of our minds. Sometimes we can’t let go of a project, we struggle to transition, or we can’t pause to breath and get in touch with ourselves because we are too emotionally reactive or urgently attending to where we think we need to be or what we believe we need to do. In this guided exercise, you’ll be encouraged to visualize your thoughts + emotions boarding trains in front of you and watching them go off into the distance, using your breath as an anchor.

Doubt is a humanizer, an equalizer, it exists in us all, yet we struggle to let it be. We often finding it threatening, we don’t know how to co-exist with it and still live meaningfully and beautifully outloud. Learning how to be with your doubt will free you from letting it undermine your every move. Today’s meditation will help you build a better relationship with doubt so that you may take risks, live fully, and breathe deeply during times of uncertainty and risk.

Sometimes we need to invite our presence to come forward, invite each cell of our body to breathe our inhales, and call forth the part of us that yearns to pause our engagement with thoughts, thought processes, and emotions. Practicing presence is a skill that anyone can develop. Today, we practice being present, using our breath as an anchor, and letting mental processes leave us without us getting wrapped up in them.

Being broken-hearted, having an achy heart, these are experiences worth honoring. I invite you to make space for the ache in you, so that together, we can listen to our wounds and adapt our day to taking care of that part of ourselves.

In today's meditation, we make space to slow down. Often times, we struggle to slow down because transitioning from an active mindset to a detached or slower mindset is messy and we resist it. This meditation helps with the transition by giving you guidance and space to practice taking back the energy that you've given, and returning it to your heart and body so that you may reap the benefits of your own energetic flow. This meditation allows you to visualize taking back your energy from tasks, to-do's, or people, places, and things that are not currently serving you, even if you have to return energy to those areas at a later date. I hope this provides lightness and the pause we all need in our efforts to slow down.