Guided Meditation: Healing trauma, no dream too big

Healing traumas, emotional wounds that leave a lasting mark on us, takes time, patience, and incredible determination, but it is entirely possible. Pain is one of the greatest motivators in working on ourselves, because it drives us to try things outside our comfort zone. In this session we’ll take a first look at how to locate and begin to soothe trauma using a method called reverse suppression. This involves opening up and allowing emotions to come to the surface which have been buried or suppressed and treating these emotions like we would a friend with kindness and patience. There is nothing magical about this process, but given time and persistence, your pain can eventually transmute itself into peace.

Many people meditate to grow their attention span or gain clarity, but the possible benefits can go far beyond this, including changing your relationship to pain and suffering (creating a “frictionless” experience) and even healing of trauma. In these hour and a half sessions, I will guide us through sitting practice on a different theme each week. Themes will include:

What is your true nature? (hint, you are good)
Compassion in a world on fire
Why Meditate?
Mindfulness in movement
Meditation with no willpower required
Healing of trauma: no dream too big.

Chairs are available for up to 15 people, or you can bring a mat or cushion if you prefer. We might sit outside in the shaded patio area if the weather is nice.

Read more about Open Heart at our website, or check out our dedicated Meetup page.

Your instructor:

I’m Lindsay Kriebel, an instructor (skt. acharya) with Open Heart Sangha. I’ve practiced with Open Heart for going on 5 years, following 10 years of throwing every self-help solution I could find at addiction, depression, and social anxiety. It’s taken me this long to see that complex problems can’t be solved by more overthinking. Simple solutions like developing compassion for myself and others work exactly because they are so basic. When I’m not seeking spiritual realization, I’m a librarian, seeking information for law students at the University of Arizona.