Anne Miller-Bagwell

Oakland, CA, United States

Lisa 

The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, United Kingdom

Valora Hanko

Theresa L

Raleigh, NC, United States

Amy Brice

Renee McLeod

Janine

Etobicoke, Toronto, ON, Canada

Sara

Berkeley

Identify a protector part, explore its role with curiosity, and offer gratitude for its efforts to keep you safe.

Science

Recovery & Healing

Healing

Psychology

Mindfulness

Insight Meditation

English

From an IFS lense, Internal Family Systems, this meditation is designed to help you learn about a "protector" within yourself. In this process you turn toward what you're observing and begin a relationship with it. This mediation helps you to get to know yourself in a different way, one with curiosity and compassion vs. judgement and shame. 

IFS Meditation - Getting To Know Your Protectors

 Hello, thank you for listening to this meditation inspired by the work of Dr. Richard Schwartz, the developer of IFS. This specific meditation, Getting to Know a Protector Part, comes from Dr. Richard Schwartz's newest IFS book, No Bad Parts. As I was reading this book, I realized that there were some really powerful exercises included in the book that I felt just became more rich for me when I recorded and was able to listen to the exercises and do it in a form of meditation versus reading them. So that's what inspired me to share these with you, and I hope you find them helpful. Exercise 1, Getting to Know a Protector Part. Take a few moments and just allow your body to become comfortable. You might want to set up like you naturally would in other meditations or maybe lie down so that your head and neck and back are supported. Adjust your body in any way that it needs you to so that you feel comfortable, settled and supported here. If it helps, I invite you to take a few deep breaths. Go ahead and do that just a few moments here of focusing on breathing a little bit deeper. These next few breaths, if it feels okay for you, focus on the exhale and maybe see if there's some room to invite the out-breath to become a little bit longer and slower than your in-breath. Now I invite you to do a scan of your body and your mind with your next inhale, noting any particular thoughts, emotions or impulses that stand out to you. Just like any other mindfulness practice, just notice what's there and see if you can separate from it a little bit. Noticing any thoughts, emotions, sensations or impulses that arise. As you do that, begin to notice if any of these emotions, thoughts, sensations or impulses is calling to you, any of them that seem to want your attention. If so, then I invite you to begin to focus on it exclusively for a moment and see if you can begin to notice where it seems to be located in your body or maybe around your body. As you notice it, notice how you feel toward it. By that I mean, do you dislike it, does it maybe annoy you, are you afraid of it, do you maybe want to get rid of it or maybe you feel this dependency on it, maybe you really like it or perhaps you just feel neutral toward it. We're just noticing that you have a relationship with this thought, emotion, sensation or impulse. If you notice that you feel anything besides a kind of openness or curiosity toward it, ask the parts of you that might not like it or are maybe afraid of it or have any other extreme feelings about it to just relax inside and give you a little space to get to know it without this kind of attitude toward it. If you can't get to that curious place, that's okay. You could spend this time talking to that part of you that don't want you to relax around the fears about letting you actually interact with the target emotion, thought, sensation or impulse. Just meet yourself where you're at. All of your parts are welcomed. They're all important here. If you can get into that mindfully curious place relative to the target emotion, thought, sensation or impulse, then it is safe to begin to interact with it. This might feel a little bit odd to you at this point, but let's just give it a try. And by that, I mean as you focus on this emotion or impulse or thought or sensation, can you notice it in this place in your body or around your body? Go ahead and ask it if there's something it wants you to know and just wait for an answer. Try not to think of the answer. So if any thinking parts arise, just ask them to relax. Just wait silently with your focus on that place in your body or around your body until an answer comes. And if nothing arises and comes to you, that's okay too. If you get an answer and as a follow-up, you can ask what it's afraid of would happen if it didn't do this inside of you. What's it afraid would happen if it didn't do what it does for you? And if it answers that question, then you probably learned something about how it's trying to protect you. If that's true, then let's see if it's possible to extend some appreciation to it for at least trying to keep you safe. And see how it reacts to your appreciation. Go ahead and ask this part of you what it needs from you in the future. When the time feels right, I invite you to shift your focus back to the outside world, noticing more of your surroundings and also thanking your parts for whatever they allowed today, whatever they allowed you to do and let them know that this isn't their last chance to have a conversation with you because you plan to get to know them even more in the future.