Imagine you are standing in front of a shimmering white screen.
You look down,
And around your feet you see a perfect circle of golden light.
As the circle of light moves up your body,
You notice that it is capable of recording
where you hold your attention,
Where difficult emotions might be gathered,
And that those
spots show up on the white screen as purple and red colors.
The light continues to move up your body,
Up your legs,
Into your hips,
Your abdomen,
Chest,
Up over your shoulders,
And then finally to the top of your head.
And then it starts to move back down again,
From the top of your head all the way down
to your feet.
Every time the circle of light passes over your body,
The image on the screen becomes
a little clearer and a little clearer.
And you notice that the places where your body feels peaceful and easy take on a blue
or a green color.
The places where you feel totally at ease take on a golden white hue.
And the places where tension has gathered,
Where you know there is some emotional congestion,
These places show up in the darker purple and red colors.
The next time the golden circle reaches the top of your head,
Take a big deep breath,
And as you exhale,
Just feel the light dissipate,
And the circle returns to the energetic universe.
And now you stand facing this image of yourself,
And you can see where your emotions are gathered
within your body.
You have a visual map of where tension lives.
Give yourself permission not to feel upset about that tension.
Instead,
Look upon your body with deep compassion and love.
Allow your eyes to travel over the image of your body,
And feel a sense of gratitude for
the blue and green and golden white spaces.
Feel a sense of deep compassion for the parts of you that are tense and suffering right
now.
I want you to bring your attention to your breath.
Breathing in and out.
Noticing how the breath moves your body,
Expanding and contracting your ribcage,
Inviting your
chest to raise and lower.
Notice how the breath feels moving over your upper lip as it enters and exits your nostrils.
Observe the sound that it makes.
And now that you've connected with your breath,
I want you to once again visualize the image
of your body on the screen.
And as you breathe in,
Imagine that the purple and red places are glowing with just a little
bit more intensity as you breathe in.
And then as you breathe out,
You notice that they start to gently fade away.
Breathe in,
Notice those places growing a little bit stronger so you know where they
are.
You can send your breath there.
And then as you breathe out,
Little by little,
Just let that tension go.
You might even want to say words to yourself as you breathe.
As you inhale,
I am breathing in.
And as you exhale,
I am letting go.
I am breathing in.
I am letting go.
Breathing in.
And letting go.
With every exhale,
Those places become a little less angry,
A little less constricted.
The dark purple and red colors become lighter.
The areas become smaller.
They become a little fuzzier around the edges.
When you check in with those parts of your body,
You notice that that tension has eased
a little bit.
You might not be able to let go of all of that anxiety,
But could you let go of 10%
of it?
Give yourself permission to let go and breathe it away.
Breathing in and letting go.
If it's comfortable for you,
I invite you to take your hands and place them on one of
the parts of your body where you notice the purple and red,
A place where you know you
carry tension or anxiety.
And just allow the warmth of your hands to create a melting sensation there.
So as you breathe in,
Maybe your hands feel a little bit warmer.
And as you breathe out,
Gently press into your body with love and feel the warmth of
your hands help to melt that tension away.
Breathing in and melting away.
You can move your hands to as many parts of your body as you would like.
I'll give you a few minutes of silence to continue breathing and letting go,
Breathing
and melting away.
Wherever your hands are right now,
Just allow them to rest easy on your lap.
Check in with that image of yourself visualized on the screen in front of you.
Maybe invite the ring of light to come back and scan through your body one more time.
Send your breath into those areas,
Inviting them to stay soft,
Stay flexible,
Stay relaxed.
We can't always prevent anxiety from finding us or making a home in our bodies,
But we
can encounter these pieces of ourselves with deep love and compassion.
We can work with our breath,
With our visualization,
We can lovingly lay hands on ourselves.
And one,
Two,
Five,
10% at a time.
Just allow those places to let go,
Bringing yourself a deeper sense of ease and wellbeing,
Reminding yourself that you know what it feels like to feel good.
And you can help yourself find your way back there little by little by little.
We don't have to try for radical transformation every time we meditate.
We can give ourselves permission to just connect,
Notice what's happening within us and give
ourselves compassion and comfort in the moment.
We don't have to try to fix ourselves.
In fact,
Sometimes the best thing to do is just to notice how you feel,
Let go of the
tension that you can and acknowledge the tension that you can't.
Recognize that it is a part of you and it might not always be,
But if it is right now,
You can survive that,
You will be okay.
I hope that you found this practice helpful.
Feel free to bookmark it and come back whenever you need a little reminder of how to let go.
