This visualization is to help you release feelings of worry and anxiety or maybe even feelings that you should be worried or anxious about something and you're recognizing your brain and even your body searching the Rolodex for something.
Shouldn't I be worried about something or someone,
Right?
This is one that you can do standing in line to get coffee or even if you're driving right now we're not going to shut our eyes.
I'm staying right with you and I just want you to be able to practice this as a way to play with your imagination whenever you have this feeling.
So okay let's get started.
I want you to think of one person or one thing in particular doesn't have to be big but the first one that pops in your mind that you feel like you should be a little worried about.
Now I want you to take a breath in,
Make it a good one and on the exhale I want you to imagine blowing all of that worry and all of your thoughts around that person or that thing into the balloon.
I want you to picture even being able to hear the balloon stretch and just do that three or four more times.
And now once you've finished with your last exhale I want you to knot the end of the balloon.
This is in our imagination so you're going to knot it in one try.
So easy,
Right?
And then I want you to picture tying a string on the end of the balloon and you're going to hold on to the string and let go of the balloon and just watch it start to rise.
Until it tugs at the end of the string.
And then I want you to take in one more inhale and as you exhale let go of the string.
Don't worry about the sea turtles,
This is completely in our imagination.
But I want you to just notice,
Even if you feel the tiniest bit,
Lighter in your body.
Or if you clear your throat or you feel a need to yawn,
You might feel a little tingling in your hands or your face.
But once you've released this balloon,
Go ahead and pick five other things to blow into another balloon,
Tie the end,
Tie a string,
Let it rise,
And then let go of it.
I really like this visual in particular of a balloon because a filled balloon in and of itself doesn't really carry a lot of weight,
Right?
But it doesn't mean it's not full.
And that's kind of how we can be with our thoughts and feelings sometimes.
We think,
Logically,
That they're weightless,
Right?
They're not going to physically weigh on us.
But it's so interesting when we can just play with our imagination and picture letting something go and feel this physical reaction of a weight being lifted or fresh space opening in our body,
Right?
And I want you to get everything you can out of this visual.
So if you are more of a visual person,
Right,
I want you to take note of everything that you see in your own mental movie as you're doing this.
Because let's say if you're like me,
And there are going to be maybe one or two of the balloons that you're struggling to let go of more than you thought,
You might let go of the balloon.
And rather than seeing it lift gracefully into a blue sky,
And this calm wash over your body,
You might see dark clouds on the horizon.
And,
Oh,
No,
The balloon is heading for power lines.
Oh,
There's a lot of sparks happening.
Oh,
The whole city block just went dark,
Right?
So whatever you see is whatever you see.
But this is really just a practice in recognizing the weight that we can carry for things that aren't our job to carry.
And maybe where we've lost faith in something that is a little intangible to us being able to float all the balloons.
So take all of that stress.
Take all of that worry.
Take all of those people that you think you are not good,
You are not doing your job unless you check in on them daily,
Right?
I want you to take all of it and go blow it into a balloon.
And then just see how you feel.
See what you observe.
And then repeat as needed.
