Theatre Of The Mind

Please be aware this is a swift! Do not use it unless you are pressed for time. Theatre of the Mind is an advanced practice for those already comfortable with meditation who are ready to confront more difficult emotional histories, aspects and challenges. It is a powerful tool so use with care. As with all my practices they are designed to be time efficient, but please feel free to use the pause button at the appropriate moment should you wish to dwell longer.

Transcript

If you haven't completed at least the pause and the cinema inside advanced,

Then please take 14 minutes to do so and make sure you're comfortable resting in the spaces between your thoughts with just your breath for company.

Theater of the Mind Basic is an advanced practice and it is not recommended to continue beyond this point unless you are comfortable in your whole peaceful awareness.

Like the cinema inside,

Theater of the Mind contains visualizations to help guide you on your way.

Unlike the cinema inside,

Theater of the Mind centers on emotions,

Which is why I ask that you be comfortable in the spaces between your thoughts before embarking on this practice.

Theater of the Mind can bring out strong emotions,

So at this point I would like to remind you of one of the cornerstones of mindfulness.

That you feel and allow to be in awareness without judgment,

Without striving,

With patience,

With a child's eye,

With trust,

With acceptance,

And most importantly by letting go,

Not by holding on.

Allowing yourself to feel and even to express strong emotions,

Whether joyful or not,

Is an exercise in release.

Also with Theater of the Mind,

I want you to remember two things.

No matter how uncomfortable an emotion or scenario may be,

Rolling out the welcome mat for it without judgment,

With compassion,

And in full awareness,

May lead you to a realization you haven't had before.

Secondly,

And perhaps more importantly,

Just like mindful yoga,

When you're rolling out the red carpet for that which might distress you the most,

You only go to the edge of your stretch,

No further.

When you feel you have spent enough time with your emotive thought,

Gently back off and come back to your breath.

And finally,

Before we get started,

If at any point you feel uncomfortable,

You can always come to your breathing.

You can come to your body,

To your physiology,

To your physical being.

And if necessary,

Even right back to the points of contact you have with the floor,

The chair,

And your hands.

So sit nice and comfortably,

Place your hands on your thighs,

And allow your arms to hang naturally from your shoulders.

Notice the way your arms just dangle,

Notice the air swirling around your body,

Notice your feet on the floor,

The contact with your hands on your thighs,

And the contact of your bum on the seat.

Notice how your head just stands up by itself,

And consciously relax all the parts of your body.

Many people hold tension in their shoulders,

So consciously drop your shoulders.

Others hold tension in their jaw,

Their tongue,

Their neck,

Their back.

So go through all these body parts and really willfully and deliberately let them go.

Now breathe through your nose and don't just take any old breath,

Take a nice big deep breath,

And really feel the air entering your nose,

Going down your windpipe,

Into your lungs,

And filling every inch of them.

When you exhale,

Take the time to really feel the air leaving the boundaries of your body too.

Really get into your breath,

Feel it coming in,

Feel it going out,

Lengthen it,

Deepen it,

And allow it to slow.

If you haven't done so already,

Allow your eyes to fall shut.

Picture yourself outside a theater,

Any theater will do,

And if you're having difficulty choosing,

Just pick the first one.

It doesn't matter how it looks on the outside,

It's what happens on the inside that counts.

It is daytime and the theater is quiet.

When you're ready,

When you feel comfortable to move on,

Walk into the theater,

Go through the foyer,

Walk into the empty auditorium,

And enjoy the beautiful and solitary emptiness.

You have the whole place to yourself.

Just like the cinema inside,

The auditorium in this theater is also inside your head.

When you're ready,

Walk up onto the stage,

The lights are up,

So you can only just make out the mass of empty seats in front of you.

Start acting out any scenarios you like from your past,

To see what emotions arise,

Positive or negative,

Doesn't matter.

As each scenario comes up,

Allow it to play out,

Take full part in it,

And when the emotion comes,

Literally grab it,

Literally hold it,

Literally grab it,

Literally hold it in your hands,

Fashion it into a glowing ball,

Give it a color,

And admire it from all sides in calm,

Non-judgmental,

Non-striving awareness.

It's a pretty remarkable thing.

When you're finished noting what the emotion or emotions are,

Or even if you feel you've had enough time with this colored ball,

Simply walk to the edge of the stage and place it on the edge of the stage in front of you.

Then move back into position in the center of the stage and start playing another scenario,

And just keep going and allow yourself both good and bad in equal measure,

Or just see what comes up.

Now I'm going to leave you doing this for a full 60 seconds,

So allow your scenarios to play out,

Allow the emotion to come into your hands,

Allow yourself to fashion it into a ball,

Give it a color,

Be aware of it,

And place it on the front of the stage,

And then come back and do the same thing again.

Here we go,

60 seconds.

So now okay,

I want you to finish up what you're doing and place the final emotion on the stage in front of you.

Take one last look at all the balls and decide which ones you would like to take with you.

When you have decided,

Put the ones you want to keep in your pockets,

And once you've put the ones you wanted to keep in your pockets,

Walk backwards off the stage whilst all the time keeping your eyes on the stage and on the emotions you left behind.

Slowly but surely back out of the auditorium,

Allowing yourself to get further and further away from the stage,

But keeping your eyes on it.

When you eventually reach the back of the auditorium,

Step out into the foyer and close the door.

Take a moment to thank and congratulate yourself.

Walk across the foyer and back out into the daylight.

Take a nice deep breath,

Walk out into the street,

Open your eyes,

You can walk around the foyer,

Open your eyes,

You can wiggle your fingers,

You can wiggle your toes,

You can come back quick,

You can come back slow,

There's no rush here.

Stretch and really feel yourself stretch.

Come back to wherever you are on this planet and just take a moment to relax back into clock time.

Whatever you do,

Give yourself some time to come back,

Don't rush and stay calm.

Most of you will have found that the emotions you didn't want to take with you got smaller and smaller and smaller and then you were able to leave them behind.

Some of you may not have been able to leave all those you did not want to take with you behind.

This is in itself a nice sign that you have more work to do,

But don't worry because as I mentioned before,

The more you practice non-judgmental,

Non-striving awareness,

The better you get at it.

It's quite possible that these emotions that wouldn't stay behind still have something to show you.

If you've made it this far,

You've done extremely well,

So congratulations.

Reviews

This was a fascinating emotional exercise. I will revisit it.

Really enjoyed doing this. Very cleansing. Thank you

Looking forward to doing this one again and again. Like the cinema inside, this is a powerful one

Interesting and was able to feel relaxed afterwards with leaving those emotions on stage 🙏

Thank you. It feels good to be equanimous with our feelings.

Wow! Amazing! I found this so wonderful in helping to let go of past emotions. I am doing other work to absolve myself of these deeply rooted self-destructive beliefs and this is absolutely a boost to the process. Namaste 🙏

I like this a lot helps clear out stuff I have been holding onto for far too long. While the balls did not reduce in size I only wanted to keep one. 🙏🏻

I love this meditation! It has led me to a wonderful experience. You let emotions travel into balls, and then decide which come with you. It totally changes how I feel, and now and I feel wonderful.
I am bookmarking this one, and will do it often.

This is a helpful exercise that is not as traumatic as the warnings, unless you start with a tragedy. I too had time for just one emotion. I paused but then had trouble focusing. It really is the foundation of the whole lesson.

Very interesting way to process emotions. Thanks for sharing!

Great mediation for releasing pent up energy