Disco Ball Heart

Did you know you were born with a unique, beautiful disco ball heart? We all were. Inspired by the Inside Out films and apt for teens and adults, this meditation takes you on an adventure to explore the delicate depths of your own. Learn to cultivate emotional literacy, and healthy, safe boundaries.

Boost self-compassion and find a safe way to process and accept upsetting experiences and trauma.

Transcript

Did you know that you were born with a disco ball heart?

We all were and we're going to explore this just now in a wee meditation.

So if you want to get comfortable,

Make sure you've got good contact with the ground or with the floor.

And then when you feel ready,

You can close your eyes or rest your gaze gently on something.

Let's take a few breaths.

You don't need to change your breath.

Simply notice it,

That old familiar friend that's always there.

Notice it and use it as a way to connect,

To relax and to come into this present moment a little bit more.

So back to this idea of having a disco ball heart.

So I want you to imagine that when you were really wee,

Your heart was quite small and around your heart,

Protecting it if you will,

Was this fabulous sparkly multi-coloured disco ball.

Now every disco ball is unique and different,

Like every human is unique and different.

So yours will be made up with a special combination of colours.

And if you think about a disco ball,

One of the main things that a disco ball does is it spins and it sparkles.

And so since you were little,

Up until today,

Right now,

Right now,

Your disco ball spins and sparkles for things that light you up,

Things that you love,

Things that excite you and make you feel alive and connected and safe and relaxed.

And what makes our disco ball spin and sparkle?

We learn through experience and through trial and error.

So when we were little,

Maybe it's seeing one of our parents or our carers walk into the room,

Playing with friends,

Our favourite song coming on.

Being in a particular special place with special people,

Eating particular special food,

Partaking in a specific activity.

And what makes your disco ball spin and sparkle?

It's constantly changing and And what makes your disco ball spin and sparkle?

It's constantly changing and evolving as you are.

So we've got this disco ball that spins and sparkles and we're going to take a little bit of a closer look now at the disco ball.

If we go closer,

So imagine you're looking at it really close up,

Like you've got a magnifying glass and you marvel at all these hundreds and hundreds of glass squares and you realise there's lots of different colours.

And be curious about the colours that are on your disco ball right now.

And on closer inspection,

You also see that some of those glass squares are not colourful and not sparkly.

They're dark,

They're cracked.

They're cracked.

It's like someone maybe turned off the light for those particular squares.

And that might make you feel a bit sad and it's okay because these squares are really important as well.

These squares represent different times in your life where maybe you've had a difficult experience or a challenge.

Something that has marked you,

That has upset you.

You can think of them as like wounds.

A time when you had a really horrible argument or you had an experience where you got really scared.

And these form part of the tapestry that is your disco ball.

And so they're something to accept and to respect.

And when you look back closely,

Now knowing what they are,

You realise that the cracks between these broken,

Darker squares,

These wounds,

Have been patched up and they're held together by gold.

And this gold is sparkly and it's strong.

And this gold,

You realise,

Is also much softer than the rest of the disco ball.

And you realise that it's like the same softness as the beautiful,

Delicate heart you have that's encased within your disco ball heart.

And you realise that these scars and these wounds that you carry on your heart,

Which you see through the gold cracks in your disco ball,

That they're part of you.

And also,

In the right circumstances,

With the right people,

When you feel like you're in the right circumstances,

With the right people,

When you feel safe to be vulnerable and to share about those wounds and those experiences,

Then that connects directly to your heart.

And you realise that these wounds are a beautiful thing because they're an opportunity for connection.

They're an opportunity to understand yourself better.

They're an opportunity for other people to understand you.

And so that you feel safe and you feel seen and you feel understood.

So know that those wounds are really important.

Don't hide them away,

They're part of you.

And with the right people,

In the right circumstances,

You can show them your gold sparkly bits.

And something else really powerful about this disco ball is by being aware of it,

And by remembering it's there.

When we're in a situation or with a person,

Or doing something,

We're not entirely sure if this is something that feels good for us,

That feels healthy,

That feels safe.

Something that is going to give you energy,

Lift you up.

Then we can check in with our disco ball and we can see,

Is this thing,

Is this person making my disco ball spin and sparkle?

Or is it not?

And this takes practice and sometimes we get it wrong and sometimes we can feel clumsy.

And it's trial and error and it's part of life.

But know that your disco ball is there to help you to know when to say yes,

When to say no,

And where your boundaries are.

And then once we're more used to it,

And then once we're more used to checking in with our disco ball like this,

Then we can know the situations where we can open up to people.

And we can imagine that opening up is like being vulnerable and letting them see those patched up gold wounds,

Those delicate parts of ourselves that also need to be seen.

And then there's one other part of the disco ball that we need to explore just a little bit more and that's the colours.

So step back again and I know you're sitting in your body right now.

And connected to your imagination.

I want to invite you to take it like take a step back and take more of a global view of your disco ball.

And let's check in with where it's at today.

Is it freely spinning and sparkling?

Is it slow?

Is it stopped?

And also what colours are highlighted today?

What colours are making up your disco ball?

Perhaps it's two or three,

Perhaps it's loads.

And you realise that these colours are also really important information because each one represents a feeling or an emotion or a sensation.

And each colour will mean something specific for you.

It's not uniform for everyone so perhaps green for example is really present in your disco ball today and you realise that that's because you're feeling calm and you're feeling peaceful.

Or there could be lots of purple and you realise that for you that's anger.

And so the colours and the strength of those colours represent your emotional state,

Your emotional landscape.

And they also help us remember that there's no bad or good emotions.

That all of them are really important and really valid.

Perhaps we can think about comfortable and uncomfortable emotions.

And the uncomfortable ones are equally as important as the comfortable ones.

They're giving us information about what's going on for us right now.

So perhaps you're feeling sad and angry and knowing that is amazing because then you can work out what to do with that and what you need.

So coming back once again to your disco ball,

Take a moment to admire it and to marvel at how beautiful and unique it is.

Especially the darker squares,

The gold cracks.

And know that you have this tool to use whenever you need to check in with your disco ball as a measure of how you're doing,

How your heart is,

What your emotional landscape is.

And what you need,

Have fun with it.

So I'll invite you to take your hands up to the centre of your chest.

Just place your hands gently right in the centre of your chest.

And everything that we've been imagining,

I invite you to feel it in your heart.

Feel the delicate,

The delicate,

The delicate,

The delicate,

The delicate,

The delicate.

Feel the delicate insides of your heart.

And then that spinning,

Sparkly,

Imperfect disco ball.

And then really slowly,

We're going to start coming out of this meditation.

So you can take your hands back down to your lap,

Start moving your fingers and toes.

And then when you feel ready,

You can open your eyes and come back.