Christian IFS Meditation Parts Mapping Exercise

This meditation offers guidance in mapping the parts of you that are activated by a triggering event or situation in your life. For this meditation, you will need a piece of paper and a pen, pencil, markers, or crayons. Through this parts mapping activity, you will gain greater clarity on your parts as well as the relationship of your parts to one another.

Transcript

We are going to use this time to work on making a map of parts of you that may be showing up around an activating event or situation in your life.

So before we begin,

Take a moment and get a piece of paper and a pen or pencil or maybe even markers or crayons as you will need those to work on the map of your parts.

Also during this meditation,

You may find it helpful to pause if you need more space at various times in the meditation to really be able to work on paper with the things that are coming up in the meditation.

So feel free to pause,

Take your time working through this and resume for guidance from me as we go along.

So now as we settle in to begin the meditation,

I invite you to take a moment to take some deep breaths,

Slowly increasing the length of time between your inhales and your exhales.

Just as you do this,

You might invite in a deeper awareness of God's presence as well as qualities of self-energy such as calmness,

Curiosity,

Creativity,

And courage as well as just connecting with a sense of open-heartedness as we begin this activity.

So as we begin,

I invite you to close your eyes or just simply gaze to a soft spot in the room and think of a recent event in your life that was activating to your system in some way.

This could also be something you were anticipating or maybe an area of your life that you feel stuck in right now.

And as you think of this event,

I'm going to invite you to imagine seeing it play out before you.

Maybe imagine that there is a movie screen in front of you and you can play this event up on the movie screen and just observe it from a distance.

And as we do this,

Let your parts know that we want to pay attention to any parts of you that are impacted by the event or situation,

But we are going to ask them to make space for you to focus on them one at a time,

Asking them not to flood in or overwhelm you all at once.

So as you focus on the scene before you,

Take a moment and notice the strongest thing going on inside of you right now.

Is it a strong emotional reaction?

A loud thought?

Behavioral impulse?

Body sensation?

Whatever feels strongest right now,

Focus on it.

And if two things feel equally strong,

Just pick one and ask the other to wait.

You will come back to it in a moment.

And now,

As you put your attention on the part you are choosing to focus on,

I'm going to invite you in a moment to pause and to find a way to represent it on your page.

You may want to represent it with a sketch representing an image of what this part looks like to you,

Or you may simply want to write a word to describe it.

Before you begin though,

A couple of things you may want to consider.

How big does this part seem to be?

This may inform how large you want to make it on your paper.

What does it look like?

Do I get a sense of a color associated with it?

What is its energy level?

What is it doing?

Take a moment now,

And as you reflect on those questions,

Pause and find a way to represent it on your page.

I will pause here for a moment,

But if you need additional time,

As mentioned earlier,

Feel free to pause this meditation and resume it when you are ready.

And now,

Once this part is represented on your page,

See if it is possible for you to connect inside with a sense of curiosity about this part.

And as you do this,

Ask any other parts that may be coming up around you to wait.

They will have your attention in a moment.

And as you focus on the part on your page,

On your paper,

You may want to write down anything you hear this part saying.

You might also write down a description of what this part is doing and anything you sense this part feeling.

Just make a few notes on your piece of paper underneath this part.

And as you do this,

You might ask yourself,

Does it make sense that this part is reacting and responding to the situation in the way that it is?

If so,

Pause a moment and let this part know that you understand.

If there is still confusion,

That's okay,

But you might consider asking the part what it is afraid would happen if it didn't respond to this situation in the way that it's responding.

You might also ask if there is another part of you that this part is protecting or afraid of.

Spend another moment with this part,

Jotting down any notes that feel important about what you are hearing,

And then thank this part for showing up and let it know that we're going to shift now to notice other parts that may have concerns around the event or situation.

So now I'm going to invite you to shift your attention back to the scene or situation that was originally activating to you.

Maybe going back to your imaginary movie scene,

Watching the event play out in front of you.

And once again,

Notice any strong reactions inside of you to the event.

Ask the original part you focused on to wait and notice inside of yourself for something that may hold a different emotional reaction,

A different body sensation,

A different behavioral impulse,

Or a different thought pattern.

As you do this,

You are simply noticing a different part of you that is also responding to the activating event.

As before,

Take a moment to focus on it and ask other parts of you to wait so that you can put your attention on this part.

In a moment,

We are also going to depict it on your paper.

But before we add it,

I'm going to offer a couple of questions to consider that may inform how you want to represent it on your page.

So you may ask yourself where you sense this new part in relation to the original part.

Is it close or far away?

Is it smaller or bigger?

Is there an alignment or a strong difference?

This may determine where and how you want to depict the second part on your paper.

And now,

Like with the first part,

Take a moment to sketch an image or write a word to represent the second part on your page.

As you are doing this,

As before,

Take some notes on what this part is saying,

What it's doing,

How it's feeling.

Does it make sense to you that this part would show up in this way around this situation?

If so,

Let it know.

If it's unclear,

That is fine.

You may want to ask a little bit more about what it's afraid would happen if it didn't show up in this way.

You might ask it a little bit about its fears or if there's another part of you that it's protecting.

And then see if it's possible just to extend an open heart and acceptance towards this part,

Thanking it for showing up and being here.

Once again,

I'm going to invite you to go back to the original situation.

And I actually offer to you that I would suggest you pause the meditation at this point and give yourself some space to walk through the process again until it feels complete.

You may find that there are only a couple of parts present around the activating event,

Or you may find that there are many more.

Either way is fine.

Just give yourself some time and space to depict as many parts as feels necessary to feel complete for now.

So at this point,

Pause the meditation and resume when you are ready.

And I will give you some additional guidance on your map once you have your parts on the page.

And now,

As you look at your page with the various with the various parts of you that have shown up around this situation,

I invite you to hold the page out in front of you,

Noticing all of the parts of you that you are aware are here and reacting to the situation.

You may notice both protective parts,

As well as wounded or vulnerable exiles that have shown up on your page.

Does it feel possible for you to look at all of the parts on your page with an open heart?

Take a moment now and look at each part on your page one at a time,

One by one,

Seeing if you can look at each part through the eyes of your core self,

Led by curiosity,

Compassion,

And love.

And now,

As you look at the parts on your page,

I'm going to offer several questions to consider that may help you understand on a deeper level the relationships between these different parts of you.

So first,

Take a moment and notice if you see any parts that seem to be working together,

Or that share similar feelings,

Or a similar area of focus.

If so,

Find a way to note that or mark that.

For example,

You might draw a line between those two parts.

Next,

Do you notice any parts that are fighting each other or seem to be at war with one another?

If so,

Note that.

For example,

You might draw a jagged line between those parts or have a line with opposing arrows pointing them away from one another.

And now,

Do you notice any parts that are taking care of other parts,

Such as a protector taking care of an exile or a firefighter providing relief?

If so,

Find a way to note that,

Perhaps drawing a line with an arrow pointing towards the more vulnerable part.

Are there parts that feel alone or disconnected from other parts?

Maybe draw a circle around that as a way of noting their isolation or disconnection.

And take another moment to see if there's anything else that feels important that you notice that you want to make note of.

And now,

Take a moment and observe and notice where you see God in relationship to each of these parts.

Do some parts feel closer to him than others?

Are certain parts more open or trusting of him than others?

See if you can notice this and note this without any judgment,

But driven by love and a sense of open-heartedness.

And now,

Looking at your sheet of paper,

You might notice what that feels like inside,

To look at all of these parts of you out in front of you.

In facing the original situation or situations like this in the future,

Which parts need your help and focus first in order for you to navigate situations like this in a self-led way.

If you identify one or two parts that need your attention,

I might suggest that you do the meditation I have on getting to know a part of you better as a next step in focusing on those parts.

And now,

Take a moment to thank the parts of you represented on your page for showing up today and allowing you to get to know them a little bit better.

It may be helpful to imagine God's presence holding everything represented on this page,

Knowing that he knows and loves every part of you.

And now,

As this meditation comes to an end,

Take a final moment to note anything else that feels important,

As well as any commitments that you need to make moving forward to these parts.

Reviews

Thank you so much. So good to get to know parts this way.