Hello,
This is Bryant and this is a reflection on the chocolate meditation that I recorded as a note in the title and during the meditation that it is from Avatar the Last Airbender.
If you're not familiar with the show,
I highly encourage you find a copy and watch it.
It is a great show that aired on Nickelodeon about 30 minutes long.
It's a cartoon but the writers have created a show that weaves together Eastern and Western thought and a lot of different themes.
Really well done into three series or seasons or books as they call it.
I won't go into a whole lot but the meditation that was recorded deals with a certain part of the series where the hero is learning how to unlock his full power.
And so he meets a guru who takes him on a journey through unlocking the chakras which the meditation was built around how the guru led the hero through the meditation.
And I remember when I watched that episode I was in awe of how simplistic it was yet how powerful it was to go through each of the chakras and to discuss these powerful emotions that can block us,
That can make us feel unease with our lives,
To doubt ourselves,
The fear.
You'll have to watch the show to see what happens but to me when I think about what can be achieved if we learn to recognize the fears and how they play out in our lives and what they tend to keep us from achieving.
For instance,
The root chakra which deals with survival.
If we're constantly blocked by fear and I don't know about you but my fears,
My fears of being judged,
Of dying,
Of not being perfect,
They tend to block me from doing the things that I want to do,
From experiencing life,
From feeling confident that I can confront challenges.
So when those fears get unbalanced I lose sight of reality which is the way that at least I believe from all those teachings that we balance out reality and fear is by recognizing we bring mindfulness and recognizing how much of that fear really exists in this moment or in my life.
A lot of it is exaggerated.
I'm not going to die in this moment.
I could but why would I let that fear of possibly dying now hold me back?
I mean I can tell you what I'm doing right now is I recorded them sitting in my room so unless an earthquake or a heart attack which you know those are all plausible but really how likely is that to happen?
And even if it is likely there's no way that I could foretell that it was going to those activities or events are going to happen so why would I let that fear become rampant and hold me back?
And so by meditating on that chakra or during that part of the meditation if I if I noticed that my fears were heightened,
Overbearing,
Overpowering then that might be a sign for me to spend some time another meditation working with a therapist journaling doing things to help me face those fears and place them properly in the context of the present time so that they don't cause me to be unbalanced or hold back.
You know another one that I loved from the show that he brought the hero through was oh my god I'm sorry I'm pausing but it's the sound chakra the throat chakra so it's again when it's open it allows us to communicate our personal power who we really are and it's blocked by lies.
It's the ones that we tell ourselves for in my experience I would tell myself different things I'm not worthy I fail people aren't gonna like me and those lies there may be moments where yes in that moment I failed or yes this person doesn't like me but in the grand scheme of things when I continually tell myself when it's telling me those stories they hold me back they make me afraid they make me not want to trust people when in the moment or in that day none of that has happened you know I think about in my recovery and this is personal to me some some folks and some programs don't necessarily subscribe to this but I generally don't like to call myself an addict or an alcoholic or any of those words you know that is someone who is actively struggling with their addiction and if I think about how long I've been sober and what I've done in this moment today today I got up I exercised I did what I had to do I paid my bills I went to work I kept my promises all of those activities aren't activities that I associate or think that an alcoholic or addict would hold or do it's not something that I did when I was personally using I you know I'd be late for work I wasn't keeping my promises I wasn't exercising so if in this moment if it today I did none of those things that an alcoholic or addict would do why would I tell myself I'm an alcoholic addict because usually when you call yourself or when I call myself an alcoholic addict then comes the judgment then comes the fears that you're not worthy I'm a liar thief con artist whatever whatever we say to ourselves as we reflect on the stuff we did during our addiction so with the throat or sound chakra I can recognize that yes I've done those in my past yes I may have moments where I slip but if I didn't do that today then why would I hold myself to that lie I didn't fail today I didn't lie today I am a good person so I can be a good person I can accept myself because that is the reality of what's going on and so in a way even though this is based off a children's cartoon and I actually I didn't want to call the children's cartoon I think of tons of adults people of the world love this it's a it's amazing amazing series that you should watch especially if you have kids and you can bond over that but if you think about the lessons that we can learn from just a simple simple meditation I personally haven't done a lot of work with chakras I do have a lot more reading to learn not only about the principles that I practice the Buddhist principles but any of these other elements that I pull in from other paths there's a lot that I hope to understand and to implement but this was something that spoke to me and I wanted to record it and I wanted to share it I know that I will be re-recorded because there's ways that I think it could be phrased better or different ways that we can we can deal with the emotions that are blocking especially as I grow my own practice but I wanted to share that wow what a what a great way to quickly scan our emotions and see where there's blockage to see where maybe we're hesitant to confront something and then it's a sign to to do additional work to do additional self-care either through meditation with a therapist journaling whatever it is that you do to take care of yourself and so and so I'll leave you with this last quote it's actually from the sequel to the avatar last airbender from the legend of Korra you know we we should take inspiration from all sources even if they are from children's cartoons but the quote goes when we hit our lowest point we are open to the greatest change may you be happy may you be at ease and may be free from suffering.
