Welcome to this meditation where we'll use the imagination to let go of our ordinary identity,
Renew ourselves,
And then decide what to pick back up again.
You can do this practice sitting or lying down.
If you'd like,
You can do it with a journal beside you so you can jot down notes as you go and then reflect afterwards on what you experienced.
You can begin by letting your eyes gently close,
And then you begin to bring the attention into the body.
So we'll take a few long,
Deep breaths,
Inviting the attention to come into the body and into the present moment.
Now we'll bring our attention down deep in the body.
Feel into the contact between the base of the body and the chair,
The cushion,
Or the mat that you're lying on.
Feel the contact between your feet and the floor,
Your lower legs and the floor,
Your back and the mat,
And just have this heavy sense of being grounded.
If you'd like,
You can imagine a plumb line or roots dropping down from the base of your spine,
Anchoring you to the earth.
And if you're sitting up,
Then from that heavy base you can feel that the spine rises up long and straight and tall,
And it's light.
There's very little effort or tension required for the spine to naturally reach up long and straight.
Now you imagine that you're standing in front of steps leading down into an ancient and sacred cave.
You can imagine that from where you stand you can see a pool inside the cave,
Almost like a hot tub of warm,
Delicious,
Sacred water.
This water is naturally suffused with wise,
Loving light.
As you stand at the top of the steps down to the pool in the cave,
You realize that you're wearing old clothes that you're ready to let go of.
These clothes are like your old skin,
A version of yourself that you're ready to recycle,
So to speak.
Because it's too heavy,
It's worn out,
Maybe it never fit right in the first place,
And you're ready to release it now.
Let's take the first step down toward this sacred cave,
Feeling the heaviness of the clothes that you're wearing,
Feeling in your bones that you're ready to let this old skin go.
And another step down.
You notice that at the right side of the entrance to the cave,
There's a sacred fire that people have carefully tended.
It's there to help you recycle your old clothes and prepare to be renewed.
You take another step down,
And you begin to take these clothes off to burn them in the sacred fire.
Another step down and you're standing in front of the fire.
Before you throw these old worn out clothes into it,
You take a moment to appreciate what they've done for you.
They've protected you when you felt vulnerable and wanted to hide.
They've helped you create a persona so that people knew who you were.
But because the persona wasn't your true self,
The clothes aren't you.
They're like an old skin that you have a chance to shed.
So you thank that skin for its help,
And then you toss it into the fire.
As the clothes begin to burn in the fire,
You realize that the light and heat that are released are the energy you've invested into those old habits.
As they burn,
You feel light and free.
Now you're ready to enter the cave completely naked and just soak in this wonderful,
Healing,
Life-giving pool.
As you step in,
The water is the perfect temperature.
You feel your body relax.
You feel your mind relax.
As you soak in this pool,
You feel that this water is glowing from within.
It has a living,
Aware quality to it.
You allow yourself just to soak in this restorative,
Sacred water.
And somehow the act of soaking opens a channel to connect with your own deep,
Wise,
Whole nature,
Something you've always known was within you,
But maybe you haven't had the right ways to connect.
Or maybe you get so busy that you forget it's there.
But at this moment,
In this sacred pool,
It's easy to reconnect.
You invite this deep,
Sacred level of mind into the rest of your mind and into your daily life.
You feel every single cell of your body dissolving into light.
Any barrier between yourself and the sacred water and sacred light of this pool,
Any sense of holding to a solid,
Substantial self that you have to protect,
You just let that dissolve to until you become pure awareness,
Resting,
Bathed in pure awareness.
Your energy and spirit are being renewed and will rest in this state for a moment.
When you're ready to emerge from this state,
You begin to feel the contours of your body again in a very relaxed way.
You begin to stand up and take that first step out of the sacred pool.
There's a warm fluffy towel,
And you dry off.
As you step toward the light at the mouth of the cave,
You notice that at the right hand side outside the cave,
There's a new set of clothes waiting for you.
They're exactly what you want.
As you come back to the external world,
They fit you well.
They look good on you,
And you feel good wearing them.
You're putting on a slightly different persona from the one you recycled on the way into the cave,
And it's still not your ultimate self,
But it's a better fit for who you are now,
And who you want to be going forward.
You put these clothes on,
And as you face the steps back up to the rest of the world.
You take a moment to reflect on your aspirations going forward.
Who do you want to be?
And take a moment to reflect on how the new you will integrate with the new you.
Take a moment to reflect on how the new you will impact your world.
And as you climb back up the stairs.
As you walk up the stairs,
Away from this cave again.
Somehow you're lighter.
Somehow you're freer,
Not stuck with an outdated version of yourself.
You've reclaimed your own ability to choose who you want to be.
When you reach the top of the stairs,
You turn around and make a gesture of gratitude to this sacred place.
The cave,
The fire,
The pool,
Everything.
And then you let this place dissolve,
Letting its connection to the sacred fill your heart.
Going forward in your day,
You can remember that you have access to something within you that's deep and wise and sacred,
And has always been there,
And will always be there.
And when you feel small,
When you feel that you need to put on a few extra layers of self to be accepted by the world around you,
Maybe you can dip into that inner light instead and find the luminosity that you're looking for coming from within.
.
And as you feel ready,
You can wiggle your fingers and your toes,
Open your eyes,
And return to the space around you.
