Hi guys,
My name's Corrie and for this at-home workshop type meditation,
I'm going to walk you through a way of releasing old wounds.
You'll need a piece of paper and a pen.
There are certain steps to the exercise that I'm going to walk you through.
So the overall thing that you're going to do here with me is write down these steps and then in your own time you'll work through each of the steps.
The steps do take some time to sit and think and make lists.
So it would be impractical to do that here and now with me on the meditation.
Let's get started,
Okay?
So with your pen and paper in hand,
Let's talk about old wounds for a second.
In this exercise,
I'm going to refer to old wounds as the stuff we carry in a metaphorical backpack.
Imagine that you're wearing a backpack,
An invisible backpack,
That you're carrying everything from your past inside.
Things that maybe people said in the past,
Belief systems that you've acquired over the years that have stuck to you,
That may not actually be true anymore.
Old wounds from experiences that you've had,
Different traumas that you've had throughout your past.
Imagine that you're carrying it in a backpack with you and when it doesn't get processed,
When it doesn't get healed,
Then it has this invisible effect on how you interact in your daily life every single moment.
When you dive into what's inside of your backpack,
We're doing it with the intention of gaining some awareness of who we really are.
When we get awareness,
We get more knowledge.
And when we have more knowledge,
We have the ability to do something about ourselves.
When everything is unconscious and it's stored there in the subconscious mind,
It has an invisible way of affecting your daily life.
So when we look into the backpack,
We're starting to,
In a way,
Get free of all of that heavy,
Dense,
Old stuff that we carry around with us all the time.
So,
What's in your backpack?
The first part of the exercise that I'm going to have you do is to just sit quiet.
Just a reminder,
You're going to do this later when you're not listening to me.
You'll sit quiet,
Pen in hand,
And allow different memories to come to the surface.
Allow yourself in that time to think about things that hurt you in your past.
These things could be absolutely anything,
Big or small.
It could be that one time that another kid on the playground said that you were fat.
It could be that you've always felt that your parents loved a sibling more than they love you.
You could be carrying sexual trauma.
You could be carrying emotional traumas from events,
Maybe things like a car crash,
Or your parents got divorced.
Just sit and make a list of all the different wounds you can think of.
All the things that,
When you think about them,
They make you feel some kind of emotion.
Make the list,
And when you've done that,
You move on to the next step.
The next step is look over the list.
This is where you look at each wound,
Each individual item.
What I want you to do is take each thing on the list,
Look at the wound,
And see if you can identify how that wound affects who you are today.
For some of the things on the list,
This may be a challenging exercise,
But for some of the things on the list,
It might be very obvious and easy.
Remember,
The wound may be a belief.
It may be an event,
A time and place where you got hurt.
How does that wound affect you today?
Do you have beliefs that aren't necessarily true about yourself?
Do you have beliefs?
Do you have behaviors,
Ways that you've adapted your personality or your personal traits that come from past wounds?
Look at each thing on the list and work through it individually.
How is it affecting me today?
Make sure that on your list of wounds,
Next to each wound,
You write down the behavior or the belief that you've adopted.
Reading over everything in front of you,
Starting a new list underneath,
Write down what you'd really like to change.
You can prioritize by looking at the list and thinking the most important things and write them at the top.
But what would you like to change?
What behavior or beliefs are you really tired of?
Which ones impact your life the most negatively?
What do you really,
Really want to let go of?
What do you want to change?
Make a new list underneath.
For the next step in this exercise,
It's really important that I try and explain this as simply as possible.
Your mind is all powerful and if there is something that you choose to change,
Know that if you make the decision to do so and you don't complicate it in any way,
It can be a very simple process.
It's as simple as imagining in your mind that you're taking some of those things out of your backpack and you're throwing them in the trash.
You're no longer willing to carry the weight of them.
You're no longer willing to reap any benefits,
Whether it's positive or negative,
From them.
Whether it's conscious or subconscious,
It doesn't matter.
Know that if you choose to,
Your mind is powerful enough to erase them just like that,
Throwing them in the trash.
So for this next step,
I want you to do that if possible.
Look down the list of things you want to change caused by a certain wound or a belief from your backpack.
What do you think from that list you could let go of right now just by saying,
I no longer choose to carry this from my past anymore.
Go down the list and if there's anything that you can just put a line through and say,
I refuse to carry this.
This is not going to affect me anymore.
I've wasted enough years,
Enough time,
Enough energy on this particular wound.
I'm going to let it go.
Look down your list and analyze honestly what you think you can do that with and make a line through it.
And as you make a line through that item,
Really envision yourself taking it out of the backpack,
Throwing it in the trash,
Releasing it.
You're deciding to not let that memory,
That wound have any more effect,
No more power over you,
Just like that.
And then the final part of the exercise,
The last step is to look at what's left on the list.
And if you do have things left on the list,
This is where you're kind to yourself because these last things on the list are things that you might need more help with.
You may need to dive deeper into these things where the therapists help,
Doing some kind of retreat,
A course,
A book.
You may need extra help with these things,
But be kind to yourself and know that that's okay.
The positive that you're going to get from this exercise is that it's all right there in front of you.
You're not blind to the things that make you act a certain way or behave a certain way.
This exercise is going to help you to see who you are and why you are the way you are.
It's going to give you back the control to empty some of the stuff out of your backpack,
To decide to not be a victim from your past,
To be light,
To be free,
But most importantly to have the knowledge of that list,
That final list there in front of you because that's your work.
That's what you need to work on.
Take your time going through the steps.
Make yourself a cup of tea,
Light some incense,
Light a candle.
Make sure that you make it a sacred space while you do this.
Honor yourself and the process of getting to know yourself even deeper.
Namaste my friend.
