Mindfulness practice 19,
Connecting the spiritual with the physical.
Get comfortable in a seated position.
Breathe.
With your eyes closed or gaze down,
Focus on your inhales and exhales.
Allow whatever thoughts come into your mind to come and go without dwelling on them.
If any thought seems to get stuck or grab your attention,
Remind yourself that it is just a thought and need not be followed.
If it persists,
Simply offer it gratitude for coming into your awareness and let it go.
Now turn your focus on your inner light.
Allow it to expand.
From that space,
Picture your body around the light,
Your feet on the ground,
Walking on the earth.
You are on the terrain,
Looking out through the eyes of the human body your inner light is inhabiting.
What do you see?
Can you look up and see the expanse of the sky?
Do you see trees blowing in the peaceful breeze?
Do you see the desert sand scorched red by the hot sun?
Do you see the ocean before you?
This is the earth we inhabit.
You begin to see the natural diversity that exists here on this planet.
You see the different colors,
The different forms of life.
From this vantage point,
You can see that everything is alive.
You can appreciate all the beauty and can experience the overwhelming emotions brought on by your connection to all that you are beholding.
Your inner light expands to embrace and appreciate it all.
And then there in the distance,
You see another human form slowly walking towards you.
You're in such a high level of energy or vibration that you are excited to share your joy and love with the person who is entering your awareness.
As the person slowly approaches,
Their features start to become clearer.
You notice that their appearance is very different from the way you perceive yourself to appear.
Their gender is different than yours.
Their skin color is different.
They have a different hair form.
And their clothes insinuate a very different socioeconomic status than yours.
Before you know it,
Your mind is filled with all that you have been conditioned to believe about someone who looks like this person.
You want to share your experience of all the beauty in the world,
But you are stifled by fear and mistrust.
Your mind starts to imagine the worst of this person,
That they might be out to get you or that they may mean you harm.
And based on their conditioning about someone who looks like you,
They may be afraid too,
Or worse,
Actually mean to do you harm.
Pause.
Check in with your body.
Where in your body do you feel this fear of the other?
Just notice it.
What is the sense of it?
Do you feel open or constricted?
How likely is it that with this fear in your body,
You will be able to engage openly with this person?
This fear of the other is what sparked the systems of inequality that have benefited some at the expense of others.
It is at the root of the conditioned self and is motivated by power,
Greed,
And the desire to control.
Once you can recognize this learned fear of people whose social identities are different from yours,
You can call it what it is,
Conditioned self.
It is simply a conglomeration of thoughts that keep us separated from each other.
Just like before,
You can offer those thoughts gratitude for showing up,
Even if you can see now that they no longer serve you.
Offer gratitude for giving you the opportunity to acknowledge they have been stuck inside you and now you can let them go.
After all,
This person simply represents a reflection of you,
Another drop of water in the ocean of humanity.
What thought might you replace that conditioned assumption you had about that person in order to be able to interact authentically with them?
What might be a positive affirmation that will minimize the impact of conditioned self and allow you to engage openly,
Deeply,
Authentically?
Whatever affirmation you come up with,
Repeat it several times.
Breathe it in.
When you are ready,
Take another deep breath and flutter your eyes open.
Stretch your body and take a moment to transition your focus back into the room.
Welcome back.
Feel free to journal now about your experience or about any ideas or insights that arose for you.
