This meditation is a practice in perspective taking,
Which is one of the core processes involved in psychological flexibility and acceptance and commitment therapy or ACT.
I'm Dr.
Diana Hill and I'm going to be guiding you through this practice to help you be able to step back a little bit from your self-story,
Connect with a greater whole,
And take a different viewpoint on your experience.
Go ahead and find a comfortable position with your eyes closed.
You can lie down for this exercise,
You can sit up against a wall,
Or you can be in a formal meditation practice.
Whatever allows you to be able to let go,
Whatever is most comfortable for you.
So let's begin by bringing awareness to you right now here in the present moment.
We can bring awareness from the outside moving in.
So start by noticing sounds in the room around you or sounds outside of the room.
Move to other senses like temperature and touch.
Notice the temperature of the air on your skin.
And notice where your body is making contact with your clothes,
The floor,
Or furniture.
And moving from the outside to the inside,
Bring awareness to what's happening inside your body in this present moment.
We can bring awareness to the movement of breath,
Noticing how your breath is rising or falling,
Noticing where it initiates from,
What parts of your body are moved by your breath.
And allow your breath to be like this landing pad that brings you back home inside of yourself.
Right here,
Right now.
You can also bring awareness to other aspects of your inner experience,
Noticing any areas that feel tension,
Noticing any areas that feel relaxed,
Noticing any areas that feel relaxed,
Noticing any areas that feel expansive.
Just bring awareness to this inner landscape,
This wilderness inside your body.
And you also have inside of your body a mind,
A mind that may be preoccupied with worries,
Maybe still caught up on what happened right before this moment,
Maybe thinking about this very exercise.
And just notice the state of your mind right now.
Does it feel expansive?
What is its speed?
And what are some of its problems?
So oftentimes we have problems that are looping around in our mind that just go around and around and around.
And we do all sorts of things to try and solve these problems of the mind,
Solve the problems of our experience.
We avoid them,
We ruminate on them,
We numb them.
But what I'd like for you to do right now is a little bit of a quick overview of what you do right now is allow one of those problems to be present right here,
Right now with you.
What's up for you?
What's a problem that you've been trying to solve or get rid of or avoid?
And allow yourself and your mind to start to describe that problem.
Sometimes it can feel like a well-worn road.
This problem feels so familiar.
And it may have some feelings associated with it,
Some imagery,
Some thoughts.
And I'd like for you,
If you can,
Imagine that you're sitting on the timeline of your life.
You're on the x marks the spot of right here,
Right now in this moment with this air on my skin,
With this breath in my body,
And this problem in my mind,
This hard thing.
Feel the weight of the hard thing in this moment and how present it is for you.
And I'd like for you to imagine that you're on the x marks the spot line of your life.
To the left of you,
It goes all the way back in time to when you were born and even before you were born,
This timeline.
And to the right of you,
It travels all the way forward in time to past you getting older,
You dying and all the way onto the future.
So here you are at x marks the spot.
And this problem feels big and it feels relevant and it feels important.
It has a weight.
It has a shape.
It resides in your body in a certain way and it shows up for you in your life right now.
And I'd like for you to imagine that you're on the x marks right now.
And I'd like for you to imagine that you could,
You know,
Get up and walk along the timeline of your life back in time to another time when you had a problem.
Another time when there was something that was difficult for you.
Maybe you were younger,
You were a child,
And there's probably lots of times that you could think of,
But maybe land on one that feels sort of similar.
Like this problem is old,
Most likely,
And maybe there was a time where you felt something similar to this.
It had a similar flavor to it.
For some people,
It may be a flavor of not good enough or being left out,
Not belonging,
Worry,
But choose a time back in time when you had a problem and it was hard for you.
And what I'd like for you to do is imagine that version of you at that point in time in your life,
That that x marks the spot of you in your timeline.
Imagine them wherever they were at that point in their life.
What were they doing?
How were they dressed?
What were they doing?
How were they dressed?
See if you can bring up as much detail about them as you can,
As if you were able to walk back and find them wherever they would have been in that problem,
In that struggle.
Where would they be located?
And walk back in time as if you were walking back to that version of you.
And walk back in time as if you were walking back to that version of you.
And as you walk back to that version of you,
You start to see that version of you in that problem.
How hard it was to be you and how entangled it was,
And how entangled you were in it.
And as you look back on that version of you,
I want you to imagine that you walk towards them and they see you.
And when they see you,
They look in your eyes and they can tell that you know.
You know what it's like to be them,
Unlike anyone else would ever know.
So you look at them and they see you and you see them and you see them in their problem,
In their struggle,
In the thing that is hard.
And as you look at them,
Notice just what it feels like in your body to be with them and look at them and see this thing that is hard.
And you can say,
I know,
I know.
And breathe.
And breathe.
And you sit down right next to them or maybe reach out and hold their hand or maybe put your hand on their cheek or their head or wherever feels just right.
And you give them some words.
You say some things to them about what it is that you know now.
And breathe.
And you take their hand,
Feel it in yours,
Feel the connection,
The knowing.
And you travel with them back along the timeline,
Back along the timeline,
Back to the X marks the spot and you have a seat and they sit down right up next to you.
You feel their presence on your left side.
And with their presence on their left side,
You come back into your problem,
Your struggle,
In the here and now,
Knowing that this is potentially old for you.
It's been around for a while or that you've struggled before in having your younger self with you at your side.
Noticing what that feels like,
How it may feel a little different,
Having this perspective on your younger self.
And as you sit here,
You look off to the right to the timeline of your life and you begin to notice that walking towards you is an older version of you,
Maybe 10,
20 years down the road.
And you can notice how they walk,
Notice their hair and their skin that's been seasoned by life,
Notice what they're wearing and notice what it feels like when they catch you in the eyes.
They know and only they know what it's like to be you in the struggles that you have right now.
So as they walk towards you,
As they come up,
You can feel that presence of this older,
Wiser,
Compassionate version of you coming towards you.
And as they walk towards you,
As they come up,
You can feel that presence of this older,
Compassionate version of you coming towards you.
And when they get up close,
They look at you and say,
I know,
I know.
And breathe and take it in.
And maybe they put out their hand into your hand or touch your cheek or your shoulder,
Whatever feels just right for you.
And they sit down right up next to you and they tell you a few things about what they know.
And listen.
And breathe.
And drink it in.
So that here you sit,
X marks the spot.
You and your life right now with the things that are hard.
And right up next to you sits your past for which you have compassion and understanding and wisdom.
Feel that presence of your past and everything that you've learned and overcome.
And right up next to you on the other side is your future,
A future self that has compassion for you now,
That cares for you,
Wants the best for you,
And that understands.
And here you are in the present moment with more perspective,
More compassion.
And you can tell yourself,
I know,
I know.
Taking in your deepest breath.
Feeling that wisdom from the inside.
Fill you up as you inhale.
Feeling that wisdom encircle you like a cocoon as you exhale.
Feeling compassion from the left.
Compassion from the right.
Compassion from the inside out and from the outside in.
Breathe in compassion.
Breathe out compassion.
And as this meditation and visualization comes to an end,
I encourage you to use this breath of compassion and to use these allies,
The ally of your past and the ally of your future,
To remind you to zoom out from time to time.
Take perspective.
And trust the wisdom that you already have.
Expanding your awareness to sensations in your body and your breath,
Just that simple movement of the breath.
Expanding your awareness to temperature in the room and sounds.
And when you're ready,
You expand your awareness by gently opening your eyes,
Eyes wide open,
With greater perspective,
Greater self-awareness and compassion,
And greater commitment to live by your values,
Moment to moment.
