My name is Laura Garrison Brooke.
So I made this post on Facebook today that I wanted to share with you.
I wrote,
I'm starting to have a recurring fantasy.
It's about hugging and kissing people.
Lots of people.
Random people.
I can feel these hugs building up inside of me.
It's going to be a hug explosion.
So when this is all over and you see me,
Brace yourself for me making my fantasy a reality.
This Facebook post was the beginning of a realization for me.
This life experience that we're going through is changing me and some of the changes that are happening are good.
Please know that I am offering this meditation very grounded in the fact that this is a time of tremendous challenge.
So many of you have generously shared your stories in response to my meditations.
I hear your concerns and worries and know that they're true and real and so understandable.
I promise you that I am with you walking through the fire.
I have loved ones who are vulnerable whom I worry about.
I have a young son home from school.
My husband's business and my work have both been massively impacted by this new reality.
Life is upside down.
Life is upside down and it's stressful and challenging and discombobulating as that is.
Being upside down is also an opportunity to see the world from an entirely different perspective.
My question for you to consider are there ways that we can harvest this experience to come closer to our deepest selves?
To have greater understanding and appreciation of what really matters most to us.
That Facebook joke about my hug explosion,
This is rooted in a stronger and stronger feeling of love for all of humanity,
For each and every one of you.
It's a physical sensation that I can literally feel building inside of my chest an expansion.
Our suffering and vulnerability is making me appreciate humanity more and more.
That's my personal experience and it feels like a transformation that will leave me a better person,
A more loving and appreciative person.
We are all being shook up almost like we're pieces of a puzzle that are being thrown up into the air and when the pieces land I feel like we have an opportunity to guide them so they create a different picture of reality.
One where with mindfulness maybe we're more grateful,
More present,
More joyful and more loving.
Where will you land?
What will your future reality look like?
I invite you to see this time inside as an opportunity to go inside,
To get quiet,
To connect more deeply with what is important to you,
To see more clearly what you value and what you love,
To be more true.
If you've been listening to my other meditations you already know that I provide an online positive psychology program to teens who have experienced trauma.
One of the resilience skills we teach is something called cognitive reframing.
Cognitive reframing is the process where we make sense of what happened to us so that we can learn and grow from it.
We need to remember that we can't always control what happens to us but we can always control how we respond.
Cognitive reframing is powerful because it shifts us out of the role of being a victim.
Cognitive reframing is definitely not about saying it's okay this happened to me.
It's about saying this happened.
How do I channel my strengths and my wisdom so that I come out of this being more rather than less?
This whole meditation is about cognitive reframing.
How can we take these wickedly sour lemons that have been forced upon us and make some lemonade?
Now I'm always about keeping it real.
By the end of this meditation there's a chance,
A good chance,
That you won't have had a cognitive reframing epiphany.
Do you know what that means?
It means that you're human.
The more churned up our emotions are the harder it is to see clearly in that moment.
If that's your experience here's the language I invite you to embrace.
I don't know what I will learn from this yet but I will understand better in the future.
This creates a mindset where we're open and receptive and then as you have opportunity return to this meditation again and again until things become clearer.
This meditation is meant to be the beginning of a transformative journey and transformative journeys need powerful guides.
The words and the wisdom of the Sufi poet Rumi will help chart our course for this meditation.
Rumi said,
Stars can't shine without darkness.
I'm glad you're here.
Let's look into the darkness together to see the different ways that we can learn to shine brighter.
I invite you to take a seat.
Take a nice big belly breath.
As you exhale feel yourself root down.
Inhaling,
Feel the spine grow long.
I invite you to draw attention to your spine.
As you inhale feel energy flowing up along the central channel of the spine.
Crown of the head shines up.
Exhaling,
Energy flows down pouring down the tail bone into the earth.
I invite you to see this energy as light.
Inhaling,
The energy goes up the spine and shines out the top of the head.
You are a beautiful column of light that shines far up into the sky.
Exhaling,
This light shines down into the crown of the head along the spine and into the earth.
Find your own comfortable rhythm of breath.
Inhaling,
See the pulse of energy flowing up and out of the top of the head.
A shining cord of light reaching up into the heavens.
Exhaling,
The energy flows down from the sky entering the top of the head,
Filling up the body with luminescence.
Everything in life is energy.
Feel this energy fill you.
Closing your eyes,
I invite you to go within.
With no sense of judgment,
Recognize the feelings that are swirling inside of you.
Compassionately recognize what is.
This is a hard path that we're walking.
Roomy counsels,
Being a candle is not easy.
In order to give light,
One must first burn.
And we are walking through the fire right now,
Aren't we?
Is it possible that this fire can burn away what is extraneous?
In this time of isolation,
Can we start to separate the wheat from the chaff?
Discover what's most important and valuable to us?
Here's Roomy's analogy on how life unfolds.
He says,
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival,
A joy,
A depression,
A meanness.
Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all.
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture,
Still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought,
The shame,
The malice.
Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
Each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
And life may be clearing you out for some new delight.
I love these words.
Sometimes it's only through loss that we come to better appreciate what remains.
And sometimes we need space to welcome new things into our lives.
Roomy says,
Try not to resist the changes that come your way.
Instead let life live through you and do not worry that your life is turning upside down.
How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?
Without any need to know right now,
Open yourself up to exploration,
To possibility,
To the chance that in this crucible we are in right now,
We might emerge transformed,
More grateful,
More joyful,
More appreciative,
More present.
What might this transformation look like for you?
Roomy's advice,
Whatever lifts the corners of your mouth,
Trust that.
So what makes you smile right now?
What is feeling more precious and close to your heart?
Remember these can be micro moments.
Your cat chasing a ball across the floor.
Your child's laughter as they watch a funny video.
Standing in the sun,
Feeling a breeze on your skin.
The beauty of the natural world that surrounds us.
What makes you feel joyful?
I invite you to breathe into this knowledge.
See that in your mind's eye.
Feel it in your heart space.
What makes you feel joyful?
Hour by hour,
Day by day,
Allow yourself the time and space to notice and explore as if your joy is a thread that you can follow moment by moment,
Layer by layer.
You can dig deeper to discover what is most authentically true to you.
Roomy says,
You have no need to go anywhere.
Journey within yourself.
Enter a mine of rubies and bathe in the splendor of your own light.
He continues,
Look within.
The light is already there.
And with your breath as your companion,
Walk into the cave.
And with every step you take,
You bring light.
Breathe and look within.
What do you notice?
What do you see?
Big belly breaths.
Look within.
What do you see?
Vocal gathered call to attention.
What do you see?
Maybe you've discovered a lot.
Or maybe your answer right now is not much.
Rumi encouraged us.
Be patient where you sit in the dark.
The dawn is coming.
This kind of internal exploration is powerful,
Even if it doesn't feel fruitful right in this moment.
As you practice this kind of mindfulness,
You might have an aha moment upon awakening,
Or in the shower,
Or while out for a walk.
You are planting seeds right now,
And it's your continued exploration and intention that waters them and makes the soil fertile.
Be patient where you sit in the dark.
The dawn is coming.
Big belly breaths.
I invite you again.
Look within.
What do you see?
Rumi shares.
Your legs will get heavy and tired.
Then comes a moment of feeling the wings you've grown lifting.
That's what I wish for you.
What I wish for all of us.
May this time be one of introspection,
A time where you grow your wings so that they lift you up,
Giving you the freedom,
Wisdom and self knowledge to pursue a life richer than you have ever had before.
And if you have moments where you feel you've gone astray or lost the thread,
Which we all will at times,
Remember this.
The final quote I will share with you in my favorite Rumi poem.
Come,
Come,
Whoever you are.
Wanderer,
Worshipper,
Lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come,
Even if you have broken your vows a thousand times.
Come yet again.
Come,
Come.
I am wishing you a transformative journey where you connect more and more deeply to a life that is authentically,
Joyfully yours.
