This Too Shall Pass: Connect With Your Inner Caregiver

Connect with your Inner Caregiver by using images of a boat- tethered and firm- yet able to play in the bouncing waves and explore a wide range of safe possibilities. Navigate holding space inside your body for both the good and the bad without losing your center. Feeling fully human, fully alive, despite sorrowful experiences. Lift your sails and ride it out with me!

Transcript

Would you like to experience the ability to sense more than one thing within,

Without it seeming threatening at all?

Let's use the metaphor of an anchor beneath a vessel on the water,

To feel this sensation and practice it for trauma recovery purposes.

And if you're ready,

And everything is settled just so around you,

So that you may have time to devote to this practice of feeling multiple things occurring within you at once.

Let's walk down now to the edge of the water and climb into our boat,

Launching out into the water right now.

One wave passes as we gently rock over the top.

Two waves pass,

Rocking our boat yet again.

As three waves pass,

Glance back to the shore and notice how you're moving out into the deep.

As four waves pass,

And now five.

You arrive to that area of the water,

But then thinking you might like to practice an inner sensation of depth,

All the while maintaining a sensation of lightness.

Go ahead now.

When you arrive to that place in the water that feels just right to you,

Begin to drop your anchor down below the boat.

Feel the sensation of the anchor steadying you in the water.

Going down 10 feet now,

20 feet below your boat.

Travel down with the eye of your mind as if you were sitting on the anchor,

Looking upward at the shafts of light coming down through the water under your vessel's shadow.

Notice how you can feel deeper and deeper still as the anchor settles down,

Down 50 feet below the vessel that is bobbing atop the water.

And when you've reached a nice plateau below that feels just the right depth for you today,

Allow the anchor to stop and rest in that position.

Notice that the anchor is solid,

Secure,

And steady.

Immovable,

Incorruptible,

And tethered to your boat as you raise your mind's eye up the length of the chain or the rope,

And up now through the bottom of your boat.

Get the perspective of being back in the boat and the sensation in your body of lightly bobbing.

On the surface now,

You are neither the vessel nor the anchor nor the tether between them,

But you can sense how it is to be both tethered and free.

And what would it feel like if the waves came strongly now and sifted you to the right?

How far could you go,

Blown into the wind and about and tossed back and forth by the wind?

Until the anchor would stop you firmly,

Let your boat travel around in a circular fashion,

Testing the edges and the limits of the tether.

Notice how you can decide in your mind's eye just how low this anchor will go and just how much give you allow in the tether.

And what would it feel like if your boat was gently rocking,

Bobbing,

And weaving in the water,

Mimicking the pattern on the surface of the ocean while all the while tethered down way below the tossing wave.

And notice how freely you can play on the surface while remaining calmly aware that deeper down there is no way that you could be moved.

Yes,

You're immovably sound in this moment.

Take a look around you.

All is bright.

All is clear.

All is secure and serene.

Allow your belly to expand and contract,

Bringing in the sea air,

Delight and potent,

Salty to your taste,

Fresh to your sinus.

And now feel the edges of the boat.

Run your hands along its surface,

Its metal parts,

Its wood parts,

Its rubber parts,

Whatever you envision.

Let your hands play along the surfaces until they become as real to you as your own fingers touching the surface.

Notice the breadth of the boat.

Notice its width and its depth and what materials you have decided it would be fashioned from today.

Notice the color of your vessel.

And now give it a name.

What name suits this boat?

What feels just so right to you as captain of the ship?

And now notice what is it that compels your vessel?

Does it have a motor?

Does it have an oar?

Does it have a paddle for your feet?

Just how is this boat engineered to create an experience of the perfect day?

And now notice where you are in your environment.

How low do the clouds feel?

How many animals are around you,

Curiously coming closer and closer?

Look down into the water and see the creatures just accepting your boat as part of this grand environment.

No one is threatened.

Everyone in this scene is calm,

Curious,

And secure.

Do you want to be alone on your trip?

Or would you rather have a guest beside you?

It's your trip.

You decide.

And as you begin to fashion this part of your inner world,

And once the pieces are all gently coming into focus,

Let's shift our gaze now to something really truly practical.

From the perspective of relaxation,

Begin to notice that if you can feel both tethered and free,

And if you can feel both deep and light,

There's no reason why you cannot also feel true sensations in your daily life with no threat to your safety.

And is it possible that you might be able to pass through a stress,

A moment of real difficulty while still feeling deeply tethered down below?

And is it possible that you could feel deep joy in the midst of sorrow?

Is it safe for you to push your body to the limits and also know that you can trust yourself to stop?

Go ahead now and fashion a picture in your own mind of something represented by this bobbing light boat,

This long tethering cord below the boat,

And the anchor keeping you soundly secure down at the base of the ocean.

Allow a metaphor to come to you,

Taking shape in word,

Feeling,

Thought,

And whatever happens,

Happens,

As you continue to feel two things at once,

The boat free and the anchor firm.

And now,

Shall we take two specific emotions and try them on for size simultaneously now.

Taking a fresh breath,

Expand your belly and now relax it back towards your ribs,

Towards your spine.

Inhale and expand your belly,

And as you relax your belly back down to neutral,

Continue breathing calmly.

Allow yourself to really feel a feeling that most times you would push away.

Now is a good time to safely feel,

And all the while,

Notice that you are still tethered and anchored firmly in place.

There is a deep abiding sense that all will be well.

This firm incorruptibility down below roots you,

Sustains you,

And allows you to drift on the surface and let the emotion come.

Feel it fully and allow that wave to pass.

With every wave comes the knowledge that this emotion too shall pass.

You've done so well with this today,

My friend.

Before we head back towards the shore,

Is there a metaphor for you to retrieve?

Go ahead and take it now,

Put it somewhere safe,

Where you'll never forget the lesson you've retrieved from this exercise.

Now let's begin to pull up the anchor,

Reeling it in.

As the anchor rises,

Soft cloud of silty sand comes up into the water.

40 feet and 30 feet,

20 and 10 as your anchor rises,

So does your conscious awareness of the sound of my voice.

The anchor hits the side of the boat and enters into it in its own special cavity designed for the anchor.

You might want to see pulling the anchor up over the side and resting it in the bottom of the boat.

Whatever feels just right to you.

Step ahead and finish securing the anchor in the boat and now turn your vessel round towards the shore.

Conscious awareness and your daily life moving back towards the shore all over your experience and how you might in everyday life be able to sense a depth,

A security while also bobbing and weaving throughout unpredictability and the unknown.

It is healthy to be able to feel multiple things within your own physical vessel at the same time without triggering an alarm.

And so I invite you now as you step out onto the shore to think realistically about the very next opportunity you might encounter.

Hold these two states in your body at the same time.

The sensation of being firmly incorruptible and the sensation of a passing emotion.

Our journey has come to an end for now.

Let's stretch our arms up towards the sun and rotate our necks very gently.

Twist and bend at the waist and move one arm up over your head towards the other ear at a time,

Shifting your weight around to help wake you and bring you back to focus.

Take time before you finish with this exercise to write down just a bit about the metaphor or the deeper meaning that your unconscious mind might have delivered up to you from the depths.

Well done my friend.

Well done.