So let's start by disconnecting from the outer world and coming home to ourselves in our inner world.
We'll bring our attention inward by first focusing on the breath.
Noticing the air coming in through the nostrils and paying attention as we breathe out and the air is released from the body.
Together now let's breathe in through the nose.
And out through the mouth and allowing ourselves to really release and let go with every out breath.
Again here concentrating on the breath,
Noticing in the body wherever you notice the air coming in.
Maybe in the belly,
The esophagus,
The nose,
The nostrils.
And the air leaving,
Releasing,
Letting go.
Today we're going to apply ourselves to an exercise.
We're going to build an energetic boundary.
We do this by using our imagination.
And although it may seem like your thoughts or the visual images in your mind's eye don't have any power.
Trust that everything we experience and respond to in life is what we imagine it to be.
Consider that information comes to us from many different angles through the ears and the eyes through smell and taste and all of our senses.
And that information gets analyzed and processed by our personal computers.
We take this information and then we access our memory banks for references and we infer things based on our history.
What we're familiar with,
What we've been told,
What we hold to be true.
And this process is happening in our heads all day,
Every day.
We are making up our reality.
It is all an imagining.
And so this imagining that we're about to do,
This energetic boundary we're about to create,
It does have power.
Just like everything else we create in our minds and react to and live with and respond to.
You are capable of creating this boundary and living with it in a way that helps you and protects you.
So let's start by coming back to the breath here,
Breathing in.
Now picture a permeable shape or structure of some sort hovering above you.
You notice it slowly lowering itself down around you.
What this looks like will be different for everyone.
You have a choice here.
You get to choose what boundary feels right and real for you.
Maybe it's a jar.
Or maybe it's a big bubble.
Maybe it's a force field.
Or maybe it's powerful rays of light.
Play with your imagination here.
See what feels right.
What comes to mind and what stays with you.
What's important here is that this boundary stops anything from the outside coming in.
And so let's test it.
Breathe into this space.
Picture the boundary surrounding you.
Now let's place someone a couple of feet in front of us.
We notice that they're in a bad mood.
You can see that their energy is off.
They're complaining about their day,
Something that happened to them.
Picture their energy coming towards you but notice it being stopped by your boundary.
It cannot get in.
It cannot affect you.
Play with these images.
See if different types of boundaries have different effects for you.
Maybe one is more powerful than the other.
Maybe you breathe well in one and the other one feels stuffy.
This is what the boundary is for.
Every day we're out in the world.
Other people's energy surrounds us.
So often we take it all in without ever noticing.
And so now every day we set up our boundary by taking a moment to ourselves and picturing it wrapped around us.
And notice that you feel good in here.
You feel alive and filled with energy.
This is a safe space.
It's your bubble.
You have room to breathe in it.
The air comes in and out.
Nothing else gets in.
This is your space to feel,
Act and react however feels right for you.
No one can drain your energy or dump their energy on you because your boundary stops everything from the outside coming in.
I invite you to play with this.
Maybe set a challenge this week.
Make a commitment to take two minutes before you leave the house every day and try on a new boundary.
Try different imaginings on for size.
Bring it back to mind.
Remember,
It's there as you interact with the world around you.
