Welcome to this guided meditation to explore your relationship with anemia.
As always,
Listen to your doctor's advice about how to treat your anemia,
But in the meantime,
Let's consider its spiritual meaning.
Take some time to get comfortable,
Whatever that looks like today.
See if your body needs some movement,
Or if your breath wants anything in particular,
Like a sigh or a yawn.
Let your awareness drop into the ground,
The earth below you,
And acknowledge the land that you are on and your relationship with this land,
This particular part of the world.
Now take a moment to tune in to your experience with anemia.
If you haven't now,
You can focus on present sensations,
Or you might be remembering about what it felt like the last time you had it.
Take a moment to be with the sensations,
Symptoms,
Which usually include a sense of fatigue or weakness.
Listen to your body.
If your body in this state of tiredness,
Exhaustion,
Could speak,
What would it say?
Anemia is essentially a deficiency within the blood,
Which is unable to transport oxygen effectively throughout the whole body.
Spiritually,
The blood is our life essence,
Our vitality,
Our energy and passion.
Take a moment to feel into the following questions and notice what comes up in your body as well as in your mind.
What is your relationship to your life force energy?
Do you feel capable of getting the things done in your life that you want and need to?
Are you connected to your sense of desire?
Are you connected to your sense of power?
Do you feel powerful in your relationships,
Family,
Work?
Anemia is sometimes caused by blood loss.
This can be through menstruation or other means.
Metaphorically,
It's also a bloodletting,
A sacrifice of one's lifeblood,
Sometimes for the benefit of someone else.
Consider the following questions.
Has something happened or been happening that feels like it has sapped your life force?
Do you tend to give a lot to others without pausing to make sure you have enough for yourself?
Is there someone or something asking a lot of you?
Do you allow yourself to feel freely,
Acknowledging and honouring your sadness,
Anger,
Joy,
And so on?
Sometimes anemia is related to stress,
Which in turn affects digestion and our ability to absorb iron and other nutrients into our bodies that can help to make our blood stronger.
Stress and self-care play a role in anemia.
So let's consider the following.
What is your relationship like with food?
Do you notice a correlation between how you eat and how stressed you are?
Do you nourish yourself well,
Especially when you know you're under more stress than usual?
How do you digest the world around you,
Especially when stressful things are happening?
Do you eat your feelings or swallow your feelings down,
Trying to make them go away?
Do you have any digestive aids for that,
Like meditation,
Journaling,
Therapy,
Talking with friends,
And so on?
Has something happened that feels difficult to digest or integrate?
Are you avoiding an experience,
Thought,
Or emotion?
Anemia can often be connected to people-pleasing,
Giving too much,
Not taking the time to self-nourish.
And these can be intergenerational issues,
Not just about you and your life,
But about your family system as well.
So let's consider the following.
Is there a history that you know of,
Of anemia in your family?
Is there a history of the symptoms of anemia in your family,
Which can include exhaustion,
Stress,
Depression,
Lack of motivation?
If you notice that you're repeating a pattern that comes from within your family,
What would it look like to shift away from that pattern?
Medically,
But also emotionally and spiritually.
Now let's just take a moment to feel into what's come up from all these questions.
Noticing what has resonated,
And if there's anything that your system wants you to remember or particularly pay attention to here.
If you resonate with journaling,
You're welcome to write any of this down.
Consider if there's something you need to do or change in order to support the strength of your blood,
Your life force energy,
So that you're no longer sacrificing it or having it sapped away from you.
Do you need to,
For example,
Give more space to your natural emotions,
Finding appropriate ways to express them?
Do you need to say no more often,
Conserving your energy for yourself?
Do you need to work on a people-pleasing tendency that saps your lifeblood?
Or maybe there's a bloodsucker,
A person,
Or a situation in your life that has been metaphorically sucking your life force.
Maybe no answers come today,
And that's just fine.
The body loves to be attended to and listened to,
Even if it can't bring us any insight.
Take a few more moments just to be with it,
Let it talk to you,
And see if there's anything else that wants to come up here.
When you're ready,
Simply say thank you to your body and to yourself for spending this time listening.
Your meditation is complete.
Thank you.
