Savoring The Wisdom Of Your Life Chapters

In this meditation, Lou invites you to reflect on the different chapters of your life and uncover the lessons, beauty, and wisdom each one holds. Through visualization and reflection, you'll explore what you loved, what you couldn't yet see, what you learned, and what you can bring forward into the person you're becoming.

This practice is an invitation to stop seeing the past as something to leave behind and instead integrate the parts of yourself that can support your next chapter.

Transcript

Hello, Welcome. My name is Lou Redmond. Thank you so much for practicing with me. Today is going to be a meditation to hopefully really open up a sense of integration between who you have been, Who you are now, And who you want to become. And the way that we're going to do that is by exploring different chapters of your life. I'm gonna take you through an exercise where you're gonna find lessons and also see how you can bring some of that chapter into your life now. And the reason we're doing this is this is some personal work that I've been doing as I enter this new chapter of my life, This new identity of fatherhood and a new iteration of my work. I've been reflecting on who I was a decade ago when I started and these different chapters from when I was coming up to a taste of expansion and a little recalibration or fall that I've had in the last couple of years. Really distilling the lessons for me and it's been fun to just name those chapters to really see my life almost like I'm seeing as a book and as a story and realizing that the power that we have is that we are all creators, We are all authors. We all have authority over our life, Our book, The chapters that we are writing and what's beautiful about seeing that is like we can actually look at a past chapter and we can rewrite Because we can rewrite the meaning that we give it. We can shift how we're perceiving it now. And again, We can take some lessons that maybe we weren't seeing at the time. And that's what this meditation is going to help you do. You are going to pick chapters and you can use this as your whole life maybe. You can expand the time frame to as big or as small as you like. The way that I did it was I use the time frame of after having my own spiritual awakening and leaving my job and pursuing this path. Yours might be a little bit different. Maybe you frame it to when I was in my 20s to my 30s to my 40s. It could be any time frame. For me, It was typically around four to three years that I used this exercise where I changed different chapters or I saw shifts. But again, Make this your own and the prompts that we're going to be going through. And so as we go through these I'll just set up the prompts now so they're not brand new when you hear them for the first time. But we're going to have you title the chapter as you connect with it in this meditation. And then I'm going to give you four prompts. I'm going to have you explore what I loved about this time was. What I didn't see at this time was. . . Looking back, The biggest lesson was. . . What I can take from this time and bring into this wiser version is. And so enough preamble, Let us get into this meditation so that you can really honor your past, Feel into what you're wanting to create, The chapter you are writing right now, And how you can fully step into this, Not as leaving the past behind and going forward, But as integrating some of the past and bringing the beauty with you to become more whole, Wise, Integrated, And to live the life that you want to live. Alright, Go ahead and close your eyes. Come into your body. Allowing your shoulders to relax and finding a few breaths to settle you. And slow you down. There's going to be a lot of prompting. And I encourage you to really just let it wash over you. You can have time to reflect and write about it after if you'd like. But for now, Give yourself permission to not have to get this right or perfect to really go on this journey. Go on this journey that is your life. And so just taking another moment to relax any tension that you might notice in your body. Letting the jaw muscles relax. And then begin to imagine that you are rummaging through your house and you come upon a book. That looks really special that you haven't noticed in your house before. And as you pick up the book, You realize that this is the book of your life. First hold it. Sense the immensity. Sense how really it can't be put into words. So just feel the ineffability of your life. What comes up as you hold it. And then before we open it to go into a chapter, Take a moment to decide where would be most serving to explore. We'll probably only get a chance to explore a few chapters. So where do you want to begin? What do you want to go back to? What is a chapter of your life that feels like the place to start? And go ahead and open the book to this chapter. And noticing what's the title. And you might even just go into the page and explore what was happening in this chapter of your life before a title comes. And just taking in what this chapter was like going back into some of those experiences that come up. The people that were in your life, The things that you were doing. Remember to breathe. And then I'm going to offer those prompts. And just see if there's anything that comes as we slow down. What I loved about this time was. Let's see if you can find the appreciation you have for this chapter. What I didn't see at this time was. . . So this could be shadows, Things that you couldn't see, Both positive and negative. Maybe you could see you had so much more power than you gave yourself credit for. Maybe you could see you were really naive. What I didn't see at the time was. And then looking back, The biggest lesson was. . . Can you distill a core lesson from this time? What I can take from this time and bring into this wiser version is. So what would you like to take and integrate into this new chapter or into this new mature version you are now? Maybe it is the boldness you had or the playfulness you had. What do you want to take with you? And then for a moment, Come back out of the chapter, Come back out of the book. Again, You're holding it in your hand, So you're not in the pages. Taking a breath in. Out. And then we're going to do that again, This time go ahead and open the book to the next chapter that you want to explore. Ideally one that came after this chapter. Go ahead and open the book to this page. Get a sense of what that time of your life was. And then imagine you're stepping into the page into that time. What was its essence? What would you title this chapter? And then as you feel into what this time was like. Answering what I loved about this time was. Just feel that love. What I didn't see at this time was. . . What is revealed to you now? Looking back, The biggest lesson was. . . What I can take from this time and bring into this wiser version of myself is. . . And then slowly start to come back out of that chapter honoring what you just received honoring this part of your life holding the book again. And then we're just going to explore one last chapter before writing the next one. And so again, Open the book, Find whatever the next chapter is, Step back into it, Start taking in what is its essence. What maybe you would title this chapter. What did those years encompass? And then answering what I loved about this time was. What I didn't see at the time was. . . Looking back, The biggest lesson was. . . What I can take from this time and bring into this wiser version is. And then honoring this chapter coming back out of the book. Holding this book in your hands, Sensing all the three chapters that you just explored. Then flipping to the next chapter of your life maybe you're in it but the beauty about ourselves is that we can create the next chapter whenever we'd like. And so you get to decide that. So see what is this next chapter for you. Open it to the blank page. Can you sense what is it called? What are you wanting to step into? How are you signifying its beginning? Can you feel it in your heart? Can you take the integration of the last three, The lessons, And can you bring and integrate them into right now and feel what is it that you're stepping into? What are you not doing anymore? What are you starting to do? Feel it in your body as you imagine this next chapter opening for you. And feel how all those chapters that came before are only gonna help you make this the best chapter of your life so far. And then go ahead and take one last breath in. Letting that go slowly start to open your eyes coming back to your space I know we may have moved through that a little fast, So invitation if you'd like to go through it again. Maybe this time you have a little journal nearby and you write down a little bit more. Maybe just right now you have a good sense of what those lessons were that you can write down. If you want a shorthand for what we did, It was really going through appreciation. What did I love? Revelation. What did I not see? Distillation. What did I learn? And then integration. What can I take with me? Now. And so yeah I'd love hearing what came through for you and what chapter that you are stepping into. So feel free to share. Thank you so much for practicing with me, For moving through this exercise. I encourage you to follow along if you haven't yet. It's the best way to stay updated with new practices, New talks, New courses that I have coming out. So thank you so, So much. And I look forward to connecting with you soon.