Close your eyes and take three slow,
Deliberate breaths.
Just let your body settle and feel your feet flat on the floor.
You are here,
Right here,
Nowhere else.
Now I want you to bring to mind something from your past that you're still holding onto.
Just let something surface.
Don't force it.
You don't have to edit it.
Whatever comes up first is usually the thing that needs some attention.
Now I want you to look at it.
Look at that thing.
What meaning have you given to this?
What story have you built around it?
What does this event or experience say about you,
About other people and about what's possible?
Now I want to ask you to ask yourself,
What if that meaning isn't the only one available?
Not in a way that pretends that it didn't happen,
But in a way that finds something true in it that you haven't been able to see yet.
You might say there could be a lesson in this.
You could say that this experience or what you're looking at is a turning point,
Something that looks less like a wound and more like a doorway.
You don't have to force this.
Just make yourself available to it.
Ask the question and just wait.
Take a breath.
Allow yourself to just be.
Once again,
You don't have to do anything about this.
Now I want you to bring up an expectation you're holding about the future.
Something that you're gripping.
What is that thing?
Feel the weight of that grip.
What is that grip feeling?
Once you get it,
What is that gripping feeling and where does it live in your body?
Just take the time right now to really identify where that gripping feels in your body at this thing about the future.
Now ask yourself,
What am I really afraid of losing if this doesn't go the way I need it to?
Let me say that again.
Ask yourself,
What am I really afraid of losing if this doesn't go the way I need it to?
Now ask yourself,
What if I loosened this grip?
It doesn't have to be all the way but just a little.
If you loosened that grip on this future thing.
And what if you kept the intention but released the demand that it arrive in a specific form by just loosening your grip a little bit.
Take a deep breath.
Feel what it feels like to just loosen that grip about the future.
Now I'd like you to bring up something from your specialness anchor.
The cross that you carry.
Something about the story about who you are that you need people to understand.
How special you are because this thing is so important about you.
And if you can't find a specific thing,
Think about how individual you are that you want people to understand about you.
And this thing is very familiar to you.
This special thing,
This special quality,
You have been carrying it around usually your whole life.
Now I want you to ask yourself,
What would it feel like to walk into a room without that story,
Without that special thing?
We're not talking about erasing your history.
Just to set that cross down for a moment,
That special thing.
And to show up without needing to be understood about that thing first.
What would that feel like?
Take a deep breath and see what would it feel like if this special thing that's so important to you,
You didn't have when you walked into a room.
Remember,
We don't have to do anything about these things.
And finally,
Bring up a fear.
One of the real ones.
A fear that you have.
Think about it for a moment.
And as I said before,
Usually it's the first one.
You can just work with that.
And that fear,
Let it just be present without trying to fix that fear or dismiss that fear.
Can you just look at that fear directly?
Can you face that fear right now?
In the past,
You probably wanted to get away from that fear or change that fear or to control that fear.
But look at it.
Be with it.
Good.
Because the truth is,
Fear loses a lot of its power when you stop running from it.
And is there any way,
Any way at all,
To bring even a small amount of curiosity to this thing you've been fearing?
Not to pretend it isn't scary.
Just add another ingredient.
Curiosity.
To be a little curious about that fear.
You're not pretending that you're not scared.
But just be a little bit inquisitive about this thing that seems to scare you.
Just be with that for a moment.
And take a big,
Deep breath.
You can even take a couple more breaths right now.
Good.
Feel your feet on the ground again.
Feel the air going in and out of your lungs.
And feel yourself back in the room where you are.
And when you're ready,
You can open your eyes.
