Okay,
Welcome everyone.
Today we'll be doing a visualization exercise.
I like to call it Pale Blue Dot,
Based on the photograph of Earth taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 probe from a distance of 6 billion kilometers just before it exited our solar system.
All you'll need to do is follow my instructions and visualize the images I talk you through in as much detail as you can,
Not worrying about whether the image is strong enough or whether it's good enough,
Just accepting that whatever comes up for you is the right thing for this particular session.
So to begin with,
Make sure that you're sitting comfortably,
On a chair or on a cushion on the floor,
Both are fine.
Closing your eyes and settling into the session,
Maybe just checking in with the state of the mind.
Is there busyness,
Distractedness,
Lethargy in the mind?
Just see what's happening for you in this moment and then we can move away from the mind as we begin the visualization exercise.
So I would like you to visualize or imagine in the mind's eye that you are looking down on your body from a few feet above your head.
It's like you're looking down on the body from a bird's-eye perspective.
Visualize the room that you're in in as much detail as possible,
Really trying to create a nice level of texture in the visual imagery,
But again not worrying if it's not too strong.
Whatever comes up is the right thing for you in this session.
And now we'll just imagine that your viewpoint starts rising upwards,
So as your viewpoint heads up through the roof of the building that you're currently in,
You're now looking down on the building that you're currently located.
The viewpoint heads higher still so the building you're in gets smaller from your perspective.
You can see either the city or the countryside that surrounds you.
Again just imagining this in as much detail as you can.
Your viewpoint heads higher still,
Maybe it heads up through the clouds and through the gaps in the clouds you can see the outlines of oceans and continents.
You head higher out into the atmosphere,
The clouds beneath you get smaller and smaller and the color of the sky is turning a darker and darker shade of blue.
As your viewpoint leaves the boundary of the atmosphere,
The sky turns black and now you're looking back at this beautiful blue orb which is still close enough that it's taking up all of your peripheral vision.
The viewpoint heads further out into space and as it does the earth becomes smaller and smaller until eventually it's just a tiny blue marble far in the distance,
Barely perceptible.
All of human history has played out in this tiny blue orb dangling in the impossible vastness of space.
Take a moment to consider this.
And whilst your viewpoint gazes back at this pale blue dot,
You notice that you're surrounded by the hundreds and billions of stars that exist in our Milky Way galaxy.
All shining brightly you are surrounded by a sea of stars.
Keeping this image of the earth as a tiny blue dot,
Being surrounded by hundreds of billions of stars,
It's worth considering that we live in a galaxy which is estimated to be one of trillions of such galaxies and each of these galaxies is estimated to have hundreds of billions of stars like our own Sun.
In fact some estimates suggest that there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on all of the world's beaches.
Take a moment to consider this.
You may be just considering that against this impossibly vast cosmic backdrop our daily worries,
Our daily concerns,
What's real to us,
Maybe don't have quite as much weight when we consider our insignificance in the greater scheme of things.
Considering our place in the universe in this way can for some people help us get out of our heads which are so usually focused on the I and the self and reminds us that we are just a tiny cog in this impossibly vast cosmic dance.
And now I'll invite you to imagine and visualize the viewpoint heading back towards Earth more quickly than it came outwards.
So the blue dot in the distance gets bigger and bigger until it takes up your entire peripheral vision.
You head back into the Earth's atmosphere and the sky turns blue.
Clouds beneath you start to become bigger and bigger as you head closer in towards the Earth.
You head through the clouds and you can see the roof of the building that you're located in and your viewpoint heads through the roof and now you're back in the room looking down on your body from a few feet above your head.
You can now just drop the visual image,
Connect with the body so getting a sense of the points of connection between your feet and the floor or your legs in the chair,
Becoming aware of the sounds in the room that surround you,
Checking in with the state of your mind once again,
Opening your eyes,
Coming back to the room and congratulate yourself for practicing today.
I really hope you enjoyed the session.
