Forgiving The Shadow With Victorious Breath

When our powers are repressed by fear, they do not just disappear. The rejected content manifests as a destructive shadow form (paraphrased from ‘New Money For A New World’ by Bernard Leitear & Stephen Belgin, Qiterra Press). And so we hold our unwanted feelings and actions in compassion. We are honest about them as best we can be and know we did our best, even if our best wasn’t that great on that day. Ujjayi breath, victorious breath assists the integration. Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash

Transcript

Let's make ourselves comfortable. Planting ourselves towards the back of our chair. Putting our legs somewhere they can be still. Feet planted if possible. Our arms resting, Hands in our lap if that's comfortable. But we'll take one or two deeper breaths as we bring our attention inwards. And next time we inhale let's get a tiny bit taller lifting our spine. And when we exhale softening into our seat. So there's plenty of room for our chest, Plenty of room for our breath. And our shoulders are comfortable. And our face is relaxed. A little bit alert, A little bit relaxed. And we'll take a few moments with our natural breath. And we're just observing the breath. And allowing it to slow as the demands of the world are switched off. So hopefully we become a little more relaxed, The breath slows, The heart rate slows. And we can watch that happen. Breath comfortable, Natural. Excuse me. If your mind wanders just come back without criticism, Without making another story that your mind wanders off into. So now we're feeling a little bit quieter, Let's have a go at our ujjayi breath. So we're going to make a slight contraction in our throat, Just like you would do if you were huffing on your glasses to clean them. So which makes your breath a tiny bit audible. So we still continue to breathe through the nose if possible. But there's a slight sound in the throat. So we'll have a go at that now, See if we can find it. If you're not too sure have a go at huffing on your glasses and see how your throat feels, How you make the hh sound. So when we found it. Slight sound of the ocean, It's also known as ocean breath. It shouldn't be very audible, It should only be audible to you, So we're not making masses of noise. We're going to let the breath be comfortable, Listen to the breath flowing in and out of the body. And feel the breath. And we'll do that for another minute, I'll mind the time. And let the shoulders, Let the body be comfortable. I don't want to be gripping too hard. Excuse me. I'm releasing that breath practice, Seeing how we feel. I'm going to evaluate it to see if it's a useful practice for us. The book says it's calming, What's our experience? So suitably relaxed, We're going to begin to hold our shadow in love. So only our personal shadow, We're not going to deal with the collective, Because that's too much. We start with ourselves and that is our contribution to the collective, Heal yourself and the collective is healed a fraction. So you might like to open your hands so you can hold those bits of you that you don't like. And gesture, Showing that we are open to welcome these parts of us that have been pushed into the unconscious. The bits of us that aren't socially acceptable and we don't want to feel that we ignore. In a very relaxed manner, Relaxed body, Relaxed mind. Let's see if we can hold them. In a general sort of theoretical sense we're willing. A good first step, Be willing. And we may bring to mind an occasion when we have experienced one of those feelings, Actions, Beliefs that we don't like, That we don't want to be. Doesn't have to be a big thing. It's maybe the way we spoke to someone we're not proud of. We can use that as an example. Can we sit with that uncomfortable for a moment? Let's see if we can bring some compassion to our own experience of that difficult situation. It is fear that drives these feelings underground into the unconscious. Fear causes our power to be repressed and it does not just disappear. The rejected content instead manifests in the destructive shadow form. So our shadow is formed by fear. In this instance in the example that you record, Is there fear involved? Are you afraid of a particular outcome you don't want? And can we forgive ourselves for our loss? Offering ourselves compassion as well as if there's another person involved. Doing our best, Even if that wasn't all that great on that day. And when we practice in this way allowing and forgiving difficult moments, Difficult feelings, We take a step towards integration, Allowing this stuff to come into the light. Taking a step towards wholeness and health. So when we feel those difficult feelings next time, Instead of rushing off into our dysfunctional destructive actions, Maybe we hold those difficult feelings in our hands. We breathe, Maybe we even use the chai breath. And we face up here and we grow. If you bring forth what is within you, What you bring forth will save you. If you don't bring forth what is within you, What you do not bring forth will destroy you. Words of Jesus clearly knew about this process of healing and wholeness. And when we feel those difficult feelings we care for ourself, Look after ourself, Love ourselves through them until we can get up again and start again. And when we consider the vast collective shadow that humanity is currently facing, Possibly for the first time in the strongest way, We may choose that the healing, The integration and the wholeness may it begin with me. Ah, Taking a deeper breath, Straightening the spine, Softening the shoulders. Let's rest for a few moments with the Ujjayi breath, With the sound of the ocean breath, And with our victory, Our integration of our shadow. Ah, So so releasing the breathing practice. Excuse me, And noticing how we feel. And slowly preparing to return to the external world, Remembering to keep one eye on our internal world as we do so. So taking a few deeper breaths and starting to move the body, Arms and legs, Hands and feet, Bring a little wiggle, A little stretch as we gradually return to our waking state. Thank you for practicing with me.