2020 has been a challenging year, and I’m sure most of us have taken on lots of additional stress, or fear, or anger as the year has gone on. All those feelings are valid and an important part of being human and part of a larger society. But negative feelings can accumulate like anything else if they’re not dealt with. And as they accumulate they take a negative toll on our health.
A further challenge for many UUs and Pagans is that we’re often in the ranks of those fighting for social justice issues. And this work by its nature causes us to take on, not just our own negative emotions, but also those of whom we’re fighting for. This social justice work is crucial. This means that we’re going to be regularly exposed to these negative emotions, and need to be sure we’re releasing them when they no longer serve us. If not, the work wears us down to the point of physical exhaustion, and illness, if we keep pushing ourselves.
So taking time periodically to make a point of releasing any accumulated negative emotions or energy will help you with your physical and emotional health, and will also allow you to make room for the positive emotions and energy we would rather be filled with. It is that energy we want to bring to our lives and our social justice work!
I wrote this meditation to help you visualize the process of letting go (negative energy/emotions), taking in, and sending out (love and light). And I encourage you to make this a regular practice – monthly, seasonally, daily if you need it for a time – letting go of your negative energy and filling yourself with light.
You can print this meditation right from my blog (sharing links are at the bottom of every post) to refer back to if you’d like to try it again (or, if you’d like to save the paper, you can email a copy to yourself). And I’m hoping sometime this fall to post a recording of it that people can access at will.
I usually recommend meditating in a comfortable chair with a back that isn’t too soft, and allows for your feet to touch the ground. Sit with your legs uncrossed, feet flat, and hands in your lap, if that’s comfortable.
Get comfortable in whatever chair you are seated in. With your hands lying quietly in your lap, gently lengthen your spine by imagining a string pulling you lightly upward from the crown of your head. Drop your shoulders and lengthen your neck. As you lengthen, also reach downward with your tailbone. Imagine your tailbone sending roots down to the earth that gently tug your spine downward.
Begin to focus on your breathing. As you inhale, breathe from your stomach – belly button expanding outward – and fill your lungs. As you exhale imagine the roots from your spine, reaching down, deep into the soft, warm earth.
As you inhale, breathe up the earth’s cleansing energy into your body, and as you exhale allow your thoughts and tension to flow out of you through your roots and into the earth to be transformed. Continue this cycle of deep breathing from your belly throughout the meditation.
Once you are in a comfortable rhythm with your breathing, draw your attention to your body and the places you regularly hold tension. As you work to release this, allow your mind to lightly touch on the sources of your physical tension. Have you been carrying around fear in your back? Anger in your shoulders and neck? Stress and worry on your face or in your stomach?
Acknowledge these feelings – thank them for filling their necessary task of keeping you alert and aware. Then, commit fully to letting them go. Know that they will be back at some point, and that’s ok. You don’t have to keep them – you can let in, and let them flow back out when they no longer serve you. You are safe. It’s ok to let go of these feelings – you need space for lighter things.
To fully let go of this negative energy, gather it all together. See the energy as dark, smoky tendrils wherever you keep your tension and seek it out.
Gather all of them and bring them together. In your mind’s eye, see this sphere of negative energy just above your solar plexus, your stomach, and know that you don’t need to keep it – it is within your power to let it go.
Draw a deep breath in, and as you exhale, push your sphere of negative energy out of your body. On your next inhale intentionally draw in light with your breath.
And on your next exhale see that sphere of negative energy dissipate, now that it is outside your body. It has no more power over you, it has been dispelled by the light. Draw in more light as you inhale again, letting the light flood your body. Be aware of the space that the light is filling – the empty spaces where negative energy and tension were stored.
Linger in this emptiness – this spacious part of you that is at peace and ease.
Continue to breathe deeply from your belly. Now draw to your mind’s eye all the beings in this world that you are closest to. See them and feel the love you have for them filling you up. Let it into all that beautiful space that you’ve created – shining its own light and filling you with warmth.
This feeling of love, warmth and light – it is yours, and it is yours to give. And the more of it you give away, the more it will continue to refill and replenish you, for that is the nature of love and light.
Let this beautiful light spill now from your heart, let it pour from your heart, and surround your loved ones. See them bathed in this beautiful light you have sent them and see also that you are connected to them by this light.
Now overflow your heart more, and let your love and light flow along these lines of connected energy beyond your loved ones into their loved ones. See how you are connected to a vast community of people joined by love. This connection is real, and it is always there.
Take a moment to bathe in the light that connects you to all these beautiful beings.
Now expand your heart further and let your love and light shine out along these lines to all the beings who share our planet. Surround and fill them with light so their burdens may be lightened.
And see how your light has joined you in a vast, interconnected web to all of life on Earth. This joining too is real – life on Earth truly is interconnected.
As you remain connected in this web of love and light, know that you are tapping into the love others feel for you. In sending out your own love and light there is no depletion or fatigue, just an endless, pulsing web of light along which love and joy flow to and from each of us.
See this web in your mind’s eye. Feel it. Know that you can tap into this energy – this giving and receiving of love – any time you want. It is always there for you. This interconnectedness means that no one is truly alone – we can reach out and connect energetically with others.
Come back to this practice of clearing energy as often as you need to so that you may be filled with love and light, and so that light may spill out of you as a beacon for the world to see and be guided by.
Now, begin bringing your consciousness back to your body. Wiggle your toes, rub your hands together lightly, and, when you are ready, open your eyes.
Meditation is a wonderful practice that can help us achieve important changes in our minds and bodies. But it’s easy to feel disconnected from that work during the day-to-day of our busy lives. To help you stay connected, or to reconnect to this work, you can use a mantra or an affirmation. A mantra is a sound, word, or phrase used to aid your focus while meditating. It can also be used as a touchstone to bring you back to the feeling you cultivated during meditation. Or you can use your mantra or affirmation as a jumping-off point for doing this or similar work in the future.
Take a few minutes to either write or draw a mantra or affirmation for yourself – something that you can keep near at hand to remind you of your ability to be filled with love and light. Or something that reminds you of your connectedness with others through love and light. It could be a symbol, a picture, a word or a phrase.
To aid this process, focus on the feeling of spaciousness and light that you cultivated during this meditation – are there words or images that come to mind? What about the feeling of sending love and light out to the world, what can remind you of this process?
Possibilities:
I am whole, I am filled with light.
I am a beacon of love and light for the world.
I am interconnected with all life on earth.
So Mote It Be.