Lockdown is weird and surreal and you’re wondering how you fit into this odd world right now. Stay in? Go out? Check on your neighbours? Call a friend? Go to work? Don’t go to work? If it’s doing your head in just a little bit right now, that’s ok.
Perhaps you’re one the many who have experienced the death of a loved one or know of people who have experienced this. This is what is happening more and more for me. I am beginning to hear of people who are having to attend virtual funerals unable to be with their loved ones or families. For some isolation really, really sucks right now.
So today with that in mind I would like to bring you a gentle energy exercise. And then tomorrow I will build on this particular one adding in a couple of other ways in which you can use this.
Many years ago I experienced being in a very surreal place. You’ve heard me mention this before, the time that I had Lyme’s disease. I knew that I wasn’t ok. I looked hideous to begin with.
It was more than that though. It was more than the physical skin reaction that I experienced. I was quite literally in a lockdown situation. My body was struggling with the situation it found itself in and didn’t want to be seen, didn’t want to go out and yet there were things I had to do. I had family responsibilities and I had to push on regardless.
I was constantly looking for ways to calm me and the stresses I was experiencing.
The term resilience wasn’t being used like it is now. These days we can’t say that we’re stressed anymore, we have to be working on our resilience mindset.
Well, I don’t know about you but I was anxious, I was overwhelmed and I was stressed. No one could tell me what I should do because no one had experienced Lyme’s disease in the way that I was experiencing Lyme’s disease. My symptoms didn’t ‘fit’ the medical presentation that at that time, so far, had been recorded.
I get that what we are experiencing right now is similar. No one can really tell us what the ‘norm’ is anymore. What we’re experiencing doesn’t fit anything that we’ve experienced, before. There is going to be a new norm, whatever that looks like and sounds like. It will unravel and reveal itself in good time. With hindsight, all sorts of aha moments will merge.
In the meantime we are left with a weird limbo land where there are many folks out there working their socks off and many more of us in doors, still working our socks off, and wondering when it will be safe for us to venture back into the big wide world together. Ok. So let’s do this simple, restful body recharge. When I required something like this I would listen to a Jon Kabat-Zinn body scan meditation and the one sentence in the whole thing that has stayed with me since my time with Lyme’s and chronic fatigue is this one, “If you are breathing, there is more right with you than is wrong with you.”
If you wish to do the exercise then carry on listening. If not then stop here.
Gentle Consciousness Meditation. 1. – a way of connecting with you.
So I now invite you to find a quiet space, get yourself comfortable, sitting or lying down and take a deep breath in. And then sigh it away knowing that if you’re breathing then there is more right with you than is wrong with you.
I invite you to close your eyes as you do this.
Continue to take deep slow breaths as you become aware of your body in the chair or on the bed – the back of your head, your shoulders, your chest, your spine, your hips, your buttocks, your legs, your feet, your arms, your hands, the whole of you.
Touch one hand to your heart area and take a deep breath in and sigh your breath out. Maintain your hand on your heart throughout this and the deep gentle sighing breathing.
Become aware of the edges of you and now expand your energy away from the edges of the physical you to fill the room that you are in – above you, below you, in front of you, behind you, to the left of you and to the right of you. You are everywhere in this moment. And breath.
Expand that energy 10 miles outside of the room that you are in, beyond the chair that your physical body is sat in or the bed that you are lying on.
On now, further – 100 miles – a 1000 miles – 10,000 miles – above you, below you, in front of you, to the back of you, to the right of you and to the left of you. And breath. You are everywhere in this moment and you are safe.
And now expand your energy out into the universe. Soar like you’ve never soared before. In all directions. There are no limits to the energy of you. You are everywhere in this moment.
And now look back at your body. Look back at your heart.
What is required in this moment?
If you could gather anything right now from the infinite energy of the universe what energy would you gather? Just for you. Just for fun. No reason. No justification. Just because it’s there and just because you can.
And breath. Deep breath in and sigh your breath away.
What is the energy that you require right now? The energy of joy, of kindness, of gentleness, of courage, of calm, of adventure?
Gather this energy up, as much as you desire, as it is limitless. This is just for you. This isn’t for anybody else. This is for you to fill your tank, the tank that has been depleted for whatever reason. Fill it up. The universe is delighted that you are doing this. It is delighted to gift this energy to you.
When you’re tank is full, take a look at your heart and smile. As you are smiling begin to come back to your body. Travel across the miles and know that this gentle way of being is available to you at any time you desire it.
Gently come back to your body and the back of your head, your spine, your shoulders, your chest, your abdomen, your hips, your buttocks, your legs, your feet, your arms, your hands, the whole of you.
Take a deep breath in and sigh your breath away. Become present in your space and if you haven’t already done so please open your eyes. Thank you, heart. Thank your breath. Thank your body. Thank your being.
Thank you. Tomorrow we will do this again and I will add in something else.