Mind - Mazes
Sometimes—regardless of how much we journal, how much time we block off for mindfulness meditation, how long of a walk we go for, how many hours of sleep we get, how many times we are shown love or kindness from our friends and family—we still find ourselves back where we started. We are faced, yet again, with the wild beast we could have sworn we tied up at the bend around the previous corner. We are once again confronted with an old pattern, reaction, or circumstance.
What I’m learning is that, those old roads and paths do not ever go away. However, through mindfulness practices we do find it easier to recognize when we are on those old paths, and thus easier to exit them and take different turns within the maze. After a while we may even start to master the map that we’ve created, but it takes practice.
This week, another mindfulness practice, although this one is a touch more advanced because it assumes you, kind reader, have a base knowledge of the four essential points in the practice. It is a method called “STOP”:
S. Stop (literally, pause what you are doing or saying)
T. Take a deep breath (and find where it is in your body)
O. Observe (non-judgmentally)
P. Proceed mindfully (when you’re ready)
For when you find yourself in the maze and need to hit the emergency exit button.
Body - Cravings
If it won’t hurt you, then enjoy the thing (just this once.)
Spirit - Shadows
What happens when light can’t pass through an object? That object casts a shadow. It is just a silhouette—darkness is simply the absence of illumination. Once we realize this, and once we realize it is cast in our shape, then it becomes easier to get curious about it. I move my arm up, the shadow reflects that motion—curious.
Typically, if something traumatic has happened to you, you project things that are scary into the darkness. Those projections collect and over time a creature of our own design emerges. Until we start unpicking those parts, the urges and compulsions expressed by that creature dictate our lives.
And so, the spirit prompt for this week invites you to become more curious about your shadow. Whether that’s by journaling, leaving yourself a voice recording, talking to yourself in the mirror, or whatever it is. Once you get to know this shadow you may realize that the silhouette is made up of silly puppets who just needed you to stop ignoring them and give them a nice cuddle. Heck, you may even become friends with it.
