Day 8 of the 30 day meditation. Stress and Fears.

Right before I awoke, I had a dream that I was walking around a stadium. Next thing I know, I am in an empty locker room, a white tub is filling up with a thick red liquid (guess what that was!), then something that looked like a cross between an Orc from Tolkien's mind, and a vampire began to emerge. It's eyes were a milky gray and it looked like it had dreads, but I can't tell if that was skin, or hair. It had a dark gray skin, a pointy chin and nose, jagged teeth and claw like fingers. Yes, I am a vivid dreamer and while some nights I don't mind, this morning, right before my eyes opened, I did mind.

So what does my dream have to do with a meditation? Well, stress and fears. That icky thing crawling out of the tub could have been a manifestation of my fears and stress. I am a fairly easy going person, but every so often we hit a rough patch and yesterday was one of them. While I feel I handled the majority of the day well, I think pretending that there were no issues with the day just made me bottle them up. This is where I think the meditation for today helps.

I am new to this whole, 'go with the flow' thing. For a long time, I admit, I have had control issues in many parts of my life, after all, if I could control it, then it couldn't hurt me, right? For me, wrong. Who knows what good things I might have shut out of my life while trying to control many aspects of my being, instead of just going with the flow. As I said several posts ago, "you can go with the flow, or drown in the tide." That being said, it seems fitting that part of this mediation takes place on a beach in your mind.

So here is the meditation*: Find a comfy position. Close your eyes. Begin the standard breathing exercise to center yourself and clear your mind. When you are relaxed, open your third eye (located in the center of your forehead) and imagine yourself sitting on a beach. The sand is warm from the sun's rays and it is soft like a pillow. You sink a little into the sand. When you dig your hands in, the sand is cooler beneath the surface, but still soft as it flows through your hands. Now imagine you are digging a hole in front of you...when you feel it is deep enough, breathe in deeply thinking about your stresses and fears, now exhale those stress and fears and imagine the breath is like a heavy gray cloud. This cloud is so heavy that as you exhale it falls right into the hole. Now cover up that hole with the sand, burying the negativity. Do this exercise as often as needed.

I was grateful for this meditation today, because as I was dreaming about that scary demon looking thing, my alarm went off and woke me. In my dream I wasn't so much afraid, as I was wondering what I could do to get rid of this manifestation of stress and fears, but I was awakened before I could handle the situation. Yes, I have moments in my dreams where I am like a cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena, Warrior Princess. ha! Long story short, it was an unnecessary stress that was left unresolved until, like perfect timing, I used that meditation. It was like closure.

Until tomorrow...exhale your stress and fears and live your life to the fullest, you only get one shot with this life, so make it count.

*meditation can be found on Youtube, J Bittersweet channel

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