Remember the movie Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome? Where our hero Max seeks shelter in a post-apocalyptic world, fought endless power struggles, banished to a desert wasteland while trying to help children find “Tomorrowland”? If I close my eyes I can hear Tina Turner’s haunting lyrics:
Out of the ruins, out of the wreckage, can’t make the same mistakes this time
Living under the fear, till nothing else remains, looking for something we can rely on
Will our story shine like a light or end in the dark? We don’t need another hero…
Life resembles that apocalyptic thriller: hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, devastating wildfires, sexual misconduct, and predatory behaviors. The anxiety and fear we thought we’ve learned to handle, emotions we’ve bottled-up can no longer be ignored. We think we have to turn off the news because we just can’t take anymore. We wonder, ‘where do I begin, how can I possibly make a difference? Or we may feel guilty for having so much while others have lost everything. Thoughts and emotions churn until we are on sensory overload. And then our hearts close down as we move into protection mode. Yet it doesn’t seem to help and that’s because the chaos isn’t out there: it lives within ourselves. We need a new way to disengage without numbing out. But how?
We forget that we are the hero in our lives. We have the ability to heal ourselves because the power to heal lies within our hearts, within our soul. The greatest protection we have is love, but to access that power requires us to open our hearts and own what we feel. Whatever is ‘out there’ has triggered something that already lives ‘in us’. That acknowledgment lowers the armor of self-preservation. Rather than brace ourselves, we need to soften and to feel our discomfort in order to find emotional balance. That’s the first step towards healing. It’s not about closing down or pushing away. It’s about accepting what is good and bad within ourselves and holding that space with equanimity. Never an easy task, but we do have help from the Spirit realms in reigniting the noble flame of compassion, understanding, and love.
Let me share a quick and effective visualization I offer clients as a way to start shedding that armor and draw in the light and healing we need.
When you feel fear– in your mind or body– stop and disengage by taking several deep breaths. It may feel forced at first: just breathe in through the nostrils and into the belly- then exhale through the mouth, feeling the belly soften as air escapes. Do this for several moments until you find a rhythm that feels comfortable.
As you do this, as you become aware of the feelings and emotions that are unsettling, imagine a beautiful rainbow. A rainbow that holds more colors than you’ve ever seen: where there is an infinite range of hues that fluctuates. Let your consciousness move into your heart and intuitively draw in one color that feels fluid, that feels alive — and begin to draw it into your body. Don’t think- just feel, breathe, and continue to envision that color moving into your body.
Feel the earth beneath your feet; feel the color flow through you and notice how you feel as you drink in this light. Breathe in that color and you may find you become that color: that you no longer exist, someone has erased the edges of you: you are this fluid, warm, radiant, beam of light.
Once you feel you can’t hold any more of this color, that you are totally saturated- that you are as ‘blue as you can be, or as pink as you can be’, let that color go and bring your focus on your breath and heartbeat.
Now as you breathe, imagine drawing in a color that outlines your body; a color that feels good, that complements the light you already are. Breathe in and literally outline your form with the light. Just as you did when you were a kid, color the outside of you. Focus on that color, seal yourself within — fingers, toes, head; until all of you is outlined with this brilliant color you’ve drawn down from the rainbow. Hold it, then, breathe and let it go. Open your eyes and scan your body. Notice how it feels, what is open, more fluid: what still might feel tight.
This how I teach protection to clients. Protection is never about pushing anything or anyone away because in the moment of ‘push’ you are opening yourself up to fear and draw fear to you. When I push away something I believe is harmful, I feel that fear and actually draw it into my vibration. With this exercise, of focusing on the color(s) that feels right for you, you are allowing this healing to attend to the denser emotions of fear and anxiety. Your experience of ‘what feels good’ is positive, and you feel clean and refreshed.
You can meditate this way for 10-15 minutes a day: draw in the color that feels like ‘you’ at that moment, drink it in, and then outline with the second ray of light.
When you are out in the world and feel distressed and unsettled pause and take a few deep breaths to disengage. Then, draw down into your body the color that you used to outline your body. Focus just on the color’s fluid vibration and outline yourself. This keeps you open, permeable, to Source energy and allows that high vibration to envelop you: nothing that is heavy or dense will enter your field. Remember: it is a color that feels good, complete, soothing.
These are the first steps to a truer understanding of what it means to energetically open to love: to allow love’s high vibration to transmute low-level vibrations. In love’s vibration, there is no longer us versus them, good versus bad.
I will discuss the energetics of this in another post but for now, give yourself an opportunity to meditate in this way, to explore your colors. This will help you cultivate your authentic self, the hero/heroine, that radiates love and light into our world.
Try this, and if you feel so inclined, let me know how it works for you.
Blessings,
Rosa