A guided meditation using a parable about a woman fleeing her shadow to teach acceptance of difficult emotions you habitually reject. The practice walks you through identifying your most challenging emotional state, then offering it simple phrases of greeting and acceptance to build daily contact with disowned feelings.
There was a woman who was so disturbed by the sight of her own shadow and so displeased with her own footsteps that she determined to get rid of both. The method she hit upon was to.
Run away from them.
So she got up and ran. But every time she put her foot down, there was another step while her shadow kept up with her without the slightest difficulty. She attributed this feeling of failure to the fact that she was not running fast enough. So she ran faster and faster without stopping, until she finally dropped dead. She finally realized that as she merely stepped into the shade, her shadow would vanish. And if she sat down and stayed still, there would be no more footsteps.
Now, I'm someone who doesn't like poetry.
Or things that are a little abstract.
So I'm actually going to explain what that means for those that that might be a little vague. And especially the part about stepping into the shade. The essence of this is that we all are running away from looking at our most challenging emotional state. This is just the universal 98% human condition. And we're hoping to upgrade that 2% and become part of that 2.5% by joining this and by stepping in the shade. The way I interpret it is that we're becoming aware of what our shadow is, which by shadow it means our human emotional side that we're not admitting and that we're accepting it, and that we're learning how to actually bring some kind of loving kindness and strength towards that shadow. And that's our primary life work. And that instead of continuously running. And I consider running being committed to blaming the other person doing it first, whether that's a student or our partner or otherwise. And it just becomes an endless encouragement of I really want to admit my emotional state to myself and I want to be aware of it and kind towards it and learn how to transform that into some sense of well being. And that is my life commitment. So that's what that means to me. So I would like to suggest that you start this meditation either with your eyes closed or open as you see fit, and allow yourself to just notice what your reaction is just to being asked to do a meditation. Are you experiencing that as a demand, an invasion, an invitation, a joy, a peace? And just be aware of your starting point. What is the feeling state that arises as you're even asked or encouraged to go inside yourself and look at your own state of being and just take a few moments to contact your feeling state as to whether it's really more of a coming home or really feels more like an invasion and then just allow yourself to see if it's possible to just stay open, no matter what feeling state you started from. And ask yourself the question, what is the deepest emotional state? Throughout the course of my life that's likely to be continuing, that I find most difficult to love, that I find most worthy of rejection or hiding. And as you're looking, recognize that it takes great courage to locate and become aware of the state that you so far in this life have banished. And that this state is one that could be something like anxiety, loneliness, emptiness, meaninglessness, no oneness, anger, inadequacy, insecurity, helplessness, disconnection, and whatever words that you just heard. Allow yourself to be guided just to your words, not to these words necessarily, but just to whichever state of being is hardest for you to really bring your warmth to, your kindness, to your acceptance to. And if you're someone who's much more likely to come up with five or six states, try to narrow it down to one or two. And if you're someone who, who is likely not to be able to find any emotional states, then allow yourself to just be appreciative that you're looking to be honest and know that you have been given a resource to look at a number of possible states that will help guide you to where you might be. And recognize that being aware of this state allows for the possibility of you to most open your heart. Because if you are rejecting yourself, if you aren't able to bring love and acceptance to this state, it's going to make you uptight, it's going to make you more defended, it's going to make you more removed from yourself, and it's going to make you more removed from those around you. And just see if you can not only identify what this state is, say hello to us. Just some version of hello, inadequacy. I see you. I accept that you're here, it's okay, that you are a part of my existence, and appreciate that this is something that you can do every day, possibly even every hour. You can be in contact. You can be in contact with your most challenged emotional state. And the purpose for being in contact is because you want to bring acceptance and kindness and love towards us. So just allow yourself to say whatever words would convey. I accept you, I see you, or I'm starting to accept you, or I want to accept you, I want to have the courage to see you, because I recognize that if I don't see you, it's going to lead to a chain, to a whole chain of emotions that are very likely to make me and those around me less at peace, less fulfilled in their life. So again, just appreciate that you want to contact and be aware of your most challenged emotional state and reassure yourself that the purpose for this is to bring acceptance and kindness and love towards it. Even if you can't do that, just knowing that you want to is an act of peace. It's an act of integration. It's an act of humility. And as much as you're ready for make the suggestion, I want to stay in contact with this state of being as much as possible. And when you're ready, just let yourself just come back, see what's just here.
