One thing I have been doing somewhat more consistently since the start of isolation almost 3 weeks ago is meditation… meditating is quite hard for me, cause I have an overactive mind and A LOT of mental chatter. Whenever I have to visualize something, my mind races ahead and starts producing hundreds of images, so even a simple ‘fill yourself with light’ exercise can take me ages because I get distracted so easily. I found one thing that really helps me, which is a weird combination of the rosebud Aes Sedai technique from Wheel Of Time (yeah, I take advice from fantasy books, whatever) and the ‘center and ground’ method from Wiccan spell-casting.
A couple of things, before I can explain how this is useful or relevant to me…I have a tattoo around my sternum and solar plexus depicting a lotus flower encased in some geometrical shapes. I had this done last year before I actually started meditating, solely because I liked it aesthetically, but the more I read about meditation, energy and so on, the more I realized it was kinda the perfect place for it.
The rosebud technique I was mentioning before is a meditation method taught to female channels in Wheel of Time to show them how they have to achieve calm and acceptance before they can embrace saidar (ie. the ‘force’ or magical power which exists in this fantasy world). Beginners are guided and told to imagine a rosebud slowly opening, until they can ‘be’ the rosebud, slowly opening themselves to accept the magic and use the flows.
The ‘center and ground’ method instead is something you should do before casting a circle or a spell in Wicca, and basically consists of imagining a tendril of energy bearing down from the center of your body into the Earth - when you have this energy connection firmly set in your mind you can use it to either ‘recharge’ yourself or get rid of extra energy if you’re buzzing.
As I was mentioning before, it’s hard for me to get in the right mindset to meditate, because my mind is constantly filled with images, seemingly incapable of focusing on one. What I’ve been doing for the past couple of weeks is to start with the rosebud, only it’s not a rosebud, it’s a lotus flower. Not just some lotus either, it’s a depiction of a lotus flower identical to the tattoo on my belly. I imagine complete darkness, and in this darkness, a white lotus starts blossoming. When it’s fully open, slim white tendrils start growing underneath it, all resembling the geometric shapes of my tattoo.
When I have this image firmly set in my mind’s eye, I see it coming towards me, laying itself perfectly on top of the real tattoo on my body like in the second image (swipe). This way the tendril of energy that was part of the imaginary lotus becomes attached to the ‘real’ me and I find myself merging with the level of concentration it took me to imagine the flower in the first place.
I wanted to write this post cause I often feel frustrated when I try meditating like traditional methods don’t work on me. I’m not saying we have to rediscover the wheel every time we can’t make something work immediately, a lot of the times it’s just a matter of sticking with it and practice long enough - BUT, sometimes merging traditional methods and bend them slightly to make them work for you can be a solution. After I’ve started with this little ‘trick’ I then continue on with the guided meditation I’m listening to, so this is just to get me in the right frame of mind, but it’s been quite effective!