In the Energy of Love Part 1 we learned how to develop an awareness of of love feels in our physical bodies by remembering and imaging moments where we gave and received love intensely. Since all emotions are energy, they resonate in our bodies in different ways.
Love resonates as an expansive, warm, melting feeling usually in the heart area, solar plexus or abdomen. It feels expansive and big. Of course, there are individual variations. I am hoping that the meditation in the last blog helped you discover how loves feels in your body!
Now we are going to learn how to generate this expansive warm loving energy without needing an external object, condition or image. This is very helpful.
Normally, our emotional state is one of reactivity. When someone is angry at us, we get angry. When someone is loving toward us, we feel loved and are more likely to offer love back. When someone directs negative energy toward us we take it in, feel negative and offer negativity to the world. True freedom is the ability to generate whatever emotion we choose to feel no matter what is happening externally. Of course, this is only possible to a certain degree. We are all human beings living on this planet and there is an external, objective reality. We truly are and will be effected by others and our environment. If there is an earthquake we are going to feel fear. When a loved one dies, we will feel sadness. When someone we care about is angry at us we will notice that.
But within external reality there is much more freedom than most of us are aware of or practice. Its like paddling a kayak down the river. The current of life is very strong, but we can learn to steer our boat more and more the direction we want to go. We can't go upstream very long, or ignore rapids and rocks, but we can use the energy of life to take us where we want to go. We can learn to strengthen our energy field through meditation, chi kung, yoga or many other valid spiritual paths and thereby become a generator of positive love. The more we can generate the energy of love the more we create the circumstances of our emotional reality rather than simply reacting to what is coming toward us on a particular day. This is
FREEDOM!
You can learn to be a generator of love right now as you read this blog. We will begin with the meditation offered last time and move on from there....
-Find a comfortable place to sit where you can feel your feet on the ground. You should be in a quiet, safe environment where you can relax.
-Allow your breathing to become a little
deeper and slower. You can count the inhale and the exhale, making the
exhale 1 count longer e.g., Inhale 1....2.....3....
Exhale.....1....2......3......4.....Use whatever count feels good to you
that slows your breath
-Now, shift your awareness to your physical heart on the left side of your chest
-Breathe into your heart as if your heart had a nose, slowly and gently. Notice any physical sensations that may arise
-Now, remember a time when you felt loved
unconditionally and completely, or if you can't remember this, imagine a
situation. Or...remember a time when you felt love for a person, pet or
community, or activity. Or imagine this.....
-Try to visualize this experience with all
your senses; see it happening, remember the time and place, what you
were doing and who were with, what time of day was it, the weather, your
age. Just stay with it. If the mind wanders (which it most likely
will,)bring it back. Do this for about 5 min.
-Now, scan your body. What do you feel?
What does your breath feel like? Do you feel an expansion in your chest?
A warmth? A tingling? Did you sigh? Do tears come? Just notice....there
is no right way to feel and no wrong way.
-Now, let the images in your mind fade away. Let the memory good. Just focus on the feeling of love breathe into this physical feeling. See it as a light glowing in your body. Any color light that appeals to you. Or just focus on the feeling. The feeling and/or light gets stronger as inhale and you relax into it as you exhale.
-Now, let this feeling light expand beyond your physical body. This is effortless. It just fills your body until it spills over and surrounds you. This energy light is protecting you.
-Now imagine or feel, the crown of your head opening. All the energy from the sun, moon, all the planets, the stars and the immense energy from the spaces between the stars flows down into you. And when it enters you, this energy is transformed into love.
-Now feel your feet on the earth. Imagine and feel the whole earth beneath you. Draw up the energy from all the plants, animals, rocks, river and oceans into your body. And when it enters your body it becomes love.
-Now the energy is way too big to be contained in your personal space. You stand up and hold your palms outward sending energy and love out into the world. You can slowly turn in a circle as you do this. See the whole world surrounded by light. This feels easy and good. If it feels hard or tiring, then stop, just breathe and rest. You will build capacity to do this.
-Now...let your breathing slow. Sit back down. Draw the energy in. Spiraling inward becoming softer, more mellow, more relaxed. Bring your thumb and forefinger together and press firmly. And say to yourself, "This is how love feels in me." Relax even more and let the energy of love spiral into a bright point of light in the center of your heart.
-You can finish by letting returning to your body and breath. Breathing slowly and easily. Give thanks for your life. Slowly open your eyes.
Throughout your day you can bring thumb and forefinger together and you will remember how love feels and you will generate love out into the world. The more you generate love, or any positive feeling, the more you will create your reality than reacting to it.
Let me know how it works for you!
Love and Peace,
Sue
