This is a meditation I find very helpful in preparation sessions – I want to offer my thanks to a participant from a workshop that I conducted recently, who transcribed this whole meditation.
It’s one I use myself often, and with a lot of people and it just gets better the more times I do it. Feel free to use it yourself and in your sessions.
Without further ado, scroll down to read the text of the meditation or watch the video to have an experience of it, and feel free to download it also below.
YouTube Video Link: Heart Meditation for Prep Sessions on YouTube or scroll down to download a PDF version.
Heart Meditation
If you’re willing, settle in, relax, and do whatever you do to arrive where you are. Carl Jung used to think that when we moved our souls trailed behind us and when we arrived, we had to wait for them to catch up.
So in the next few minutes, we’re going to make the longest journey that any human being ever makes – the 18 inches down from your head into your heart. Many people never undertake this journey at all thinking it’s too scary, but it’s actually not. Just start with your awareness. Start to settle down from your head into your heart. It’s more an allowing rather than a doing. That center of awareness – that’s who you really are. Allow it to come down into your heart. And if there are any obstructions on the way, welcome them and tell them you’ll come back and get to know them better later.
And see if all your parts will allow you to bring your awareness into your heart today. If not stay with those parts, comfort them, and love them. They have good reasons for what they do. And as your awareness settles into your heart, let’s spend some time today learning and being open and curious about our own hearts.
If you’re willing, let’s start with the front of the heart. As you focus your attention here, you might notice if there are any areas that feel congested or constricted or not moving and beating freely. You might notice if there are any areas where the color is not vibrant with life. And you might even notice scars. And sometimes the oddest and strangest things appear – reject nothing. Even the most trivial and irrelevant seeming image can hold great meaning…and it’s given to us for reasons.
Focusing here, not only can you see this, but you can also feel into it, the sensations of the various areas of the front of your heart. And you also might be able to hear it. The sounds, even voices, perhaps song, sometimes our hearts sing to us, especially when we’re in love.
And now if it feels right to you, bring your attention to the back of your heart. Marion Rosen, a great bodyworker said that in her experience, betrayal very often lives back here. A lot of people can have scar tissue or scabs or shielded places or something like that back here. I don’t know if that’s true for you. Get curious….that open wide-open curiosity. Open all your senses to your own heart. All that caring, gentle curiosity. Again, is the color consistent? Are there variations? Are there any scars? Are there any strange or odd beings showing up here or images that seem to come from nowhere? Surprising things?
And remembering what you’ve seen here, what images you’ve been given, let’s now shift our focus to the sides of the heart, the right side and the left side. Very often when we have polarizations, they live in the sides of the heart. I don’t know if that’s true for you. One side of the heart longs to quit your job and go do what you really want. The other side wants you to be a good provider for yourself and your loved ones. All sorts of polarizations can live here. And does one side seem stronger and dominant? Does one side seem more feminine? More masculine?
Are the sides of your heart moving? Are they supple like fine leather, alive and pulsing throbbing with life? And see if you can express some gratitude for the roadmap you’re being shown.
Now let’s bring our attention to the bottom of the heart. Again, scars, constrictions, negativities, darknesses, welcome them all. Welcome them all. And ask the bottom of your heart if today, if now, it would be willing to open to the energies of the earth. And if it could allow them to start coming through your being and waving up into your heart. And if the answer is “no,” respect, that – don’t force your way past. Get curious about whoever in there has a hard time receiving these deep energies. Some people experience this as growing roots. I don’t know how you will.
And then bring your attention to the top of your heart. How’s the color? Are there any darkened areas? Are there any wounds? Is there any stuff stuck on there? Can it pulse freely and strongly? And ask the top of your heart if it’s willing to open, open to receive the energies from the sky and also to receive the energies coming up from the earth, through the whole heart. And see if your whole heart will allow this flow to start moving through it. And through you.
If any parts of you don’t like this, honor them, welcome them. Tell them they’re so important. We really want to get to know them And find a way to remember them so you can come back and be with them later. And if it’s only a little trickle, that’s still really good. Welcome the trickle. And if it’s a big flow, that’s really good too, and sense it. Feel it as it moves through you and notice if there are there any boulders in the stream.
And taking a moment or two to feel these energies and maybe some gratitude for your heart. And then it’s time to start getting ready to come back up that road. We went down the longest road. And remembering and recalling and bringing with you any trailheads. You might have been given some signs or images. Thanking your heart and asking it to settle into a good place where it will be comfortable for the rest of the day in this environment. And then slowly allowing your awareness to rise back like a bubble So that it comes back up slowly into your head, behind your eyes, into where most of us spend most of our time.
And I don’t know how it will be for you, but many people find that taking a couple of deep breaths really helps them return in a sweet and easy way.”
Download this meditation as a PDF.