Releasing the Shadows

Guest Teaching 

Intro to Reiki 

Bergen Community College 

2009

                                             

Now that we have covered what meditation is and how to start to be the stillness the next step is to think about techniques to free the mind of all that clutter, be it mild, medium or very strong clutter.  In the beginning of my journey all I had was this unquenchable passion, this magnetic pull and every time I would try to get closer to the source of this pulling I would be confronted with all kinds of obstacles from rouge thoughts to full on stories of a painful trauma or situation that I had endured or survived.  The rouge thoughts were easily navigated around or dismissed entirely.  The painful memories and the dense emotion that would come to the surface, well that was another thing entirely.  Why was all of this coming to the forefront of my quiet time?  I am trying to meditate over here. 

For me, in order to fill this vessel with light it had to be emptied of all the shadows, shadows being my past disappointments, offenses, attacks of all kinds, jealousy, bitterness, envy, things I held against myself as well as others, maybe even God.  It’s when we get in the silence all these lists come to the surface.  Why is there a list and what is this list doing to us?  Can’t we keep the list and just focus on the light?  Yes.  We keep the list while focusing on the light but just as light reflects off a shard of glass, the light inside of us will reflect onto and off of anything that needs to be addressed, released, and transmuted into the positive including this list.

For example, you and a friend have had some cross words and there’s an event coming up soon that you will both be attending.  It’s awkward and there is friction between you and you may think that as long as you’re not in the same room together all is well but that’s not entirely the case.  The thoughts and emotions created by this illusion of separation bring real roots with it.  This could be an opportunity to transmute friction by making amends, having another conversation with humility, forgiveness, whatever the case may be.  Making no decision is a decision so if you decide not to address the situation and just attend the event, bringing these shadows with you, you run the risk of adding onto what was already a stressful situation.  This can become compounded now because of the allowance of friction.  I realize we cannot control anyone, only ourselves so perhaps clearing the slate prior to the event is the only path to peace.  You decide to be the peace.  You decide to forgive and keep no record of wrong despite the fact that it hurt, you felt slighted, you felt wronged.  Jesus said in Luke 23:34 “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”  ‘They’ are you and me.  We need more forgiveness for self and others.  We need to realize we are all connected doing the very best we can do with the information we have.  Forgiveness is underrated and holding onto grudges leads to all sorts of sticky, dense, and toxic energy in the human body and causes internal and external wars potentially but it doesn't have to.  Keeping a record of wrongs, well that’s just a trigger mechanism to relive and reanimate for whoever will listen to the wrongs that our poor souls have endured.

But you are not a poor soul.  You are a very strong and capable being whose soul purpose is to bring about peace on this planet at this time.  If we release these toxic shadows and transmute them into the light, our meditation experience will be sublime.

How do you release these shadows? 

Firstly, be brutally honest with yourself.  Become aware of the feelings and emotions that accompany thoughts that pull you out of center, out of the present moment into the past.  What happened?  Becoming aware of these obstacles is the first step.  Keeping a journal is the second.  All of my mentors have taught me to journal.  Every one of them stating the importance of taking these thoughts, emotions, memories and writing and them down, getting them out so to speak.  Like a vortex of energy they swirl inside the brain and heart creating all sorts of distractions.  Once the brain is allowed to relive and replay the emotions are sure to follow.  Once you engage in a shadow thought and the emotion starts it may seem like there is no end to your suffering and you are quite right.  If you allow your mind to relive and replay and you allow your emotions to live on the inside of you like a jack in the box just waiting for the right trigger to pop out, scare you and other people, you are not living anywhere near center, near conscious living, you are living on play, rewind, repeat. 

Write it down.  Whatever is swirling around you on the inside put it on paper.  Notice the emotion, if any, the tears, the effect this thought has on your entire being.  It’s no wonder you were having trouble focusing on stillness when this troublesome thought lives like a weed on the inside whose only purpose is to choke the life out of you and with no one cutting it back, eradicating it, or even trying to until now, it has had free reign.   Every morning when you wake up write in your journal.  Write your cares, your fears, your joys, your doubts, your worries, write everything down that is in your brain when you wake up.  This takes some of the sting out of the thought.  This releases some of the emotion associated with the thought.  Are you done now that you’ve written it down?  No, not entirely.    You may notice that this same thought is upon you every morning.  It’s the same thought or problem or hurt and it’s nagging at you.  You’ve already written it down.  Why won’t it go away?

Journaling is a very powerful tool in emptying the mind of the human but sometimes it’s just one of many spiritual tools that one needs and has access to.  Depending on the thoughts or emotions, a person may need to delve deeper to get to the root causes in order to release.  Prayerfully journaling and prayerfully meditating work in tandem with Spirit to miraculously heal and diffuse negative energies that live inside.  You will know when you are free from these thoughts because there will be a lightness about you that was there all the time, but you were not aware of it.  Once we peel back the layers of thoughts and emotions we can tap into the true source of our true infinite nature where shadows do not exist and if they do exist, they do so to test and refine.  What we are dealing with now is our own creation and its purpose is quite the same.    Do not resist the lesson or the path.  It’s the same for all of us.

Affirmations, self talk, positive thinking and deliberate thoughts that empower us to continue on our journey when releasing shadows are extremely important.   They are important all the time.  I liken it to keeping a weight in your hand to constantly flex the muscles in your arm.  Deliberate thoughts train the mind to strengthen itself with positive fuel as opposed to negative toxic fuel which makes us sick.  It makes sense, doesn't it?  What goes in must come out.  Positive goes in, positive comes out.  Negative goes in, negative comes out.  We have the capacity to lift up the vibration of the world with our delightfully positive outlook on life and we have the power to pull down the vibration of the world with our toxic, worrisome and negative outlook, but it actually takes more effort to frown than smile.  That’s because you’re true nature is that of peace, dare I say love. 

Once you release thoughts and emotions that no longer serve you, you make room for thoughts that have a much higher purpose, vibration and in fact are much higher;  thoughts about world peace and unity and healing and joy, thoughts about feeding the world and advocating for all living things and our planet.  Our minds and our souls are on this planet for a much higher purpose than just ourselves but it absolutely begins with each and every one of us.  When we take responsibility for the state of our being, the state of our consciousness, we can then take the proper steps to join in with the universal, if not just global oneness thought process that includes and never excludes, that tolerates and respects, edifies and supports, loves and has compassion for the entire human spirit not just the few highly favored. 

Meditation is the tool if you want to get to the bottom of who you are.  Journaling and praying keep you humble, accountable and somewhat scientific in your approach utilizing all the spiritual resources available to you and taking very complex principles and breaking them down into palatable, useable, techniques.  You will turn to your journal over and over.  You will see the Hand of God at work in your life.  You will see the scales fall off of your eyes right before your writing fingertips.  You will lament and purge and stain your journal with sorrowful, salt filled tears.  You will turn the page and see and feel those tears transmuted into the platinum healing light of God.  You will never be the same.

What if it all gets to be too much to bear?  Hang in there.  Prepare a spiritual space for yourself that you can return to with a feeling of being cared for.  You are taking yourself on your life path journey.  Make it okay.  It is okay.  Everything will be okay, no matter what.  Affirm this to yourself.  Create a vision board of you meditating and being free.  Remind yourself over and over that this is your time.  Use some incense, candles, essential oils and hemi-sync brain wave meditation music, go for a walk in the park.  Stay grounded.  Stay the course.  Keep your inner eye focused on the prize:  Peace.  Stillness.  Joy.  Refuse to be distracted. 

As you further along on this path you will become lighter, more joyful, more grounded.  You will not be so fully persuaded to react to life’s circumstances, pushing and pulling as you had in the past.  There will be space in between your thoughts.  You will react less and thoughtfully respond more.  You will have raised your inner frequency and outer energy.  People may notice.  New challenges may present themselves.  Observe them from a safe distance.  Notice they don’t have the same allure they once had.  Notice you may not want to play the way you played in the past.  Listen to your newly honed intuition.  Pray about everything.  Journal your every thought.  Meditate every day.  Keep on the path. 

Your mind cannot comprehend what is waiting for you in the stillness.  Trust that the light is pure and illuminating.