Meditation for the Masses:

It’s the heat and depth of summer and we are so in our bodies right now!

We’re being active (or wishing we were more active) and enjoying being hot (mostly enjoying). There is an ease with which we sweat and release everything that’s usually too cold and locked behind layers of clothing the rest of the year!

So it’s also a great time to watch our minds and let go of the riffraff that normally floats on aware. That chatter which takes up space and silently distracts us from our true purpose. (That’s another discussion–)

You may not know this, but today is a full moon in Aquarius! What does that mean for you? Well it may mean absolutely nothing.

But what it could mean, is that Aquarius is the sign of the mind. And it’s an air sign. Which makes it a great time to harness the power of letting thoughts go.

I am an Aquarius through and through. And I know what it’s like to overuse the mind. So I also know what I need to do to let go of all those thoughts before they become all that I am.

I have a favorite technique that I use and I thought today, on this auspicious full moon in the sign of Aquarius, that I should share The air.

The thing about thoughts is they are actually as light as air (even those thoughts which feel like they are all consuming….they are masquerading as heavy but it’s just a ploy—and act they are still light as air!)

Thoughts remind me sometimes of balloons. And even when I’m at my least creative I can always envision what it looks like when a balloon is floating up into the sky and then disappears.

The Meditation:

So when I am distracted by heavy and repeating thoughts, what I do is first I imagine that thought, then I wrap it in an iridescent balloon or bubble, and I let it go. I let it drift into the sky as far away as my mind can watch it and then I listen. I listen to my thoughts. And they are quieter.

If I have an entire building of thoughts then I wrap the entire building, with all it’s file cabinets and coffee store next door if I need to, then wrap it in the bubble and with my breath get it moving.  It works the same, it just takes a little more creative juju to lift the mass off the floor….but like I said, still light as air.

Perhaps, after that first thought a new thought arises that I can’t let go of. Then I do the same thing and wrap it in a bubble of iridescent light and watch it until I can no longer see it.

Then I check back in with my mind wait for the pause, and if another thought returns then I wrap it in an iridescent bubble of light.

Sometimes, on the days that meditation seems utterly futile for me, my meditation is just that. Observing the thoughts, wrapping them one by one in a bubble of iridescent light, and watching them float off into the ethers until I can no longer see or sense them.

And in the end, even though I did not have the kind of meditation I thought I was sitting down to, I notice I feel just as light and free and calm as if I had a very peaceful and relaxing meditation simply following my own breath.

I think we get wrapped up in what meditation is supposed to be. It’s just a time when we watch our thoughts, let them go if we can, and come back to ourselves.

It’s a time to give ourselves a pause. It’s a time to just step back, feel the space around us, notice we are real and here and purposeful and  alive.  And then hopefully, more grounded and aware and connected, we take a step out into the world. And that is it.

You don’t get some great reward for doing it. No one’s going to congratulate you for doing it. All you have is a sense of peace that is priceless.  And I for one can always use some more peace.  You?

So if thoughts and their endless parade route through your mind is what has been  stopping you from meditation. Try this!

And use the energy of this air sign to lift and release each and every thought stopping you from being your greatest version of yourself, until you have peace.