Inner Alchemy
Inner Alchemy
By Sharon Marie Lawlor
The other day, I went to a Five-Element Guided Meditation. My friend, Jason Blackman, was facilitating. It was an interactive visualization incorporating colors and breathwork to help move stuck and stagnant energy. And boy, did it move! At different stages of the meditation, I was in tears. I was letting go and releasing trapped emotions within the cells of my being.
I was lying on the ground atop my favorite yoga mat, draped with a special rose-colored blanket adorned with golden roses that I brought. It was, in a sense, my security blanket protecting me; a safe, familiar energy. I brought it to help ground me in whatever emotions lie dormant within me as they were being unleashed in such a gentle, loving manner.
My friend was sharing his wisdom with us, guiding this room full of others I did not know, to bring awareness of different organs within. I was on my own inner journey, even though everyone heard the same words. Our experiences in life are different and held in the body differently too.
You see, each organ is associated with its own emotions. For instance, love and joy in the heart, or discernment in the small intestines. One is a yin and one is a yang organ. Both of these are a part of the fire element in Chinese Medicine. Each element has a color, as well as a healing sound. These help when visualizing and bringing attention to our bodies in such an intended, detailed way, opening our awareness. How can something shift, change, or heal unless we actually SEE it and are aware of it? If we don’t consciously know it’s there, ready to be tapped for its innate wisdom, then it cannot be transformed.
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at CHANGE.”
—Wayne Dyerr
“Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.”
—Thich Nhat Hanh
There is a sense of alchemy or magic that transpires. I find that beautiful!
Even though I was engaged in this transformative experience in a quiet external manner, there was quite a stir happening internally. Bringing attention to my body in such a way led to a natural state of empathy, compassion, and love. I gently showered grace over my soul for all that it’s endured from these emotions that rose to the surface that were ready to be released. I found myself moving my body in gentle waves to guide the release of stagnant emotions. Freeing them. Letting go. Releasing.
The heaviness of emotions like grief, sadness, worry, fear, or shame lifted. I walked through a doorway to the other side, giving space for other, more desirable emotions to FLOW through my being. How lovely would more flow be in your life? As we experience it within, our external world and life experiences begin to shift as well. I see it as rippling out from a pebble breaking the surface of water. The rippling happens with even the smallest pebble. One step in awareness can be a small pebble. It can be gentle, all the while rippling out in great shifts.
My heart was craving something different in my life. I felt I was being squeezed tightly with so much, all at the same time. That immense pressure was building within, and I did not have space or flow for new truths or desires to come into my life. I desired more ease, flow, and magic. I also understand when I am tight with life happenings, it builds a wall instead of opening my arms to welcome new possibilities.
This Five-Element Guided Meditation is one way, one step, one pebble to help dismantle the wall and release the immense pressure, and to shift. It is a practical tool available, and I am so grateful for it. I was first introduced to this ten years ago from the same teacher, Jason, when I was a new mom. Same immense pressure, different circumstances that led me there. It helped me then and continues to assist me today. I am so totally grateful for this magic that continues to transform my life.
Because of the introduction of this transformative work many years ago, I mentored in a Chi Nei Tsang program in 2012. I learned more about the five elements to assist others through bodywork and visualizations to release the physical stuck-ness that emotions can create.
What needs to be released within your being or within your life? What will it open up for you? Imagine these possibilities, because it IS possible!
I know for me, it is a continual journey of letting go of what is not serving me any longer, or what I am ready to face, and walking to the other side. It’s continually creating space within my being, whether on the mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual levels for grace, flow, ease, and magic to enter and energize my life. When I am resisting or feeling that squeezing pressure, I know more letting go needs to happen.
What I am talking about here is an internal journey, but that same ripple can happen from working on the actual physical material in one’s world, too, and affect the internal world all the same.
Wherever you begin, I am fully supporting you on your journey. I truly believe it will help transform the self, or even entire communities, countries, and eventually the world.