This journal reading is an offering from the Readgroup Hour.
You may choose to close your eyes as you listen,
Or simply lower your gaze and soften your focus.
This is a moment for self-reflection,
With time at the end for you to breathe into whatever arises.
I will sound the gong so you know when it's time to return to your day.
When you feel torn,
When there is a sense of disquietude somewhere in your body,
When you feel yourself resist,
Take stock.
Enquire within what it is that is unsettling you.
Examine what you are feeling.
Go into your body and allow yourself to feel the sensations that are arising.
Treat them as you would treat a letter from a dear friend.
Something to be savoured,
Not rush through on your way to something else.
Find a quiet corner,
A soft seat,
A warm drink and read each word as though it is the most flavoursome sustenance.
Do not ignore the feelings you find hardest to bear.
Explore them as though they are the description of your dear friend's pain.
Feel the compassion toward them as you would to your friend.
Allow them to show themselves,
Unafraid of your response.
Just as your friend would write of all that they fear,
All that they love,
Listen to your own body and allow it to tell you what it knows and once you have listened,
Let it rest.
Do not try to fix.
Do not try to overcome whatever you have noticed in an attempt to make your body feel better.
Do it only when you have the whole picture.
So,
Now take time to listen outside your body.
Listen to your senses that experience the world around you.
Listen to the space that forms around you whenever you are with others and listen to the energy you carry with you.
Notice if it has become entwined with another's.
Do you carry some of their fear or their excitement with you?
Is your body responding to a message that isn't truly yours?
Take time now to release yourself from anything which does not belong to you.
Cleanse yourself,
Bathe and wash away the residue of others before coming back to yourself and asking what more do I need to know?
Now take the time to write or draw what it is that you are noticing.
Create a picture of words or a letter of images that helps you step back from your mind.
See the order in which you have laid your thoughts.
See the connections you have made and explore those for assumptions.
See the connections you have yet to make and explore those for fears.
This way my love,
You see it all.
You see the wisdom of your three selves,
Your body,
Your energetic self and your mind.
Now place your hands upon your heart and ask yourself what do you wish?
