The Well of Emotion

As guided meditations like this can make you drowsy and sleepy,

It's not a good idea to drive,

Operate machinery,

Or if you're an astronaut,

To try and dock with the International Space Station,

Or do a space walk while listening to this meditation.

And if you do fall asleep,

The guidance in this meditation will still work.

It's just your body telling you it needs some rest.

You can listen to this guided visualization,

Either sitting up or lying down.

Just make yourself comfortable.

Scan your body for any tension,

Starting with your toes.

Give them a whackle,

And become mindful of all the muscles in your lower legs that get involved with that simple movement.

Do the same with your fingers.

Give them a whackle,

And be mindful of how the muscles in your arms come into play.

Now slacken your jaw,

And let your tongue relax.

Take a deep in-breath,

And a long out-breath,

Breathing all that stale air from your lungs.

And now relax still further,

And be prepared for a journey of the imagination,

Despite the weight of unwanted,

Stuck emotions to go.

I want you to imagine you've been walking through a forest,

Down a winding path that's quite muddy and wet underfoot.

You've twisted and turned so many times now,

You're really unsure of where you're going.

You don't know how many hours you've been walking,

Your shoes are soaking wet,

All the way through to your socks,

Your coat is damp.

You're pretty much at your wit's end.

But suddenly,

In the distance,

You can see a lightness through the trees.

And as you walk towards it,

The trees start to thin out around you.

The sun comes out,

The drizzle fades away,

And you come into a bright green clearing.

You notice that the clearing is perfectly circular,

And right in the centre is a well.

You walk over to it,

And as you do,

The grass under your feet feels strange.

In just a few steps,

Your shoes and feet completely dry out.

You start to feel warm again in the sunshine,

So you take off your damp cloak,

And you hang it on the handle at the side of the well.

You peer over the wall of the well,

But you can't see the bottom.

And above the well,

You notice a faded sign.

The letters are faint,

But you can make out that it says,

The well of emotions.

Then an idea pops into your head.

You recall all those times you've been angry,

Over what seemed like silly things now.

You gather all these moments of anger up in a ball in your hands,

And scrunch up that ball of anger over all those things that seem silly to you now.

You lean over the well and drop the ball in,

And immediately you feel lighter.

Although they're just imaginings,

You are sure you hear a soft splash a few seconds later.

It must be a deep well.

A light breeze comes up in the clearing,

And just takes the heat out of the soft summer sun.

And your mind is drawn to all those times you've been disappointed.

When either people have let you down,

Or even there's times when you've let yourself down.

You scrunch all of these times into a ball in your hands.

You lean over the well and you drop them in,

And you start to feel lighter still.

You reflect on how lucky you are to come across this well at this time in your life,

And what a relief it is to let these things go that you've been hanging on to for so long.

You then recall times when you've been wronged and hurt by others.

You take the memories of those times,

You scrunch them into another ball really tightly.

You just reach over the side of the well,

And you drop these in too.

And as the weight and burden of emotions that you've been carrying around for so long is taken off you,

You feel your back straighten,

Your shoulders drop,

Your head almost like it's pulled up to the sky.

And you start to think about those events that you still feel guilty about.

All of those times you could have done something better.

All of those opportunities that you left drip by.

You realise now they really represent nothing more than great experience,

So you can step forward into a new way of being.

So you scrunch them into a tight ball,

And drop them into the well.

You sense that the sun is starting to drop behind the trees,

And that you need to go and find somewhere to pitch your tent for the night.

But before you leave this magical clearing,

There's just one more emotion that you feel you should let go of.

And that's the fears that you've been harbouring.

The fear of failure,

The fear of being ridiculed,

The fear of stepping into the unknown,

And lastly,

The fear of being successful and stepping into your own magnificence.

You bring all these fears up from deep inside yourself.

You form a large ball in your hands.

And you breathe a deep sigh of relief,

As you drop all those fears that have been holding you back for so long into the well.

And this time you can definitely hear a big splash.

You now sense it's time to leave this magical clearing.

So you pick up your cloak and put it on,

And you find that it's completely dried out now.

And on the other side of the clearing,

You notice a gap that you sure wasn't there before when you arrived.

And in front of you is a long straight path bordered on both sides by two columns of very tall trees.

And the path goes on into the distance for as far as the eye can see.

You have a sense it's going somewhere and leading you somewhere new.

And as you start down the path,

You find it's really dry,

Easy to walk on.

And the trees on either side of you feel like your protectors.

When you look back behind you,

You can still see the clearing.

You know at any time now you can find your way back to the well of emotions.

So it's time to come back into your room.

Take a deep in-breath through your nostrils and fully exhale through your mouth.

And open your eyes slowly.