When a past memory looms, the yoga path speaks

As a recent and empty Nester, I have had some previous parenting memories that were not my best time. Actually, “emerging” is not the right word, because it implies that they leave. Instead, I think they have stayed at the bottom, floating in the shadows, maybe even disturbing me a little. Oh!

When they take the time to really feel in these floating memories, I realize that they carry feelings of weak, inappropriate and embarrassed.

A type of meditation that helps separate past memories is observation meditation. Instead of letting this memory loom in the shadows of your mind, you imagine a blue sky that is full of all kinds of thoughts and memories like clouds. There is a life of clouds of thought/memory up there, some good and bad, but in your imagination everyone resembles because everyone invented you. While meditating on the sky and clouds, observe one of your thoughts/memories for a moment and then let that cloud pass. Note another thought/memory and let it pass.

Note if a cloud of thought/particular memory stays a bit. You may have to repeat a mantra phrase before the cloud can derive. Maybe something you would love a good friend lovingly if they felt tormented by a memory. Maybe something like, “you learned from that moment” or “even then, you were enough.” Repeat this until thought/memory is activated.

This meditation can be done every time you notice that memory looms. Letting go is not a capture phrase, it is a process.

Until next time

Laura