Latest / STOPTIME: Live in the Moment. / Guided Visualization: Transforming Turbulence into Tranquility
Transcript
- 0:01Lisa Hopkins: Hey there, sometimes we get a lot of pent-up energy.
- 0:08Lisa Hopkins: Sometimes it's anger or frustration or grief, whatever it might be, it's important to know that there's a way to transform this energy through physical motion and through reconnecting with your mind and body.
- 0:38Lisa Hopkins: So today I'm going to do a visualization that may help you release and transform your energy into something more productive and to recognize that, even when there's darkness, there is light.
- 1:00Lisa Hopkins: And well, just to give you a tool.
- 1:05Lisa Hopkins: So what I'd like you to do, again, this will be a guided meditation, a visualization.
- 1:12Lisa Hopkins: I want you to tap into something, maybe that you're holding on to, something that you'd like to let go, a feeling that doesn't sit right with you, whatever it may be.
- 1:33Lisa Hopkins: I just want you to tap into that and then, when you're ready, go ahead and make yourself comfortable and start to connect to your breath, breathing in on four, three, two and one and exhaling on four, three, two and one.
- 2:15Lisa Hopkins: Let's do that a few more times.
- 2:18Lisa Hopkins: Breathing in, simply saying to yourself, breathing in, holding for a little minute at the top and then just letting go as you exhale all your breath until it's totally drifted out of your body.
- 2:39Lisa Hopkins: And with each new breath, as you focus on your breath.
- 2:44Lisa Hopkins: You're breathing in new energy, ready to receive this visualization.
- 2:56Lisa Hopkins: So, whatever it is you chose to focus on during this practice, I want you to think about it now and how it makes you feel You're safe here.
- 3:15Lisa Hopkins: So I want you to allow yourself to fuel and build the feelings in your body that have been evoked, the anger, the frustration, any of the negative energy that you've been feeling inside.
- 3:32Lisa Hopkins: I want you to embody it for a second, and then I want you to hold your breath, hold it all in, squeeze everything as tightly as you can, squeeze your face and your eyes and your lips, everything your fingers, curl them up, every muscle in your body as tightly as you can, and release, release, mmm.
- 4:01Lisa Hopkins: Hmm.
- 4:10Lisa Hopkins: I want you to start breathing normally now, gently settling into your rhythm, and I want you to imagine that you're sitting, floating, on a paddleboard.
- 4:33Lisa Hopkins: You're not planning on standing, you're simply sitting, supported like a floating yoga mat on a beautiful lake.
- 4:44Lisa Hopkins: Floating yoga mat on a beautiful lake.
- 4:51Lisa Hopkins: The lake is stormy, though, and the sky is threatening.
- 5:01Lisa Hopkins: The current is working against you.
- 5:04Lisa Hopkins: You feel the waves splashing over the bow as you row further out towards the mountain, and you start to notice that the harder you paddle, the better it feels.
- 5:25Lisa Hopkins: It's surprisingly easy.
- 5:29Lisa Hopkins: You have so much energy, so much blocked up energy that needs to come out.
- 5:38Lisa Hopkins: And so, even though the waves are crashing over the front of your paddleboard and the sky is threatening to open up and rain and storm, you feel powerful and strong and you row and you row and you row Much like tightening your face and all your muscles.
- 5:58Lisa Hopkins: Your energy is powerful and now it is being directed against the waves, in the opposite direction of the force of opposition.
- 6:08Lisa Hopkins: It feels good as the water splashes on you.
- 6:13Lisa Hopkins: You're not afraid.
- 6:14Lisa Hopkins: You don't even know where you're going, you're just going.
- 6:20Lisa Hopkins: You keep rowing and rowing, and rowing and rowing, you keep rowing.
- 6:26Lisa Hopkins: Eventually you see some lily pads and some lotuses blooming.
- 6:38Lisa Hopkins: You notice that there aren't as many as there were in the summer, but there they are in all their beauty, like little eggs opening up their yellow yolk to the sky.
- 6:55Lisa Hopkins: But there's no sun in the sky, there's only dark clouds.
- 7:00Lisa Hopkins: So you row further.
- 7:01Lisa Hopkins: As you get closer to the reeds, it becomes a little calmer and you start to relax a little bit.
- 7:24Lisa Hopkins: You lay down your paddle and you take a deep breath and you look for something that you maybe hadn't seen before, noticing a bug on the surface of the water or the leaves beginning to change color.
- 7:55Lisa Hopkins: You're alone, but not lonely.
- 8:06Lisa Hopkins: You're almost at peace.
- 8:22Lisa Hopkins: Take a deep breath in here and, as you exhale, imagine that you're gently reclining on the paddleboard now Feeling steady enough that you don't need to fight the waves.
- 8:32Lisa Hopkins: You lie back and you look up at the sky.
- 8:38Lisa Hopkins: There's a clearing way above where you can see blue patching through, and there's a glint of sunlight.
- 8:55Lisa Hopkins: The more you breathe here, lying floating, supported and suspended by your paddleboard, you start to relax.
- 9:11Lisa Hopkins: Your mind is starting to empty out.
- 9:22Lisa Hopkins: As you bring yourself into this moment, just floating, you smile as you notice a pattern in the sky, the clouds and the shape they're making, and you remark on how magnificent and beautiful this planet is that we live on.
- 9:55Lisa Hopkins: You feel humbled as a sense of gratitude washes over you, even in the depths of what felt before like insurmountable feelings.
- 10:18Lisa Hopkins: It's not that your feelings are not valid, but there's a knowing here that they're just energy and that they are not all of you, that you are not your thoughts.
- 10:44Lisa Hopkins: You gently trail your fingers in the water, feeling the coolness penetrate and cleanse.
- 11:06Lisa Hopkins: You close your eyes and you drift.
- 11:18Lisa Hopkins: The clouds have parted a little further now and the sun is becoming stronger and the warmth of it you feeling on your legs, your chest.
- 11:56Lisa Hopkins: You open your eyes, you notice that while your eyes were closed, you were drifting gently, drifting back home, that there's no need to paddle now, that you can simply be along for the ride, no effort needed, simply being.
- 12:31Lisa Hopkins: You think to yourself.
- 12:38Lisa Hopkins: My breath is my anchor and the wind is my gondolier, the invisible gondolier steering you back home.
- 13:03Lisa Hopkins: My breath is my anchor, the wind my gondolier.
- 13:35Lisa Hopkins: You're feeling trust, you're feeling serenity, you're feeling expansiveness, movement without effort, floating gently.
- 14:07Lisa Hopkins: The wind has not let up, but you've changed your direction.
- 14:20Lisa Hopkins: Imagine now that you have a towel or a shirt or something that you pick up like a sail to catch that wind, and you start to glide faster as the wind catches your sail and suddenly you've created some kind of windsurfer and you're flying and you're free and you're going faster in the direction that you call home, guided by the wind, yes.
- 15:06Lisa Hopkins: But then you remember that you are the wind.
- 15:16Lisa Hopkins: You feel almost childlike as you dart along the water with your makeshift sail.
- 15:39Lisa Hopkins: My breath is my anchor, the wind my gondolier.
- 15:49Lisa Hopkins: You smile and suddenly you feel joyful.
- 15:56Lisa Hopkins: You realize that you are smiling, that what began as a battle and pent-up energy has now been transformed into some kind of alchemy, into joy, joy that is not attached to anything except the moment, and you drink that in and you allow it and as you breathe now, you feel strong, not strong because you need protecting or strong because you need to fight.
- 16:49Lisa Hopkins: Strong because you need protecting or strong because you need to fight, strong because you are you.
- 16:57Lisa Hopkins: You have reconnected your mind, body, spirit, connection and transformed negative, debilitating thoughts and energy into something beautiful.
- 17:21Lisa Hopkins: Start to come back now to the sound of my voice, bringing this beautiful, new, transformed energy to where you are now, and just take a few deep breaths here, noticing how you feel.
- 17:57Lisa Hopkins: And just take a few deep breaths here, noticing that you feel more relaxed, more open, less stressed.
- 18:15Lisa Hopkins: Remember, you can always take yourself back on this visualization, on this visualization Repeating after me my breath is my anchor, the wind my gondolier.
- 19:26Lisa Hopkins: I am the wind.
- 19:27Lisa Hopkins: I am the wind.
- 19:36Lisa Hopkins: I'm going to count backwards from ten, nine, eight, seven, six, six, five, four, three, two and one.
- 20:04Lisa Hopkins: Go ahead and open your eyes and stretch your arms over your head.
- 20:09Lisa Hopkins: This has been about 20 minutes.
- 20:14Lisa Hopkins: You can do little shorter versions of these, anytime you like, and just by repeating my breath is my anchor, the wind my gondolier you will be brought back to this sensation.
- 20:50Lisa Hopkins: Namaste, my friends.