How images help you connect with your inner wisdom and enable your transformation
Announcing a 3-week package to journey towards your dreams
First of all, an announcement - if you have been wanting to work on a specific goal or a desire, here's a summer special: A 3-session coaching package to move towards your desire, where you will journey within to identify and remove obstacles to your goal.
The package includes three 1:1 coaching sessions, one per week, starting next week and will end on Aug 22. The sessions will start next week, so you can reserve a call this week here.
And now on to today's topic -
Images, our inner knowing and transformation.
It is a sunny day here, pink flowers and the rosemary are swaying in the garden and the sky is a vast, endless blue. It is a picture perfect summer image.
Talking about images and how our subconscious communicates through images with us, here's a funny and surprising story.
The images I saw when I was present within my body
Earlier this year, during one of my haptotherapy sessions, I saw an image of a sleeping, old primordial snake curled at the base of my spine/pelvis region. And then this was followed by an image of a Buddha on a lotus. And when I saw those images, my whole body relaxed with this feeling of "I understand." My conscious mind had no idea what this was all about - "I" didn't understand what those images were all about. I also laughed with my haptotherapist about it.
Images are a common way that our body/subconscious communicates with us. And through embodiment, I have learned that I don't need to chase insights or meaning of what I see. When the time is ready, the insights will drop in. And then they did.
I don't need to chase insights or meaning of what I see. When the time is ready, the insights will drop in.
The surprising insights that arrived months later
Last week, while reading as a part of a course, I learned that there's a goddess associated with each of the chakras/energy centers within us. And the goddess associated with the root chakra (base of the spine/lower pelvis) is usually visualized as a coiled snake a.k.a. kundalini that's sleeping and at the heart of the coil is a lotus 🐍🪷. These were images that I saw a few months ago 😲 !
I also learned the awakening of this coiled snake is wanting or longing for a life beyond the normal life. It was funny and bizarre and impactful to encounter this interpretation after months of seeing those images.
I see this with clients in embodiment coaching sessions too. As they lean into the sensations within their body, sometimes they may see a word or an image or a knowing or a vision. And these images are a way of connecting us to our inner wisdom. As Kikan Massara, a psychotherapist and author of The 12 Steps , says,
"While symbols do not always spell everything out literally, they ...connect us to our own deeper knowing. ...when we are faced with with the inevitable contradictions, dead-ends, indecisions, and uncertainties of life...symbolic sight tends to find solutions."
A simple exercise to connect with your inner knowing
Here's a simple exercise to connect with your inner knowing. It is adapted from an exercise I learned from Jenna Ward, founder of the School of Embodied Arts. Set aside 15-30 mins for this exercise.
- Write down the challenge/problem/situation that you want insight into.
- Now, thinking about the challenge, take a moment to be present with your body. Feel your base on the seat and breathe.
- Now ask yourself, "What is the role you are playing or who are you being w.r.t. this situation?" And just wait to see what comes up. Try thinking of a metaphor that describes who you are being, e.g. a kitten, knife, guide, child, window....
- Take some time to feel this role/metaphor in your body - notice your posture and how you breathe. If you get overwhelmed, stop and feel your feet on the floor, your base on the seat and breathe through your stomach.
- Now ask yourself, "What is the role you want to play or who do you want to be w.r.t. this situation?" Again just wait to see what comes up. And think of a metaphor for this role too.
- Again take some time to feel this role/metaphor in your body - notice your posture and how you breathe. Let this role take up space within yourself.
- And if you find this "new role" to be supportive - call upon that image/role whenever you need to feel spacious and supported within.
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