This week’s meditation is a little different from the previous ones. It doesn’t have a recorded element because I want you to feel free to take as long as you need to, to meditate your way around the labyrinth. This can be a really simple way to calm yourself, and access your inner wisdom. Of course, if you feel you need to begin with a recorded meditation to get into the right "zone" please do re-listen to week 1.
I have used labyrinths with my clients and group participants for many years. I find them to be wonderful tools for accessing memories, guidance, insights and clarity. What I love about a labyrinth is that - unlike a maze - you cannot get lost in it! Yet it does possess a wonderful metaphor for life; in almost every design of labyrinth, you gradually get closer and closer to the centre (metaphorically your goal), but your last circuit before you reach the centre takes you right back out to where you began – so you feel like you’ve come all this way, only to find yourself back at the beginning; seeing and feeling as if you’ve not got anywhere. But on the labyrinth it is this very place; right back where you started, that comes just before you reach the centre! How often do we feel in life that we've come back to square one, and so give up - when if we had continued just a few more steps we might have seen that the end was actually just around the corner?!!
I have put a labyrinth at the bottom of this page. You can use it on your screen if you like, or you may prefer to print it out if you can....the larger it is the better. If you would like to use a more complex design you could find a copy of the Chartre cathedral labyrinth online.
The instructions for this meditation are below. Read them all the way through before you start....print them off so you can refer to them during the meditation if you like...or at least jot down the main points. Do have a notebook handy in case you want to write down what is emerging....or you can continue straight onto the written activity on the next page if you have time, as it is interlinked.
Start this meditation by placing a finger at the outer entrance to the labyrinth. This is you, here and now.
Take a few deep breaths, and as you let each breath out, feel yourself relaxing and releasing any tension you’ve been holding in your body. Before you start “walking”(gliding/sliding) your finger around the labyrinth, towards the centre (which for this particular meditation will represent your innermost core; the seat of your deepest wisdom), have the following intention in your mind:
“As I walk this path towards my inner wisdom, with each step I open more and more to listening to and receiving the guidance I need in order to thrive in the coming weeks and months and years”
And very slowly, begin to move your finger around the labyrinth. Be as meditative as you can with this...take it slowly, being aware of your breath, releasing tensions and thoughts when you are aware of them, seeing/sensing this as a significant journey that you are taking.
When you get to the centre of the labyrinth it’s fine to take your finger off the paper, but do keep yourself in this central place in your mind’s eye. And ask these questions of yourself:
“What do I need to be open to in my life right now?
What have I not yet welcomed in that needs to be welcomed in?
What do I need to shine more light on in my life?”
Allow at least a couple of minutes for your inner self to bring an answer or answers to you....don’t censor what comes, and if nothing comes, just be still and silent in this place, and trust that you are receiving answers in a way that you haven’t yet recognised and that will emerge later in the week.
When you feel ready to return, move your finger slowly back from the centre of the labyrinth, tracing the path all the way back to the "here and now" point from which you started, with this question in your mind:
“Who, and what will best support and nourish me on this next step of my journey?”
And as you slowly walk your way back round the labyrinth, be open to sensing or seeing people, places, activities etc that are already or will become instrumental in keeping you strong and sane as you step forward into the next phase of your life.
When you reach the labyrinth entrance/exit, give thanks for what you have experienced. If you don't get as much as you'd like from this meditation the first time you do it, feel free to do this more than once, as it can take a bit of practice before it clicks....once it does click, it can be a wonderful tool for asking all sorts of questions to access your inner wisdom (of course we all have access to our inner wisdom at any time without the use of these sort of tools, but most of us have had our innate intuition conditioned and programmed out of us.....this can be the beginning of reclaiming that connection if you feel you have lost it)
