Being Able To Open Your Awareness

The pain was such that I could barely see light. My twenties were filled with alcohol, drugs, and a complete disregard for myself and my body. I’m grateful for that time, but I’m even more grateful for my journey back to seeing and trusting the Universe. This is one of my favorite visualization and mantra practices to cultivate connection to higher wisdom. Prepare by having your favorite mantra ready to play on repeat. Bring your hands to prayer at the center of the chest. Take a gentle breath in and a long breath out. Feel and visualize what rooting downward looks and feels like for you. Bring your attention to the top of the head. Connect to the heavens by visualizing energy extending up from the top of the head. Sense what that feels like. You are grounded to the Earth and elevated to the heavens.

Fly Away From Here

Your spine is connected from the root to the head, the bridge between heaven and Earth. This human being is the bridge between heaven and Earth, with your hands at prayer at the heart space. From this position, play your favorite mantra on repeat. Gently imagine that you are listening through the top of the head in whatever way feels right for you. With the eyes closed, direct your gaze upward, looking toward the crown. If this becomes too intense for you at any point, just relax the eyes. Just allow breath to be as it is and simply listen to the mantra through the top of the head. Allow the sound to pour in through the top of your head. Imagine the sound clearing and cleansing through your crown, clearing and cleansing your pineal gland, clearing and cleansing your whole entire system. This gentle focus connects you to your crown and strengthens your pineal gland. According to ancient wisdom traditions, one day, when you are ready to leave the physical vehicle of this body, you will exit through the crown. When it is your time, you will direct your attention with awareness, and your soul will exit this body through the top of your head.

Another Brick In The Wall

Ultimately, this practice reminds us of our elevated connection through the crown. Start with three minutes of meditation and slowly build up the time. There are so many wonderful herbs, flowers, leaves, and roots to enhance our depth and recollection of dream time. If you’ve never made your own teas before, it’s incredibly easy. Choose some herbs, blend them together, and steep them for an intuitive tea of your own making. As you brew your tea before bed, tune in to the healing qualities of the herbs and the leaves, perhaps taking a few minutes while waiting for the water to boil to read about the qualities of your tea. As you watch your tea brew, focus your attention and your intention around the healing qualities of this tea being infused into water. And as you sip your tea, allow that action to be its own meditative practice. Take in the scent of the tea blend. Notice the different tastes and sensations as you sip the liquid. And simply think to yourself as you sip, I open to restful and restorative sleep. I open to the healing qualities of my dreams.

Just Like Strange Rain

Mugwort and blue lotus are included in many dream blends since they enhance lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is when you are aware that you are dreaming. Being able to open your awareness within the dream state is healing and empowering. There are many ways to begin to practice lucid dreaming. First, you set the intention before bed that you will awaken in your dream and remember your dreams. During extreme stress, I would experience sleep paralysis as a young adult. I would be conscious and seemingly awake in what seemed like my bedroom but feel a sense of impending terror. I would frantically hurt myself in this dream state, like banging my head against the wall to wake up. As an adult, I learned that the key to sleep paralysis was that once I recognized what was happening, to reassure myself and relax since I was dreaming. My terror with sleep paralysis opened up in a beautiful way to lucid dreaming. Sleep paralysis was my portal to explore the dreamscape. It’s been said that the first twenty to thirty minutes after you wake up can be an influential time to reprogram your subconscious mind. Within the first twenty minutes upon awakening, your brain’s frequency is still in alpha waves and adjusting to being fully awake. Even though the body is awake, the brain needs a little more time to catch up. When the brain is running alpha waves during this time, it is in a soft, relaxed, focused state and your subconscious mind might be more open to suggestion. Hence it is an exceptional time for inviting more of what you want into your life. Waking up with an intentional ritual practice will set the tone for your day and bring big shifts to your life. Perhaps at different points in life, you’ve also felt all these intense emotions. And yet, each morning we wake to the light of the sun. The day starts anew. Every morning is another opportunity to greet the day and this amazing human experience. How do we remind ourselves of the gift of another day on this earthly plane? During lockdown in New York City, I was so grateful for walks by the river. I took my time noticing all the landscaped growth, flowers, and trees. Taking in the reflection and glistening of water and waves, communing with nature in the midst of an urban lockdown, was truly a blessing. Through all of it, it was the brightness and bursts of floral color that prodded me into delight. Healing is truly exponential. We all need reminders to practice gratitude. And the beauty of a gratitude practice is that it helps us open even more to the abundance and joy in the everyday.