Judge me as you wish, but I've always been captivated by reflections, and I'll admit, rarely a mirror is passed where I'm not tempted a glance. I've done it as long as I can remember. It's a status report of sorts. A progress update.
Validation of my existence. Conditions as they appear.
A recent discovery (by yours truly) showed researcher (me) that a mirror combined with some conscious breath work is formula enough to create the conditions to travel into some deep, internal healing dimensions. Direct sunlight optional. Nudity is advised.
The process is basic as it sounds. Locate reflective surface. Outside is best. Look at yourself/to yourself/through yourself and breathe. Notice how the breath moves. Where it doesn't move. How your body moves. Where the shadows fall. What still seems stuck. Notice where your mind goes. Where you're holding tension. The stories that you're telling. How your body could change.
Patience is required, and an inquisitive mind.
No end goal is the goal. It's not necessarily required of you to know what you're looking for, it's more about seeing what comes up, sensation by sensation, moment to moment, viewing the experience like a showing - a curiosity from a vantage point slightly removed.
A lot of unconscious inner conversation comes to the fore when faced with yourself in an arrangement like this. The urge to follow the stream of repetitive, reactive thoughts is best interrupted by an intention to reset, refresh, step back and witness the stream of consciousness, instead of being subject to the unfolding, carried away on a wave at the mercy of the thought.
A detached vantage point automatically creates space around the experience, allowing the energy to move, or at least breathe a little. We're trying to glitch the system, so to speak.
Energy doesn't stop. It's always in constant motion. It can however, cluster, solidifying around an issue, keeping it isolated and contained and packed up.
It's sweet really - the level of protection we provide for ourselves by doing something like that.
But resistance to the movement of the energy - its natural desire to flow - is certain to make areas of life much harder than necessary. It's like trying to build a house on rubble.
Even the smallest adjustment though, a few moments of intention to venture toward the area - however tentatively - can allow for new energy to diffuse the potency of old stuck energy, providing an atmosphere for new ideas to flourish, or at the very least, let out some long-held tension relative to the topic.
It's not easy, facing these stories/the shame. It's long felt, long held and vulnerable AF.
This is deeply programmed stuff being challenged. It's a matter of acknowledgement, of non-avoidance and making space. There's no need to figure out the details, rather being open to the experience that venturing in that direction offers.
Ride the wave to areas and ideas, held within, which most need to be healed.
A minor brainwave adjustment prior to the experience enhances the potential on offer. Music works wonders. It shifts your vibration out of regular programming, alters your channels and brings about a state of receptivity, which is key.
Sunlight isn't absolutely required, and you really don't need the mirror. It just brings the new data, lighting up the areas to investigate, permeating heat and information over and through and between cells, infusing the body, and the experience with light rays, moving with the breath. Moonlight works too, or eyes closed.
All you need is breath and your willingness to explore.
One theory I've crafted during my experiences exploring is that stretch marks are indicators of areas which hold shame and (warped) memories of personal shortcomings. For me, glistening trails line my breasts, thighs and butt, so I breathe there, toward the lines like they're the money spot, watching as I change shape with every inhale, feeling different parts of the soles of my feet meet the floor as my shoulders correct and my spine elongates because instea of denying these marks, I'm working with them, and with more breaths come these pops, these bursts between bones, between cartilidge like somethings shifted, and my reflection morphs because my vision blurs and in the mirror a more spacious version of me, one I haven't seen before.
It's not just stretch marks actually, pretty much any lump, bump, scar, odd bone, misalignment, off-hue or fat store which plagues the mind one way or another. The idea is that you go there, flow with the breath and visit areas with an air of curiosity to see what comes up, and to see if you can break up the stagnancy with breath and non-judgement. Both are essential. In your journey you'll find channels that flow well, and you'll find walls, roadblocks, trapped unconscious zones too. You may find areas which you never knew were numb to the feel. It's worth leaning into these zones, because there's something there for you.
The mirror journey requires courage.
Here's two (of many) approaches one can take:
Externally led:
Without any specific focus, concentrate on your reflection and watch how the light moves over your body as you breathe. Notice when your ribs appear, where your breath goes. Notice where your eyes drift, where your mind goes. Absorb the air. Move to a rhythm if you want to.
Let the body talk.
Notice how the breath moves in your body. Where does it feel like isn't getting any? Where are the channels blocked? Can you encourage newness there? Can you find space for the air to flow?
For example, concentrating on air flowing along the channel between my groin and the knee seems to bring peace to my digestive and reproductive systems, if only for a moment. My lower back releases, my ovaries soften and my armpits relax.
Notice what thoughts come up. Notice when you stop breathing. Let your body show you something.
That's the opportunity here, to let the body give and receive positive intent because of your intention to experience openness and freedom. It's instant manifestation.
Root cause focus:
This is more the quest approach. For the most part we know what our major issues are. The ones which carry the scariest themes to where avoidance on the subject, or anywhere near the subject, has been perfected to such an art we'd be at a master level. The seed is what this inquiry is about. The one planted long ago - that experience that lingers. Here, it's about following the path to determine what's actually happening and what's fluff dancing around it, like a jester keeping you occupied.
So you know the issue, something that's been lingering. It can be a theme (jealousy, victim mentality, frustration, anger) or it could be a specific scenario (how Client B won't pay his bill, or how you're not being loved the way you want to be..). Let the issue form as a sentence in your mind's eye. Envision the formation of the sentence ahead of you so it's somewhat removed. Now, with that as your focus, release the need to control the narrative, and breathe in. Allow whatever associated thoughts and sensations that come up to come up, and you be the witness.
You can close your eyes if you want, but try to follow the mental continuations and the areas of the body you're drawn to, then hone in.
Feel if your collarbone clenches inwards when you think about a particular topic - go there.
Keep following the channels and let yourself be led to the areas of the body holding concerns related to this issue. It may be one spot, it may be many.
You set the general direction, now let yourself be shown what you need to know. Release control and receive the new impulses. It will lead you somewhere which could really benefit you. Lean into it. Even if you don't arrive at a perfect definitive clarifying moment, the journey itself is enough to make major waves.
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These inner voyages don't have to be a deep or long exercise, or structured even, or an exercise at all. Stay as long as you like. Go as far as you want. Seconds count. Time is relative. Go in, go out. It's a muscle to work on. A long term project.
Some walls are much easier to break down than you might've thought.
Sometimes you'll see glimpses/aspects of yourself you might not like - so it's worth remembering that not all your thoughts are from you and not all memories are accurate. Not all experiences - mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, psychic - are on the same timeline or run according to frame rates you're typically programmed into, so what might seem insignificant or nominal, can actually create a ripple effect of change spanning many dimensions.
It's important to be with yourself through it though, like you'd stand protective and alert be beside a brave little kid venturing into new terrain.
It's also important that no-one else's opinion on the details of the experience matters much. This is self validation. You do it yourself. It's only ever going to make sense to you.
Adapt how you see fit. No one way works for everyone.
