I’m bestselling indie writer Teague de La Plaine. This is my weekly newsletter, where I talk about writing and self-publishing in addition to my own life. I keep the newsletter free, because I prefer you spend your money on my books.
This is the third part of our meditation series.
Once you have learned to breathe again and have built your cabin of gratitude, it’s time to light your emotional fire. This inner fire will keep your emotions at a general state of positivity and provide a warm, encouraging light in your heart.
As you sit, close your eyes and imagine you are in the forest. The solid cabin that you have built is right behind you, full of all the good things in your life. Imagine yourself gathering small sticks and kindling. Using river rocks, build a small ring on a cleared area of the forest floor. Inside this ring, place your kindling first onto the ground. Lay your sticks in a pyramid fashion on top of the kindling.
Slowly rub your hands together as you breathe. Start thinking of all the good things in the universe, all those things that made up the stones of your cabin walls. Think of something you want, something that would make you very happy to have. Believe that you have it now. Concentrate on it and begin to feel joy emanating from the center of your body.
Now, imagine pure, white smoke beginning to come from your palms. Keep thinking your positive thought; keep rubbing. Soon you can imagine sparks flying out from your hands toward the kindling, lighting the kindling on fire.
As the fire burns brighter and stronger, you can slow down the rubbing of your hands to a gentle rhythm. But keep concentrating.
For this exercise, make sure you are slowly rubbing your hands together in front of the fire. Listen to the gentle rasping of your hands. With your inner fire burning brightly, imagine one of the negative things in your life. Maybe it’s a bad debt you have or a relationship that hurts you. Take just one negative thing and imagine it becoming a piece of wet, rotten wood. Let it drop onto the fire and watch it as it begins to smoke and sizzle.
Now, depending on how much negative energy is in your life, the wood you've put on the fire may be very wet. It’s really hard to get wet wood to burn. So you have to keep imagining the things that bring you joy; and you have to keep rubbing your hands together to make those sparks shower down on the kindling.
Finally, the wet wood catches on fire and starts to burn. Keep your mind focused on what makes you happy, but watch that wet wood burn. This represents the cleansing effect of fire. Your inner fire—a positive energy force—is burning away the negative feelings you have been carrying around with you.
Repeat this process with one big negative thing in your life each time you sit down to renew your inner fire. Keep doing this process, burning away your negative emotions forever.
Each time you build this fire in your mind, take the negative energy you've been carrying around and throw it in the flames.
Let it burn and let it go.
The past no longer exists. The future is something you are creating right now. And this moment is all that matters. Not one second ago, and not one second from now.
Just now.
Just this moment.
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