Wednesday 12 March 2008

Meditation for Insight - What's your Inner Landscape?

Cerato - The Intuition Flower
And what is it telling you?

Our Inner Landscape can be a metaphor for out emotional and spiritual State of Being. It can contain clues as to how we are travelling, what we are focussing on, or what issues we may need to address. Viewing this inner landscape in a detached, observant third person manner can be extremely beneficial in helping us understand where we are, and why we are feeling the way we are feeling too.

A landscape that is predominantly water may indicate a highly emotional State of Being. This may be a passing phase of life, and you may need to use methods of visualisation meditation to properly navigate this position you find yourself in. If it is a life long landscape that you always have encountered, then perhaps this can indicate to you that an avenue of mastering your emotions to bring about a calmer life may be needed.

Harsh inner landscapes appear when we are feeling oppressed, or have suffered a great deal of physical, psychological or emotional pain. This is an opportunity to offer your Self the visualisation of survival, of progression from this harsh wilderness towards a more pleasant place of existence.

Constantly using our minds to place our Self where we want to be is part of the journey of true and healing progression. Another part is to observe and take conscious notice of what we are teaching ourselves. We have to be able to trust our inner landscape and the messages it sends. We have to learn how to trust our intuition and act upon it beneficially. Humans are extraordinarily adaptive, to the point that some people adapt so well to the harsh landscape that any form of progression from it seems scarier than what they are living in now. This kind of emotional ‘negative gearing’ is so limiting, and ultimately leads to an injury of the Self in some way.

The person who consistently verbalises how tough life is, will usually end up with harsh experiences, yet the one who seemingly breezes through life is the one who has a catch phrase, ‘its alright, I know its all ok’ humming through their innermost thoughts. Their inner landscapes are vastly different.

So what’s your Inner Landscape? Find a quiet spot, a place where you will be undisturbed, and take some deep breaths, letting go of tension in the physical body with each exhalation. Then close your eyes and visualise what you are feeling now as if it was a place you were in, a room, a building, or a landscape. What is there inside you? What does it feel like?
Harsh and rocky, dry, barren, depleted, confronting, unloving?
Or is it soft rolling hills, streams, plants, abundant, caring, supportive and nourishing?

Is it dominated by which element? And what would that mean?
Water = Emotional Instability or Self Study (looking into the depths of one’s Self)
Fire = Passion or Anger
Air/Clouds/Sky = Escapism or Freedom
Earth = Stability or Immobilisation (being weighed down by responsibilities)
Wood = Growth or Confusion (being lost in a ‘forest’ of choices)
Metal = Protective or Imprisoning (needing to stop a kind of behaviour)

Other indications may come in the forms of:
Rocks = Oppression
Boxes and Doorways = Hidden problems/Hidden solutions
Rolling Hills = Contentment/Confidence
Cityscape = Work Commitments/Pleasure Seeking
Beach = Definition between two parts of your Self (this can be dramatic or therapeutic)
Cliffs = Challenges
Roads with Traffic = Obstacles to deal with/Tasks to complete
Roads that are deserted = Choices to be made

And then of course there are the colour correlations to our Chakra points, which can indicate a host of other reasons why our landscapes may be what they are!
The colours Silver or Violet can indicate a need to accept help or find a spiritual avenue for assistance.
Indigo (deepest purple) suggests that the problem is mostly academic, or within the realm of your own perceptions.
Blue has the message that you need to communicate about your feelings to, or with, the person who may be the cause, or the best helper, for your current issues.
Green or Pink or both, centre round issues of the Heart or Heart-Mind. This can indicate a need to connect more fully with those who support and love you. It may also indicate a need to address a past hurt that has not been healed yet.
Yellow or Gold brings a message of happy confidence,… or the complete flipside of debilitating lack of confidence in the Self. Dramatic work needs to be done if it is the latter, as this can be the starting point of much physical ill-health.
Orange is the colour of our ‘one on one’ dealings with other people, be they acquaintances or persons who are we are fairly intimate with. Usually comes up when family issues are taking precedence in our Life Experience.
Red or Black or both, indicate issues with Stability, either an abundance or severe lack. It can translate easily into the physical, so if it is a case of lack of stability, it must be dealt with swiftly to avoid sickness or injury to the lower part of the body.

Observing the Inner Landscape is only part of the deal here. Translating or interpreting what you ‘see’ is important too of course. I hope the above references can help you to understand what you are feeling, and to lead you to a visualisation that incorporates those elements and representations that will benefit your State of Being for the better. Taking time to Be with your Self is important so that we have time and space for the messages to get through to our conscious minds.

The Flower Essence ‘Cerato’ would be beneficial to anyone commencing this kind of self-therapy, as it assists one in trusting the Intuition.

And me? My head’s full of rolling green hills, gurgling streams and a sky filled with clouds all in different shapes and sizes. Guess I’ve got some exploring to do…cool… :)