I was doing yoga the other day and was reminded of a guided meditation that was a part of a workshop called, “The Spiritual Journey.” Our teacher talked about how we all need a place where we feel safe and free to be truly ourself, a place to escape to in a sense. One common form of meditation is to be able to go to that place in your mind even if you can’t go there physically. For some it’s an imaginary place, but for most it’s a place that holds in it a deep emotional connection. It may be a place from childhood or a place where something significant and good happened. It could be the top of a mountain, a bench with a view, your room at home (I know someone who says it’s their bathroom because that’s the only place they are truly alone), or even a store that you like to wonder through (my daughter and I used to wonder through the hardware store every Monday just dreaming of projects, but rarely getting anything to actually work on something). I guess the point is that it really can be anywhere so long as it’s a place where you feel the most true to yourself.
A place of self
We usually think of these places as ones that are private and individual, but sometimes it’s a place that you shared with someone who helped you feel that freedom and safety so that in a sense that person is your place. I remember that when I did the exercise it was easy for me to choose a place, because there was only one place that ever really felt like a retreat for me and it was my family cabin. I usually go there alone now, but the memories I have that make it that place for me are more rooted in family as a place where we would go to be a family with no distractions. We would play games into the middle of the night and my brother and I would go off on an adventure in the morning.
I guess what made me want to write about it is that I was feeling a little off center and it was the meditative exercise during a day at home alone that took me to that place. I was reminded of how important it is to not only have a place of refuge, a place of self, but how important it is to let yourself go there (even it is just in your minds eye). Even the person who lives most in the present has roots in the past and the future looses meaning when you loose yourself and don’t have that special place to hold on to. What a gift it is to have a place of self.
Tripping the Light Fantastic 