Regression meditation
The most sophisticated people I know – inside they are all children. ―Jim Henson
👥 Serves: 1 Person
🎚 Difficulty: Medium
⏳ Total time: 30 minutes
🥣 Ingredients: A quiet place with no distractions
💪 Nutritional values: Perspective, Awareness, Gratitude, Appreciation, Meaning
Regression meditation
📝 Description
A powerful tool to explore how early experiences shape your life.
The regression meditation is a powerful tool to explore your early experiences and how these shaped your current life (e.g. your needs, dreams, fears, desires, etc.). It is an exercise that will fill you with gratitude and may lead to a certain emotional release and a motivation to explore your future.
This recipe is a guided meditation in which you will imagine travelling into your past. As each of us is different, for you it may be easy to visualise images, or perhaps you think more about concepts or sounds. Anything is fine for this exercise. Try to relax and experience whatever emerges.
We will start with a 10-minute check-in to help you cultivate an attentive presence during the practice. We invite you to do the meditation with closed eyes, but if you feel uncomfortable at any point, you may open your eyes and look at a point in front of you.
The following recipe has been gifted by Pascal Kolbe from the Ikigai Lab at the Interdisciplinary Research Center (CRI) in Paris, France.
👣 Steps
Step 1 – Check-in (10’)
Find a quiet, private spot where you can be comfortable for a few minutes. Sit with your eyes closed or look at a point in front of you, keeping a gentle and soft focus. Sit relaxed but straight up on your chair. Keeping a straight, yet relaxed, spine helps you to stay present. Keep both feet grounded on the floor and rest your hands on your legs or on your lap.
Begin to notice your breath, without trying to change it. Simply become aware of the in-breath and the out-breath and how each breath moves through your body.
Now, gently guide your attention to the content of your thoughts. What is going on in your mind right now? Are you thinking about something in the past or planning something in the future? Perhaps you are thinking about a specific situation or certain people? [PAUSE] Whatever it is, tell yourself: “Whatever I am experiencing right now, it’s okay – let me leave it just the way it is.”
Now direct your attention towards your feelings. What is going on in your heart right now? Try to see if you can label your feelings and emotions as they arise at this moment. Do you feel excitement? Distress or anxiety? Joy or calmness? Sadness or frustration? [PAUSE] Whatever you’re experiencing, tell yourself: “It’s okay, just let me be in this feeling, without needing to change anything right now. Let me try to make space for this feeling.” Now take a deeper inhalation and on the exhalation, make room for the feelings you are experiencing right now at this moment. [PAUSE]
Now, shift your awareness towards your body… to how the weight of your body feels on the seat of the chair… how your feet rest on the floor… how your hands rest on your thighs… and how your head balances like a balloon at the top of your spine. Take a moment to notice any tensions or any other physical sensations present in your body. [PAUSE] Tell yourself, “whatever sensation is present, it’s okay, let me just notice what’s happening in my body right now.”
Now, return your awareness to your breath – notice how the air gently floats in through the nose, expanding your chest and stomach in the process and gently floats out through the nose again. [PAUSE] Each time a thought or feeling pops up, just acknowledge it and return your awareness to your breath. Count five more breaths at your own pace…
Step 2 – Regression (20’)
Now that you are present, I would like to invite you to meet your younger self – say when you were 8 years old or so… If at any point you feel uncomfortable or you feel like leaving the space, simply open your eyes and look at a point in front of you with a soft gaze and wait comfortably until the end of the meditation…
Let’s begin… Imagine that you are sitting in the middle of a peaceful forest… You can hear the sound of birds chirping… It’s a peaceful day. You breathe in deeply and relax… the sun is shining on your skin, it feels warm and comforting…
As you soak in the warmth, you realise that in front of you, in between the trees of the forest is a cute little house. It must have been there all along, but you didn’t notice it as you were relaxing more and more, reacting to the peacefulness of your surroundings…
You know that in ten seconds your 8-year-old self is going to walk out of the door of the house and join you… You feel calm, looking forward to meeting your younger self… 1, 2, 3… you breathe in, your body completely relaxes… 4, 5, 6, 7… you enjoy the feeling of the sun on your skin… 8, 9, 10… the door opens and your 8-year-old self walks out with a smile on their face…
They come into your arms and greet you friendly… You look at each other… You feel warmly connected… After a few seconds, you start the conversation and ask your younger self:
- What do you like to do at the moment?
- Who are the people that are surrounding you at the moment?
- What do you want at the moment?
- What are you concerned about at the moment?
- What makes you the happiest at the moment?
- What are you dreaming about at the moment?
- What do you want to do today?
After hearing about your younger self’s current situation, you may now comfort them. You may start telling your younger self about all the interesting people that they are going to meet in the coming years… all the things that they are going to learn in the coming years… all the challenges they will overcome in the coming years… all the things they will achieve in the coming years… Tell them what is important to care about in the coming years… and what they should not worry too much about, as they become insignificant over time…
Take a few seconds to soak in the energy from this interaction… Now as you breathe in, feel how you and your younger self are slowly lifting off the ground, moving towards each other… You can feel how your past and present self are merging into one and you feel good and relaxed…
You begin to sing back into the ground, feeling calm… peaceful… confident… and whole… In ten seconds you will come back into the room and open your eyes… 1, 2, 3, 4… breathe in deeply one more time… 5, 6, 7… put a soft smile on your lips… 8, 9, 10… thank yourself for making this time for yourself, and when you are ready, gently open your eyes.