When Illness Strikes: A Restorative Practice
Yesterday, I spent most of the day in hospital, feeling simultaneously very ill, and immensely grateful for modern medicine and for the Devas and their human counterparts who grace these seemingly sterile places with such kindness, humour and compassionate power.
Lying in my narrow hospital bed with my sweater tucked under my neck for support, and IV dripping medicine into my veins, I closed my eyes, imagined the hiss and roar of Mama Ocean, and played with this practice. It’s something I’d created in a simpler form when I was a child, and that I’ve refined and taught to thousands of folks over the years.
Sharing it for any of you who wish to play with it too. In these dark and dangerous times, play restores and expands our collective light. It reminds us of who we really are, and of the power and beauty of our incarnations.
If you can get down to the sea, or a body of water — pond, lake, river, stream — all the better, but you can do this imaginally wherever you find yourself.
** As with anything you do, use your discernment. If this doesn’t feel good to you, or if you feel uncomfortable at any time during the practice, stop.**
Ground, center, find your boundaries and draw them in close to you — arms-width all around you. Place a marker — a gold ball that rotates around your boundary, to strengthen it and remind you of who and where you are.
Then, let your inner selves know you’re going to do some energetic housecleaning, and that you’ll keep them close and protected in your heart while you’re doing it.
When you feel ready, take out your imaginal (aka astral) body and place it in the ocean — not far; close to you, but fully immersed in the water. Keep it connected to your physical body with a gold cord that links its third chakra to your diaphragm.
Attune to the Deva of the element of water, and the Deva of the particular body of water you’re sitting beside, or imagining. Ask them to cleanse your imaginal body, to dissolve anything that doesn’t belong to you, isn’t in present time, and doesn’t serve your soul’s unfolding now, especially in any areas that feel congested or are faltering.
Breathe deeply of the ocean air. Take the pattern of the ocean into your body — it lives in you, as all things live in you, and you can strengthen it and allow it to strengthen you. Be receptive, soft, boundaried, as you do this.
Feel the rhythms of the tides in your body. The whoosh of blood flowing through your arteries and veins; lymph circulating through channels and tributaries in your body, cleansing toxins and strengthening your immune system; sweat opening your pores and releasing anything that is ready to be released, through your skin, and more.
Widen and strengthen your grounding, to form a sturdier base for the energies you’re bringing in now. Reclaim your imaginal body and place it back into your physical body.
Connect it to your physical body at your joints, in addition to the cord that connects at your third chakra. Place a bead of gold light at each of your joints, letting each bead of light expand and contract as you breathe in and out.
Strengthen your grounding once again.
Call on your soul to replace all that you’ve released, with the patterns it holds for your perfect unfolding at this time. Give yourself time and space for this process.
Rest. Breathe.
Touch the tops of your feet with the palms of your hands. Let your head drop between your knees, and rest there for a few minutes.
Create a gold energy cord from the center of your head to the base of your brain. Let it do its work.
Then, ask your body what it needs now. Do that.
Notice how you feel, as you bring this practice to a close.
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May your day be blessed. May your wholeness, restored, restore and illumine your world.
Love,
Hiro