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How To Visualise Letting Go Of Crap

How To Visualise Letting Go Of Crap

Tips To Minimise Your Crap Debt and Feel Free

We all have stuff in our lives. Some of it is joyous, and some of it is utter crap. You’ve heard of people telling you “just let that crap go”, but it is easier said than done.

Here are some basic creative visualisation methods to support you creating a healthy habit to clear the crap debt you collect each day and move towards feeling freer in your life.

Get Comfortable First

 

I would strongly recommend before commencing anything, that you have to be seated or lying somewhere. You must be absolutely comfortable in order to let go and to do so you need to feel safe in your physical position.

So I spend some time getting comfy first. My favourite meditation cushion and weighted blanket are my first go-to items. Music and lighting are also conducive to creating the right mood for release.

Mindful breathing

 

I always do my best work with slow purposeful breath with myself and with clients. Our bodies require relaxed slow deep breathing in order to achieve relaxation. Why? Because purposeful breath turns off the flight/fight response.

The easiest way for me to describe purposeful breathing is this. It involves consciously breathing slowly in over a count of four, pausing for a count of two, then breathing out slowly over a count of four.

It sounds obvious I know but if you experience anxiety, panic or simple overwhelm then you will likely be shallow breathing and in a state of neurological subconscious defence. In other words, your body will be primed for flight or fight.

What we are aiming for with slow deep breathing is to be relaxed between the in and out breaths. Elizabeth Peru references this pause between each breath as space whereby we connect to our soul, our hidden truth if you prefer. Additionally, we need to be comfortable so that we don’t get distracted when we are connected within our visualisations.

Visualisation

 

Once you’re relaxed, and before you allow yourself to visualise any of the options, you must consciously recognise and acknowledge you are in a safe place. Don’t commence until you feel completely safe and can connect with the arising emotions you feel stuck with.

Whenever I undertake this exercise I always ensure I am in a private quiet space. I inform my family I need some privacy and tell them I’m meditating or processing stuff. They’re smart enough to leave me to it.

I have a ritual for this process. I have a special meditation cushion, specific music and a candle in a large glass vase. I make the space sacred for me to go inwards and connect with what has to be shifted. I gift myself by instructing my body with conscious permission to release what no longer serves me.

I utilise a variety of different visualization options which I’ve included below as a sample. Remember it’s your emotions to shift and your imagination to release anything dark so that you can return to your light.


Visualisation Option #1 Inflate a Balloon

 

Give your body permission to connect to your frustration, anger or rage using your breath. As you breathe in calm, connect to the anger and negative energy within you. As you release your breath into a balloon, allow it to be forceful and angry.

The idea of this is to enable yourself to connect with where you have stored the negativity, and breath into it so that it may shift.

You can do with literally with a balloon or figuratively in your imagination. If you are simply picturing blowing up the balloon, then allow it to float away into the sky. The key with this option is to continue looking at the skyline until you can no longer see the balloon.

Alternatively, you can stomp on the balloon until the emotion is released.

Finish the exercise checking in with yourself and the emotions. Repeat the process until the anger has dissipated or at least you’re feeling more in control.

The ultimate goal of this visualisation is to allow the safe shift of anger from your body as anger within cells becomes toxic very quickly.

Be sure to have your journal nearby so that you can sit quietly and document how you’re feeling after the release. Often you open yourself up to a goldmine of insight and space for forgiveness once the anger has calmed.

Visualisation Option #2 Domestic Napalm

 

I’m an industrial chemist by trade, so I have a recipe that we studied in the final year, to create domestic napalm! I know I’m a bit quirky aren’t I?

I used to be quite the nasty bitch when I was younger, and if someone pissed me off, I would have a Bridgette Jones moment and imagine blowing up people who ticked me off.

Nowadays when I reflect on a trigger event or person, I allow myself to connect with the feelings that have been generated from an incident. Afterall these feelings are mine to be dealt with and no one else’s. It’s my responsibility for how I feel and choose to change back to a space of happiness.

For this option, I allow myself to picture the arising nasty feelings. I get very clear on where it is in my body by giving the emotion a shape, colour, texture and density. Then I dissociate myself from it so I can see exactly what the emotion is associated with, as no longer part of me. And then I blow that shit up.

I studied drugs and bombs at university, so I still get the thrill of exploding things, even if only in my mind. Sometimes it’s like fireworks, other times it’s like exploding fuel tankers.

The ultimate goal of this visualisation is to identify exactly where in my body I have stored the emotions. I acknowledge the emotion, let it go. I then reach for my Louise Hay “You can heal your life” book and find the affirmation for that part of my body and journal out what negative story I had been telling myself and finish with one of Louise’s affirmations.

Visualisation Option #3 Become the Pirate Captain of the Ship

 

You may laugh, but if you’ve got the inclining to want to be physical because your rage is so intense, picture yourself as a pirate captain and force the ‘trigger person’ to walk the plank.

If your anger is attributed to a person who has been pushing you around verbally or emotionally, visualising making them walk the plank can feel very satisfying.

Let me clarify this exercise is excellent to enable you to get verbal and to swear like a sailor and get a whole bunch of stuff off your chest. This way you can express all the shit out, without having to face a nasty or ugly confrontation.

The pirate ship represents a place of power and authority in the situation, where you remain on board and in control. Forcing someone to walk the plank along the narrow steps to be taken to a jump to the tumultuous sea below adopts the concept that you have taken your power back.

Should you chose this option, I would recommend that you sit quietly with your journal and explore what it has cost you to lose your voice or have your boundaries stepped on. Ask yourself what you may now need to do to feel secure again. This may require some more release, and that’s ok.

Visualisation Option #4 Put your Luggage on a Small Sailboat

 

Image stuffing your negative anger-based emotions into bags of luggage and placing those bags onto a small sailboat which will sail away into calm waters. The beach represents the security of a safe place, and stability where you can remain physically grounded. The lagoon is a safe place of emotions to accept the easy release.

Allow your imagination to picture you standing on the beach of a quiet lagoon or inlet. Place your baggage into the small boat, and then push the boat into the water.

Picture yourself standing on the sand watching the sailboat drifting towards open water. Continue watching the boat until you can no longer see it. Once you can no longer see the boat, take a breath and check-in with how you feel. Are you feeling lighter now or is there more emotional crap to be addressed?

If there is still more emotion residing repeat the process.

The goal of this visualisation is to allow yourself to connect with how heavy the emotional luggage is. Connect with how hard you’ve been hanging onto the garbage feelings and thoughts by linking with how hard it was to push the boat. Was it easy or a struggle? Did it take a long time for the boat to sail away?

Visualisation Option #5 Fresh Water Creek

 

Picture yourself walking through native bushland. I’ve grown up bushwalking my whole life and have favourite national parks that I regularly visit. For some, this might not hold true, so if there is a local park that will work as well.

Imagine the sun shining through the trees, you are warm and safe. Walk down the creek embankment and sit on a large rock which is above the water-line. Connect with your feelings, and place your feet into the water.

Allow the water to become turbulent which washes against your feet, cleansing the emotion. You sit safely on the rock, watching the colour of the emotion washing out of your feet and into the creek and disappearing. Once the emotion has gone, the water stills once again and you continue to bath on the rock in the sun.

The goal of this visualisation is to allow yourself to feel safe, immersing a small portion of yourself into the water, which represents emotions. Allowing yourself to visualise the creek rising, is inviting your body to allow the emotions to arise and safely release.


Sometimes the visualisation process becomes too difficult on our own and this is where guided meditation can be very useful as homework for my professional clinic clients. I often prescribe the following physical techniques to support your release process.

Physical Option #1 Bang a Pillow

 

For over a decade I participated in spiritual healing retreats, whereby we would get on the floor and connect with the feelings of whatever it was we were working through. And then we would grab a pillow and bang it into another. This way we didn’t hurt ourselves as we released, but bloody hell do you work up an angry sweat!

Sometimes, there are occasions whereby you feel so volatile and you want to hurt someone that’s how angry you are. This is a safe way to burn off some of the steam that can build up, especially if a situation isn’t able to be quickly resolved. Using the pillow means that you don’t hurt yourself or anyone around you.

Physical Option #2 Write A Fuck You Letter

 

Several of my mentors summed this up perfectly when recommending writing a fuck you letter. It’s one way to say exactly what you want, as if the person was standing in front of you. You can get as explicit as you want and express it all out.

The only trick with this option is we never ever send the letter, we burn it.

The reactions and feelings are yours, and the letter helps you release them, rather than sharing the poison or playing shit sandwich tennis.


 

Whatever your preferred release method is, it’s always recommended that if the matter isn’t easily resolved you reach out and seek further support to address anything negative arising or worse, festering within you. You can choose to change and bloom from within.