Playground Meditation

Originally posted: 12/18/2010

This is a great meditation to get in touch with our inner child. It is strongly recommended to have a journal handy when doing this meditation and afterwards spend some time writing in our journal about our meditation experience.

This is one of the quickest ways to get in touch with our paradigm and uncover things that have been hidden deep within our unconscious mind so we can determine whether they belong to us or someone else from our past. Once we find out what has been holding us back, we may then clean it, release it and begin creating our new paradigm.  OURS, not someone else’s. 

I recommend you read my book, The Magic Words: Your Pathway to Peace, Joy, and Happiness, Where Miracles Become Expectations to gain a clear understanding of how we communicate with our unconscious mind as well as with our Higher Self. Once we understand these concepts, we can put them to work for us and enjoy living a life that we dream of. The reality is that we are already living the life of our dreams… is it time to change the dream?

It is highly likely that whatever blockages we have originate from somewhere in our childhood – childhood being up to the age to 12 to 14 years old – there may be some things stemming from the teenage years; but by and large, pretty much all of our learned habits are established by the time we are 12 or 13.  You know the old saying, “That’s just the way it has always been done.” – reminds me of a story:

Holiday dinner preparation. The whole family is there – 4 generations – Mom is getting a big ham ready and before she puts it in the pan, she cuts some off from each end of the ham; her daughter asks her why she does that; mom replies, “cuz that’s the way it has always been done – I don’t really know why – why don’t you ask your grandmother?”  so the daughter goes to Grandma – same story, she does not know why either, so she goes to great-grandma who says, “Wellll, sweetie, back in my day, the ham was always bigger than the pan and oven so I had to cut about 4 inches off the ham and rather than it looking funny by cutting it all off of one end, I cut a little off both ends. I don’t know WHY they are still doing that today, y’all have bigger pans and bigger ovens. If you find out why they still do it that way, will you let me know?”

Haha, but think about it for a bit, is there anything in our life that we do just because that’s the way it has always been done? Those are excellent places to begin. Ponder them, meditate on them when we get a chance, and we will often find there are other ways to do whatever it is. And quite possibly better ways. This is all in our unconscious minds and we do not even think about it – we just do it. This is a big part of our paradigm, and this is often where the “Shoulds” come from. We have a thought to do something and before we know it, we think, “I SHOULD do it this way – that’s how Mom or Dad always did it.”

If we have these thoughts and can’t ponder them when we have them, at least remember them, or better yet, we jot them down on a piece of paper to carry with us. These are the kinds of things that often come up in this Playground meditation, and why this is such a useful meditation to do frequently.

I don’t recommend working on too many things at once – that can quickly become overwhelming; however, there are times when things tend to overlap and one leads to another and before we know it, we are right back in the ‘Monkey Mind’ going down the rabbit hole. Anytime this happens, going down the rabbit hole, we may simply repeat the mantra over and over; I love you, “I am sorry, Please forgive me, Thank you.” It is a great ‘thought-stopper’ and gives us pause from the spiral and we come back to the moment where we can adjust our thinking to more positive, productive thoughts.

Remember, to get pono is not a destination, it is a journey. Once we understand it, it will be the best journey we have yet experienced.

A note about journaling. Sometimes when we write in our journals about a pleasant memory or experience, we may start to remember a ‘not so pleasant’ time. This is good though, really good because it is the not so good times that I refer to as negative, low-vibration memories stored in our unconscious minds and these negative vibrations are blocking us from being all we can be and having all we desire and deserve. Therefore, getting to these memories and turning them around by cleaning them is extremely beneficial. The more we do this, the more we create our OWN paradigm and the sooner we find lasting peace. The more we Get Pono.

I hope this helps you better understand the value of using The Playground meditation. I encourage you to continue to meditate and I hope you get to a point where you meditate every day; remember, not only is it good for you, it also helps the rest of us when you meditate.  So, thank you in advance for helping to raise the vibration of the planet.

Now then, breathing and posture. As with all my meditations, I use the “Ha” breathing technique from Ancient Hawaiian tradition. We place our hand just below our navel - Ancient Hawaiian tradition refers to this as the “Na-au”, the center, the core of our being, so when we do “Ha” breathing we take a deep breath in through our nose, into the Na’au, hold it for a second, and exhale slowly through the mouth making a “Haaaaa” sound.

I have been meditating for many years and tried a variety of different breathing techniques and have found the “Ha” breath to be the simplest and most effective breathing technique to reach a deep state of relaxation very quickly. I recommend using it whenever a stressful situation occurs. I use it often in the corporate environment. If I feel myself beginning to stress, I simply sit back and take three or four “Haa” breaths and I immediately relax. Try it out the next time you start to feel stressed.

Okay, now posture; posture is very simple - just find a chair, dining room chairs work great as they are not so comfortable that we tend to slouch in them, but comfortable enough to sit for half an hour or so. Whatever kind of chair we use, we sit with our spine erect, not rigid; “Sit up straight” as Mom used to say. Our feet should be flat on the floor, our knees together and our hands in our lap palms up and we may make the circle with your thumb and forefinger if we like. That’s it – very simple and once we begin the meditations, also quite comfortable.

OR

We can lie down, usually on our backs. If you practice yoga, think of the savasana pose – arms to our sides palms up, legs uncrossed. Sometimes we may fall asleep; however, that is fine. Remember, our unconscious minds are always awake and take in everything, so we still get the benefit of the meditation, just in a different way.

I also encourage listening to meditations to get to sleep. It is said that whatever is the last thought in our mind before we drift into sleep is what our unconscious mind works on all night. I have found this to be true.

That’s about it – very simple and very effective.

I welcome any questions, comments, or feedback.  You may submit any comments to me on my Contact page.  I do my best to answer all submissions at my earliest convenience.

With that – enjoy the meditation – have a fabulous day!  And thank you for being you.