When a Past Memory Hovers Around

A Letting Go Technique 

As a recent empty-nester, I’ve been having some past parenting memories pop up that were not my best hour.  Actually “pop up” isn’t the right word, because it implies that they quickly leave.  Instead, I think they’ve been sticking around in the background, hovering in the shadows, maybe even haunting me a bit.  Yikes!  

When taking the time to really feel into these hovering memories, I realize they carry feelings of weak, inadequate, and ashamed.  

One type of meditation that helps detach past memories is Thought Observation Meditation.  Instead of letting that memory hover around in the shadows of your mind, you imagine a blue sky that is filled with all kinds of thoughts and memories like clouds.  There is a lifetime of thought/memory clouds up there, some good and some bad, but in your imagination they all look alike because they all make up you.  As you meditate on the sky and the clouds, notice one of your thoughts/memories for a moment and then let that cloud pass by.  Notice another thought/memory and let it pass by.  

Notice if a particular thought/memory cloud sticks around for a bit.  You may need to repeat a mantra phrase before that cloud can drift on.  Maybe something you would lovingly tell a good friend if they were feeling haunted by a memory.  Maybe something like, “you learned from that moment” or “even then, you were enough”.  Repeat this until the thought/memory drifts on.  

This meditation can be done anytime you notice that memory hovering around.  Letting go isn’t a catch-phrase, it’s a process.  

Until next time,

Laura