Meditating with the Elements
There is an assumption among many that successfully meditating means that you can always turn off your mind and enter a state of bliss. The purpose of meditation however is not just about entering a state of bliss. It is about coming into deeper resonance with yourself. Although the truth of ourselves is that we are one with the Divine, there are many layers; many false beliefs about ourselves sitting on top of this truth. Getting to this truth requires noticing, accepting, loving, and releasing these layers gently over time. Meditation is an incredible modality for releasing these layers though this process is not always peaceful.
If you find that you have had blissful experiences with meditation and then not so blissful experiences, do not assume that you are doing this wrong. Every time we make space to be present with ourselves, whatever is ready to best serve you will be what comes to the surface. Your psyche knows exactly what it is doing. Bliss one day and sheer mental agony the next does not mean that you have backtracked. The Universe is a loving space and is always here in service of your highest good no matter how twisted the logic may seem.
If you let it, everything that happens in your life can be a vehicle for brining you in deeper resonance with the love that you are. Meditation will lovingly show you over time what is not your truth as it is ready to be seen and released. Whatever emotions may enter your awareness are never bigger than your ability to be present to them. The power of meditation is that it is a process to become present to what you feel and transmute those emotions rather than living in their false story and letting those false stories run your life. All suffering stems from our unwillingness to be present with what is. What you are feeling and experiencing is not the truth of who you are. It is just in service of bringing you closer to yourself. The good, the bad, and the ugly. It is all here in service of love.
While it is fine to meditate by just sitting in silence, there are many ways to go about your meditation practice. Whatever helps you get present and accepting of what is will serve you well. One way in which I have recently begun to meditate, is by meditating with the elements of earth, water, air, and fire when they feel synergistic to my process. Sometimes before I begin my meditation practice, I have a sense of what is needed most in the moment. Sometimes I know that I just need to feel an emotion. Other times I sense that I could use some groundedness. Sometimes I know that I just need to feel deeply still and in touch with the truth of myself. And yet other times, when I am not grasping and I am truly feeling emotionally well, I sense that now is a time for inspiration. I have found that by meditating with certain elements, I can better support the quality of my meditation.
Water
There are times in my life, where I know that an emotion is getting the best of me. I know not to try and outrun it as what we resists persists, though my Type A personality likes to sometimes feign ignorance about this fact. Luckily, finally, I have mostly reached a level of maturity where I know to stop running if I am running simply because I am trying to control an emotional experience. I know now that what will serve me best is to sit with the emotion and welcome it in. In its awkward way, it is here to serve me and bring me back into wholeness with myself. Our emotions never intend to hang around for the long haul; they just want to do their job and move on. It is us humans who fear them, believe them to be bigger than the truth of who we are, and thus leave them lingering like a Boogeyman in the closet. Your emotions are not wrong. Do not believe them to be. Emotions, like water, desire to move through us. They are healthy when felt and then released. They become stagnant and toxic when avoided or suppressed.
To support yourself in feeling and releasing emotions, you can use the element of water during your meditation if you know that what will serve you best in this moment is just to feel whatever has been overwhelming to your system. Ideally, we would meditate with moving water. Meditating next to the ocean or stream would be amazing but if you have humidifier, diffuser, water fountain, a running pool pump, or even a swamp cooler, all of these items are great to meditate next to. While the physical water is moving, imagine that the emotions in you will move out of your system once they are done being felt. Do not rush this process. Your emotions are here to serve you and they take their job seriously. Let them be felt. If you do not have the ability to be near moving water, meditate next to a glass of water and at the end of your meditation, when you truly feel complete for this moment in time, you may pour the water down the drain or poor it into something that would appreciate the drink. The earth has no problem in recycling our emotional residue.
Earth
There are other times when I am going to meditate when I can feel that what I really need is to just feel safe and supported. Trying to hack it on the earth plane can feel scary, isolating, and overwhelming. While the Universe is always here to help us feel safe and supported, the earth offers such a tangible opportunity for us to feel support. The earth is always under our feet offering her support to the full weight of our bodies, hearts, and minds. If you know that what would serve you best in the moment is to just feel less alone in your human experience, you can call on the earth to support you.
If you can, it would be ideal to go outside and meditate. If the weather permits and you have access to a patch of grass or dirt, take off your shoes and feel the earth beneath your feet. There are health benefits to doing this. If being inside is the best you can do, see if you can sit near a potted plant. Anything with soil will have the greatest benefit for feeling that there is a space for you to ground into. If you need to pull up a picture of a tree growing out of the ground on your computer, have that next to you while you meditate. You may also take a scoop of soil from outside and set that next to you while you meditate. You can return the soil outdoors once you are done. The key here is to know that you can feel safe and rooted in this human experience. The element of earth is here to ground and support you. Keep this in mind while you meditate, and you will finish your meditation feeling more stable than when you started.
Fire
Only that which can withstand the heat of a fire will remain in its wake. The truth of you can withstand any circumstance or experience. It can never be lost. The false stories and beliefs we heap upon ourselves or allow others to heap upon us throughout this human experience cannot withstand the flames. The fire of this examination occurs when we presence ourselves to the moment. There are times when the intensity of a flame helps me focus in and feel the strong unwavering truth of who I am. The flame helps me burn past false identities that I am more than ready to release. Identities that now bore or annoy me but no longer hold me captive. Presence yourself to this moment and you will know whether you are in such a time. Are you overwhelmed by your emotions or are you in a place where you can see past their false narratives? If you are in a moment of the latter experience, I recommend meditating with a flame. A single candle will do though a roaring fire is also fine. If a flame is not safe, you are welcome to burn incense or perhaps pull up a video of a candle burning. Whatever brings you into the focus of the flame.
A fire is focused. It knows its job and does nothing but burn whatever it is allowed to burn. Harness the power of the flame during your meditation and know that you can use this time to burn off what is no longer needed. You can feel the unmoving truth of you standing firm as your false and flimsy identities fall away. Let the fire do its job and know that you are steady in your truth.
Air
Meditation isn’t just a time for processing emotions. It is a time for connecting with the truth of who we are. And the truth of who we are is that we are love made manifest. When we are living in alignment with ourselves, every action we take can be an expression of the divine. Sitting in deep listening can be an opportunity to hear our heart’s calling; to receive inspiration as to how the divine within us would love to be expressed in the world. This expression of spirit is air in motion. Air can be active, fresh, full of new inspiration, and literally bring forth the winds of change.
If you are in a place of feeling that all is well with your soul and that this wellness brings forth within you a desire to express itself in the world, then meditating with the element of air could be beneficial. Please take a moment to be honest with yourself whether this desire for expression is coming from desperation or from true inspiration. If it is desperation influencing you to seek a connection with air, it may be beneficial to read about how slowing down to speed up could support you. If your desire to connect with air is authentic, then I suggest meditating by an open window (even just a tiny crack in the winter will do). Meditating outside will also do as will meditating by a fan. If none of these options will work, you could again pull up a video on your computer of a light windy day (preferably not a raging storm) or a video of a pinwheel twirling or of a flag waving in the breeze. With all of these options, sit in meditation with an open heart and mind and be open to the element of air bringing in new inspiration or opportunity. Just like the air, you cannot grasp or control the ideas. Allow them to come and know that they will when the time is right.
And there you have it. When we are open to its wisdom and magic, meditation is an incredible modality for bringing us deeper into resonance with ourselves. It is not always blissful, but it is always working in service of our greatest good. And if you have a sense of what kind of connection to yourself would benefit you most in this moment, you can use one of the four elements to support your meditation experience.
May we know and love ourselves more fully.
Katie
