Chapter Thirty-Two: The Shadow (or: Look Out, It's the Dark Side of the Force)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

Good news, everyone! Today I'm going to find my spirit animal-- I mean, "invoke my personal mentor." This is some sort of weird self-affirmation hypnotism mumbo-jumbo, but in this case you get your own person Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Step One: Let go of your tension

Well, I'm advised here to "be passive and allow relaxation to occur at its own pace," so I'm going to do what I normally do and let relaxation creep up on me and catch me unawares.

Step Two: Imagine that your body is surrounded with soft, glowing white light

I can feel my Inner Jesus surging to the fore. Seriously though.... alright, I'll try it, I guess. I am now imagining myself surrounded with soft, glowing white light.

Step Three: Now imagine that you are walking into a favorite place

I step into my house, making sure to keep to the throw rug by the door so I don't track dirt in. I take off my shoes, and look up, taking in the high ceiling above the entrance and the large wooden bookshelves too high up to reach without a ladder. There's probably a lemon scent in the air from cleaning supplies. The hardwood floors are slippery beneath my socks.

Luckily, I have my aura of glowing white light to protect me if I slip.

Step Four: Picture your spiritual mentor walking toward you

I picture a short, bearded gentlemen walking toward me, and am vaguely creeped out by this guy I don't recognize sliding through my house.

Upon conversing with him, though, he seems to be a pretty okay guy. He may be a time-traveling version of me from the future, though, because otherwise I would not feel so familiar with some unknown dude in my house.

Step Five: Bring the conversation to a close

I exchange cell phone numbers, then click my heels three times and think "There's no place like home." And lo! I'm sitting in my chair once more in front of my computer.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

I couldn't really take this exercise seriously, I admit. It was just too silly, reading it aloud to myself. Maybe if I was used to meditation and stuff, but I couldn't really put my heart into it.

A short note about my creative environment:

In order to make some reasonable effort to promote a meditation-friendly environment I typed this up sitting in a comfortable armchair in the Creese Student Center. It's pretty dark, since the Drexel store is shut down for the day, and there's no one around so it's quiet enough. I can hear the sounds of the city outside, faintly.