I have a meditation that I use for just such times that actually developed out of my love of storms when I was a kid. I still love them, probably because I live in So Cal! Some of my favorite times were spent snuggled down in bed, listening to a storm outside and feeling completely safe inside. It was like being in a protective bubble where I could see and hear the violent winds and rain around me, but remain safe and undisturbed where I was. I call the meditation Still Point, as in the still point in the center of a hurricane, or tornado. If you can imagine what it might be like to be sitting in the center of a tornado, legs curled up comfortably underneath you, while the wind whips things around you at hundreds of miles per hour with deafening noise, rain, and hail. There you are, in the center, where it is safe and calm. You are surrounded by drama, distress, disaster, violent change and everyone’s stuff. But in the center you are peaceful, you are grounded and you have the choice to reach out into the storm to connect to something or not. If you decide to connect to something in the storm, and you leave your still point to reach it, you risk getting sucked into the storm with it where you will be whipped around and around and end up some place in Kansas under a house. If you connect from the still point and stay sitting there, you can bring what you wish to connect to into the still point with you and deal with it there where it is calm, and where you know that you are safe.
Try it for yourself.
Get comfortable and imagine yourself sitting on a cushion. Your legs are crossed, you are comfortable and your body is relaxed. As you relax you start to hear the sound of a storm all around you but you are not disturbed. You can see and hear the storm, but where you sit it is calm and there is no storm. As you look into the swirling winds you see people, places and things that have been troubling you. Relationships, money, work, health issues, whipping past you as you watch from your still point. Pick one that has energy to it for you. Take a breath and exhale and then reach for it staying planted on your cushion inside your still point. Bring it to you and examine it closely. What does it hold for you? Sadness? Fear? Anxiety? Loss? Helplessness? Hurt? Longing? Is there something you need to do? Something you need to say? Or is this just about feeling and letting things be for now, or maybe letting go? Now let that one go back into the storm, reestablish yourself in your still point and then repeat this for any other ones you want to deal with for this meditation period.
When I do this meditation I am immediately hit with the feeling of the situation or the relationship that I have chosen from the storm. I am not distracted or defended which allows me to see much more clearly what is actually in front of me. We are constantly surrounded by the people, places and things of our life and it can begin to feel like we are being sucked into the swirl of it all. I find that this simple meditation can create a space where clarity and mindfulness become the ground of our engagement with our external lives. In this space, we can find equanimity in chaos and amazing change can take place.
