Discovering with Coronavirus

SCRIPT: Discovering with Corona

As we live our new corona lives, we all can be aware of its unreality. It’s not only the empty cities that seem phantasmagorical.  Nothing seems real and even our past life appears gone and lost. What may be the strangest of all now is that we have gained, if I can use that word, more time. And this will be true for most of us I suspect as we move beyond strict lockdown into a new halfway, half-light phase of indeterminate length where we still social distance while inching towards but never quite reaching our previous unreal normality. Is this our new living with corona? And through this time and the unexpected bonus of more time, I have suggested in my overcoming anxiety audio that we can focus much more on the present moment and really notice so much that was previously invisible. For sure, what has been there has always been there but we could not see it because whatever it was (furnishings, family, work routines, commuting, the neighbourhood and so on and of course our habitual reactions and responses) was hidden by its familiarity.

And so here’s a question for you: What might it be that is the most hidden of all – even though it is so familiar that it is hidden in full view? I know this is sounding like a quiz question. But consider it? It surely must be some of our habitual reactions and responses. And how might you find these? Well, my answer is that we need to look into our memory, into our history. That it is from the fragments of our past as well as sometimes from the typically forgotten big footprints of our life. So for you, might it be a moment or an event or an experience tucked into a fold of your life story? Could it be I wonder an engagement with someone important – perhaps your father, or grandmother or a neighbour or a teacher all those years ago? And that memory will be there tucked away safely out of sight where it will be tagged with an emotion …or a piece of music…or an adventure…or perhaps a forgotten lesson learned. What an inexhaustible treasure trove might be there. There is so much and if you do go on a journey of discovery and you are open – well I wonder what it is that you will find?

Be still in this moment. Find yourself in a bubble and protected within this space where you are so safe that you can open up and be and take note and see everything. Feel safe, be safe. There may be a sound in the background as you rest in that place or you may be aware as it nags away of a job that is needed to be done or a worry that stays persistent BUT you are protected now from all of this within your own special bubble of protection – such that what is outside seems more distance and you are now just listening to my words which hold you safe and strong.

There is a bubble membrane surrounding you as an enormous beach ball within which you are safe and within this safe space nothing can touch you. Yes that it is – the magic of this membrane. You are in control and you are choosing to be open and to wait patiently and to connect to what has always been there in the laid down deposit of your life story memory bank. In this space there are bright colours and soft colours, there is a warm gentle blue sky comforting you. And within this space, your imagination can take you to amazing places. Yes it can – to an empty beach paradise perhaps, a protected safe verdant green garden of fragrance and tumbling colours, the sounds of water flowing in a gentle stream. What is it that is coming forward for you safe within your membrane?  Your gentleness is protecting a peaceful time stretching out infinitely and in this moment you can begin your journey back to your happy memory life story.

When you are looking for something – your car keys perhaps, how often is it that you suddenly see them right in front of your eyes? Or you’re strolling and you turn the corner and you see it there – a spring tree blossom blowing in the wind that takes your breath away or a happy and laughing family that delights you. These are a fragment of magic and you have unearthed them. Or might there be something else hiding beneath that stone?

I invite you to go on that journey into your past to find your very own fragments of delight? And as you do, you will be filling in some of the overgrown gaps in your life story – those that can delight and energise and expand your understanding of who you are now – as you reveal them just to you.

Is there an outline of a figure or a face or a magical image that is there in your mind’s eye and then as you stay with it can you see more and more? Will you see the time and the place and the before and the after and the colours and then you will feel it and it will enrich you and you will fit it in to the story of your life.

So go down the path that is beckoning you and which you have the time and space to see, whatever is there. It will take you to a space of delight. It will be you and just you who is there.

Now, I have found myself listening to the classical music of my youth. And I am recalling my father and his love of classical music in his LP collection lovingly acquired. My father died many year ago and in this moment he is close by.

Can you see your life spread out before you? Can you understand the interlocking sequences of your life unfolding? Childhood places, the schools you attended – primary and that secondary school. Or perhaps there was more than one. Who were the important people in your life in those early years – your mother, father, the neighbours, at your auntie’s and cousins, sports coach or the English teacher, special friends?

What about the firsts in your life – to the theatre, seeing the sea, the big match, in a big crowd, first love, beginnings at college and what followed?

Travelling by train, by sea or by air? Reading Harry Potter and see him on the big screen? What are the musical signposts by which you can see your life unfolded?

Long forgotten and now remembered.

You have all the time in the world to go where the path takes you and I will be silent for a few moments.

TIME/SPACE

What will you be reliving, what is coming up? Feel it. It is a long lost friend

TIME/SPACE

Very good and now I will count down and you can return. 5  4   3  2  1

Do please listen to this again and again as you discover more and more of the gems that enrich you and your life story.

Thank you