The Burden of Secrets

​(Image from album cover from Every Red Heart Fades to Black by Redemptus)

I used to teach workshops on engaging and strengthening Intuition.  (This included assisting folks in communicating with Angels, but that is another story for another time, and you do NOT need to believe in the "unseen realms" to think about your own intuitive abilities or the power of letting go of secrets!)  In the workshop, we did an exercise that focused on opening to receiving a thought or image held (but not verbally shared) by another.  One of the questions I was asked most frequently in these workshops was "WHY can't I hear/see/feel as much as I would like to?"  Part of my answer to that question is: even though everyone is asking this question, YOUR answer will be specific to you - and you may unearth it as we progress here. The other part of my answer however, was for everyone; I shared it by recounting a tale from a story by author Marlo Morgan on her experience being on a Walkabout with a group of Aboriginal Australians.  (While the validity of Morgan's tale has been much maligned and disputed, the portion of it I share now is useful either way.)

The story goes that in the early segment of her unplanned journey on walkabout, the group had been traveling all day in silence. She had thought it odd that no one spoke on the long journey, but when evening came and all lay down to rest, she looked to the sky and realized she was very grateful for the experience. She silently said in her heart "Thank you".  And, from across (the also silent) sleeping circle, she heard, OUT LOUD, from the only other English speaking person in the group, "you are welcome".  Morgan was mystified - how did this person "hear" her voiceless thank you?  
When she asked, the next day, how this happened, she was told that this was how people communicated - wordlessly hearing one another.  And when Morgan asked why she - and people she knew back in the USA - could not hear one another's thoughts, she was told that it as "because you have too many secrets".  That for every wall or barricade we hold up to keep others OUT, so too are we blocked from allowing information IN, or receiving intuitive knowings.

Morgan asked herself deeply - and we all could ask the same - if she was truly willing and able to let go of secrets, to forgive those she felt had wronged her, to forgive herself for the hurts she had inflicted, to let go of anything in heart or head that she felt she needed to hide, to open to exposure of motives, desires, judgements. . . 

It has been my own experience, and also with that of those in my workshops, that the more one is courageously compassionate enough to allow the falling away of secrets and walls, not only the deeper will intuition be, but also the lighter our bodies, hearts, minds and spirits will feel.

I invite you now, if you feel moved to join me here, to take a moment. . .

Imagine you can feel inside you all the “secrets” (or as we might call them, privacies) you harbor.  .  . All the uncomfortable things you keep a wall up around. . .
Shame, fear, doubt, lack of forgiveness, old hurts and angers reserved in the darkest recesses, maybe even things you are not fully conscious of, but can feel a heaviness around . . .
I am not going to ask you to share any of these - but just for a moment, I will invite you to experience your inner world free of them . . .  ​

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Next, picture, if you can, a HUGE BOWL in front of you – notice the size – it will be just perfect for the size of all your secrets.

We will call this the BOWL OF SAFTY.  

Imagine now, all those secrets, all the things you have held so close to your bones,  flowing on a river along with your breath, OUT of you, and INTO that bowl.
Let the Bowl do the holding for a moment or two.  
See or Hear or Sense – this flow.
Three cleansing river-breaths. (Emptying body, heart, mind, space around you)
​Breathing out shame, fear, resentment, embarrassments, guilt, rage, secret knowings, feelings, desires, hatreds. . . OUT they flow, on the river of your breath, safely contained for now in your BOWL.

Imagine your body EMPTY. Your mind EMPTY. Your heart EMPTY of its aches.
Feel the lightness of body. The stillness and clarity of mind. The expansion of the energy of being that is you, beyond the bounds of your body - bright, wide, free.
Your whole being open, alive, vibrant and aware.  And notice how connected to all that is around you you feel, with barriers removed. . .  
Give yourself some moments to feel this. If you find more pain or stress or tightly held fear, see if you can breathe it into the safety bowl.
 You are, of course, welcome to take back your secrets when you wish. Or, maybe, you will find that some of them no longer serve you. . .

We live in a society where it is often important to hold some privacies – people are not unconditionally caring for one another.
But maybe we can loosen the threads – do a little forgiving, hold a little less judgment, of others and ourselves. Open a little more space for accepting that all of who and what we are - including our deepest fears and secrets - release - or at least lower - some of our walls. . . hold secrets less tightly.  . . maybe we shall find that we are thus RECEIVING more goodness, and unblocked, that we are accessing more of our innate ability as intuitive beings.

I wish you lightness and a bounty of intuitive receptivity!
With Love, as Always,
​Maya

PS: Audio version of this exercise will be added to the MEDITATIONS page soon!