enCouragingBliss: Return to Your Garden of Eden

Water Lily.

Listening to: I think I like him better doing this solo stuff.

Bliss: The weather. Of course. But also the ideas that are just swirling and whirling and really coming alive in my mind right now.

The garden of Eden is a great myth when used as a map to explore your individual territory.

You are born into innocence and something happens -- to all of us and it can be a million things -- and you lose that innocence. Then we spend much, if not all of our lives, trying to get back to that original place.

You know, like many of us wrote about last week: that place when we felt invincible and strong and sassy and bossy and courageous and daring and...well, like superheroes in our own quest stories.

And then it's gone: someone throws out our cape or tells us we aren't the strongest or the brightest or the most talented or that our voice just doesn't cut it or that girls don't do that or to grow up you have to settle down, calm down, come down from that high place, tone it down, keep it down...down, down, down go all our motivations and big plans and gigantic dreams.

Pretty soon, we are much smaller, much quieter, much more meek than we ever intended to be.

Beaten down.

What we needed was some serious armor to protect our soft insides, but when you are in the Garden of Eden, you can't imagine that anyone would ever want to hurt that softness, take advantage of it, poke at it.

Now we know better.

So this week, we're going to do a visualization and writing exercise, and we are going to build ourselves an internal Garden of Eden, an internal sanctuary surrounded by whatever it takes -- high walls and a moat with scary creatures in it.

Sitting in the center of us, at the very center -- that center that joins us to the center of everything else -- sitting right there is our Garden.

It's just been way too long since we visited and the Garden might be a bit run down, overgrown, wild.

But we like wild. We certainly are not afraid of wild.

Here goes:

First, get comfortable. I recommend starting this exercise by doing some deep breathing, some prayer, some meditation, some yoga, or even all of that.

Light some candles. Get in a quiet and safe space. Get in a magical place.

Have your pen and paper or your laptop ready.

Second, sit and start envisioning yourself. Get very detailed about what you are wearing, etc. Feel the air around you. Is it day or night? Are you carrying a lamp or candle? Can you hear the wind or the sea or nothing or birds?

Start walking. Are your feet bare? What is under you? What is around you? Where are you?

You are on a path. Keep walking on that path. Take as long as you need.

Now, up ahead, you can see that there is some sort of structure. And as you approach, you see a door. You reach into your pocket or around your neck and you know you have the key to that door. You have the only key in all the world to that door.

Go through it. Inside you will find the place from where you came. You will find your Secret Garden, your home, your origins.

This is the place of your Power, your Intuition, your Courage. All that you need is right here.

What have you found? What needs to be tended?

After you spend some time there, go to your pen or your keyboard and write it all out. Be detailed. Remember, it's a map and you want to go back to this place as often as you can.

This place will give you the strength you need to do what must be done, to walk your Path of Bliss, to return to your Superhero self.