Find your comfortable seat: rooting down from the tip of the tailbone, and allowing the spine to feel like a young plant shoot, soft and supple as it lengthens. Draw energy from the earth and the base of the spine up to the crown of the head, bring your attention to the spot right on the crown, (where you can feel the heat of energy flow if you bring your hand above your head,) and envision that spot, activated, when acute focus: feel the twinkling of sensations in that space.
From the crown of the head, from that space, feel the outmost layer of the layers of your skin, the hard, crinkly, crunchy layer, and imagine as though that layer were peeling back from the crown of the head. Painlessly, effortlessly, peeling back over the scalp, the forehead, temples, sides and back of the head. Over the eyes and nose and cheeks, over your ears and lips and back of the head, the jaw, the underside of your chin and throat; peeling off over the neck, and folding inside out, the skin staying intact like the snake shedding it’s skin.
Imagine that the skin continues to peel off over your shoulders, feel it pulling all around your arm, elbow, forearm, wrist, the palm, the back of your hand, into the chasm where the fingers join, the sensitive webbing between your fingers, peeling off from knuckle to knuckle to the soft pads and tips of the fingers, the nail bed, the sides of the nails and plunging down into the tender area where the flesh meets the nail, invisibly pulling free off the tips of the nails, and allow that skin to release and float off. Take a deep breath. Feel the hypersensitivity of your soft, fresh, new layer of skin exposed to the elements for the first time.
Take your attention back to the collarbone, and the skin peeling over the shoulder blades, across your chest and breast and plunging into the armpits, wrapping around the sidebody, peeling over the ribs and the skin between the ribs and down the spine and over the low back, the belly, the waistline, your hips the lowest part of the belly, over the buttocks, between the buttocks, down under the body, which is now completely free, and open and awakened and aware. Take a deep breath.
Feel the skin peeling off over the thighs, inner and outer, pulling off like nylon stockings over the legs, the front and back and sides of the knee. Down and over the calves, shins, ankles, across the tops and sides of your feet and over the heel, over the arches, to the balls of the feet, the deep, tender space where the foot meet the toes, the delicate webbing between the toes, from knuckle to knuckle, to the tip of each toe, to the toenail bed, the sides of the nails, the chasm where the skin tucks below the nail, and allow it to painlessly, effortlessly, slip off of the feet, and allow yourself to take a deep breath.
Confront the skin: it is not the absence of you. You are.
It is the negative of you, the thin paltry sheath constructed by withstanding the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes of both the external and internal worlds. Without it, you may feel a bit vulnerable, as we allow our negativities to shield us from feeling.
This fresh, soft, pink new skin covering your whole body doesn’t have the boundaries created by the negativity. It is a permeable membrane. You can feel heightened sensitivity all over, the tingling prickling of energy all over the body. It’s not the same everywhere, some places carry more of a charge than others, but pores are open, taking in the world, releasing stored up stale energy and thoughts.
The idea of “thin skin” is stigmatized, as though we should all be tough all of the time to endure the world, such that it is. But, this defense mechanism does us more harm than good. Being thin-skinned can open the door to leading a rich, emotional life; although we are more sensitive and vulnerable, and can experience stronger degrees of pain, the trade off is that we get more out of the experiences of joy and sensuality, and develop greater empathy and connectivity to others. With thin skin, you can enjoy your life more!
Another great benefit: you may notice that with the new openness, that your senses are heightened, including your sense of intuition, when you are able to read the silent languages of the subtle body, with increased awareness of what is going on around you. The great benefit of becoming more porous and permeable, is that the boundaries that separate us from the rest of the world soften and dissolve into vibrations and space, and we are more a part of something larger, instead of insular and withdrawn. That which divided us from everything else becomes meaningless.
As we transition from the year of the snake into the year of the horse, consider leaving that skin behind, and open yourself up to new growth and potential.
From the crown of the head, from that space, feel the outmost layer of the layers of your skin, the hard, crinkly, crunchy layer, and imagine as though that layer were peeling back from the crown of the head. Painlessly, effortlessly, peeling back over the scalp, the forehead, temples, sides and back of the head. Over the eyes and nose and cheeks, over your ears and lips and back of the head, the jaw, the underside of your chin and throat; peeling off over the neck, and folding inside out, the skin staying intact like the snake shedding it’s skin.
Imagine that the skin continues to peel off over your shoulders, feel it pulling all around your arm, elbow, forearm, wrist, the palm, the back of your hand, into the chasm where the fingers join, the sensitive webbing between your fingers, peeling off from knuckle to knuckle to the soft pads and tips of the fingers, the nail bed, the sides of the nails and plunging down into the tender area where the flesh meets the nail, invisibly pulling free off the tips of the nails, and allow that skin to release and float off. Take a deep breath. Feel the hypersensitivity of your soft, fresh, new layer of skin exposed to the elements for the first time.
Take your attention back to the collarbone, and the skin peeling over the shoulder blades, across your chest and breast and plunging into the armpits, wrapping around the sidebody, peeling over the ribs and the skin between the ribs and down the spine and over the low back, the belly, the waistline, your hips the lowest part of the belly, over the buttocks, between the buttocks, down under the body, which is now completely free, and open and awakened and aware. Take a deep breath.
Feel the skin peeling off over the thighs, inner and outer, pulling off like nylon stockings over the legs, the front and back and sides of the knee. Down and over the calves, shins, ankles, across the tops and sides of your feet and over the heel, over the arches, to the balls of the feet, the deep, tender space where the foot meet the toes, the delicate webbing between the toes, from knuckle to knuckle, to the tip of each toe, to the toenail bed, the sides of the nails, the chasm where the skin tucks below the nail, and allow it to painlessly, effortlessly, slip off of the feet, and allow yourself to take a deep breath.
Confront the skin: it is not the absence of you. You are.
It is the negative of you, the thin paltry sheath constructed by withstanding the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes of both the external and internal worlds. Without it, you may feel a bit vulnerable, as we allow our negativities to shield us from feeling.
This fresh, soft, pink new skin covering your whole body doesn’t have the boundaries created by the negativity. It is a permeable membrane. You can feel heightened sensitivity all over, the tingling prickling of energy all over the body. It’s not the same everywhere, some places carry more of a charge than others, but pores are open, taking in the world, releasing stored up stale energy and thoughts.
The idea of “thin skin” is stigmatized, as though we should all be tough all of the time to endure the world, such that it is. But, this defense mechanism does us more harm than good. Being thin-skinned can open the door to leading a rich, emotional life; although we are more sensitive and vulnerable, and can experience stronger degrees of pain, the trade off is that we get more out of the experiences of joy and sensuality, and develop greater empathy and connectivity to others. With thin skin, you can enjoy your life more!
Another great benefit: you may notice that with the new openness, that your senses are heightened, including your sense of intuition, when you are able to read the silent languages of the subtle body, with increased awareness of what is going on around you. The great benefit of becoming more porous and permeable, is that the boundaries that separate us from the rest of the world soften and dissolve into vibrations and space, and we are more a part of something larger, instead of insular and withdrawn. That which divided us from everything else becomes meaningless.
As we transition from the year of the snake into the year of the horse, consider leaving that skin behind, and open yourself up to new growth and potential.