7/2 Class Recap

We began class with our breathing technique and a bit of guided imagery to lead us into our main exercise for the day. Jon stayed with one image: floating weightlessly in a lake while wearing a life jacket. He added sensory sensations like hearing and smelling a fire for cooking and the context that this was the last day of a vacation and you wanted the moment to last forever. When he first described the idea of floating in deep waters, my mind went to the deep end of our local pool, which still worked for the purposes of the exercise. It’s good to remember that his guidance is just suggestions and the objective is to find that state of relaxation that works for you. This provided a total relaxation more calming that I have ever felt in class before. Credit for this is due both to Jon’s masterful immersion into a scene and the class’s achievement in reaching this state with ease after so much practice. By doing this warm-up, I discovered a more shallow breathing technique that helped me feel even calmer and more relaxed. Perhaps this breathing style and addition of having my eyes closed helped mimic the calmness of resting or sleeping.

From there, we smoothly transitioned into our main event for the day: exploring our earliest classroom. At first, my kindergarten classroom came to mind but, my grasp of the room as a whole was just not firm enough. So, my mind went to my third grade classroom. Which is no surprise since this was my favorite year of learning (since it began my love for mythology) and I was taught by one of my favorite teachers. Looking back, the classroom I envisioned while streaming was likely a mash-up of rooms from 2 or 3 different grades. Luckily, I have always been one to plant myself in an image and see nearly all of its entirety fairly quickly. So, I easily saw the front of the classroom with the teacher’s desk and blackboard as soon as I entered the image. When I zoomed back a bit, I could see the groups of desks on either side as well. I was happy that I could remember which desk was mine almost instantly! I could even picture my view from my desk, with the clock on the wall just above me. While tracing the main objects in the room, a few other pieces emerged or were suddenly made clear. For example, I knew there was something next to the blackboard when I first saw the room but, it was until I started tracing that I realized it was one of those activity boards with announcements or words of encouragement. However, I will admit I had a form of déjà vu as my brain pictured coat hangers with jackets on them both at the front and back of the classroom. But, I just went with it. Being instructed by Jon to turn around and view the back of the classroom seemed daunting at first yet, it immediately filled in the second I looked at it. There was one section where the front and back of the room that I had envisioned separately didn’t seem to connect well when I viewed it all together. But, I simply disregarded that awkwardness of that minor glitch and accepted it. Overall, I had a perfect 360-degree view of the whole room with little to no effort. Choose two anchors at opposite ends of the room, as Jon told us to do, was very interesting. It helped connect the two sides and see it as a whole. I had also picked objects that were almost directly across from each other: an aluminum chalk holder with pink chalk sitting on the blackboard and a classic yellow jacket on the second hook from the left in the back of the classroom. I was also impressed by the details that appeared as well, like the books in cubbies by the circular reading table in the back and the cheesy design of the valances hanging above the window and blackboard. By doing this main sweep of the room and tracing the larger objects, I found the most effective way for me to trace and hold onto the image: with my hand in the air and the lightest of movement. I think making sounds would only distract me and more distinct movements made me almost like I was concentrating too hard on getting it right rather than letting the image wash over me.

Next, we prepared to dip into our desks with a more relaxed approach quickly pointing out each object but not scatting out loud. Doing it this way allowed for discovery since objects seemed to appear or fill in naturally. What first appeared was a light purple folder to the left and a light purple pencil with a flower eraser toward the front of the desk. As I continued, a pink fabric pencil case appeared in the middle, then a colorful Sailor Moon spiral notebook (which is funny because I didn’t even watch that show then) atop the folder, and a yellow marker to go with the pencil. As I continued, one at a time books began to appear on the righthand side. Specifically, an English textbook covered in a pink book sock, a science textbook covered in a green book sock, and my favorite childhood book Cinder Edna. As I’ve mentioned before, sometimes this process reminds me of dreams in the sense where you just automatically know something is a specific thing. In this case, I knew the exact subject of those textbooks, likely due to the color of the book covers. I think this is were true memory comes into play as well. Just like how I mentioned how it made sense I would have Cinder Edna in my desk since, at one point in elementary school, we had to do a book report on our favorite book. Most importantly, after dipping, I let myself explore. I thumbed through the notebook and textbooks but found any words to be gibberish. I held my book proudly in front of me and could perfectly see it’s orange cover with fancy writing. I popped the top off the yellow marker only to find the tip to be a bit black, likely from using it as a highlighter. Even better, when I put the top back on, I saw that the yellow marker had bled onto my fingers. I unzipped my pencil case to find if stuffed with more markers and number 2 pencils. But, my best discovery was opening up my folder to find torn our notebook paper with cursive in the left pocket and a C+ math test in the right pocket. This was hilarious and perfect since 3rd grade is when you learn both cursive and the dreaded fractions in Virginia in the 90’s. again, I’m finding my sense of touch to be at the forefront and the best way to ground me into an image. I could feel the fabric of the book sock and rubbed my fingers together to try to get the yellow marker off of them. Even when I sat down at my desk, I could feel the roughness of the chair, the cool metal desk legs, smooth wooden desktop, and rough plastic interior. I also found zooming in and out to be easier this time around. My mind didn’t leap as it did before; it was much smoother this time with both zooming and simply looking around the entire room. Funnily, at first, when I was walking up to the blackboard, it was as if I was following my childhood self. I saw the back of my head just in front of me as I walked, almost like the kind of shot you’d see in a video game or something. Despite that, I really feel like I have gotten the hang of this. And I definitely felt a sense of pride when Jon pointed out he gave us much less guidance than before yet we still discovered so much.

Next class, we’ll begin our transcendence into dreams. The goal is not to capture a story but trying to capture an image or impression. So, we’ll start with recurring dreams or recurring images in our dreams. You don’t have to remember the whole dream, just a few seconds in order to get that image. While I have often had the classic “loose teeth” nightmares in times of stress, lately I’ve been experiencing dreams where, fittingly, I am lost and struggling to find my way to my destination. The few times I’ve had vivid enough dreams that I have been able to jot down, I’ve made an effort to get all the details needed for dream catching. These points include time place, people, relationship to those people, your age in the dream, the basic story of the dream (even if it’s fragmented), animals or objects (which, in turn, are actually symbols), symbolism, and any strong feelings for those objects. In one of my recent dreams where I am trying to find my way, I am specifically looking for a band-aid. If that doesn’t scream symbolic, I don’t know what will!

Also, just as a quick aside, yesterday morning, a friend mentioned a specific painting at the museum where we used to work. In trying to remember which one he was talking about, I found myself placing myself there and slowly moving through the gallery just like we do in image streaming. I was proud my mind naturally did this when trying to recall something! It shows how much a place that has such an impact with can not only stay with you but be revisited.

I am so proud of you!

Thanks, Jon! That means a lot