Memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us. ~ Oscar Wilde

A bit of cloud covers my emotions knowing summer is ending and so having to say goodbye to carefree days. Remember just before Labor Day weekend when that “back to school” vibration hangs in the air? At this time of year, those old feelings seem to bubble up. Along with needing to get everything in order and scheduled – that old pressure to have routine – memories of former school days come to mind.

Memories can be treasures in a time capsule. By exploring these treasures we may discover parts of ourselves that are hidden or see information or connections to our present lives. Interesting quotation I read once was “Memories are our past, present and future.” (Anonymous)  Memories are held in the subconscious and by allowing them to surface again we can view them with fresh perspective to see what they can show us.

Although many of us are now out of school we are never too old to learn and gain knowledge. We can use life as a classroom and allow our experiences to be our teachers.

Through reflection on our experiences, we can learn valuable lessons and gain wisdom.

We can open up our awareness and learn from our experiences by doing a guided visualization.  For those of you who are not familiar with guided visualization, this is a quiet meditative exercise where one listens to a script describing a journey. Over the course of this mental journey we are given instructions on what we are seeing around us and what we are doing at any given moment.

For the purposes of this article I would like to invite you to take a short guided visualization that will give you a chance to venture back, explore past classroom memories to gain present-day insight. Here, let me show you how we can do this.

First, make yourself comfortable and take a few deep breaths. Close your eyes as someone slowly reads the following meditation to you.  Allow yourself to take this journey back to school.  Let’s begin when you are ready:

The bell rings… you and others begin to enter the classroom…  As you enter, do you sit in the front, middle or back of the room?  What row did you pick?  Looking down at your desk …What kind of pens and pencils do you have? … Any other supplies? … Your notebook, what does it look like? …  Or do you see something else to write on? …What else do you see? …… Looking at yourself… What are you wearing to school today – pants …dress …skirt, shorts …uniform? …How do you feel – excited, scared, nervous, or sad?  …How old are you? …Now looking around the classroom….Can you tell what grade it is? …What is the teacher like – male, female, young, old?  …What are you learning? …. Take a moment and ask yourself what message(s) are you given? …… Now the bell rings again……Slowly return to the present……Take a few deep breaths and open your eyes when you are ready.

Spend time writing what you remember and how you felt while doing the visualization.  Bear in mind that each item in your memory may have an important role to play. One might recall many grades during the visualization so please list all grades and experiences.

• The seat and row
• The type of pens and pencils, etcetera
• The notebook
• The clothing
• How you felt
• The age and grade
• The teacher
• What you were learning
• The message given

So let’s look more closely at your memories and your notes by connecting that material with the following reflective questions. Such a reflective exercise can often reveal new insights to us that may have relevance for our lives now.

Let’s continue to learn:

• What observations can you see between your memories and your life now?
• Was there anything that surprised you?
• What insights have you gathered from these observations?
• Can you see a theme or common thread?
• What have you discovered about yourself?
• Have you learned any lessons from this reflection that you could apply to life now?
• If you were to create an affirmation about your insights, what would it be?

There is much interconnectedness between our past lives, the lives we had when we were young, and when we were teenagers and beyond. Many say life doesn’t proceed in a straight line but instead spirals over and over again. Not surprisingly, a spiritual symbol of the path of life is a spiral. We journey through life in that spiral motion, passing the same pivotal moments again and again, seeing them from a different perspective each time.

For example, a child’s first experience of abandonment would raise distressing emotions such as being sacred and afraid of being alone. As a teenager, perhaps a friend abandons the relationship leaving the teen with heartache and insecurity. Then years ago, as a grown woman, her husbands leaves her and she feels abandoned again, however, she might experience abandonment differently and instead of insecurity and fear, she now sees herself as free.

Memories can be pivotal moments that spiral through our lives. By using this guided visualization we can revisit those points deliberately many times throughout our lives in order to gain new insights.

These threads or themes that we have discovered today may not be the only ones that we could discover. We can give ourselves the opportunity to learn by using a reflective exercise such as this visualization at anytime. Life is our classroom and if we can pay attention, open our awareness and grow from our learning, then we can move towards future horizons with confidence and a sense of adventure.

I hope this has brought new insights into your present life. If you would like help examining your visualization, please feel free to contact Erin at callerin@hotmail.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DivineInfiniteWisdomcom.