An Introduction to Resetting Yourself from a Horrible Day with Butterfly Meditation
How to Take Back Your Day
Learn to Stop Negative Self-Talk, Mental Repetition of Unpleasant Recent Events, and Feelings of Helplessness Before They Cause Damage to Your Mind, Body, and Soul
You had a horrible day. Your boss kept yelling at you. He/she made you work overtime and asked you to come to the office on the weekend!
You prepared for the wrong subject for your test and realized it after seeing the test paper!
You had a job interview, but you were soaked in the rain while heading there with no time to change your clothes; you didn’t want to make a terrible first impression, but you had no choice!
Your partner embarrassed you in front of your friends and family!
While you were doing laundry, your child painted the whole living room wall with all his drawing supplies, and your guests arrived!
“Ok, enough..enough. We get it Prisha!” I can hear you all screaming.
Why would I torture you with all these horrible (hopefully completely hypothetical) situations? I do it out of both realism and love.
We all have terrible days where everything just goes wrong, and, despite all the great karma you’ve put into the world, we cannot do anything other than accept your bad luck.
Well, what do you do when you are living one of these bad days? Many of us will go home, sulk more, and become frustrated all over again about our situation. Even though we know obsessing will only bring more misery, we default to this because we haven’t created a different habit in response to bad days…until now.
Butterfly Meditation
Butterfly meditation is a special type of relaxing meditation that specifically helps us calm and reset ourselves after a stressful day. While it is more well-known as a treatment for children to sleep peacefully after an overactive day, it works like a charm too on adults who just need to stop the negativity flowing inside of them by laying down peacefully and forgetting (at least momentarily) about their day.
How to do Butterfly Meditation
Are you ready for rocket science? Well, there is none here. Butterfly meditation is done in just two steps: lay down in a comfortable position and relax by hearing a touching story! You are thinking, “That’s it Prisha?! Really?!”
Guided meditation or sometimes referred to as external support mediation is powerful. You are relieved of having to think or of having to be in control. Your only job is to listen and to settle your mind.
Butterfly Meditation Practice
Lay down on your back preferably in a space that is free from too much clutter or distraction. It may help you to think of this as the Shavasana, Corpse Pose, or Mrtasana. Close your eyes. Inhale very slowly and very deliberately and fill your stomach completely inflate. Hold for three seconds. Exhale very slowly as well. This is about slow, controlled breaths. Do this 5 times.
You can find many heartwarming stories online for butterfly meditation. Here is a story I’ve written for you. Read it slowly as you record it with your phone, so you can replay it back. (I suggest you do this now as you are reading this blog article, so you have it handy when it’s time to practice).
You are sleeping on the grass on a warm summer evening when the heat of the day is being replaced by the breeze brought by the temperatures dropping. You are surrounded by green trees and plants with so many beautiful flowers that you want to make a garland out of them and wear it yourself.
Take a deep breath like you would take if you were there in that place and want to feel the air of that beautiful place in your nose and in your lungs. It smells so fresh and it feels warm.
Now imagine standing up and walking through the trees. While walking, you see a bright light along the path of those trees. You keep walking towards the light to see what lies there.
You are feeling very excited to see what lies ahead. You jog towards the light as you cannot stop wondering what is there. Finally, you reach it to see a dazzling bright white light. Once you are adjusted to the light, you see there lies the most beautiful field of wildflowers.
The breeze which has been with you from the beginning is now surrounding the field. This makes the flowers move to a current, and it looks like the flowers are dancing for you. This brings a smile on your face. You feel special to be witnessing this.
At the end of the field, there is a log, and you walk towards the log. While you were walking, a strong breeze flows, and butterflies that were resting on the wildflowers fly burst into flight and come towards you. They fly, fluttering their wings around your aura, welcoming you and dancing for you.
When you move forward, all butterflies return to their flowers except one. You and this single butterfly move towards the log. When you reach the log, you find a comfortable sitting place there. Take a deep breath. Smell the flowers. Smell the aroma of the wood beneath you.
You sit there and wonder where the log came from as if it can hear your thoughts. The butterfly flutters toward the small hill onto which stands a magnificent old oak tree. You sit there on the log, looking at the beautiful scenery around you, smiling at the butterfly, the breeze rustling your hair, and wind playing melodies in your ear. Take a few slow, deep breaths. You feel these breaths fill you from head to toe, let them reach the deepest part of your heart and the deepest part of your soul.
Once you feel most relaxed, you stretch out your hands, and you see a gift placed beside you on the log. You don’t know what the gift is, but it doesn’t matter. The significance of the gift there is enough for you, so you take the gift and stand up.
Your beautiful butterfly accompanies you back towards the glorious white light. You do not feel sad about leaving because you know you can come back to this place and feel this peace any time you wish. You hold the keys to this portal in this time and space. With that thought settling over you, you walk confidently into the white light.
You start to absorb the white light. Even while absorbing the white, you protect yourself by creating a band of gold around you. It surrounds you from front and back, head to toe, to every end of every fingertip. You feel energetic, rejuvenating, and most importantly, peaceful.
Now imagine looking down at your body exactly where it really is. Keep your eyes closed. See where you are and appreciate its safety and meaning to you and your life. You are exactly where you should be. Now, breathe the surroundings of the place you are and slowly open your eyes. You are free. Nothing can control your mind and spirit. You are ready to reclaim your day and yourself.
Last Words
Butterfly Meditation has countless benefits including increased imagination, increased stamina, reduced anxiety, increased positive mental attitude, reduced trouble with falling asleep/insomnia, and so much more. We all have bad days that we can’t control, but we most definitely can control how we cope with them. The next time you want to scream or pull your hair out when it feels like the entire world is against you in a single day, try this.