When you grew up, before you entered adulthood and the painful teenage years, you had access to your inner territory, your inner worlds. This part of your life, the imagination, the fantasy worlds you created and played in, carry much more validity than our modern society realize.
Think of some of the most successful authors of our time or of your childhood. Look at Robert Luis Stevenson with his Treasure Island, Walt Disney with his amazing world of Donald and Mickey, Astrid Lindgren who created Pippi Longstocking and so much more, JRR Tolkien and The Rings, or C.S. Lewis and the tantalizing realms of Narnia. Then you consider our modern time authors; C.K. Rowling and Harry Potter, George R.R. Martins and Game of Thrones, Stephen Spielberg, Philip Pullman and so many other storytellers that use fantasy and imagination to create worlds for us to enter and enjoy.
We thoroughly enjoy the entertainment provided by George Lucas and Peter Jackson, but we deny it within ourselves.
Now consider how these imaginative creators have helped to shape our world. Our ideals, our dreams, our possibilities, can be traced back to different dreams instilled in us from an early age.
So when someone tells you that you are just daydreaming or fantasizing when you are off to an adventure in your inner world, remember the importance those experiences can have. When you sit in meditation, or when you dream yourself away in a fantasy, you are tapping into a deep inner world. This is one way to become familiar with your inner space. As you move your attention into the body by use of the breath, you will discover where your traumas are stuck and stored. By being open to the information that comes to you, by being available to your inner world, you can receive the messages that your body tells you.
When you find a contraction or a painful area of your body you can ask what this pain signifies. The answer comes immediately, often in images or words. As you become more familiar with this process you will access your inner space more often and easier. Each meditation becomes a journey and you begin to listen intently to what your body is communicating with you.
So first you learn to listen into your body and, by the use of your breath, create spaciousness around the contraction caused by trauma. This spaciousness allows the body to heal itself. When you let the body feel love, feel relaxation and security, by breathing into it, the body knows how to heal as the mind lets go of the story that keeps the trauma in place, keeping your body in a contracted state.
And as you continue to use your meditation as journeys you get more accustomed to all of the inner worlds, existing within you and outside of you. These journeys lead you to different guides and power animals that will help you on your journey. And over time you develop your imagination to include whole worlds. This way you learn the deeper nature of our reality. That the base level of our physical existence is only the most dense, fundamental level, but that there are so many more realms to explore in our consciousness.
So take your inner world seriously, please don’t try to squander your children’s inner worlds, but let them explore, and join them on the wondrous adventures that exist there.