Inner Space Ride

Create a space of stillness; connect to your body, disconnect from your mind, and journey inward on an adventure of self discovery and truth. – By Uossy aka Ashtanga Butterfly

Remember that ride at Disney World called Space Mountain? Remember that feeling of utter excitement fused with a simultaneous fear of death which that ride would ignite in you as a child? The intensity that would escalate in your body as you waited in an endless line, under an unrelenting sun, unable to stand still, in anticipation. Then the apex of it all as you finally take your seat, that huge metal death-prevention bar would come down, and in that moment, hand you your heart straight up your throat, and neatly into your praying hands, your whole body in vibrational anticipation. Remember that? Yea I do. Pretty well actually.

I’m reminding you of this feeling because that’s a pure memory of childhood innocence. An anchor to remind us of days when we wouldn’t let the fear override our experiences. As adults, we overthink everything and fear becomes our primary decision maker in so much of what we do day to day, pretty much holding us hostage to the manipulation of fear.

When I was a kid standing in line at Disney World, waiting to ride the scariest ride of them all, calling on all my bravery and courage not to chicken out, I wasn’t afraid. I wasn’t thinking about the worst case scenario or overthinking the worst possible things that could happen, or worry about the mechanics of how I could potentially die on this ride. I simply lived in that exact moment and enjoyed the adrenaline of the fear, opening me up to the wondrous experience of life.

When we talk about returning to childhood innocence, we talk about returning back to that state of vibrational frequency when our trust in life and the universe gifts us that ability to be fully in the moment, fully present, overriding any mental fear that would creep in. We would feel that fear fully, but it wouldn’t stop us from taking that exciting ride into the darkness, into the unknown, into a rollercoaster of hundreds of emotions all swimming with each other and falling over the hundreds of emotions of whoever is sitting next to us.

Back then, when we were kids and our purity of mind was intact, fear was only in the NOW. An animalistic adrenaline biological response. Not a mental thing. Now as adults we are obsessed with and, in fact dependent on, the mental fears that invade our minds. We are so attached to them, we hardly spend any time living in the present moment, enjoying the ride as it navigates us through life, light and dark.

Space Mountain, to me, represents our Inner Space. As we grow older and explore our own individual paths, we are conditioned by our environments and surroundings daily. Our innocence begins to be washed away by dogma, familial karma or expectations, societal demands and social conformation, media influence, and so on and so on. We lose our wonder, our trust, our desire to taste the nectar of life and live fully, our intuitive awareness, and connection to our inner voice that tells us that this is just a ride, enjoy every second!

Instead, we begin to absorb and retain and fix our minds, opinions and decisions based on certain “truths” that are conditioned into us throughout our lives. We ultimately lose connection with our inner space and begin to search outwardly (via the mind) for what we have always known intrinsically (our intuition and heart). We lose our innocence. We lose our inner selves and trade it all in for externally validated knowledge and a respectable position in our society’s structures.

The irony is, as adults, we are so much more in need of going inward into the darkness of Space Mountain and clearing away all that stuff that we have accumulated over the years, and yet our fear stops us. We stand in line feeling, “Yes, today I am going to face such and such fear. Today I will take that scary ride into my inner space, knowing and trusting I am safe and held and protected, and allow this journey to reset me and ignite new life into my cells.” And then we let our mind take over. It begins to recite all the potential dangers of going inwardly and all the potential pain that could be brought up as a result of taking this journey and how safe and cosy it actually is right here in line with all these lovely people, so we stand still, stuck and say to ourselves or others, “I won’t actually get on the ride today. I’ll just stand here in line and hide with everyone else. Maybe I’ll try tomorrow.”

And so the mind poisons our innocence, takes us away from the opportunity to be fully anchored and enjoying the beauty and magic of the present moment. The mind manipulates us into staying in our falsified comfort zone and prevents us from growing into the fullest expression of our being.

Navigating through life is not easy. Nor is it ever straight forward. And that’s because life is not linear. It loops and shifts and changes. It’s unpredictable at times and confusingly challenging most others. And so our psyche builds little mind personalities that keep us safe in our conditioned and prescribed identities, hiding away.

And so through practices like yoga, singing, guided meditation, journalling and ceremonial rituals, we can explore new ways to navigate the darkness of the mind. To find surrender and trust and faith and courage to take this ride into the shadows. Again and again and again. Until the darkness is not so scary any more. Until your inner voice resounds and sings over the sounds of conditioned mind traps. Until you can enter your inner space in peace and with Sovereignty; being fully present in the vehicle that is your body and shutting off that roundtable in your head long enough to hear the soft but powerful voice of your inner self, your truth, your innocence, your inner child, your Great I Am.

And that’s what I want to offer you. An opportunity to take the Inner Space Ride. An opportunity to be brave enough to step out of the safety of the line and get into the car that will take you into your shadow, that will guide you towards the light, towards the truth of who You are.

It is only a journey for the brave hearts because the truth is rarely pretty and it’s rarely easy to stomach. Only through courage are you able to find and cultivate kindness, love and gentleness towards yourself and this is the greatest yet most rewarding challenge ever; to be brave enough to go into inner space, coming out the other side inevitably stronger, lighter, and reborn every single time.

And as we know from our childhood, this ride, this cleansing, the rebirth, becomes so rewarding the deeper in we go, that we want to do it again and again and again. Because we’ve discovered that we do in fact have the strength and the courage to make it through.

Together let’s take a ride into Inner Space. I will hold your hand as you walk towards the parts of yourself you want to hide from. Let’s find courage to untangle, unhook, and face the traumas that hold us back from shining our brightest and being in alignment with our truth.