The Too-Good-to-Be-True Place?

One way to get out of a hell hole.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

I was thinking about how our screens give us little doorways into other worlds, and what we’re hoping to find once we’re in them. I mean, who on Earth isn’t trying to find a ticket to paradise — whatever their definition of paradise might be?

One of my favorite shows is The Good Place and damn — it just gets better as it goes. I wish I could’ve been a writer on the wall in that writer’s room. It starts out looking like any other zany network sitcom, but by the end of Season 4, that show goes to infinity and beyond. It’s remarkably philosophically and theologically astute — without losing the zany. I mean, yes, it’s a little like drinking Dom Perignon out of a red solo cup, but it’s definitely Dom Perignon!! If you haven’t seen it, I HIGHLY recommend it. Suffice it to say the premise is “they’re dead, and they’re learning to live with it.”

So — in the show, the dead people are told they’re in heaven. They start making themselves at home. Then all hell breaks loose. 

I can’t help but think of how this happens to us with our screens. Whether we take our screens for a scroll through a few reels or threads, or couch it with a film or a new series, we’re looking for a good time. Everybody’s got their own version of “good time.” Maybe we are just looking to escape, or want to be entertained or edified. Invariably, we all want the place we go to be a “good place.”

Depending on the way you curate your own media experiences, you may end up feeling less than good. You may have screen time remorse. And you may say to yourself, "My God, what have I done?" (cue Talking Heads ) You might feel numb. You might feel agitated. Out of focus. Traumatized. On the other hand, you may really feel juiced and alive and in love with the world. I don’t know. But you do.

So whenever the space you’re in is not your Good Place, there are remedies that don’t require a doctor’s prescription (or something else you may not want to ingest). Give this one a whirl.

Qi Tips

The Dragon’s Mouth (imagine dragon)

Climb on in!

Here’s the audio link for this!

• Find a posture you feel well-composed in. You can sit or stand or lie down, but sense yourself connected and supported by your skeleton from head to toe.

• Now pretend you’re still a squishy five year old who dreams big. Close your eyes if that’s easier.

• Imagine you find a magical golden lozenge that will turn you into a dragon. Place this on your tongue.

• This lozenge melts into a golden ball of light in your mouth. Feel it begin to glow, and grow. Light fills all the spaces in your mouth.

• Allow the light to grow by softening your jaw and tongue. Now soften your cheeks and eyes and forehead. See how much light you can feel in your face.

• (You might feel a lot of saliva filling your mouth — that’s really good spit. The ancients might call it the elixir of longevity) 

• Keep allowing this light fill you and find its way into the spaces of your mouth and head. Your head and your cervical spine may want to adjust position.

• Allow the eyes to sense the ball too. Your eyeballs can even rest on this ball. 

• Let this ball infuse all of you now. Your breathing may change — allow that. Your body may respond in different ways — stay a five year old and move with it.

• As the ball becomes huge, you can allow your arms to contain it, so that your arms wrap around the outside of the ball.

• Become that ball, be that light. Let it in everywhere. You can enjoy this for minutes or hours.

• When you feel complete, allow the ball to reduce back to the golden lozenge. You can swallow this.

• If you’re holding the ball in your arms, allow it to reduce until you can hold this golden light between your hands. Then bring your palms together and rub all the golden in.

• Now just enjoy the lightness of being, dragon person!