Halloween Decoration Meditation

 

Step 1: Arriving & Grounding

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Go somewhere with an abundance of Halloween decorations, perhaps a neighbor’s yard or the Halloween aisle in your local supermarket.

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Take a deep, grounding breath & notice your body. Notice your posture. Take a moment to loosen tension in your muscles & attend to what your body feels like from the inside. If you feel the fluttering of the silliness of the exercise or the cringing of embarrassment at behaving differently in public, let yourself feel these things without letting your mind hook & haul you out of the present.

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Step 2: Witnessing Symbols of Death​

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Turn your attention outwards, to the décor that surrounds you. Let your eyes travel slowly over the representations of skeletons, ghosts, or gravestones. Take in their details, some playful & some realistic. Notice your sensations & the emotions that form from them. Do you feel warmth or cold? Your pulse quickening or slowing? Movement or stillness? Tension or relaxation?

Touch the decorations. Handle them if you’re able. What changes when you engage your senses this way?

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What do you notice your mind doing? What memories & associations do these decorations bring up? Let your mind play with the associations without climbing into them.

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Step 3: Embracing Death

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Turn your attention to the deeper truth the symbols represent: “I, too, will die.” When you let these words resonate within you, what sensations, thoughts, & emotions do they stir? Let yourself feel.

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Remember now that you are not alone. Death is something that connects every person, every animal, & every living thing in this world. Even things that were never alive change form & pass away. The universe itself will one day end. What do you feel as you sit with impermanence?

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Step 4: Appreciating Life

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Notice your body. Notice that the piece of the universe you are is alive. Feel your heart beating, your lungs drawing in air. Feel their strength & their fragility coexisting. What is good, right now? What can you appreciate in this moment? What do you notice as you connect with these things?

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What is good in your life? Whom do you appreciate? What is beautiful or funny or satisfying that you sometimes lose sight of?

 

Step 5: The Death of the Meditation

 

When you’re ready, take a deep grounding breath. You may find it useful to shake a little or clench & unclench your muscles. Give a little loving kindness to the living body you are.

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Take a moment to feel amused at yourself & the choices you’ve made that led you to meditate on Halloween decorations. What is one thing from this experience you’d like to take with you (apart from new decorations)?

 

Remember: “To embrace Death is to appreciate Life. And have a happy Halloween!”​