Mental Health: Meditation Through Visualization
Meditation has many connotations and some of them may trigger different reactions from all of us.
Meditation has many connotations and some of them may trigger different reactions from all of us. When I was younger, I thought it was the most boring thing anyone could indulge in and I conjured up an image of bearded yogis up in the Himalayas who starved and smelled. Today however, thanks to the holistic awareness, movements towards personal development and the amalgamation of Eastern and Western thoughts becoming more and more popular, meditation has taken on a more marketable name.
I meditate and in my personal experience, I call it ¡°plugging-in¡± In fact as I am working on my book, there is an entire chapter dedicated solely to ¡°plugging into the Universe¡±.
Visualization to me is constant, I think with images in my mind. If I asked you now, whatever you do, do not think of a blue ball, what happens? Exactly, you conjure up an image of a blue ball and I might even guess that it showed in the top right hand corner of your ¡°internal screen¡±. The premise is that you can¡¯t visualize nothing, and what you visualize, you are giving power to, so if you ¡°see¡± pictures of what you don¡¯t want, guess what? You will end up attracting what you don¡¯t want. We cannot bring into our world what we have not been able to at least imagine first.
This dates back to mental imagery in sports and also simulated activity for astronauts. The brain sometimes cannot distinguish between the image of a memory or the image of a fantasy, but having ¡°seen¡± it before in your mind¡¯s eye, makes it more possible to create it in your reality.
So we all have internal screens and the practice of attracting positivity through visualization is a great way to getting to the ¡°feeling¡± space of what you want to create in your reality. Meditation can be done in so many ways. We can meditate through sitting still and chanting a mantra, we can meditate in dance and movement, we can meditate in our shower, we can meditate through visualization.
In my practice, your personal spiritual connection and how you choose to connect will influence your preferred way of meditation. To meditate to me is to go in. When I am writing, I say to the world, that I am not stepping out, that is a two fold statement. I am not stepping out of my work space, and I am not stepping out of the inner space that I create in order to write. I am ¡°in¡±. Plugged in.
Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain 1978 describes several very powerful and enjoyable guided meditation methods using visualization.
Through the years, I have created a mixing pot of the various methods I have tried and come up with my own. The first step for me is to ¡°center¡± or ¡°ground¡±. To do this, simply sit with your feet touching the ground, and your hands resting on your thighs, close your eyes and become aware of your surroundings. See in your internal screen the space or room you are sitting in. Feel the weight of your feet on the ground and of your hands on your thighs, feel the fabric or skin under your hands and make sure you are seated in an ¡°open-body¡± position, with your feet and hands uncrossed and your chest open to receiving. You can enhance the feeling of grounded-ness by imagining roots coming out of the bottom of your feet like in a tree and going deeper and deeper into the core of the earth, and you can also imagine light coming out of the skies above and flowing like lightning bolts into your head. Create a blank screen in your mind¡¯s eye and in the screen conjure up a picture or image that makes you happy and which is aligned with what you want to create in your world.
When speaking about health and weight loss, you could imagine yourself slim and healthy, with lustrous hair and toned muscles and a slim frame wearing the most beautiful dress or suit that would enhance your desired body and a smile that would assure you that you have achieved this goal. If yours is a relationship desire, then visualize yourself in a loving embrace with a gorgeous partner and if there is no partner, then try not to give the visualization lover a face, what is important is your own face and feeling while you ¡°see¡± this image. If you are being held and feeling loved and joyous, then that is important.
When I wanted to lose weight and get myself and a close friend¡¯s books published, my perfect image that I used when I meditated was of myself lying in a green bikini on a hammock, the two books in one hand and a cocktail in my other hand, complete with a frangipani in my hair. The image presupposed that I was successful enough to be lounging on a hammock and because I was so self-conscious of my figure before, there was no way I would be caught dead in a bikini until I had shed the kilos I wanted to shed, and holding the books that I wanted to see published meant that I had succeeded.
To take it further, you can imagine this beautiful image is encapsulated in a glowing pink ball and then set the ball off in the top left of your screen, going up higher and higher into the universe, to bring your dreams back to you in reality and manifestation.
Meditation is different for all of us. As you get better and better at it, and it is all about discipline, time and practice, you will find that you can go in easier and you will discover that you are not just trying to ¡°plug-in¡± to the Universe, but rather you ARE the Universe and the Universe is you.
I meditate and in my personal experience, I call it ¡°plugging-in¡± In fact as I am working on my book, there is an entire chapter dedicated solely to ¡°plugging into the Universe¡±.
Visualization to me is constant, I think with images in my mind. If I asked you now, whatever you do, do not think of a blue ball, what happens? Exactly, you conjure up an image of a blue ball and I might even guess that it showed in the top right hand corner of your ¡°internal screen¡±. The premise is that you can¡¯t visualize nothing, and what you visualize, you are giving power to, so if you ¡°see¡± pictures of what you don¡¯t want, guess what? You will end up attracting what you don¡¯t want. We cannot bring into our world what we have not been able to at least imagine first.
This dates back to mental imagery in sports and also simulated activity for astronauts. The brain sometimes cannot distinguish between the image of a memory or the image of a fantasy, but having ¡°seen¡± it before in your mind¡¯s eye, makes it more possible to create it in your reality.
So we all have internal screens and the practice of attracting positivity through visualization is a great way to getting to the ¡°feeling¡± space of what you want to create in your reality. Meditation can be done in so many ways. We can meditate through sitting still and chanting a mantra, we can meditate in dance and movement, we can meditate in our shower, we can meditate through visualization.
In my practice, your personal spiritual connection and how you choose to connect will influence your preferred way of meditation. To meditate to me is to go in. When I am writing, I say to the world, that I am not stepping out, that is a two fold statement. I am not stepping out of my work space, and I am not stepping out of the inner space that I create in order to write. I am ¡°in¡±. Plugged in.
Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain 1978 describes several very powerful and enjoyable guided meditation methods using visualization.
Through the years, I have created a mixing pot of the various methods I have tried and come up with my own. The first step for me is to ¡°center¡± or ¡°ground¡±. To do this, simply sit with your feet touching the ground, and your hands resting on your thighs, close your eyes and become aware of your surroundings. See in your internal screen the space or room you are sitting in. Feel the weight of your feet on the ground and of your hands on your thighs, feel the fabric or skin under your hands and make sure you are seated in an ¡°open-body¡± position, with your feet and hands uncrossed and your chest open to receiving. You can enhance the feeling of grounded-ness by imagining roots coming out of the bottom of your feet like in a tree and going deeper and deeper into the core of the earth, and you can also imagine light coming out of the skies above and flowing like lightning bolts into your head. Create a blank screen in your mind¡¯s eye and in the screen conjure up a picture or image that makes you happy and which is aligned with what you want to create in your world.
When speaking about health and weight loss, you could imagine yourself slim and healthy, with lustrous hair and toned muscles and a slim frame wearing the most beautiful dress or suit that would enhance your desired body and a smile that would assure you that you have achieved this goal. If yours is a relationship desire, then visualize yourself in a loving embrace with a gorgeous partner and if there is no partner, then try not to give the visualization lover a face, what is important is your own face and feeling while you ¡°see¡± this image. If you are being held and feeling loved and joyous, then that is important.
When I wanted to lose weight and get myself and a close friend¡¯s books published, my perfect image that I used when I meditated was of myself lying in a green bikini on a hammock, the two books in one hand and a cocktail in my other hand, complete with a frangipani in my hair. The image presupposed that I was successful enough to be lounging on a hammock and because I was so self-conscious of my figure before, there was no way I would be caught dead in a bikini until I had shed the kilos I wanted to shed, and holding the books that I wanted to see published meant that I had succeeded.
To take it further, you can imagine this beautiful image is encapsulated in a glowing pink ball and then set the ball off in the top left of your screen, going up higher and higher into the universe, to bring your dreams back to you in reality and manifestation.
Meditation is different for all of us. As you get better and better at it, and it is all about discipline, time and practice, you will find that you can go in easier and you will discover that you are not just trying to ¡°plug-in¡± to the Universe, but rather you ARE the Universe and the Universe is you.