Meditation-Made-Easy

 

      Inner peace is right at your finger tips!  I have crafted the following easy-to-use visualizations for the purpose of helping my clients self-soothe effectively, easily (and rather quickly) through meditation.  As you practice these exercises, you will find that your heart-rate slows and your breathing becomes more evenly distributed as your body and mind relax. 

 

Exercise 1

"The Heart-Mind Loop" (Helpful for panic attacks, generalized anxiety, and ADHD)

Imagine that as you breathe in, your inhalation travels from your heart/chest up into the crown of your head. Hold your breath in your lungs for a moment, imagining that you are holding a relaxing and soothing feeling in the crown of your head. Then, as you breathe out, imagine that the breath retraces its steps; it is now traveling down from the head and into the heart. Continue in this manner for a few minutes, imagining that your breath is guiding you through a healing and cleansing loop, as it travels circularly from your chest to your head (as you inhale), and then down from your head to your heart (as you exhale). Imagine that as the breath travels, it clears all anxiety in its path, replacing it with a soothing energy, calming emotion, or even a calming color (such as a golden light). Each time the breath travels through this loop, imagine that any anxiety inside of you grows fainter and fainter, and the feeling of relaxation grows more and more intensely. 

 

Exercise 2

"Breathe Through Your Feet"  (Helpful for panic attacks, social anxiety, and insomnia) 

As you breathe in, imagine that your breath is being inhaled upwards from the soles of your feet, inching up into your ankles. Imagine that with this breath, the muscles of the feet gently relax. As you breathe out, imagine that the breath reverses, traveling from your ankles back to the soles of your feet, releasing any tension back into the earth below.  With the next in-breath, imagine your breath beginning at your ankles, and gently climbing its way up towards your calves, clearing away all anxiety and muscle tension in its path. With the out-breath, imagine that the breath retraces its steps - it now gently inches down your calves and back into your ankles, clearing away any tension that may still have remained from before. As you breathe in again, the breath always "picks up where it left off" from before. You are now up to your calves, so you might imagine that the next in-breath travels up to your thighs, relaxing and healing all in its path. Continue in this manner, allowing the breath the climb up the body, little by little, until you are completely relaxed. You might even find it helpful to imagine that the breath corresponds with a color, such as a white-colored, healing light. It is nice to imagine that as you inhale this white light, your body tension begins to disappear, as it becomes immersed in a soothing glow.