Meditation-Mind Blog

 

Serendipity, or, discovering something valuable by accident, is one of my favorite experiences. When considering some words for the title of something I was writing recently, I looked for some synonyms for words having to do with abundance and well-being and soon found myself feeling very positive and very peaceful.

It dawned on me that what I had been doing, without realizing it, was a sort of mindfulness meditation or self-hypnosis. As I considered each word, I was trying it on and seeing how it felt, getting an inner sense of the word. Just by reading through a list of words in this way, I was putting myself in a positive mental state.

To give you a better sense of what I’m talking about, here are some of the words and their synonyms:

Abundant - richly or plentifully supplied, ample, more than enough, to abound, to overflow, to be fully supplied.

Flourish - to grow well or luxuriantly, to succeed, to fare well, to prosper

Prosper - to be successful, to flourish, to thrive

Well-being - quiet pleasure, contentment, ease, comfort, coziness, great satisfaction, euphoria, good health, fitness, rosiness, wholesomeness, robust health, glowing health, picture of health, in fine fettle, mint condition, heartiness, bursting with health, full of life and vigor, vital, blooming, feeling one’s oats, to feel happy, sing, purr, smile, laugh, beam

Wow - apparently it works when you write them too.

If you’d like to try this for yourself, just follow the instructions below.

Of course, the first thing you’ll need is access to a thesaurus, so here are some links to some  - one free online thesaurus so you can try this right now and one which links to Roget’s International Thesaurus, the book, on Amazon, if you don’t yet own one but would like to.

When I did this meditation initially, I used a book and could see all the entries for a word on the page, which might have some advantages. But either way should work just fine. You might also like to have a pen and some paper nearby for any notes you’d like to make.

The Thesaurus Meditation

Sit down with your thesaurus. Begin by choosing some words that are soothing to you, representing peace, a favorite color, perhaps, or the way you’d like to be feeling, or just some words that you happen to like.

If you’re having trouble thinking of some, you might try the words, kindness, happiness, and gratitude.

Let yourself get comfortable and take three slow, deep breaths.

Now, as you look up your chosen words in the thesaurus, spend a little while reading the synonyms, following where they lead. When you notice some words that you like, look those up and let yourself be led from pleasing word to pleasing word. Continue for as long as you like.

Notice how you’re feeling as you go. You might even want to write some of your favorites down when you’re finished, so you can easily return to this positive state whenever you read them.

Have fun with this. I wish you great peace and a happy experience of serendipity.

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Serendipity -  a chance discovery, finding, spotting, recognizing, bringing to light, finding treasure

Peace - quietness, stillness, restfulness, comfortableness, harmony, concordance, heart’s ease,  feeling at home, sheltered, calm, tranquil, soothed, composed, being relaxed, experiencing serenity, nirvana

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If you try this and would like to share your experience, just click on the word “comments” below this post.

Comment - to observe, note, mention, remark, muse, reflect, give one’s two cents’ worth, express, affirm, exclaim :-)

 

Every so often I run into my notes for the Five Finger Exercise, one of my favorite self-hypnosis breaks. This version is adapted from a wonderful book called The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook by Martha Davis, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman and Matthew McKay

I hope you’ll enjoy it too.

You can use this exercise whenever you need to relax for a few minutes.

If you read it through a few times, you’ll find that you remember the steps quite easily.You just give yourself cues by touching your thumb to each of your fingers in turn. But it’s OK to peek at your notes until you get the hang of it. Enjoy the calm.

Five Finger Exercise

After finding a place where you won’t be disturbed for a few minutes and getting comfortable:

1. Begin by touching your thumb to your index finger.  As you bring your thumb and index finger together, think back to a time when your body felt ready for a rest, right after you had been for a walk or jog or swim or some other pleasant, physical exercise. It felt good and healthy to exercise and now it feels good and healthy to rest. Take a deep breath, and then another, and then one more, and give your body time to slow down.

2. When you’re ready to go on, touch your thumb to your middle finger.  As you bring your thumb and middle finger together, think back to a time when you felt very loving toward someone.  It can be anytime that comes to mind. Just remember having a warm loving feeling and let yourself feel it again. Stay with the feeling until you’re ready to move on.

3. Next touch your thumb to your ring finger.  As you bring your thumb and ring finger together, recall a time when you received a nice compliment. Let yourself hear the kind and appreciative words again and take them in. Accept them. And then, if you wish, extend a mental thank you to the person who said them. 

4. And now touch your thumb to your little finger.  As you bring your thumb and little finger together, think back to a beautiful place you have been. Maybe someplace you found awe-inspiring. Take in its beauty once again. The light, the colors, the sounds, the scents, the feeling in the air. Let yourself experience it for a while.

Let yourself be filled with these sweet feelings of peace and love and calm, and after a while, when you’re ready, come back to your resting place, still feeling very peaceful, very loving, very calm and very good.

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I hope you enjoyed this self-hypnosis break. If you’d like to share your experience, you’re welcome to leave a comment. Just click on the word “comments” below and an easy-to-use form will appear.

 

Did you happen to see Patricia Leigh Brown’s article in the New York Times about kids learning mindfulness meditation techniques? Entitled, In the Classroom, a New Focus on Quieting the Mind, it described some programs in schools in California and Pennsylvania which helped kids learn some simple stress management techniques.

A couple of times a week,  they were led through 15 minutes of such mindfulness techniques as focusing on their breathing and imagining loving kindness toward people in their lives.

The article mentioned some of the ways kids seemed to be using the techniques they had learned. One young boy had learned to “take a moment” to calm himself when he had started feeling like hitting someone on the playground.  I especially loved the story about the 4 year old girl who called out “Mommy, Mommy, you have to sing the breathing song!” as her distressed mom was dealing with road rage.

Just follow the link above if you’d like to read the article.

Reading about these programs left me wanting to know more, so I went looking for some specifics. If someone with an interest in calming techniques wanted to share them with some of their favorite children or had an interest in putting a program together what might be some good resources for doing that?

MP3’s

I was delighted to discover a collection of meditations from the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center at UCLA,  one of the places mentioned in the NY Times article. Written and recorded by Diana Winston, their Director for Mindfulness Education, they are excellent examples of the kinds of experiences that could be offered. These MP3’s are absolutely free and left me feeling wonderful. I loved the loving kindness meditation I listened to. You can check out their whole collection of mindfulness meditation MP3’s and see what you think.

Books

The article also mentioned that the programs had been influenced by the works of Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Two books of his that you might want to check out on Amazon are Full Catastrophe Living and Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

Online Training

Susan Kaiser Greenland at the InnerKids Foundation offers online training programs through a site called eMindful for people wanting to teach mindfulness. I haven’t tried them, but with titles like The New ABC’s: Teaching Children About Mindfulness, they look promising. You can find out more about these online meditation courses by looking at the eMindful site.

CD

Maybe someone reading this knows the breathing song that the 4 year old girl encouraged her mom to sing. If we can’t track that one down, as it happens, some hypnotherapists whose opinions I trust, recently recommended a recording by Marcel Klasen, a hypnotherapist and musician. 

It’s a CD called HAPPY SONGS, that is intended for ages 9-12, with a combination of music and positive suggestions, along with instructions for breathwork, a story about healing, a song about world peace and even a rap song. You can contact Marcel at marcelklasen@yahoo.com for ordering information.

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Care to Add One?

That could be enough to get you started. If you have any additional or alternative resources you’d like to recommend for learning and teaching mindfulness meditation or its close cousin, self-hypnosis, whether for children or adults, I invite your suggestions. Just click on “comment” at the end of this post and share your thoughts.

 

“Meditation comes from the human heart and is a way of warming your hands and your life at the fire always pulsing there in your core. It comes from the depths of your instinctive wisdom. Human beings are always wondering and inquiring, and meditation is a natural emergence of that adventure.”
—Lorin Roche

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“Meditation was probably discovered independently by hunters, singers, dancers, drummers, lovers and hermits, each in their own way. People tend to encounter meditative states whenever they throw themselves with total intensity into life’s callings.”
—Lorin Roche

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“Always remember, have it as your touchstone, that meditation is being with that which you love. Your path in meditation will emerge from exploring what it is you love to pay attention to.”
—Lorin Roche

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Each of the quotes above are from Meditation Made Easy by Lorin Roche

 

I’ve been reading and re-reading a wonderful book called Meditation Made Easy by Lorin Roche. I’m going to have to write and ask Lorin if he meditates before he writes. What he writes is so authentic and so quotable that it gives me the feeling that he’s in close touch with a deep place within himself. It’s the place that athletes sometimes refer to as “the Zone” and others might call being in “the Flow,” - that experience of having all blocks fall away and letting all forms of creativity joyously and effortlessly express themselves. And luckily for us, he shares the results.

We’ve all heard that meditation (or the many other names it goes by) is good for us. But that doesn’t keep all the yes, but’s from coming up. Yes, but who has the time? Yes, but my family will think I’m weird when they hear all that ooom-ing. Yes, but I don’t have one of those cushions. Yes, but my legs won’t cross like that.

Well, Lorin Roche helps all those little yes, buts drop away and leads you to discover your own natural way of taking this inner vacation

He begins by telling the story of how he was introduced to meditation. Then he has a great question and answer section, looking at many of the yes, buts already mentioned, often letting his sense of humor show. To help you get a sense of what you’ll find, here’s a little of what Lorin has to say about sitting cross-legged:

“Sitting cross-legged works well for some people and it looks really cool. But this pose does nothing for meditation that can’t be done in other ways. The main virtue of the cross-legged posture is that it’s handy if you have no furniture, are homeless, or are outdoors.”

He goes on to suggest that you start with one of 3 beginning exercises depending on what you feel like doing at that moment. Here are some excerpts from one of those exercises, called The Feeling at Home Exercise:

“Set your mind free to wander over your life experience and recall instances when you have felt very, very comfortable. They could have occurred anywhere, anytime, under any circumstances.”

“If one of your memories of being at home is standing on a shore, there is the smell of the salt air, the sound of the surf, wind, and seagulls, the wetness of the spray on your face, the brilliance of the sun or the gray of the clouds and the blue rolling motion of the ocean. Immerse yourself in each of these; let yourself rejoice in each sense.”

“As the images and memories come, breathe with them. Enter the image, see the scene, breathe with the feeling you had in your body. When you do this, the feelings come into the present. You are, in the present moment, meditating on the feeling of ‘being at home.’ ”

There are many sweet little breaks like that in this book. Reading further, you’ll find a wide variety of mini-meditations, an exploration of breath, meditations on sound, ways of paying attention with love, thoughts on what to do about seeming obstacles, ideas for finding your own individual ways to meditate and even what Lorin calls The Meditation Top Forty.

I’m delighted to have found Meditation Made Easy by Lorin Roche. Following this link will let you check it out for yourself on Amazon.

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I love this book and I have Maya Talisman Frost to thank for introducing me to it last fall on her blog, Paying Attention to Mindfulness. You might enjoy watching her free movie called “The Wow of Wonder”, a series of beautiful thoughts and images. At the end of the movie, a page will come up that lets you sign up for her free special report, “The Dirty Little Secret About Meditation”, and free weekly newsletter, Friday Mind Massage. Great title, huh? Enjoy  :-)

 

Part of learning to meditate is learning to pay attention. To observe. To notice. To look at the world another way.

It’s like a game my family used to play on long car trips when I was a kid. Everybody’s family has their own version of it, of course. Sometimes it’s spotting license plates. Ours was called “My Volkswagen!”

This was back when the Volkswagen’s unique size and shape stood out among all those large American-made cars and only came in two forms, as I recall - the VW bug and the VW bus. It was easy to spot them coming from quite a distance on the highway. The idea was to be the first one to call out My Volkswagen! and to keep a running tally of just how many Volkswagens you had seen.

Like all good travel games, it focused your mind on something besides being bored sitting in a car for hours and, of course, made you much more aware of all those Volkswagens which otherwise might have passed by unnoticed.

Paying attention. Noticing. Observing. Looking at the world another way. Seeing what is already there that we just haven’t noticed. Poets and songwriters, writers and artists, photographers and scientists, comedians and meditators all do it regularly.

Circling Around

One way to practice paying attention is to play a little game by setting a task for yourself. The one I decided to play is one where I quietly noticed all the circles around me as I moved through the day. The number turned out to be astounding.

An alarm clock, a mirror, a lamp, the showerhead, a bathroom cup, the top of the vitamin bottle, a ring, the teapot, a cup and its saucer, an orange, an apple, a bagel, and the pretty blue and white plate I put it on.

It seemed that circles in all sizes and colors were everywhere I
looked and it was only breakfast time.

If you decide to play this game, you’ll see what I’m talking about. Cars and buses and trains are full of them. Cellphones, computers, CD players, newspapers, magazines and books all have circles too.

They populate our world, showing up as symbols in many cultures and spiritual practices, and as critical components in science and math. They’re part of the way we move and dance, of the money we exchange for goods and services, of the sports we play and the rings we give to pledge our commitments to each other.

They’re part of the weather, and the shapes of our Earth and its sun and moon and the stars we wish on.

Noticing all of this makes me think of one of my favorite Harry Chapin songs, coincidentally entitled Circle. During his live performances, Harry would ask the crowd to join in singing:

 All my life’s a circle.
 Sunrise and sundown.
 The moon rolls through the nighttime
 ’Til the daybreak comes around…

 (You can hear the whole Circle song here for free. If you decide you want to own it, I recommend the version on Harry Chapin’s Greatest Stories Live album available from Amazon.)

Paying attention to the simple circle has led me to some interesting insights. Even this article could be called a circle as I return to the point I made at the beginning. The practice of paying attention, whether you try it for a few minutes, an hour, or a day, can help you see the world in a whole new way.

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If you want to play with this idea a little more, you might find this post by Linda Salazar at Awaken The Genie Within interesting. It’s all about noticing the WOW moments in our lives.

 

 

Sometimes the trickiest thing about stress is recognizing its signals in ourselves. In his book, Instant Calm: Over 100 Easy-to-Use Techniques for Relaxing Mind and Body by Paul Wilson, Paul Wilson details many of the ways we experience stress including such things as butterflies in the stomach, tense shoulders or jaw, heart palpitations, headaches, indigestion, difficulty sleeping and extreme irritability. The list is a long one.

After taking a good look at how stress works and its many signals, Wilson takes us through his collection of over 100 techniques for calming and soothing ourselves.You’ll find ways to calm yourself using acupressure, aromatherapy, breathing, massage, meditation, music, relaxation, physical exercise, stretching, self-hypnosis, visualization, foods, herbs and teas. And those are just the larger categories.

This is one of those books that makes you feel better just looking through it. You could probably use it like a cookbook and just open to any page and read through the instructions for inspiration. It won’t take long to find several techniques that can be combined into your own personal calming routine.

There are so many techniques that I had trouble choosing a favorite, so I decided to try the pick-any-page method myself to offer you an example. I just tried one called Comb Therapy. To be truthful, since I’m sitting at my computer and don’t have a comb within reach, I tried using a little 6-inch plastic ruler that I have in the mug where I keep my pens. That seems to work too.

Comb Therapy goes like this: Take an ordinary comb (or ruler) and, beginning at the fingertips, lightly stroke the comb over the tops of your fingers and the top of your hand and then continue over your wrist and arm all the way to your shoulder. Then repeat this action on your other arm. Continue this as many times as you like. When you feel done, sit quietly for a few minutes taking some slow, deep breaths. Very simple. Very pleasant. I just tried it three times on one hand and arm while breathing deeply and then moved to the other hand and arm. That was calming too.

You could follow this simple massage and breathing technique with one called Calm Affirmation. Sit quietly for about 5 minutes and read these affirmations adapted from Instant Calm over and over to yourself either out loud or silently:

 ”More and more, I am relaxing into a state of great peace and calm.
 I feel at ease with the world.
 I radiate this peace and calm to all around me.”

I played with this a little and found it was very effective to repeat each affirmation 3 times or more before moving on to the next one. For example:

 ”More and more, I am relaxing into a state of great peace and calm.”

 ”More and more, I am relaxing into a state of great peace and calm.”

 ”More and more, I am relaxing into a state of great peace and calm.”

Then, if you’re ready, start repeating:

 ”I am at ease with the world.”

And so on, from there.

If you want to close your eyes and make it even simpler, try just repeating the words “peaceful, calm and relaxed” over and over silently to yourself as you take slow, deep breaths. For example, think “peaceful” as you breathe in and “calm and relaxed” as you slowly breathe out.

It’s OK to experiment with this to see what is most relaxing for you.

In an early chapter of Instant Calm, Paul Wilson promises that you’ll feel better after reading this book. I’d say he’s right. If you want to check it out on Amazon, try any of the links in this post, including this one. Instant Calm: Over 100 Easy-to-Use Techniques for Relaxing Mind and Body by Paul Wilson 
 

 

January 4, 2007 was the third annual World Hypnotism Day, a day when hypnotists from all over the world celebrated by offering people the chance to experience the benefits of hypnosis for free or at very low cost.

Participating hypnotists spent the day conducting free workshops to help people stop smoking, melt off some pounds, relieve stress, reduce clutter, learn to relax and a wide variety of other things. Some offered free CD’s or ebooks or MP3 downloads, as well. A good time was had by all.

To continue the celebration, and give those of you who missed it this year another chance, I want to let you know about a free download for a book by experienced hypnotist and writer, Henry Leo Bolduc.

Self-Hypnosis: Creating Your Own Destiny is a previously published book that Leo very generously put in the public domain in the year 2000.

It’s a great primer by a very skilled hypnotist which details some of the history and uses of hypnosis as well as teaching about the power of the mind and effective use of suggestions and visualizations.

Leo also gives detailed instructions for making your own self-hypnosis tapes, including scripts for 31 different programs. The following are just a few of the script titles: Building Self-Confidence, Memory and Concentration, Attracting Abundance, Enhancing Creativity, Self-Health, Stress Management, Overcoming Insomnia, Developing Psychic Ability and Chakra Attunement. And there are 22 more to choose from.

To give you a sense of what the scripts are like, here’s an excerpt from one for entering self-hypnosis:

“Breathe deeply and smoothly for a few minutes. (Pause) You can keep your eyes open for a minute, and you can look either forward or upward. You don’t have to look at anything specific, but just look either forward or upward.

I am going to count down from ten to one, and with every descending number just slowly blink your eyes. Slowly close and then open your eyes, as in slow motion, with every number.

Ten….nine….eight….seven….six….five….four….three….two….and one.

Now you can just close your eyes and you can keep them closed…..”

Whenever you open your eyes again, I hope you’ll enjoy checking out Self-Hypnosis:Creating Your Own Destiny  It’s a free gift from H. Leo Bolduc to all of us.

Happy Belated World Hypnotism Day! Watch for it again next year.
 

 

Before you’ve tried self-hypnosis, it can be hard to picture how you might use it. Kind of like the initial reaction some people had to the telephone and the personal computer, it sometimes takes us a while to understand its amazing potential.

One powerful use for self-hypnosis is to help people prepare for surgery. Probably the most well-known research has been done by Dr.Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City who has found that his heart patients feel calmer, more in control and more comfortable physically after their procedures when they have used hypnosis and self-hypnosis.

What I find particularly appealing is the emotional comfort it offers.  Most people are at least a little nervous at the prospect of their own or a loved one’s surgery and may not want to talk about it. Listening to a guided meditation and learning some self-hypnosis techniques can be tremendous helps in calming any fears that come up.

If you’re expecting to have surgery or want to offer some support to someone else who will be, one of the best tools I’ve found is Belleruth Naparstek’s audio recording, Health Journeys: A Meditation to Promote Successful Surgery“ available from Amazon.

In her soothing voice, Belleruth helps you to remember your own strength at a time you may be feeling vulnerable and offers reassuring images of a team of helpers supporting you when you may be feeling scared.

Feedback has been very positive from the people I have shared this with. They thought it helped them to feel much calmer about their procedure and to establish a positive attitude for their healing process.

As a companion, an impressively thorough book with many helpful suggestions for those scheduled for surgery is The Surgery Coach: Mind-Body Preparation For Faster, Better Recovery by Joseph Casey

Joe Casey’s book could be called a holistic “travel guide” for surgery, as he helps you know what to expect, soothes fears, teaches breathing and self-hypnosis skills and gives many practical suggestions,  including a chapter on questions to ask your doctor, along with lists of resources to help you prepare, body, mind and spirit, for successful surgery and an easier recovery.

It may be interesting to note that Joe puts Belleruth’s Meditation to Promote Successful Surgery recording number one on his list of recommended tapes and CD’s too.

And a special note to my fellow hypnotists, even if you don’t need to prepare for surgery, this book is a hidden treasure. I’ve found myself referring over and over to Joe’s chapters on breathing and relaxation, the power of words, as well as self-hypnosis techniques and scripts of various lengths. It’s clear that Joe knows his stuff and is skilled at communicating it in a way that feels healing.