Guided Meditation #1 - Quiet Your Mind

You have your three basic steps down.  What were they again?  The 'where'...  the 'how'...  and the 'why'...  Now that you have that in place, what was the other important aspect of the last post?  Right...  The 'breath' and that the breath will always help you to refocus in the meditation if there are outside noises that distract you while practicing. 

Keep in mind while you read the meditation, there will be three ...'s (...) sprinkled within the meditation, this is when you will give a count of three before reading the next set of words.  The idea is to take your time reading.  Nice...  and slow...

Now that you have got the breathing down.  We will begin to clear the mind one thought at a time.  Close your eyes, continue to breathe...  in...  and out...  in...  and out...  I want you to picture yourself in a room...  A quiet room, small, quaint, comfortable...  In your minds eye, as you look around the room, you realize the items in the room are beginning to slowly fade away...  one by one, other chairs... pictures on the wall... tables... lamps...  windows... doorways...  keep one window or one doorway (you will use this later)  all the rest, fade ...to a soft white.  The room is just you...  Just you, and the window (or door - for the sake of this exercise we will say window).  Keep breathing...  in peace and calm... out stress and anxiety...

You, in the room, this soft, white room...  with one window...  breathing in peace...  and breathing out stress...  a thought comes into your mind...  (one mistake people make is to try to block the thought...  I say thoughts will happen, thoughts are ok...)  acknowledge the thought...  In your minds eye, I want you to acknowledge the thought, in your white room.  I want you to get up from your chair and walk over to the window...  while thinking the thought... I want you to imagine writing the thought on a piece of paper... and placing it right outside the window... ( maybe there is a window box) for later...  

If you acknowledge the thoughts as they come in, and remove them from the forefront of your mind, they are less apt to come back during the meditation.  If you choose (to try) to ignore them, they come back, again, and again...  louder and more bothersome each time.  Acknowledge them, and set them aside for after your meditation is complete...  this way here your subconscious realizes you are not ignoring, not pushing aside, you acknowledge and set time aside for them later.  This time, right now, is for you, and you alone...

Once the thought is placed outside the window, walk slowly back to your chair, and sit down...  Back to your breath, in - peace and calm...  out - stress and anxiety...

Stay in this place, this peaceful place for as long as you like...  continue to walk your thoughts out of the room, in a safe spot (your window box) until you are ready to come back from your perfect, peaceful place and address them.  

Sometimes, your entire time will be walking thoughts out of the room.  That is ok, for the next time, you may spend only 90% of your time walking thoughts out of the room and then 10% will be completely quiet.  To have even 5 minutes of your mind completely quiet is very healing.  This is where you can hear, feel, or see messages, answers to questions that you have had.  When we are able to get quiet enough to listen is when we find the answers we seek.  You continue this practice until you have more quiet time than thought handling.  These meditations can be as short or as long as you like.

Keep practicing.  Enjoy your quiet time.  More to come.

Be Well,

Mary-Anne