Conscious Clarity using Relaxation and Visualization

Relaxation and visualization are natural skills you can use every day. The ability to relax the body has many benefits such as strengthening your meditation practices, releasing constant thoughts, improving sleep patterns, reducing stress and negative emotions. The techniques below will assist you in practicing how to become deeply relaxed. • Create a sacred space: Find a place in your home that is exclusively your space. Make it a peaceful, meditative space where you can have privacy. Furnish it with whatever will help you feel focused and relaxed such as candles, music, incense and pillow. • Bathing: a hot bath will quickly relax you and promote good blood circulation. Make sure you will not be disturbed. Using Epson salts and or essential oils such as lavender, chamomile, or sage is a great way to enhance relaxation. Imagine all your discomfort and stress being washed away and going down the drain. • Use progressive relaxation: In your sacred space, begin to tense and relax your whole body, starting with your feet and then move up the body through all your muscle groups. Start with a deep breath in, let it out. Hold each tense for the count of three, and then relax. Do this in sets of three moving next to the calf, thighs, stomach, hands, arms, neck and shoulders. Lastly, face, neck and eyes. • The Breath Technique: Close your eyes and concentrate on breathing in through your nose and out your mouth. Feel the air coming in your nostrils and feel the air against your lips going out. Listen to the sound and the rhythm. Inhale slowly and deeply, pause a moment, then exhale slowly and completely, allowing your stomach to rise and fall as you breathe. In a few minutes you will feel more calm, comfortable and relaxed. • One Spot Technique: Pick a spot in front of you and keep looking at it as you blink your eyes twelve times. Afterward, close your eyelids, they will feel relaxed and tired. This relaxed sensation will spread through to the rest of your body in pleasant waves. • Mental Pictures of Relaxation: This technique is easy. Remember back to a time in your life when you felt safe, secure, calm, and relaxed. Holding the scene or object in your mind, using all your senses, that is, what it looked like, what it sounded like, what it felt like, or smelled like, will automatically relax the body. It’s called a conditioned response. You can use anything you have experienced, read, or seen in a movie. • Simple Breath Relaxation: Breathe easily and naturally and repeat over and over a word of your choice at the exhalation. The word “Om” has found great success because it has no distracting connotations. Other words commonly used are one, relax, peace, love and or light. This practice focuses the mind and protects it from unwanted distractions. If you have any distracting thoughts, visualize them as bubbles on a stream of fast-moving clouds drifting by from your left to your right and out of sight, returning to your chosen word. Once you get yourself to this “alpha” relaxed state, continue with your favorite visualization or meditation. One of my favorite visualization exercises I use often for manifesting prosperity is to create and view a movie of myself already having and enjoying what I wish for in my life. Be, do, think, act, feel, dress, walk, talk and move as if it has already happened. Begin with a 15 minute relaxation routine. After a few times, your body will have the memory of what it’s like to be relaxed. This will allow you to move into a 5 minute relaxation routine followed by your meditation practice. I also recommend one of the above techniques as a great antidote for insomnia. Try it in bed and then drift off to sleep.