Healthy Body Guided Meditation

Our new podcast meditation is designed to help you visualize a healthy body. Many people have requested this, each with a different angle. Many wanted to visualize a specific goal. While I allowed time at the beginning of the meditation  for people to set a goal, I created a meditation focused on the health of the body as a whole. This is like watering the root of a plant to benefit the whole plant, rather than focusing on any one part. This Healthy Body Guided Meditation targets the core systems of the body which bring oxygen, nutrition and energy to the cells -- the heart, lungs, and digestive systems. Strengthening those supports the health of all of the other parts of the body and can help the body with healing. Simply putting your attention on your body brings energy to it. You can use this meditation to enjoy a sense of well-being and enliven your body.

As with all of my meditations which involve visualization, be easy about the process. You don't need to follow every word or see everything clearly. You can simply sense something in a vague way. The important thing is not to strain to follow the meditation. Let it unfold in a way that is natural for you. Whatever comes to mind as you try to visualize or sense something is just the right thing for you at that time.

Of course, simply visualizing good health and healing is not enough. For a healthy body, we need a healthy diet, exercise, enough sleep and so on. For healing, it may be necessary to see a health care provider and use appropriate therapies. But visualization can play a big role in moving the body toward health, partly by helping us tune in to our body, listen to its needs and do what is needed to be healthy.

To learn more about visualization, read Dr. Andrew Weil's article on Guided Imagery -- http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART00468/Guided-Imagery-Therapy-Dr-Weil.html

For more on my approach to visualization, read this blog post -- Intuitive Visualization in Meditation

Sleep Meditation for Children

Getting me to bed was a long routine for my mother. She'd have me all tucked in and start to leave my room and then I'd say, "Mommy, I want some water". Off she'd go for water, and once I'd had that, she'd be on her way again. My next ploy for keeping her near was -- "leave a crack in the door". She'd leave the door a little open and I'd say "bigger", and she'd open it a bit further and start to step away. "It's too big, make it smaller", I'd say. You can see where this is going! I'm not sure how she would finally make an exit, but I do remember what was going on inside me. I was anxious! I haven't thought about this for years, not until I started recording this new podcast (Sleep Meditation for Children). I wanted to go back and remember and get into my child world. What would have helped me if I could have had a guided meditation back then? I tried to speak to the child that I was, and this new podcast offering is what resulted. It is designed to help a child settle into bed and relax into sleep. For children who are fearful at bedtime, there is an added element of a "make believe friend" to help them feel reassured.

Please listen to the meditation first and see if you feel it will be suitable for your child. It's for fairly young children. I'm sure you'll check to see if your child liked it after the first time they hear it, and see if he or she has a question about what something means. Like all guided meditations, this will work for some and not others. I do hope, though, that it will send lots of children off to sleepyland feeling relaxed, safe and loved.

I'd love to hear about your experiences with it here. And it's fine if you use it as an adult. We've all still got the child we were within us!

Intuitive Visualization in Meditation

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We just had a comment from someone who has a hard time with visualizations in meditation. So do I! Actually, I almost never enjoy a meditation that tells you to see this and see that. The more specific the instructions are for exactly what to visualize, the worse it is for me. As I'm working to construct the tree or light or animal or whatever it is I am to see, the guide is already on to the next image. I can never catch up and I'm so busy working on coming up with the visualization that I can't really relax and get whatever it is I am supposed to get by seeing the image.

Though most of my meditations don't involve visualization, I know that it can be very powerful. I do use a form of visualization in a few of the guided meditations (Intuitive Healing and Inner Child meditations are examples). I like to call what I do "intuitive visualization". It's what I do on my own sometimes for myself. It's something we all do spontaneously when we daydream. I just suggest that you let something appear, such as a helper, and allow it to appear in whatever way it comes. It can be clear or vague. It may not even come as a image -- it could be something felt or heard. It could come through any of the senses -- touch, taste, sight, hearing, smell. Or it could just be a feeling sense. A helper, for example, could just be an energetic "presence". This way of visualizing, which perhaps would be better called "intuiting", works best for me and I like it in general because it allows you to draw on your own inner, creative resources to come up with just the perfect thing for you.

I know the other kind of visualization meditation, or imagery as its often called, works well for some people. What about you? What works best for you?