We hear so many people resist the practices of meditation and energy psychology work. “Iam not cut out for meditation”, “ugh, energy psychology?? Why?” Perhaps you feel this way too and thats perfectly okay. In this article we invite you to take a look at some of the ways in which meditation and energy psychology work can become simple, easy and intuitive. While there is plenty documented evidence of what meditation and energy psychology can unfold trusting ourselves to stay in the body and within ourselves can be alien for many. Here is the invitation to unfold into how one can approach Meditation and Energy psychology work.
Creative Visualisation:
Think about your most favourite dish, it could be a sweet dish or a savoury or anything that you just totally love to eat. Now remember the most recent time that you ate it and see when was it and where was it. Visualise that you are right now present there and eating and play this scene slowly in full detail in your mind. Look at the colour of the dish and its texture and shape. Hear the clinking of your spoon or fork on the plate or bowl that holds it. Notice how it smells. Put it in your mouth and chew and suck on it and feel its touch in your mouth and its taste. Totally relish the dish and swallow it.
If your mouth has started watering when you close your eyes and follow the instructions of the above paragraph, then you have experienced creative visualisation at its hundred percent!
Creative visualisation is different from mere thinking or passive fantasy or wishful thinking (for ex: a mere thought of your favourite dish or a mere recollection of the last time you ate it would not cause your mouth to start watering.). In creative visualisation you vividly create a scene in your mind using all your five senses; vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch, and this results in physiological changes in your body as though you are actually experiencing that scene.
Mental stance or Mindset
Now let me comment on your mindset or frame of mind or mental stance that you need to hold for meditation and energy psychology work. The invitation is to bring a relaxed, open, curious, nonjudgmental stance . With meditation as well as Energy psychology work on some days one might feel like they are hearing something they have never come across or experienced ever in life before. You might have never even imagined such a possibility so far. When you come across such a situation, I would recommend that you hold an open mind that says, ‘Oh this is something new and interesting and different so just let me go along and see where it leads!’
The Cloud of Unconscious Energy:
When you are listening to meditation or energy psychology’s guided practices, you may fall asleep and miss a portion. This could happen repeatedly with certain sections of some audios every time you listen to them. The reason is that there is a subconscious resistance to the new information that is bringing in an opening up. This can be termed as ‘unconscious energy’ because it makes you unconscious by inducing sleep. This is actually good because it is showing you the areas of subconscious resistance that you were not aware of. Smile at what is happening and leave it at that but make a note of the audio and listen to it again later in the day or after a few days. Meanwhile you can progress on to the next audio, but you need to mention that you are repeatedly falling asleep during this audio in your daily feedback.
Posture:
Your posture as you sit while listening to guided meditations or visualisations is similar to the posture recommended for any meditation session. It is important not to lie down and listen to those audios/live guided sessions because this can result in encountering sleep far more easily that if you were sitting up. You can sit on the floor or a mat with crossed legs and back erect. You can sit on a chair with feet resting flat on the floor and not one over other. The angle between your thighs and back needs to be 90 degrees, you can very slightly lean forward but not backward. Roll your shoulders and bring them to rest in a comfortable position. Let your head be balanced on your shoulders with neck relaxed. Let your jaws be slightly parted and hold a gentle smile with the tip of your tongue gently touching the roof of your mouth just behind the upper front teeth. Place your hands on your thighs facing either up or down or one on top of other and let your arms be relaxed.
Allow for experience to unfold:
Meditations and energy psychology work are primarily designed as an experiential journey for you and you will be able to uncover your hidden potential that has been hitherto unknown to you or even unimagined. If you begin this journey with the mental stance of ‘I will believe something only if it is scientifically proven to me’, then meditations or energy work will not unfold. If you react to something completely new with the thought that all this is just humbug or hogwash or bullshit, then you need to be consciously aware of this response, let go of it, and adopt an open stance of ‘let me just try this and see what happens, I will reserve my judgments and reactions to a later time’. Only this mental stance will lead you to experience what I hope for you to experience.
Learning happens in my sessions through the experience, not intellectually/cognitively, THINKING about the experience. So simply use your creative visualisation whenever asked for and go along with me on this amazing journey, through to its end, to see what actual benefits you derive in your life.
This article is written by Selvan Srinivasan, our Energy Psychology Mentor and Meditation Master