Visualization

What we think, our bodies perceive as real. What we hold in mind affects the body very directly, on a moment-to-moment basis. We’ve moved beyond the spiritual awareness of a deep connection between mind and body to a point where science is able to confirm what we have known intuitively for some time.

Our thoughts create vibrations of energy within the body which the body immediately responds to. The energy of our thoughts then manifests from the inner universe of our bodies out into the greater physical world around us. In essence, we are what we think.

Consider sitting at home watching a very scary movie on TV. The things we watch on TV create thoughts that gear the body up into fight-or-flight mode, but we’re not really threatened. We’re sitting there safe and comfortable in the living room, where our thoughts alone are creating the dramatic change in our body chemistry, and causing the fearful response.

Our bodies react to our thoughts in this way throughout every moment of our lives. Worry or fear-based thoughts trigger a stress reaction in the body which can have long-lasting effects on our health and well-being. Over time these effects can become chronic.

In the same way, we can use our thoughts to trigger a relaxation response in the body. Our thoughts can actually be a vehicle for health and healing, and for enhancing our quality of life.

One very effective way to use our thoughts to positively affect our bodies is through visualization. When we make a conscious choice to hold in mind thoughts that are peaceful, grateful, joyful, or whatever we want to have in that moment, our bodies respond automatically. When we can add a picture in our imagination to our thinking, the effect on the body is enhanced.

A simple visualization technique is as follows:

1. Sit quietly with eyes closed and begin to focus on your breathing. Take a few minutes to allow your breathing to become comfortable, deep and regular.
2. In your mind’s eye, begin to visualize yourself in a place that is very peaceful and relaxing. It can be a place that you have been before, or some place that you would like to visit someday.
3. See this place in your mind’s eye as if you are there, filling in all of the details that would make it even more relaxing and enjoyable. Notice what is under your feet and above your head, and all around you.
4. Allow your senses to take part, noticing any sounds or smells that are there, or the feel of the wind blowing across your skin if you are outside.
5. Stay there in your mind’s eye for as long as is comfortable, and then open your eyes feeling at peace.

I teach this much-used technique in the stress management class that I lead at work, and also use it myself. Yesterday, as I sat for a time visualizing myself sitting on the shore of a small mountain lake where we backpack in the summer, I found my body responding to the incredibly peaceful feelings I have when we go there.

We are what we think, and we can use the powerful connection between mind and body to create peace in any moment.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Fighting the Good Fight

Although this phrase originated as an evangelical call to believe in and spread the Christian faith, I have heard it recently used in a broader spiritual context. There are apparently also Greek, Norse, East Indian and perhaps other viewpoints about the meaning of the phrase.

It led me to wonder what, exactly, fighting the good fight means to me. The original term, fighting the good fight of faith, is fitting, because it can sometimes feel like a fight to remain in faith. Even the most faithful among us encounter times when we question all that we hold true, and those times of doubting everything that we’ve believed about our very existence can leave us deeply shaken. This is as it is meant to be, for in those times we are forced to release our preconceptions and open our hearts even more to the truth of our being.

Fighting the good fight could simply mean holding on to faith, no matter what. It might be a dogged determination, regardless of what’s happening in the world, how capable we’re feeling in the moment, or what others' opinions of us are, to remember God’s light expressing in and through all that we experience.

I read an interesting take on fighting the good fight based on the book Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho, in which Veronica apparently decides to attempt suicide in order to escape a life of every day being the same as the one before. In doing so, she damages her body enough to have only five days left to live, and regrets her decision after realizing that she had never really made any choices to fully live her life. I haven't read the book, but plan to, as I dearly loved his book, The Alchemist.

In this context, fighting the good fight is consciously choosing to fight complacence. It is deciding on a life abundantly lived, in which we accept the added risks of failure and loss in exchange for a bounty of delicious experience.

It makes me think of that fun email that comes around every now and then: “The purpose of life’s journey is not to arrive at the end with a well-preserved body, but rather to slide in sideways, completely used up, yelling, ‘What a ride!’” I like this way of thinking about fighting the good fight!

Fighting the good fight can also simply mean choosing at all times to do our best, whatever that is in the moment. For me, doing my best does include choosing faith in God’s good in all that comes to pass.

It means living in a way that creates few regrets. Fighting the good fight, and doing our best, is being someone who encourages others to do better and be better, and striving to be the kind of person who others are better for having known.

May you always fight your own good fight, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

More Synchronicity

I love the idea that synchronicity is playing out around us all the time, as part of the divine intelligence that moves us ever forward toward our awareness of ourselves as human expressions of God’s perfection.

Synchronicity works through us, and for us, in ways we often don’t even notice. Seemingly unfortunate events lead to unforeseen positive outcomes, and seemingly random events that are really part of a bigger plan connect us with our good.

An auto accident, after all of the inconvenient details of working with insurance companies and searching for a new car are finished, ends up providing us with a nicer, more reliable car. A conversation with an acquaintance we bump into in the supermarket ends up planting a seed in our awareness about how we can move forward with a long-held dream we’ve had.

Many people have read the stories of people who for some reason were supposed to be in the World Trade Center on September 11, but because of a sick child, or even a broken heel on a shoe, were kept away on that day. For those people those simple events were not random, but part of their perfect path in ongoing creation.

Like all things having to do with learning to navigate as spirits through these physical bodies, the more aware we are of the synchronous nature of our universe, the better able we are to harness its power in guiding us to create our best lives.

Listening for the gentle promptings of a perfect universe can be enlivening, and fun! It is at the crux of our connection with the purely creative essence that guides all of life. We have to be sitting squarely in the present moment to even notice synchronicity playing out in our days. And we definitely need to be fully present to be able to hear where divine and perfect order is guiding our next steps.

Some people experience their connection with synchronicity by trusting their sixth sense. With practice, we can become more adept at noticing the subtle messages we receive in our bodies when that six sense seeks to guide us toward our greater good.

In my own life, I’ve experienced synchronicity by heeding a gentle hunch to do something in a different way than I had planned. At those times, it would have been very easy to disregard my quiet intuition in favor of following the track that my much louder thinking was stuck on.

I’ve said before that I write to remember. So today I remember to let my moments unfold one by one. And I will listen for my heart’s quiet direction as I walk my path this day. I will pay attention as my heart says, “no, not that way, go here,” in its soft voice that is almost a whisper, part voice, part feeling. I will listen as my spirit’s voice speaks through the quickened feelings and gentle voice of my heart.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

A little Synchronicity from a Friend

Corine, from Everyday Gyaan, had her own experience with synchronicity and I thought you might like to read about it.  Blessings, Sherry

Non-Doing

I love the statement by Jon Kabat-Zinn in his book, Wherever You Go, There You Are, that “it takes great courage and energy to cultivate non-doing, both in stillness and in activity.” I would add that it also takes lots of practice!

I recognize the gifts inherent in cultivating non-doing, but in our doing-oriented world, it is often difficult to just be. One would think that ceasing doing for awhile would be the easiest thing in the world, a simple choice to make. It is a choice, but one often fraught with repercussions when things are expected of us.

It does take courage to keep reminding ourselves that the panic to get things done is part of the world, but not who we are. And it can feel like a big leap of faith to fully accept things exactly as they are, and with ourselves as we are, trusting that all is as it should be. It always takes courage to place our trust in a higher, unseen truth.

It also takes a lot of energy to stick with it, to be in the world, and immersed in our days, but constantly remembering to reset our reality to one that for the most part doesn’t mesh with what is around us. As Kabat-Zinn says, “The doing mode is usually so strong in us that the cultivation of non-doing ironically takes considerable effort.” Sometimes, rather than going with the flow of life's hectic pace, we need to make a conscious decision to just stop.

When we do choose to stop and just be for a moment, the awareness that nothing else is really needed but our presence in our experience can bring immense joy and clarity. It is a great paradox that we can also choose non-doing in our activity as we take our steps throughout the day, fulfilling our roles and being the people who we are.

According to Kabat-Zinn, “Non-doing doesn’t have to be threatening to people who feel they always need to get things done. They might find they get even more “done”,” and done better, by practicing non-doing.” “Non-doing simply means letting things be and allowing them to unfold in their own way.”

Words to live by!  And I am, as always, grateful for the reminder.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

I Am Not I . . .

A beautiful quote, worth sharing, from Juan Ramon Jimenez:

I am not I. . .
I am this one walking beside me whom I do not see.
Whom at times I manage to visit, and at other times I forget.
The one who remains silent when I talk, the one who forgives, sweet, when I hate.
The one who takes a walk when I am indoors.
The one who will remain standing when I die.

May you know the one who walks beside you, and may you be blessed this day.

Being Willing

My husband and I are in the midst of Unity’s yearly fall book study program, spending treasured time once a week with a group of spiritual seekers and kindred spirits.  While willingness isn’t a specific topic in the book we’re studying, the idea of being willing came up last week, and I was grateful for the reminder about this important spiritual tool.

All forms of unforeseen assistance result from a decision to, if nothing else, just be willing.  In life we face many different situations in which we are unsure how to proceed, or are not sure that we know how to accomplish what is expected of us, or what we hope ourselves to be capable of.  There are times when what we envision is so very different from what we’ve known ourselves or the world to be that our seemingly lofty hopes can seem like pipe dreams.  In all of these times, being willing opens our hearts and our minds to divine intelligence that will find a way for good regardless of how things appear on the surface.

The limitless creative potential that exists in each of us is quickened by our willingness.  In those rough times when we feel stuck or lost and can think of no appropriate course of action, being willing to just consider the possibility that there is a perfect answer to our need can allow the universe to work its magic on our behalf. 

Being willing to suspend our judgment and preconceived notions for just a moment makes room for the seeds of a higher reality to take hold.  An example might be feeling deeply unable to forgive someone, even though we might want to.  A decision in that moment to just try to be willing to forgive creates a subtle but vast shift in what we are capable of, and who we know ourselves to be.  We can change the world by just being willing.

In making a decision to be willing, we don’t have to be perfect.  We don’t even have to trust that we will be able to do what we’re hoping to do.  We can be ever so gentle with ourselves, and honor our humanity, by acknowledging that even when things seem the most fraught with limitation, we can stop fighting and surrender to our willingness.

May this tool be a blessing. . .