WHY I CREATED THIS MEDITATION
After decades of being tortured by anxiety, panic and stress attacks, I searched for and found wonderful techniques that have literally given me a new life. I don't even recognize the me of 2 years ago since I've employed them. And so I've found another wonderful healing use for music and words. My sincerest hope is that this meditation helps bring more people new relaxed and happy lives, too ❤️
For those who want to know a little bit more about the techniques, I've included some information on each one below so you can start your own research to help you understand why your body is doing what it's doing.
Special thanks to Randy Gordon for creating the underlying music used for this meditation. The song is called "Mooditation"
CLEAN AND CREATE
My daily mantra now is, "Clean and Create." I say that phrase to myself when I need to get back on track. The first half of this meditation is all about clearing out and cleaning up the messy thoughts that keep your body in stress mode. The 2nd half is about creating and visualizing and feeling a future that makes you so happy you smile just by thinking about it. It's important to create as soon as you clean for better results so even if you feel better after half the meditation, stick with it because that's where you are creating your happiest future.
RELAXATION EXERCISE
Decades ago I participated in a seminar where they used this "body-part-by-body-part" relaxation technique. Over the years it has proven to be the best way for me to calm my body down.
How to do it:
Breathe in deeply and as you exhale slowly, focus your attention on your toes and relax them at the same time as you are exhaling. On the next inhale, move up to the ankles and do the same thing...always relaxing each body part on the exhale. Continue with each part to the top of the head.
Tips:
Shoulders, neck, and the back of the neck where it meets the skull are places where many people hold their stress and anxiety...do a double round of those 3 whenever you can.
EFT and Diana Ruiz
EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique and has helped a LOT of people. According to this PubMed article, "EFT has been validated in more than 100 clinical trials and has demonstrated efficacy for a range of populations and psychological conditions. Treatment effects have equaled or exceeded those obtained from pharmacological interventions and conventional psychotherapy."
I had life changing results with EFT sessions by stress relief coach Diana E Ruiz. She is incredibly intuitive.
How to do it:
In this meditation I did not implement the tapping portion of EFT. Instead, I used a combination of the healing phrases from EFT and Diana E Ruiz that have helped me through many "episodes." If you want to learn the tapping part do an internet search on EFT.
So, with the EFT and Diana E Ruiz healing phrases, the theory is that if you state how you are truly feeling in this moment and then offer your brain a better and happier alternative, you will train your brain to look for and choose the more positive feelings.
Saying you are "open" to relaxing about something is a non threatening way to introduce a better alternative to a brain that is hanging on to anxiety. We all are "open" to possibility of feeling better even if we don't feel that way currently.
Examples:
"Even though I feel crappy, I'm open to relaxing about it"
"Even though I am sad, I'm open to being happy"
"Even though she pisses me off, I'm open to a better relationship"
Tips:
It's important to acknowledge how it is currently. So, if previous rounds of EFT and/or these healing phrases have helped a little bit, use a phrase like:
"Even though I have a little bit of stress left...I'm open to relaxing about it"
"Even though I still have 20% of this pain left, I'm open to feeling 100% better"
HO'OPONOPONO
Ho'oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian practice for healing by using the words “I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you.” The English translation of the word is “to make right.” Traditional Hawaiians believed that all life is connected to each other, and by practicing Ho’oponopono, they heal themselves, other people, and the world around them. I became interested in this technique when I learned that Hawaiian therapist Ihaleakala Hew Len healed a whole asylum of criminally insane people using only those healing phrases. He never met with any of them.
I learned about Ho'oponopono in detail by listening to the audio book "Zero Limits" by Joe Vitale and Ihaleakala Hew Len
How to do it:
When you come across a stressful issue, take responsibility. Then change or neutralize the energy of it by repeating the words "I'm sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you" over and over again.
It's important for YOU to experience internally, the Love, Repentance, Forgiveness, and Gratitude of the words you are saying.
"I'm sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you" is a short way of saying that you take full responsibility for anything you may have done or for any of your subconscious thoughts, programs or habits that have perpetuated the stressful situation. You ask forgiveness of the divine then express gratitude for the forgiveness and gratitude that it was brought to your attention so you can set it free and clear its energetic slate and create something better.
WHAT IF QUESTIONS
Generally when you are anxious and stressed your brain is in a constant state of asking alarming "What if?" questions to try to protect you. Asking yourself more positive "What if?" questions is a simple way of changing the energy of those toxic thoughts.
How to do it:
When you catch your thoughts asking you alarming "What if?" questions like:
"What if I fail the test."
"What if I get hit by a bus."
"What if they don't like me."
"What if I'm not good enough."
"What if that food is bad for me."
Turn it around and rephrase the question. Ask something more positive. It's important to truly ask yourself each question and then imagine what you would feel like if it were really true.
"What if I ace the test."
"What if I happily get to my destination."
"What if they love me."
"What if I'm actually really good at it."
"What if choose food I know my body will like."
PRESENT PHRASES AND PAST TENSE QUESTIONS
This is my own variation and a combination of those EFT and Diana E Ruiz phrases above and the Past Tense Questions below. I used this technique when I was having a particularly stressful time.
I could tell that when I tried to use traditional "positive affirmations" and tell myself "everything is OK", my brain would basically call bullshit because I was NOT OK, and my body continued freaking out. I learned that it was important to acknowledge to the brain and body how the situation really is currently...
"Even though I feel scared right now..."
...and then offer a better idea in the form of a question from an imaginary happy future...
"...Why did I become so strong and brave so quickly?"
When you ask yourself a question like, "Why did I become so healthy so quickly?" your brain immediately begins searching for why that happened, and it tries to come up with solutions. It's the perfect way to position your brain for creating your future because the question is asked as if you ARE in the future.
How to do it:
State how it is currently...
"Even though I feel like crap right now"
...and then offer a better idea in the form of a question from an imaginary happy future...
..."Why did I feel better so quickly?"
Past tense questions are more powerful when you imagine yourself "feeling" it and feeling grateful for it. This is the best use of your wonderful imagination...it's play time so have fun creating a world you'd like to live in....and smile. As you ask yourself the questions, visualize and feel the outcome as you would if it already happened.
Be sure to finish by expressing healing phrases of gratitude...
I am so grateful for this. Thank you.
Take a moment to feel the gratitude spread over you.
PAST TENSE QUESTIONS
When I am not in a stressful situation and merely want to be in an active state of creating my future...of manifesting, I use Past Tense Questions on their own. Two years ago I felt weak and unhealthy. I started reciting the following past tense phrase a few times daily
"Why did I become so strong and healthy?"
Today I know without a doubt I am stronger than I was 15 years ago and I feel ridiculously healthier than I did 15 years ago. Was it the past tense phrasing? I know from asking myself "why did I become so strong and healthy?" so many times that I have altered my normal brain behavior because my brain is constantly looking for why it happened. It helps remind me to exercise more, read more, and learn how to properly take care of my body. My previous habit of asking myself "Why do I feel like crap?" just brought on more crap.
When you ask yourself a question like, "Why did I become so healthy so quickly?" your brain immediately begins searching for why that happened, and it tries to come up with solutions. It's the perfect way to position your brain for creating your future because the question is asked as if you ARE in the future.
Many philosophies these days talk about the magic of manifesting and the importance of visualizing and FEELING what you are trying to create. Also remember the importance of employing the healing energy of gratitude by saying "thank you"
How to do it:
Decide what you want to create and then ask yourself questions as if you were in a happy future where it all came true. Remember to take a deep breath afterwards and imagine FEELING it. Really focus on feeling it and then express gratitude that it happened in the wonderful imaginary world you created. Start each phrase with the words "Why did..."
Examples:
"Why did I relax so quickly?" (imagine feeling it)
"I am so grateful for this. Thank you."
"Why did we become friends again so quickly?" (feel it)
"I am so grateful for this. Thank you."
Why did my life become so happy, healthy, and fun?" (feel it)
"I am so grateful for this. Thank you."
When you ask yourself Past Tense Questions your brain starts trying to figure out "why" those things happened. When your brain is busy looking for answers to your questions it can't replay fears and anxieties. From now on when you catch yourself thinking about stressful things you don't want in your life, gently turn the thought around with past-tense healing questions to let your brain know what you DO want.
GRATITUDE
You may notice that there is a recurring theme of saying "thank you" and "I'm so grateful for this" during the meditation. It may seem strange to express gratitude for something that hasn't happened yet, but keep doing it. You are re-directing a brain that has gotten stuck in an anxious pattern or loop. You are upgrading your energetic signal. If stressful thoughts can make you anxious and sick, then thoughts of happiness and gratitude can relax and heal.
How to do it:
When you are creating or when you are stressed, take a relaxing breath in. And as you let it out, think of something...anything you are grateful for...whether it actually happened or exists, or whether it hasn't happened yet and you are visualizing it as if it happened. As you think of this thing you are grateful for, say, "I'm so grateful for this. Thank you." Now take a moment to FEEL how it feels to be grateful for it.
VISUALIZE WITH FEELINGS
To help create the future you really really want, a good old fashioned daydream is the ticket. That's basically what visualization is, and visualization is more powerful when you add your excited, happy, elated, ecstatic, feelings to the dream.
I spent many years at the bottom of an emotional hole that just kept getting sadder and deeper. It got sadder and deeper because I was wallowing in it and the thoughts I put out were "I give up. My life is bad and it's just going to get worse. This misery is what life is." It never got better until I changed my thought processes and started imagining a better life.
I think everyone by now has heard of the experiment with a group of basketball players that shows the power of visualization. The whole group was asked to throw some free throws and then they were divided in 3 groups. 1 group practiced throwing more free throws, the 2nd group just visualized themselves making basket after basket, and the 3rd group didn't practice or visualize. The first two groups had virtually the same improvement (something like 23% improvement), the 3rd had no improvement. Your brain is amazing and pretty powerful.
How to do it:
It's play time again. Visualize something you really really want in your life...something that would make you incredibly happy. It could be an object, a job, an event, your health...anything. Enjoy creating and seeing every detail.
When you have the picture of what you want firmly in your mind, imagine it's the future and you finally have it! Just like magic, it happened and now you get to have fun by imagining yourself enjoying it. Feel how it feels to enjoy it. If you think you would be freakin' excited, then FEEL freakin' excited. If you imagine it would make you smile or jump for joy. Imagine smiling and jumping for joy.
Live in that fantasy world and enjoy this thing that makes you happy for at least 2 minutes...add lots of details...and breathe. Do this often. I did my visualizations while I was on the elliptical at the gym.
Remember to say, "Thank you, I'm so grateful this happened" to the Divine and take a moment to feel the gratitude wash over you.
You've now given your brain and your body a taste of what it feels like to achieve a dream. With repetition, just like the basketball players and their free throws, you can re-train your body and your brain to live in a happier state and possibly even help create that future you just imagined.