Along with calming the mind and body to enter into a state of peaceful awareness, the skill of mental training gained in meditation practice has many other applications as well. Although the following practices are more visualization exercises than formal meditations, they employ many of the same skills for connecting with your spiritual essence for specific applications.
Tune Your Spiritual Antenna Daily
Picture your spiritual eye at your brow (your third eye) as having an antenna that extends out into the collective astral plane. Imagine if you are given the gift of an extremely sensitive radio that can pick up broadcasts from all over the world, from the most beautiful music and inspirational talks to all of the AM talk shows, news, and static in between. The tuning dial of this receiver is so sensitive that it has to be adjusted daily to get the clearest reception.
Now imagine I visit you in your studio one day, and walking in I hear this awful static and screeching coming from the radio. The first thing you tell me is about how unsettling your day has been and that you just can’t get focused. What would be my advice? The most obvious tip would be to point out the source of the obnoxious sounds—the receiver needs adjusting to tune it to something more enchanting.
And so it is with the spiritual antenna of your spiritual eye. You could have walked with the masters in meditation yesterday, but without tuning your spiritual antenna today, you will be just as lost as ever. You don’t have to get to a deep meditative place each day to stay tuned. A simple morning affirmation of your intention to tune in to your Higher Self, made in earnest, would work: May I be aligned with my Higher Self today and that which is in my soul’s best interest and in the best interests of others as well.
The following practices are methods for keeping your spiritual antenna tuned to its highest frequency.
• exercise 14 •
This meditation is inspired by the Kriya yoga practice taught by Paramahansa Yogananda in his book The Art of Super-Realization. Yogananda called meditation “practice in the presence of God,” a wonderful attitude and intention to approach your inner practice with.
As a preliminary to the actual Kriya practice, it is helpful to first do a few stretches with deep breathing to get prana circulating in your spine. After enlivening your spine with a few stretches, sit in a comfortable position, with your spine straight and erect.
For the actual Kriya practice, first picture a hollow tube in the center of your spine running from your tailbone to your third eye. For your posture, sit with your spine straight and your chin parallel to the floor. Rest your hands on your thighs with your palms up. If your spine slouches or leans forward during your practice, straighten it to get the desired result of magnetizing your spine with cosmic energy. The purpose of this practice is to magnetize the spine by circulating your breath lengthwise around it and thereby withdrawing your attention from your senses and concentrating it on the energy in your spine. Your tailbone is the negative pole and your third eye is the positive pole of your magnetic spine.
To begin, on a deep, slow inbreath, make the sound Ah by expanding your throat, and feel a cool current of energy rising from your tailbone to your third eye. I like to picture pulling my attention up through my Lower Self and lower chakras and reaching for my spiritual source.
On your outbreath, make the sound Eee and send a slightly warm current of energy over the top of your crown and down the backside of your spine to your tailbone. Feel yourself open to the cosmic influx of energy, and allow this divine energy to wash over you, softening, melting tension, and purifying your karma connected to each of your chakras, the seven main energy centers located along the spine (see figure). Feel your outbreath as a fine thread of slightly warm energy moving through your spine.
As you practice this continuously—cooling inbreath, warming outbreath—you magnetize your entire spine, drawing energy from the senses and transforming it into cosmic energy. This should be done 12–14 times to shift your attention completely into the cosmic energy.
Now let go of your focus on your breath and let it return to a relaxed rhythm. Inwardly chant Om and focus your attention on your spiritual eye at your brow as if you were looking out of it from the spiritual source within. You may sit and simply be with the transcendent energy as long as you like.
To complete your meditation, take a few deep breaths and let your attention center on your heart. Be thankful for your experience and feel the joy of knowing this connection and the peace it brings, which is always accessible. Rest in your heart while contemplating all that you are thankful for and appreciate in your life. Now take a few more deep breaths and prepare to enter the day before you with your awakened energy field.
Yogananda teaches that the practice of Kriya yoga burns away your karma. Kriya yoga activates the energy in the core of your spine, called the sushumna channel. The practice connects you with this channel, which takes you to the place within you that is beyond personal karma—pure spirit.
• exercise 15 •
This practice has been adapted from my book Western Seeker, Eastern Paths. To practice the Microcosmic Orbit, first visualize two energy channels for prana to move up and down your spine. The Back Channel, the receptive channel, starts at the perineum (between the anus and the genitals) and goes up the back of your spine, over the top of your head, and down through your brow, and ends at the roof of your mouth. The Front Channel, the assertive channel, runs from your tongue, down through the throat and neck, the heart, the stomach, and the genitals, and ends at the perineum. You complete the circuit by placing your tongue on the roof of your mouth.
The practice of the Microcosmic Orbit uses breath and imagery to move the invisible life force of prana through the circuit. First, sit in a comfortable meditation posture with your spine straight. Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth to connect the circuit and start the practice. On your inbreath, pull prana up through the Back Channel, up from the base of your spine, through the spine, over the top of your head, through your brow, and down to the roof of your mouth. On the outbreath, picture the prana moving down your tongue and throat, through your heart and stomach, and past the genitals to the base of your spine. That is one round. Do several.
Use imagery and trace the movement of the prana in your mind’s eye. You can use a ball of light, a wave of energy, a comet, or whatever image works for you. On the inbreath, pull the energy up the back of your spine, and on the outbreath, move it down the front. Feel this as cleansing and energizing your entire energy field.
After several cycles, reverse the process and breathe up through the Front Channel and then down through the Back Channel. Again, picture the moving prana as both cleansing and revitalizing your entire energy field. Feel the yin-yang dance of your energy field—the female-male, the receptive-assertive—and feel these polarities blending and shifting into one another on the changing of the breath.
You can do this practice for as long as you like. If you get dizzy or lightheaded, stop the practice and take a few deep breaths to steady yourself before you begin again. This practice serves as a general tonic to your energy field. Without discipline, the imagination leaks vital prana in its wanderings; with a practice like the Microcosmic Orbit, your ability to visualize is trained to serve you in a revitalizing way.
The Microscopic Orbit exercise is particularly effective when you are feeling overwhelmed by the chaos of life. By creating a circuit for the prana to move through your entire energetic anatomy, you liberate energy from the personal issues that are causing the feeling of being overwhelmed. When transformed through this practice, the same energy, which was previously overwhelming and chaotic, becomes the creative fuel for the higher mind.
• exercise 16 •
Sit in a comfortable position, with your spine straight. You can imagine a cord attached to the crown of your head that is gently pulling you upward. Keep your chin level with the ground and slightly tucked in and your ears over your shoulders. Take a few deep breaths to center yourself.
Now imagine the color red in your mind’s eye. Any shade of red that comes to you will work. Imagine breathing in this color of red on your inbreath. Bring it all the way down to your first chakra at your tailbone. As you hold your breath, focus your attention on your first chakra and picture the red energy filling your being. Imagine the chakra as a wheel of red light, spinning, radiating, and filling you with this invigorating color. Feel the courage and strength of red animate your animal nature. Feel the aliveness of your body, and imagine being someplace on Earth where your body absolutely feels its best. Here, you can trust your instincts and know that you are safe and cared for on the Earth this day. Feel security come over you; empower your first chakra with trust.
Now imagine any shade of orange that comes to your mind. Breathe in orange down to your tailbone and then up to your second chakra, just above the pubic bone. As you focus on your second chakra, picture it spinning and radiating a warm orange light. Feel the joy, warmth, and pleasure of awakening your second chakra. Know that you are a magnetic being and can attract to you all that you need and want. As you breathe out, send this joyous, magnetic energy out into the world.
As you focus on your second chakra,
picture it spinning and radiating
a warm orange light. Feel the
joy, warmth, and pleasure of
awakening your second chakra.
Know that you are a magnetic being
and can attract to you
all that you need and want.
As you breathe out, send
this joyous, magnetic energy
out into the world.
Next, find a shade of yellow that you are drawn to. Breathe this color all the way down to your tailbone on your inbreath, then on your outbreath see this yellow rise up to your third chakra, just above your navel. Now breathe directly into your solar plexus, seeing this chakra begin to spin and radiate yellow light throughout your being. Feel the power of your will, and know that you can use your will wisely. From here you can initiate activities and define your boundaries. Feel the confidence that comes from having self-control and knowing you can say yes when you mean yes and no when you mean no.
Next, move to your fourth chakra and the color green. Find a shade of green that calls to you in your mind’s eye, and breathe this color down to your tailbone on your inbreath, then up into your heart chakra, in the middle of your chest, on your outbreath. Now breathe directly in and out through your heart, and see this chakra spinning and radiating a green light, filling your entire being. Feel the rejuvenating, healing energy of green. Your heart chakra is the meeting place of your lower and upper chakras—the meeting of Heaven and Earth within. Feel the deep peace, joy, love, and compassion that arise with this awakening. Empathy and contentment are also experiences you can awaken to while centered in your heart chakra.
Next, move to your fifth chakra and the color sky blue. Imagine looking up at the bright, blue sky, and breathe this color all the way down to the base of your spine on your inbreath, then see it rise to the fifth chakra at your throat on your outbreath. As this blue rises up your spine, feel yourself becoming elongated, as if there were a puff of air between each of your vertebrae. Focus the color blue on your throat chakra and see the chakra spinning in your mind’s eye. Feel yourself become as expansive as the sky. Here your thoughts become clear, unclouded by desires or the opinions of others. Here you can speak your truth without it needing to be defended. Feel the freedom of your liberated mind as it sails into the sky far removed from personal opinions. Here you breathe the same air that has animated all creative geniuses. Pledging your intention to somehow be helpful to others with information you might receive, you are open to sudden knowing.
Your sixth chakra and deep indigo blue are next. Imagine the color of the farthest reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere, just before it turns black. Breathe this color down to your tailbone on your inbreath, then up into your third eye, just above the bridge of your nose, with your outbreath. Again, imagine the chakra spinning and radiating this deepest of blue light. Imagine you are rising into the deep blue atmosphere above our planet and looking back at Earth with the view that we would have from the space shuttle. Feel the transcendence of this view. Your view is so far removed that you can’t even see individual lives, only the Earth and its continents, oceans, and weather. Feel the bliss of this transcendence. Allow the sacredness of the moment to wash over you.
To stay centered here requires a quieting of the analytical voice. Just listen and observe. Thinking will happen, but pay it no mind; let the thoughts come and go as you stay anchored in your sixth chakra, simply observing. Surrender to any feelings of devotion for teachers, masters, and saints that may come over you spontaneously while you are meditating on your sixth chakra. Find the place of trust and faith that all of life is unfolding as it should.
Your seventh chakra and the color violet complete the meditation. This is your most spiritual chakra and your connection to that which is most high. Imagine a violet flame over your head. Picture it a deep violet where it touches your head, and as it rises upward into the heavens, picture it becoming increasingly more ultraviolet and then invisible. Breathe deep into this spiritual flame and pull it down into the base of your spine. Picture it cleansing and purifying each chakra as it passes through them. Then picture the violet flame rising through each of your chakras and ultimately out your crown and up into the heavens. Focus your attention on your crown chakra and affirm: I am a child of God. Know that beyond all illusions and appearances you have a direct connection to the divine within. Here resides the Atman, your eternal spiritual self, which has never been wounded or bruised by life in any way. Feel as if you are being absorbed back into the oneness of pure spirit.
After your chakra tune-up session, you may wish to sit in your awakened energy field as long as you like. To complete your meditation, establish the high intention of offering any good that comes from your meditation out into the world, so that it may be helpful to others.
• exercise 17 •
This body scan exercise is an excellent way to bring your attention back to the present moment, and can be incorporated into the work day as a wonderful technique for getting you out of your head. This is also excellent for releasing unconsciously held tension in the body to bring it into deep relaxation. Throughout the day you can find yourself holding unnecessary tension in your neck, shoulders, facial muscles, stomach, or numerous other parts of the body, and this exercise will help you dissolve tightness and soothe nervous energy.
First, sit in your chair with your spine straight and hands relaxed, palms on your thighs and feet on the floor, with the intention of releasing all unnecessary tension. Focus on your breath and follow it from the tip of your nose to your belly, then back up through your lungs, heart, throat, and out your nose. Picture breathing in clear, radiant energy, then on your outbreath, picture yourself releasing and letting go all tensions, anxieties, and worries—at least for this moment. While breathing in, feel life’s vital energy coursing through you, and while breathing out, release, relax, and let go.
After a few minutes of calming your mind, tell yourself that you would like to completely relax, and while keeping your spine straight, feel yourself letting go of all tension in your body. Focus on your intention to totally relax your body. With a deep inbreath, pull your attention from your tailbone to your crown. As you breathe out, feel a calming, relaxing energy wash over you from your crown all through your body and down to your tailbone. Do this cycle many times.
Now, with your awakened awareness, scan your body and notice where there is tension. Bring soft attention to melt any tightness or constricted energy wherever you notice it in your body. Breathe into any felt tension, and on your outbreath, feel the tightness release, release, release. Start with your shoulders and neck, where we often hold unnecessary tension. Breathe into the energy of your neck and shoulders with focused attention on how they feel, then breathe out tension, stress, and tightness, and feel them relax.
Next, move to your facial muscles, eyes, scalp, and jaw, first noticing their energy on your inbreath and then relaxing them even further on your outbreath. Do this with your arms, wrists, and hands, and after letting go of the tension, notice any sensations, like tingling in your fingers or a subtle warmth in the palms of your hands, as the subtle life force courses through your being.
Continue on to your chest, lungs, heart, and abdomen, including the organs of digestion and elimination, first relaxing any tension and then noticing the sense of aliveness in these areas of your body. Then scan your reproductive organs, your hips, legs, and hamstrings, and see if it is possible to relax them even further. Relax your feet, first wiggling and stretching your toes and ankles on your inbreath and then letting them deeply relax on your outbreath.
Now that you’ve scanned and relaxed your entire body, sit with the feelings of ease and openness that come with deepening your relaxation. Your body lives in the present moment, and in this moment your body is filled with awareness, aliveness, now.
• exercise 18 •
Staying in mindful awareness while gardening enriches the activity, lifting it out of the mundane and making it a wonderful practice for staying present in the here and now while also deepening your symbiotic connection to the Earth. As with sitting and walking practices, you establish the intention of not letting your mind wander, and use your breath to bring you back to the moment.
First, stand back from the garden and observe it with the attitude of being willing to be the garden’s servant, tending to its needs. What activity are you drawn to while observing the garden with openness? Weeding, planting, thinning, pruning, cultivating, watering—what needs call out to you?
As you approach the activity you are drawn to, stay in mindful awareness. Tend to your breath and dismiss any distracting thoughts, surrendering to the needs of the situation before you. Try not to willfully do the activity, as if imposing yourself on the situation. Instead, form a relationship with the activity; let it be done through you. Let the plants and the garden inform you of what needs to be done. Trust that if you surrender to those needs, the skills will be drawn out of you to meet them. Gardening in this way can be a wonderful affirmation of the interconnectedness of all life.
Inner Gardening
Your thoughts and emotions make up your inner garden. Meditation is cultivating your inner garden: weeding the unhealthy thoughts, taking the brambles out by their roots, and nurturing the thoughts and emotions you value. Even if you get your inner garden perfect, without maintenance, nature will soon take it over with invasive plants and it will return to its wild state.
To keep your inner garden well maintained, stay mindful of what is taking root in your garden, even without your intention. Some powerful destructive emotions, such as anger and jealousy, are like blackberry vines, and you know they have to be rooted out or they will take over your inner garden.
Flowers in your inner garden of love, beauty, creativity, and compassion can be planted, cultivated, and nurtured into full blossom. The life force that animates these flowers into life is your attention.
The inner gardener knows that the life force animating this garden can be controlled and directed with attention. Your attention is your currency in your inner world. What you pay attention to grows. To pay is to purchase or invest, and when you pay attention, you are investing your life force into what will surely grow. If you pay attention to love, beauty, creativity, serenity, peace, and compassion, they will surely grow from your investment of your life force.
• exercise 19 •
In this self-healing exercise, you are first going to center yourself until you begin to feel the spacious awareness of your spiritual essence. Your spiritual essence has never been wounded by life or been ill in any way, and aligning with your spiritual essence is a powerful healing tonic you have available to you. After connecting with this revitalizing, healing spiritual essence, you will take this healing energy throughout your body wherever healing is necessary.
First, engage your favorite practice for calming your mind, and center yourself in the eventual spacious awareness that blossoms from your practice. This is your spiritual essence that is always clear, radiant, and vital. As you rest in your spiritual awareness, picture it as a ball of radiant light in your forehead.
Now breathe into this ball of light and take it to wherever your body calls for healing energy. Do you have a physical wound or illness? Take your healing ball of light to the area of your body where it is needed, and focus your attention on the ball of light infusing the wounded area of your body with its revitalizing, healing energy. Let this part of your being that is already healthy and vital help heal the wounded parts.
Is your wound emotional? Are you carrying pain of one type or another in your heart? Bring your ball of light to your heart, bringing light and the redemptive quality of unconditional love to your wounded heart. Love without reason awakens, and you can feel its warming presence.
Imagine this ball of light growing to engulf your entire being in its healing radiance. Rest in this radiance and feel the liquid light of your spiritual essence infusing every cell of your body with revitalizing life force. Know that every cell in your body being born in this moment is being encoded with this healthy vital energy.
Gratitude Contemplation
Using gratitude as the object of your contemplation is the surest and quickest way to pull up into your heart, and is not so different from the adage “Count your blessings.” Focusing on what you are thankful for and appreciate in your life can be done as part of your sitting practice or periodically throughout the day for a quick heart-chakra recharge.
As Thich Nhat Hanh so poignantly reminds us, the conditions for happiness are always present, starting with the breath. The fact that you are breathing at all is a condition of happiness, as those who have already died no longer have this luxury. The ability to see is a condition of happiness, allowing you to see beautiful shapes and colors and even to read this book. Being able to hear, sense, taste, and feel are all conditions for happiness that you can be grateful for, and that you would sorely miss if taken away.
These naturally occurring experiences are easy to take for granted, and yet when you are not happy with other conditions in your life, practicing gratitude and returning to thankfulness for these simple gifts of breath and your senses is always available. Regardless of what is going on in your life, there is always something to be grateful for, and this will animate your glad heart.
When you are not happy with
other conditions in your life,
practicing gratitude and returning
to thankfulness for these simple
gifts of breath and your senses
is always available.
Regardless of what is going on
in your life, there is always something
to be grateful for, and this will
animate your glad heart.
• exercise 20 •
Ho’oponopono:
Reconciliation and Forgiveness Prayer
While my wife, Laurie, and I were living in Hawaii, we became acquainted with some of the sacred Hawaiian teachings on working in the realms of consciousness. One of my favorite practices we learned has the unique name Ho’oponopono, which translates as “to set things right, back to their proper order.”
This simple four-line prayer of forgiveness from the Polynesian mystery teachings is a powerful technique for bringing healing reconciliation within yourself, between you and a loved one, and between you and the world. At a minimum it can help heal your broken heart, and at best it can help mend wounds between you and others seemingly magically.
Ho’oponopono takes the principle that we are all interconnected on the spiritual plane and puts it into practice. When you do the deep work of healing a wound with another within your own psyche, this will have a corresponding healing impact on your relationship with the person in the outer world. Since we are all interconnected energetically, your Higher Self, called your Aumakua in Hawaiian, connects with the Higher Self of the other person, and both individuals will energetically feel the healing benefits. Here are the traditional four phrases of this practice:
I am sorry.
Please forgive me.
I love you.
Thank you.
When you say these phrases of reconciliation, go deep into the feelings that each line invokes, and picture sending this energy to the Higher Self of the person you are working with. Even if you do not believe that the problem between you and the other is your fault, when you say you are sorry for your role in causing whatever problem you are having with the other person and feel it in your heart, this opens the door for the redemptive quality of love.
When you say Please forgive me, say it to your Higher Self, to the other person, and to the mysterious divine source. As you ask for forgiveness, receive and grant the forgiveness from your own Higher Self.
Love is the strongest healing force, and when you say I love you, feel the healing energy of love move through your being and send this energy to the other person.
When you say Thank you, you are receiving the blessing of the prayer. Thank the other person for forgiving you, thank yourself for being able to heal from wounds, and thank the other person for sharing life’s lessons with you.
Ho’oponopono can also be practiced with yourself if you are trying to heal self-inflicted wounds, such as a lack of self-care or succumbing to addictions or indulgences. Again, you use the same four phrases as when you are working with another person, but now you are speaking to your own Higher Self from your all-too-human mortal self. When you say I am sorry, you are acknowledging to your own Higher Self that you have fallen off your path.
When you ask for forgiveness, you are imploring your Higher Self not to abandon you. Vow to your Higher Self that you will listen to its guidance in the future and seek to stay in its graces. When you say I love you to your Higher Self, allow yourself to feel the heartfelt gratitude you have for your spiritual essence that has never abandoned you in any way. When you say Thank you to your Higher Self, be grateful for the forgiveness it has always offered you and will again. Be thankful that you can still grow and learn with its guidance.
Aligning with the
Community of Higher Selves
Another practice from the Hawaiian tradition that I have found very helpful in my life is the practice of connecting with the Community of Higher Selves to align with their assistance in achieving goals and aspirations. The ancient Hawaiians believed, as many traditions do, that we all have a Higher Self, a Middle Self (our everyday, normal self ), and a Lower Self. From these teachings, it is held that when you make an earnest prayer to your Higher Self to help you with a goal or aspiration that is truly connected to your soul purpose, it becomes your Higher Self’s responsibility to assist you in achieving your ambition. It is further taught that if your goal is not just going to benefit you but would also benefit others, then all the Higher Selves of all those who could benefit from your achievement join with your Higher Self to assist you—forming a community of Higher Selves to support your efforts.
I was learning about this teaching at a time when my inner guidance seemed to be telling me to go back to school and pursue a master of science degree in experimental metaphysics. I was deeply involved with my astrology practice, meditation, and energetic healing arts and felt called to better understand the science behind my interest in the influence of consciousness in our lives. This all seemed perfect, except that my life was extremely full at the time. With four young sons, a commune and restaurant that we started, and my growing astrology practice, I could not see the time available. Still the call persisted, even after meditating on the question of whether this was realistic or not.
As I felt ready to make the seemingly unrealistic commitment to return to university, I meditated on drawing assistance from the Community of Higher Selves. I did believe that it was my Higher Self inspiring me to pursue this goal, and I implored it to assist me, with the attitude that “if my Higher Self is going to inspire me to pursue such a goal, then it is going to have to help me get there.” I then surrendered to the faith that it would. I also invited in the Community of Higher Selves by affirming my intention to be able to more skillfully help others.
During the two-year program, I included this exercise as part of my daily practice, and I was shown over and over again its benefits. As part of my preparation for the day, I would ask that I be aligned with my Higher Self and that which was in my soul’s best interest. I would then ask that I remain open to receive its guidance and assistance. I would affirm that if I was successful, I would be better able to serve others. I would then rest in the feeling of this web of support, and know it to be true.
I had only a couple hours to study at the end of each full day, and if there was an important exam the next day and I could not possibly read everything assigned to adequately prepare, I would first meditate on invoking the Community of Higher Selves and then trust that I would be led to what was appropriate to study. I would skim the text until something caught my eye as important and then go deeply into that until I knew it. At times I would even open a text randomly, trusting that Spirit would lead me to what was essential, and then study what caught my eye. My experience verified that this approach works, as I was, more often than not, led to study the exact material that was necessary to do well on the exams.
Healing from Being Overly Self-Critical
Many people suffer from being overly self-critical, from not being nearly as hard on others as they are on themselves. No one likes to make mistakes, of course, but those who are overly self-critical really don’t like to make mistakes to the degree that it becomes limiting. It is as if these people have a “mistake monster” in their psyche that prevents them from trying new experiences for fear of making a dreaded mistake.
Everything in life has a learning curve. If you are learning a new skill or trying out a new technique in sports, art, or science or in personal development with relationships and social skills, there is going to be a learning curve. This means you get better at anything over time by adjusting and adapting to the errors and mistakes you make along the way.
Those who deal with the mistake monster would do well to adopt the following creed: If I can learn as much from every mistake as I do from every success, there will never be failure.
• exercise 21 •
If there is an important goal or aspiration that you wish to push past your fear of failure to attain, first establish your intention of learning from every mistake as well as every success, and incorporate contemplating your progress as part of your morning meditation session. Contemplate where you didn’t do as well as you would have liked and how you might be able to improve. Be willing to examine your performance with a critical eye for how you could improve. Vow to act on guidance you receive. Complete this exercise by visualizing yourself being successful at your goal, and know that you can get there, one step at a time if need be, by adopting the creed of learning from every mistake as part of a healthy learning curve. Be thankful for your progress and for the fact that you can still learn and improve.
• exercise 22 •
When your intention for your inner work is to align with your highest spiritual potential, it is helpful to start your session with a prayer of your intention. You can adapt the following prayer and change some of the words to be more suitable to your goal if you choose, but keep the same spirit of invoking assistance from above:
May I align with my Higher Self’s calling today and rise above all that is petty and distracting. May I not take this day for granted, and realize the spirit behind all that is put before me. Great Spirit, fill me with your energy so that I may greater serve others. May I be filled with your compassionate grace so that I may be more patient and understanding with others.
Great Spirit, thank you for this day and the aliveness you have given me to experience the beauty and the wonders this day will bring. Thank you for your blessings, and may the good that comes from the gifts you have given me have a ripple effect to improve the lives of others.
After you have said your prayer of invocation for spiritual assistance, sit in open receptivity and listen for direction. It can be said that prayer is asking something of God and meditating is listening for the answer.
After you have said your prayer of
invocation for spiritual assistance,
sit in open receptivity and
listen for direction. It can be said
that prayer is asking something
of God and meditating is
listening for the answer.
Peak Performance Visualization
Athletes have long known the value of performance visualization before competition to help them prepare, and numerous studies support this practice of mental rehearsal. In his book Evolve Your Brain, Joe Dispenza cites a study showing how powerfully mental rehearsal acts on the neural circuitry of the brain itself.
A group of volunteers participated in a five-day study of learning to play a simple piano passage to measure changes taking place in the brain. The first group was taught a specific one-handed, five-finger sequence to play on the piano that they were to practice for two hours a day over the course of the five-day study. The second group was just encouraged to play whatever notes they wanted to, without any instruction. The third group observed and watched the first group play the sequence until they memorized it, and then they were to spend the same two hours a day mentally playing the piece in their mind. A fourth group was the control group and did nothing at all.
The scientists conducting the experiment used a sensitive cranial magnetic stimulation device to measure changes in the circuitry of the participants’ brains during the testing period. The group that just watched and then visualized playing the piece with mental rehearsal showed almost the same changes in neural circuitry in the same areas of the brain as the first group that actually played the piano, while the second group playing randomly showed little change and the control group showed none.
Studies like these and many others support the finding that meditators learn to train their minds: firing is wiring in consciousness. The neural networks activated in your brain while visualizing an activity with mental rehearsal are the same ones that are activated when you are actually doing the activity. The applications for utilizing this technique to bring out peak performance are endless. Whether it be an athletic event, a performance of any type, an important responsibility you have to rise up and meet, an important meeting you want to be at your best for, or countless other activities, spending time in pre-performance visualization of you doing exactly what you need to do will definitely help pave the way to your success.
For mental rehearsal to be effective, it must be as methodical and focused as if performing the actual experience. Structure your mental rehearsal the same as if you were actually practicing by evaluating your progress and making necessary corrections to sharpen your inner practice.
Guidance on Worldly Dilemmas
When you have been grappling with a worldly dilemma for an extended period of time and still have not determined the right course of action to take, try turning your problem over to your Higher Self for guidance. Let’s say you have a disruptive employee who does good work but has a difficult time getting along with other employees, and you are trying to decide whether to give the person further guidance or a termination notice. First contemplate your dilemma at the beginning stage of your meditation, then turn it over to your Higher Self and surrender into the meditative state and no longer think about the issue at hand. After resting in the tranquility of your Higher Self for a time, reconsider your dilemma and know the truth from your Higher Self. Then act on it.
• exercise 23 •
When you are experiencing negative energy, like being mad, angry, or frustrated, you experience a great deal of energy. The trouble is, it is negative energy. Energy is energy and can be transformed from negative to positive energy, but first it has to be owned. When you say I am angry or I am mad, you can feel the powerful energy build. As soon as you put a label on the reason you are mad, you give away your power to whatever you say is the reason you are upset. If you own the energy, you can work with it.
First look at the current situation as a screen that you are projecting your energy onto. Tell yourself that if it was not this current situation that was making you mad or frustrated, then it would be a hundred others. Let go of the event as the important issue and work with the energy of the moment itself. Instead of being mad at _____ , just be mad. Instead of being frustrated because of _____ , just be frustrated.
Now imagine that you are breathing all of this hot, negative energy into your body, and picture it as a seething, dark ball low in your spine.
Let go of the image of the dark ball of energy and turn your attention to your heart, and picture it as a fiery orb of energy. Breathe a couple of deep breaths into your heart and picture the flames dancing brightly.
Now go back to the image of the dark ball deep in your spine, and breathe deep into it. On the inbreath, coax the dark ball of energy up your spine in your mind’s eye, and when it reaches your heart, picture all of the darkness being burned away, leaving clear, radiant energy. Feel this energy filling your body, and now that it has been liberated, you are free to work with it in any way you choose.
• exercise 24 •
Breaking Free from Needless Worry
This exercise was inspired by the spiritual teacher and author Byron Katie and her techniques for liberating ourselves from false beliefs and concerns that limit our ability to live fully and freely. I had been watching a video of hers explaining her process, when later in the day a crown broke off one of my teeth while eating lunch. Although it wasn’t painful, it looked terrible and I was going out of town in a few days for a speaking engagement, so I was quite anxious to get it taken care of immediately. I called my dentist and left a message, and waited for a call back.
While waiting, I began to worry about all the possible outcomes: What if the dentist can’t see me before I have to leave? What if I have to cancel my trip because of this? What if she can see me but it will cost a ton because it is an emergency visit? Not having dental insurance, I imagined this was going to be a huge hit on my finances. All of these considerations felt terrible.
Then I recalled the teaching I had listened to that very morning about how energetically draining it is to worry about things we don’t even know are true and how to break free from this annoying tendency. I practiced an abbreviated version of this exercise and stayed open to the mystery of how the situation would unfold, rather than feeling anxious about possible outcomes. The following is the simplified method I have adopted.
First sit in a comfortable position in a quiet place that supports your time for inner contemplation. Take several deep, relaxing breaths to center yourself. Now let your breath return to its normal rhythm and follow the subtle rising and falling of your energy field with each inbreath and outbreath. Pay particular attention to the moment when your breath changes from one phase to the other, and notice the little gap in between. After several minutes of bringing your attention back to your breath, the mental chatter begins to quiet down, and you become aware that you are aware of the mental dialogue going on within your still awareness.
This is a necessary first step in all investigations of awareness based on self-inquiry. First awaken to awareness, then investigate with self-inquiry.
Asking yourself the following two questions can be effective in dealing with all types of anxiety, fear, and worry. First ask yourself How does this worry make me feel energetically as I consider its possibilities? And secondly ask yourself Is it absolutely true and certain that this situation will turn out poorly for me?
If I cannot be certain that something I am worried or concerned about is even the truth, I have learned to drop the needless worry, particularly when it makes me feel terrible. There are so many things that are valuable to spend time thinking about, so why waste time and deplete your energy by ruminating on things that you don’t even know are based in truth?
After doing this exercise, I realized that I really didn’t know the truth of how the situation with my tooth was going to play out, so I did my best to just stay open to the mystery of what was going to happen and I went back to preparing for my upcoming trip. Not long after that, I received a call from the dentist confirming that she could squeeze me in the next day due to my dire circumstances. I was at least thankful for that, and went to the appointment as receptive to the assistance as I could be.
As I sat down in the dentist’s chair, she was expressing her frustration at having to battle with insurance companies for payment. As she began the work, she completed her venting by saying that it just wasn’t right that the insurance companies were driving the prices up and challenging payments. She felt that people like me who paid cash for their dental work were being treated unfairly by these increasing prices, and she said she just felt like doing something about it. It was a fairly long and somewhat complicated procedure, and when we were finished and I went to the cashier, I was told that since I was paying cash, the dentist wanted to charge me only a hundred dollars for the work!
I was more than thankful for how fortunate I was to have things work out this way and how much time I might have wasted in needless worry had I not done the exercise of examining the truth of what I was considering. I know my mind well enough to see that there have been many times when I have wasted time and energy worrying about issues that never manifested at all. By practicing this simple exercise of examining the truth of my concerns, I am learning to break free from this tendency and focus my mind on useful activities such as research and writing, which I thoroughly enjoy.
For those of you who have or work with children, the following chapter provides many tips and exercises for introducing meditation to children so they may start receiving the benefits of this inner discipline at an early age.
