image via www.natgeo.com | "Solar Loops" courtesy of NASA
One of the most frequent questions clients ask is, “How do I quiet my mind?” It’s common for all of us- the monkey mind, swinging from subject to subject. Your first thought is what you’d like to eat for lunch, which swings to what you ate yesterday, which swings to thoughts about organic produce, which trickles into a daydream about your ideal garden, which jumps to an entirely different subject like following up on that interview, from which you then tumble into thinking about filing your taxes and so on and so forth.
Too often we exist in a constant state of chatter, held hostage by the mind's diversions. The mind is an impeccable tool for helping us keep organized, manage a schedule, add and subtract; but it is not where we want to reside. You don’t want to rest in the mind- rest in your heart space. Rest in your gut. This is where instinct lives. These are the places where intuition grows.
So how do we quiet the mind?
By asking it to be quiet. By simply choosing not to dwell in its habitat of white noise. By finding personal methods of disconnecting from it. I’m a big believer in creating visual meditations that work for you. For a long while I tried to simply close my eyes and focus on my breathing, but the deeply visual part of my nature would just create images and the mind would then join, like two mischievous friends encouraging each other to play a prank.
This is the easiest method. First, you separate yourself by thanking it for the work it puts in (keeping you organized, remembering a meeting) and ask it to be quiet. Acknowledge its strengths; move on from its limitations. Literally say, thank you mind, but you can be quiet now. Remind yourself that your thoughts don’t control you. You control your thoughts.
Another application is to visualize the mind's chatter collecting in order to be released. Deepen your relationship with your third eye and allow its sight to aid you in your quest for quiet.
> > Golden Ball of Light Meditation
Start by closing your eyes. Let the mind run for a few minutes. Visualize all your thoughts meeting in the center of your mind and dissolving to form a giant, gold ball of light. Shift all your thoughts into this radiant, gold light.
Allow quiet to simply enter, to easily exist. Focus on your breathing. Connect each inhale and exhale: in through your nose, out through your nose. Visualize that ball of light. Remain gently focused on it luminescence, its healing power.
When it feels natural, move onto picturing the golden ball transforming into one long, bright line that extends up down the length of your central meridian, out of the top of your head and all the way down through your feet. Continue to focus on your breathing. If monkey mind chatter sets in again, focus on your breathing and repeat. Continue to connect to your breathing. With each exhale, release the chatter. With each inhale, take in serenity. As always, thank the spirit realm for their healing power.
(copyright 2012) Sara Nersesian/Our Infinite Energy
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