Imagine that you are soaring through the sky completely effortlessly and freely. As would a bird floating above the world. Imagine looking down at the beautiful vibrant green hills and breathing in the fresh air all around you. Feel the wind softly blowing past your face and your hair while you dance and swim suspended above the mountains. Feel the beauty of the earth rushing through your body making you giggle with excitement. The vastness and the space that you feel and see below you is also right inside of you. You are capable of experiencing that freedom and space whenever you'd like. Just close your eyes and remember this image, when you have the image clear in your mind, start flying and imagine what you see when you look down. Think about how it feels, the rush it brings, the coolness or the warmness that touches your skin, if you are clothed or completely naked and free. You can dance in the air, or swim or even do summersaults, you are completely weightless like a feather traveling through the sky. Imagine how happy and at a peace that you feel, just you and the world below. Hold that inside your heart and breathe it in deeply as you watch the momentary emotional and physical pain vanish even if for just a second. Come back to this place whenever you'd like because its yours. :)
Its very normal and understandable that we most always get lost in our own challenging worlds and experiences. At times, at least for myself, I will completely forget about what is happening around me or in other parts of the world and be completely immersed in my own problems to the point of feeling completely alone and forgotten. I will get in my "self pitty" mode and feel that my physical suffering is worse then anyones i know.... For this is NOT true of course, to each their own. But sometimes we need reminders that it could be so much worse and to be grateful for the conditions we live in and for the small things that we at times take for granted.
"Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little."- Buddah
For more images: http://artsytime.com/life-in-slums-of-mumbai/
Meditation is not easy when your sick or depressed but it can be so helpful and even the KEY to wellness and peace of mind. I have problems with discipline daily in my own internal struggle to make myself sit down for 20 minutes and to try to calm my mind. For many years I was like F*** this haha but now I finally see the benefit. Its not easy to calm your mind and to slow your thoughts when your inside, in bed all the time, sick and or depressed. Also, it can be challenging when your so fatigued, to not fall asleep during your meditation. * which is ok by the way * but what I found for myself, is that doing it at night time right before bed, which for me, is when i feel more energy, worked the best. For those who are sick, try to find a time in the day where you feel a little more energized/ alive because meditating when your too tired doesn't benefit as much. In meditation studies it is advised to try to do it when you have a little more energy, so you don't fall asleep and can have a deeper meditation but if you cant find a time when you feel less tired, then meditate anyways because it will always be benefiting you no matter how you feel!
Here are some interesting and helpful visualizations, videos, and different things to try during your meditation to make it easier and more personalized for you. You can pick just one or do a different one each time, all that matters is that you find the easiest one that works for you best.
My personal favorite: Mantra meditation. Using a mantra seems to be the easiest way (at least for me) to go into a deep meditation. Sanskrit mantras are usually used for this practice. My mantra is: Ananda {meaning- bliss}. Another nice one is either just the word "Om" or Om mani padme hum which means the ' jewel in the heart of the lotus'. The reason Sanskrit mantras are used are because of their healing vibrations. :) Tip: repeat your mantra as a whisper and not too fast. Repeat it four or three times in a minute. Heres a beautiful video of a guided meditation using a Sanskrit mantra. Enjoy....
Another mantra technique: Choose a theme such as LOVE, PEACE, HARMONY, HEALTH, GOD or ENERGY. Select one of the words and now sit quietly for ten minutes with your eyes closed and concentrate on this word or things associated with this word. In this way you can build up ideas from your chosen word. For example, if you chose the word LOVE, you may think of joy, happiness, your family, and so on. The difficult thing is to keep focused on your chosen theme, building up ideas on the word but not letting your mind wander on to other ideas away from your chosen theme. Keep breathing deeply in between your words and don't try to force your mind; if unrelated thoughts enter, just observe them and let them go without becoming involved in their current. Don't get frustrated if you find this hard. Just go with the flow.
Energy boosting visualization: Lie on the floor and relax as much as possible. Now breathe in and out slowly from your ribcage area, using your diaphragm. Try and slow down your breathing. Now imagine that you can feel the sun warming your abdomen. Imagine the you are breathing the golden globe of the sun into your sun centre - your solar plexus chakra. Feel this warm golden light emanating from this centre, filling the rest of your body with yellow-gold energy and vitality.
Spirituality boosting meditation/ visualization: Close your eyes and relax as much as possible. Now imagine that you are breathing in a beautiful, translucent violet light at the point between your eyebrows. As you breathe out, this becomes a white light, which you breathe out through your crown chakra (the top of your head) and up to the sky. Practice this for a few minutes everyday and feel your spiritual energy shifting.
Above meditations are from the book: Beat Fatigue With Yoga by: Fiona Agombar
This guy has some interesting techniques that I found helpful and creative.
Warning: If you do not think you can handle looking at images of people with rare diseases and unfortunate deformities then please restrain yourself from continuing on. Just gracefully SKIP this post and move to the next :)
Looking at these brave individuals who suffer with these very rare and terrible diseases made me feel very fortunate. Although I personally suffer daily with an incredibly debilitating illness, i realize it could STILL be worse. Its so good to count our blessings everyday for what we DO have and also for what we DONT have. I have much respect and compassion for these people who go through life this way knowing that there might never be help or understanding of what their condition is. To view, click on the links. These are all completely real diseases, I made sure of that because at first I thought maybe some were made up!
Lie down and close your eyes. Think very hard about anything that is making you feel unhappy or stressed. Now try to relax your body as much as you can. Imagine that you are blowing into a large red balloon. You are going to breathe all your stress into this balloon. Each time you breathe out, the balloon gets bigger. It is filling up with all your negative feelings. Anger, fear, hopelessness, grief, despair, are all blown into the balloon. As the balloon gets larger, imagine you are tying it at the neck. Now let it go so it can start to float away. On each out- breath it foes further up into the sky, until you can't see it any more. Now, on each in- breath, breathe peace and calm into your body until it fills your whole being with relaxation. - From the book Beat Fatigue With Yoga by: Fiona Agombar
This blog is for anyone who is sick, bedridden, lonely, depressed or just for anyone who needs a lift. The point of this blog is to bring peace of mind through meditation and images, funny quotes, beautiful pictures and just plain inspiration for your soul even if you don't feel that inside of you at this very moment.
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