Meditation + guided imagery field guide

A visual Field Guide for traveling on the healing road of Guided Imagery and Meditation a guided imagery collective offering

Invocation May the door of the sun be opened may the door of the moon be opened let it be clear in the sky let it be clear in the soul Humberto Ak’aba l

Contents : Take a visual tour up front and you can read at the end some valuable insights that can inform your journey!!!! 33 slides is all it takes! Access your healer Enter the ritual of healing Determine who is this healer Who is seeking? Who is ill? Who wants to know? Body-mind question Healing pathways, which way? Allopathic, palliative, CAM? Feeling the call? Do I know how culture informs me? Selecting a path Fundamentals, BREATH ! Minding and attention Final thoughts, Your path Beginnings !

Orientation / Wayfinding An interplay between body mind healing, a path of discovery, wayfinding WELCOME! This small work of 33 slides seeks to establish a pattern of harmony and beauty, a suggested entry guide for your healing journey. It is a kind of graphic linear tour guide ( a paradox of language since there is nowhere to go ) into two modes of the art of healing the “Self” Too often states of distress are accompanied by feelings of loss or things unanswered, unresolved, unredeemed. These are states from which growth manifests and wholeness and harmony spring forth. Welcome to a beginner’s step on the path of healing. Please enter!

A visual tapestry of inner beliefs for tapping into the Source. What’s in your mind? Which healing ritual awaits?

Readying : On the road, the passage through the gate Steps to take for your ritual walkabout Orientation: Imagine you are entering a sacred space of body mind Are honoring the core of your humanity Are recognizing the power of the invisible forces that heal, connect and transcend Bringing in rites of separation from old ways of being Thinking and behaving, and integrating into new modes of living Participating in rituals of deep seated inner states that contain recovery From Rituals of Healing

Our cultural constructs help create beliefs - Sage Advisors, Teachers, Gurus, Masters, Prophets! The Gita, the Dharma, the Gospels, Grandmothers, Chicken Soup - Rituals!

Disease - What you have been told you have by a professional practitioner The definition, classification, diagnosis or medical problem that is experienced as a rupture in your life’s harmony Illness - How you hold the concept of the label presented as the rupture of your harmony. Often is cultural. It is the witness state of entering into states of identifying with disease Healing Orientation - What process you explore or undertake that you either take or follow It’s all relative or is it ? notions of disease or illness … essentially we can create our reality and healing rituals and journey

Unified - coherent; just one; a being, an entity; someone looking out through your eyes Stable - unchanging in its fundamentals; the core self as a child still feels present in you today Independent - things happen to the self, but it remains free of the effects in its essence Identity - That which one is; that with which there is the greatest identification Non-Local - Outsider ; Nobody home Who are you if not thyself : Notions of “ Self ” Finding where you fit will be insightful in sensing how you process and deepen healing energies

Healing is a life long journey into wholeness A journey Healing is a ritual, a ceremony, an embrace with creative intelligence An embrace Healing as your active participation in recovery, in reframing beliefs, in reshaping our whole being on a cellular and memory level. It’s an opening to creative healing intelligence Active participat ion The art of healing, the healing art of guided imagery and meditation does it beckon you?

At our core, each of us carry a personality type that orients us towards metaphoric True North. Yes, sometimes we are poor navigators but the guidance system can be activated through deep listening, using each breath to beat out a message, an intuitive radar, a sonar. That is why relaxation is key. And finally, there is the sign, symbol, language of the heart, soul, mind! Listen Listen to my heart song! The art of the start / selecting a path Listening to our intuition and choosing a path Rituals contain steps for recovery! Creative Imagination Visualization Relaxation The Universal Breath

HEALING’S HIDDEN TREASURE MIND YOUR BREATH BREATHE YOUR MIND

Counting or following a rhythmic beat, measured inhalations, pauses and measured exhalations. Integrating images or prescribed words ( mantra ) or elements ( earth, air, fire, water, wood, ether ) and colors. Shifting of the right and left nostril ( Yogic breathing ). The witness breath, simple and measured. Relaxation, focused attention to the body Styles A dance in three parts: head in the heavens, mind on the breath, and the body grounded and seated on a chair or cushion. Spine erect. Tip! 20 min sessions are magical Posture The entry point is simply the breath, the senses engaged and being present to the environment, then shifting to the posture, then shifting to the breath itself, open the gate. Tip! Space and place frame ritual. Ceremony is dedicated to inner work. Altar spaces! This is not my body this is a temple! Concentrations The Art of intentional breath Where attention goes neurons flow

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 - 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 On the in-breath, the beat goes in On the breath-out, the relaxation; on the in-breath the healing in … and then SMILE

... Crying with relief, I put the star back into my breast knowing that it had grown in sureness and power. I began to walk the Path … adapted from C Jung

The education of attention would be an education par excellence When joined with intention … the sublime ! Adapted from W James

Relax! Posture that is comfortable and alert! Simple good will toward yourself! Awareness of your body! Focus on something to steady your attention! Accepting whatever passes through awareness! Not resisting it or chasing it! Gently settling into peaceful well-being Inhalation and exhalation rhythmically! Eyes soft and jaw relaxed, tongue touching soft pallet at the roof of the mouth! Attend to prescribed scripted imagery! Deepening with each inhalation and flowing with each exhalation! Either become creative imagination or travel with your guide! Be the witness! Count with the breath, with the beads, with the tips of the fingers Allow the deepening to keep it real and open to what is being gifted! All is opportunity for healing! Fundamentals: the Foundation It is in the channels of the breath Relaxation, the Breath and Guided Imagery Relaxation, the Breath and Meditation Relaxation and the Breath .

A different more complex aesthetic a greater span of symbol and sound A complexity that is linked to healing on a cellular level Yes Breath on a deeper cellular level Yes Breath on a deeper cellular level (not a typo - repeated 2 x) Meditation & Guided Imagery offer a wider complexity of breath

Attention: Like a spotlight - illuminates what it rests upon. Like a vacuum: draws its contents into your brain Controlling attention is a fundamental way to shape your brain - and therefore your life over time Most people have poor control of their “spotlight” Attention to an object increases the physical sensitivity of neural networks processing information about it. Pleasure circuits reward success, and more dopamine flows with bliss and joy Benefits of attention training: Emotional well-being, improved performance in academics, sports and music Intention: Entering new thought structures, shifting or expanding rigid constructs or beliefs of the body mind Welcome and enter into a new doorway You are invited to experience your body & breath through different eyes, ears, hands & feet. What you think and feel changes your brain in numerous ways: Increased blood/nutrient flow to active regions. “Neurons that fire together wire together.” Increasing excitability of active neurons; strengthening existing synapses; building new synapses; thickening your cortex Neuronal “pruning” - use it or lose it What flows through your mind sculpts your brain Intentions Brain Matters / paying intention Stepping into the body mind field Attention

Healing Pathways There are no generics, one size doesn’t fit all Can I trust my intuition? Who will help me get the answers, help me navigate? I’m sick. What do I have to do? Ritual body mind I THINK I'LL BE ALRIGHT Guided Imagery Meditation Transpersonal Medicine Behavioral Medicine Allopathic Medicine

High dopamine helps keep the gates of awareness closed to new and distracting information. Norepinephrine surges brightening the mind! This internal stimulation puts the basal ganglia at ease! High frequency resonance synchronizing the whole brain Neural networks Thickens and strengthens the anterior (frontal) cingulate cortex and the insula. Those regions are involved with controlled attention, empathy, and compassion – and meditation improves those functions! Less cortical thinning with aging! Increases activation of the left frontal regions, which lifts mood! Increases the power and reach of fast, gamma brain- waves! Decreases stress-related cortisol! Stronger immune system Attention to an object increases the physical sensitivity of neural networks processing information about it! Cingulate gyrus monitors stability of attention (nourished by compassion), playing a leading role in the control of control! Pleasure circuits reward success, and more dopamine flows with bliss and joy Body Mind the science of the healing mind, the coherent brain Gates of awareness The meditation mind

Starting Meditation Virtue - expressing natural goodness, restraining what’s harmful to oneself and others! Concentration - mindfulness, steadiness of mind, meditative absorption! Wisdom - insight, understanding! A path of practice in which one both uncovers the nature that is already present, and purifies and transforms the mind and heart! The path itself is its own reward. And it ultimately culminates in enlightenment and complete freedom from suffering Need not be either or At the crossroads / Integration

No attempt is made to box in the vastness of meditation. The simple progression is about experiencing the inward pull to come in and be Healer and healed. Beginner’s mind - a Zen concept implying open awareness. Mindfulness - the open witness to states of relaxation into deeper layers / levels of consciousness. Cosmic God Consciousness and Perennial Traditions embrace spiritual or metaphysical constructs such as prayer, Transcendental Meditation (TM) and many other practices usually directed by a guide. Traditions validate the maxim, When the student is ready, the teacher arrives ! Are you meant for meditation? the field of the heart / soul Cosmic / God / Perennial Traditions of Consciousness Mindfulness Beginner's Mind

Using Guided Imagery Guided imagery is a simultaneous information processing mode which underlies the holistic, synthetic pattern thinking of the unconscious mind. As a mental thought process, guided imagery has sensory elements. Guided imagery is something we see, hear, taste, smell, touch or feel. Guided imagery has been shown to affect almost all physiologic control systems of the body, including respiration, heart rate, blood pressure, metabolic rates in cells, gastrointestinal mobility and secretion, sexual function, cortisol levels, blood lipids, and even immunity responsiveness At the crossroads / Integration Need not be either or

The essence is to enter into real states, going beyond shallow surfaces. Deep tissue-like imagery that is at the heart of your cellular, vibrational body. Let your guide take you to the doorway and enter into realms of creative intelligence. Sense the marvel, the novelty of finding uncharted territories! Visualization - a soul’s healing gift! Meant for Guided Imagery? the field of imagination Accessing from the ground up or in Practitioner, advisor, guide Self-prescribed Off the shelf The virtual guide

? Lateral The sensor - Mainly sensory, little verbal activity, concrete, now-focused, nothing to do, nowhere to go, sense of peace, impersonal, 3rd person perspective, panoramic view, uncertainty, not knowing, nonjudgmental, Mindful presence, immediate and transient, loosely connected experiences, minimal or no self-as-object, minimal or no self-as-subject W ho is this - at the fork of being-ness ? Medial The thinker - Mainly representational, much verbal activity, abstract future- or past-focused, goal-directed, sense of craving, personal, self-oriented perspective, firm beliefs, evaluative, lost in thought, mind wandering, reverberation and recursion, tightly connected experiences, prominent self-as-object, prominent self-as-subject . The better you know your personality style of processing, the deeper your inner healing process becomes

The body mind conversation - Healing fields become your space, place and dance ground Desired end state! Ground - a term that has an embedded code of deep awareness as to one’s relationship to inner knowing. A field of intelligence that is accessed by a language relative to one’s inner work and is where states of belief manifest healing. A metaphoric breath of fresh air! Healing art - a variety of holistic experiences commonly referred to as CAM or Complementary Alternative Medicine. Where most of the healing work happens Body mind - integrative medicine and holistic therapies blending into psycho- logical therapies & psychoneuro- immunology. The new paradigm

Palliative / Allopathic Complementary Alternative Medicine It’s believed that one should be acclimated to CAM, integrate CAM with allopathic medicine to help heal the body as a whole, to focus on the essentiality of nutrition, relaxation, meditation, guided imagery so as to move into states of wellness against chronic diseases Science of medicine, ancient to contemporary Listen to your body and choose! The path of choice Palliative medicine believes in the body being a self-healing phenomenon, whereas allopathic or complementary medicine focuses on the symptoms C CAM - an integrative model bridges the gap in health care treatments from chronic pain complaints, anxiety, stress, arthritis, asthma, migraine, musculoskeletal problems, depression … (the list is long and impressive ) CAM

Minding your Meditation A bit of science on how it works! Setting an intention - “top-down” frontal lobes, “bottom-up” limbic system ! Relaxing the body - parasympathetic nervous system ! Feeling safer - inhibits amygdala / hippocampus vigilance circuits ! Evoking positive emotion - dopamine, norepinephrine ! Absorbing the benefits - primes memory circuits throughout the brain !

Minding your Guided Imagery A bit more on how it works! Imagery as your normal state of being! The well of imagery, spontaneous as if from the fountain! Active imagery self - scripted! Concrete and symbolic imagery or biological correct visualization of cells, tissue, etc! Process, a prescribed step-by-step flow that is intentional & goal-driven! End-state imagery, an extension of pre-process and final formation of healed states! Creative imagination, imagery allowing the intuitive deep psyche freedom of expression!

Beginnings Beloved Lord Almighty God Through the rays of the Sun Through the waves of the Air Through the all pervading life in space Purify and revivify Me And I pray Heal my Body Heart and Soul Hazrat Inayat Khan

I imagined wholeness & a horse came & gave me health & we rode into it ! What we call beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning TS Elliot Art images by Said Osio

www.guidedimagerycollective.org a guided imagery collective offering

Meditation + guided imagery field guide

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