I will be introducing some specific visualization practices in a few days, but for right now I am just going to talk about visualization in general.

I’ve always had trouble with it.  I just don’t have the power to see myself in my mind’s eye.  I don’t know if that is because I am more of a word-oriented person or if I haven’t honed the skills to visualize in that way.

But, like I usually do when I can’t do something, I read up on it.  And not only did I discover that a rich description (no problem!) that you repeat over and over can serve a similar purpose, but thanks to Shakti Gawain’s Creative Visualization I discovered a way to put myself into my mind’s eye.

Now when I visualize something, I write a rich description first, and then I use Gawain’s suggestion:  I visualize the situation around me and instead of trying to see the whole thing like a movie, watching myself, I visualize it like I was there.  I am seeing the richly described location through my eyes, I can feel the textures and fabrics, I can hear the noises,  and I can see my hands doing the actions I am trying to practice.

This is different than trying to picture my whole body in the scene, because unless I am in front of a full length mirror, I rarely see myself that way.  But I always see my hands doing things, and I feel things like blowing air upwards so my hair puffs out of my eyes, so I can more easily imagine doing things if I create a scenario where I watch my hands, or feel that common action.

That’s what I suggested for a friend of mine who was having trouble with stress at work last year.  She was juggling so many projects with so many details that she was bringing her work home with her, in her head.  Here’s the basic scenario that I created for her:

I suggested that she imagine herself doing the usual things she does when leaving work, except before she stepped out of her office she was to imagine picking up a heavy stack of binders that contained all the notes, mental and physical, that she had made on each project.  I told her to think about how heavy they were, to think about how her arms would ache from holding them, how she would rest her chin on them to hold them in place while she walked.

Then, when she stepped out of her office, she was to imagine she was in a long corridor that had appeared between her door and the door outside, and that the walls of that corridor contained a number of small alcoves, the perfect size for a binder.  As she came to the first alcove, she was to shift the weight of the binders to one arm, and use the wall to support them so she could take the top binder off the pile and place it in the alcove.  When she did that, a label would appear above the alcove so she could identify what binder it contained when she came back for it.

I told her to repeat that for however many binders she imagined she needed.  And then when all her binders were safely stored, she was to imagine stretching her arms, or rolling her shoulders to relax from the effort of carrying the binders and then walk out the front door, relaxed, knowing she could pick up where she left off when she returned to work.

Of course, she had to fill in the details herself, what her office looked like, what she was wearing, the sounds of her shoes on the floor, what her office smells like, so she could visualize it more fully, make it more real.  But the scenario helped because she had a concrete, if imaginary, way of putting down the burdens of work before she went home.  And she didn’t have to be able visualize her whole self to do it.

  I’m going to have lots of visualization advice on this site over the next while, but if you need something more I offer a paid service for custom visualizations - click on the ‘Services’ link above.

Kabat-Zinn says (and I’m paraphrasing here) that it is okay to struggle with focus and to have to bring yourself back to the contemplative state over and over again.  You will find it easier sometimes and harder at other times, but there is no point in beating yourself up because thoughts occur to you while you sit in meditation. 

Minds generate thoughts, it’s their main work (I think he likens it to the ocean producing waves),  but you can learn not to get caught up in them.   But even if you do, bringing yourself back to a gentle focus on your breath (or whatever you have chosen to focus on) is part of the practice.

Aside from learning to accept thoughts as part of my practice, I have also learned to accept that I do not need to do a long practice in order to benefit from meditation.

For the last 45 days, I have done a short meditation (5 minutes or less) each day and it has made a big difference in my daily life.  I feel like I am a little more grounded and I have a little more patience to drawn on. 

A little more patience is a great thing when you have to help two kids navigate their days and I found mine on Youtube. 

Yes, in addition to videos of people behaving like idiots, Youtube has a huge selection of meditation videos.  Just search for the type or length of meditation you want to do, find a comfortable spot, and begin your practice.

I’ve even gotten away with meditating at my kitchen table, wearing earphones,  while my sons play in the living room.  Sure, it’s not ideal, and it’s probably not going to lead to enlightment, but I am not seeking enlightenment at the moment, I just want to quiet my mind a bit. 

Hopefully, the time will come when sitting for longer practices will be possible, but in the meantime, five minute practices are helping a lot.