Part II — Pain Meditation

Glasses top up with champagne, expectant voices count backwards in unison, a humongous clock, (BONG! BONG! BONG!,) chimes in the new year. According to most peoples’ beliefs, the new year acts as a rejuvenation system–a cleanser for life’s pores. A reduction in dirt and foreign junk aids to clear all the pimples and all the blackheads accumulated over a twelve month cycle so that the year can start anew. More than ready to leave last year’s baggage behind, I blindly plunged ahead into the new year, (no pun intended.) At first everything went well. Then, about halfway through the month my physical health took a backslide. Now that we are in September it has been approximately nine months of massive pain.
After 26 and a half years of having lived and coped with excessive pain, January 2011 brought so much more than was imaginable! Trying to relieve it by implementing any method necessary overwhelmed my life so, so that everything that I touched, heard, smelled, tasted and saw, at least in my mind’s eye, was composed of countless needles utilized in acupuncture, fingers and hands consistently massaged, applied acupressure or did energy work which was that beyond my comprehension, but well-known to the masseuse, to the acupuncturist and to the woman also permitted to try lifeweaving. In addition to all this I also incorporated many painkillers prescribed by a pain management physician as well as antidepressants and antianxiety medications written by my PCP. Scents to calm the mind and the body such as lavender, dragon’s blood, and white angelica were sprayed in my vicinity or dabbed on each temple, behind the neck, at the top of the head where the seventh chakra is located, and on the heart where the healing fourth chakra is found. Finally, when nothing else managed to ease the pain, which felt like a rug burn anywhere from ten to twenty-fold, imagery meditation came into play as often as up to four times per day. Desperation leads a clear path to so many open doors that you never would have considered to walk-through before desperation cleared the obstacles in your walkway. Although meditation had been a part of my life long before neuropathy took over my knee nerves, it had not been something I practiced regularly. If practiced daily or routinely meditation can create a healthier, happier life for you.

Color Cleansing
Before commencing the exercise, please find a quiet room where you can sit or lay comfortably and where you will NOT be disturbed! Okay… Ready?? Great. First, sit or lay in a comfortable position. Second, take a couple deep breaths as described in my previous post encompassing breathing techniques. Good. Now, focus your attention on the pain area. (If there are multiple pain areas, use the area with the most pain as your main focal point.) Next, assign the pain a color. (Yes, giving pain a specified color can be perceived as a ridonculous concept, but after doing this exercise a few times it not only gets simpler to imagine pain as a color, but the thought of putting the two nouns together no longer seems completely worthless and a waste of time.) Then, take that color which you assigned to the pain and bathe yourself in it. Envelope your body in the color. Use your mind’s eye to even bathe your inner body in the color. Next, imagine a drain is somewhere below you. Okay… Pull it! All of the color drains out from you and from around you taking the pain down with it. Once it has all gone down the drain, revert your attention back to the pain area. What color do you see now? After assigning a color to the pain, repeat the above steps. Afterwards, assign another color. Repeat each step till you get to white and the pain has substantially released, or till it has released to your personal standards. TIPS:
1. Color Cleansing eases the pain by draining at least half of it and keeping it from pouring right back into the pain area for a couple of hours, though the outcome usually depends on the strength of a person’s mind’s eye. In other words, the outcome depends on how clearly one can see or one can focus on the imagery at hand. Practice makes it easier to see the colors in your mind’s eye more and more clearly. 2. When there multiple pain areas, beginning the color cleansing procedure at the area which oozes the most pain SHOULD automatically reduce pain in ALL areas. If this does not seem to be the case, simply continue on to the next pain area once finishing with the worst area. The pain will let go soon enough.

Iveta

Part I – Sleep Meditations

Last night I could not sleep whatsoever. Out of complete boredom I tried to relax my mind through meditation. I chose to do the breathing technique which is very relaxing, because it teaches you how to breathe correctly sending more oxygen to your lungs and brain. This is how you perform the technique.
Inhale deeply making your tummy balloon outwardly as far as it will go. Then, exhale fully letting all the air escape slowly as you blow it out of your mouth, and using your stomach muscles, pull your tummy inward, or toward your body, until nothing more can release. Do this several times SLOWLY and sleep will creep over you. It crept over me last night and I slept like a newborn baby afterwards.
TIPS: 1. If you begin to feel light-headed or woozy while using this technique, STOP IMMEDIATELY!! The objective here is to sleep, not to faint! You may need to slow your breathing even more than what you already have. You can also implement the following which everybody can benefit from: Try to inhale to the count of seven. Hold the breath to seven. Finally, exhale to the count of seven. You shouldn’t feel like passing out if you count slowly. 2. Finding a few minutes each day to breathe this way can give you more energy during the day resulting from the excessive oxygen gained from meditation practice. You can feel more awake and alert during the day permitting you to accomplish more and to be more efficient at your tasks. It takes all of 10 minutes out of your busy days.

If the above technique does not work for you for any reason, maybe the next meditation technique will appeal to you on the basis that most everyone knows how to meditate with imagery. A common imagery exercise involves imagining that you feel happy, comfortable and relaxed in your favorite place. You are listening to calming sounds and smelling calming scents. The following is an extension of that.
Sit or lay in a comfortable position. Close your eyes and imagine a bright white light moving over your body relaxing it at the same time. It begins at your feet. The light relaxes your toes, then your heels. It moves to your ankles, your calves, going up your legs to your knees, then your thighs. It travels upward relaxing your hips, fingers, hands, arms and elbows simultaneously your stomach relaxes slowing your breath. The white light covers your chest and shoulders. It goes to the neck, your jaw, lips and teeth and tongue, nose, your eyes, your ears, forehead, and lastly, it relaxes your scalp and hair. Now that your entire body feels nice and relaxed, shift your mind to a large, beautiful room decorated with blue carpet that stretches as far as the eye can see. Aligning the far freshly painted white wall about every 10 feet are columns made of gold. They sparkle so brilliantly they blind you when looking directly at them. Paintings of Egyptian women from centuries ago adorned in elegant jewelry hang on another wall. As you slowly cross to the center of the room you stop at a large table clothed in a royal purple cloth. What appears to be the most elegant wine glasses you’ve ever seen stand on every inch of the table leaving only the skirt of the cloth visible. Suddenly feeling a little thirsty and worn-out from walking half the room’s distance, you wonder what is inside the glasses. Glancing at the them you realize that different colors of contents fill each one. You choose the glass holding your favorite color of liquid. You swallow half the contents in a single gulp. Now feeling sleepier you sit on the lush, blue carpet. You drink the rest of the delicious liquid. You then realize that you are laying on the carpet. Laying there, it occurs to you that the liquid heightened your sleepiness. Now feeling comfortable, you see that your glass is full again. You look up to see an angel staring down at you. Its large, golden, airy wings sit you up. They hold your heavy body upright as the angel puts the glass to your lips helping you drink the contents once more. You prepare your body to collapse from being horribly exhausted, but instead, energy floods your body. The angel gives you more to drink, then immediately after finishing the contents, you land up back where you began. Open your eyes feeling refreshed.
TIPS: 1. You can also use this meditation to fall asleep. Meditate to the part where you fall to the carpet. I tested it up to that point and the outcome worked incredibly well. 2. If you find that this particular meditation gives you the energy you anticipate, practicing it daily can benefit you in the long run.