Visualisation for Relaxation
I first used the following technique to bring about relaxation and refreshment way back in the early 1960s for my own benefit. It is a technique which can be used anywhere even with only a minute or two at your disposal. I used it regularly when I was standing travelling on smoky, packed, rush-hour trains in south east London.
To prepare, just make yourself comfortable, sitting or lying is immaterial. In your mind you are about to create your `Secret Garden`. This garden may be based on a place you know, but it is better not to use a garden with which you have emotional connections. In any case you will find that the garden will be changed a little each time you visit – just as a real garden will. Your garden will reflect your mood, ideas and needs.
It is important to remember that this really is YOUR secret garden, and should never be described in detail to anyone. You are wasting your time anyway if you do, because the other person will envisage it in the way they interpret your words, and this garden is beyond accurate description
It may be useful to consider incorporating the following aspects.
You may approach your garden by imagining you are in a room with a locked door, which leads out into the garden, or it may be approached after walking along a path through shady woodland etc.
Let the entrance to your garden be secure. You might choose to enter it through a doorway of which only you have the key, or through a solid garden gate.
Inside, let the garden be surrounded by high hedges or trees that shelter and ensure complete privacy in the garden. The garden will be open to the sky however and at intervals around the garden paths will lead off to other secret destinations which you can explore later. Perhaps at one point the trees will separate to expose a view over rolling countryside to distant high mountains and a long golden beach with a blue sea stretching to the horizon.
The garden can contain every flower, bush and plant you wish to have. All flowering at the same time if you prefer – remember this is both a secret and a magic garden. Your garden might have water; both sparkling and warm in the sun, and cool and deep and dark like a reflective mirror in a shady corner. There will be places to linger and sit, areas of formality and informality maybe, smooth paths, grass and rough areas of rock or vegetation. But overall there is a wonderful sense of peace and tranquillity. Part of the garden may be in sun and part in shade.
As you explore be aware of all your senses and the differing sensations which you pick up. See the colours, patterns and vistas of the garden. Feel the sun, rain or whatever weather you want. Walking in bare, feet feel the contrast between hard and soft surfaces, heat and cold (even frost or snow). Feel the soil, grass, stones and pebbles under your feet. Feel the textures of flowers, bark, moss, and stone.
Smell the air, the perfume of flowers, the cool dankness of the shady parts, and the heat of the sun in others.
Hear the sounds of the garden; birds, insects, the breeze in the trees, even the sound of rain soaking into the ground, or the distant sound of the sea.
Take time just to linger, to sit and be still. Enjoy being alone but not lonely. For a little while feel that you can leave all your concerns outside the garden, knowing that you will be better placed to deal with them when you return after this little break. And before you do leave take one last look around you, remembering the feeling of peace which you have found. Return to the door, or gate, step through closing it behind you and return to your normal life with a feeling of well being and of having had your batteries recharged.
A Circumambulation
Another useful daily practise is to take a circular walk around a real garden, your own if possible – even if it is only tiny. This is often best done at the end of the day – just before dark, or when you get home from work. Take just a few minutes to walk around your garden and LOOK at it. Do not look at the jobs to be done, the dying flowers or the weeds; they can be addressed in due course. Simply enjoy your garden and look at what is beautiful and nurturing to your soul. Follow the same route and learn to concentrate just on looking and experiencing what you are looking at.
Both of these methods engage the mind in its creative aspect. They allow the cold, critical, analytical left side of the brain to be rested and to come into better balance with the intuitive and creative right side of the mind.
They allow you to become more in touch with you inner soul.
Enjoy your gardens.
I first used the following technique to bring about relaxation and refreshment way back in the early 1960s for my own benefit. It is a technique which can be used anywhere even with only a minute or two at your disposal. I used it regularly when I was standing travelling on smoky, packed, rush-hour trains in south east London.
To prepare, just make yourself comfortable, sitting or lying is immaterial. In your mind you are about to create your `Secret Garden`. This garden may be based on a place you know, but it is better not to use a garden with which you have emotional connections. In any case you will find that the garden will be changed a little each time you visit – just as a real garden will. Your garden will reflect your mood, ideas and needs.
It is important to remember that this really is YOUR secret garden, and should never be described in detail to anyone. You are wasting your time anyway if you do, because the other person will envisage it in the way they interpret your words, and this garden is beyond accurate description
It may be useful to consider incorporating the following aspects.
You may approach your garden by imagining you are in a room with a locked door, which leads out into the garden, or it may be approached after walking along a path through shady woodland etc.
Let the entrance to your garden be secure. You might choose to enter it through a doorway of which only you have the key, or through a solid garden gate.
Inside, let the garden be surrounded by high hedges or trees that shelter and ensure complete privacy in the garden. The garden will be open to the sky however and at intervals around the garden paths will lead off to other secret destinations which you can explore later. Perhaps at one point the trees will separate to expose a view over rolling countryside to distant high mountains and a long golden beach with a blue sea stretching to the horizon.
The garden can contain every flower, bush and plant you wish to have. All flowering at the same time if you prefer – remember this is both a secret and a magic garden. Your garden might have water; both sparkling and warm in the sun, and cool and deep and dark like a reflective mirror in a shady corner. There will be places to linger and sit, areas of formality and informality maybe, smooth paths, grass and rough areas of rock or vegetation. But overall there is a wonderful sense of peace and tranquillity. Part of the garden may be in sun and part in shade.
As you explore be aware of all your senses and the differing sensations which you pick up. See the colours, patterns and vistas of the garden. Feel the sun, rain or whatever weather you want. Walking in bare, feet feel the contrast between hard and soft surfaces, heat and cold (even frost or snow). Feel the soil, grass, stones and pebbles under your feet. Feel the textures of flowers, bark, moss, and stone.
Smell the air, the perfume of flowers, the cool dankness of the shady parts, and the heat of the sun in others.
Hear the sounds of the garden; birds, insects, the breeze in the trees, even the sound of rain soaking into the ground, or the distant sound of the sea.
Take time just to linger, to sit and be still. Enjoy being alone but not lonely. For a little while feel that you can leave all your concerns outside the garden, knowing that you will be better placed to deal with them when you return after this little break. And before you do leave take one last look around you, remembering the feeling of peace which you have found. Return to the door, or gate, step through closing it behind you and return to your normal life with a feeling of well being and of having had your batteries recharged.
A Circumambulation
Another useful daily practise is to take a circular walk around a real garden, your own if possible – even if it is only tiny. This is often best done at the end of the day – just before dark, or when you get home from work. Take just a few minutes to walk around your garden and LOOK at it. Do not look at the jobs to be done, the dying flowers or the weeds; they can be addressed in due course. Simply enjoy your garden and look at what is beautiful and nurturing to your soul. Follow the same route and learn to concentrate just on looking and experiencing what you are looking at.
Both of these methods engage the mind in its creative aspect. They allow the cold, critical, analytical left side of the brain to be rested and to come into better balance with the intuitive and creative right side of the mind.
They allow you to become more in touch with you inner soul.
Enjoy your gardens.
VISUALISATIONS
These possible sources for visualisations leading to meditation are in no particular order.
A Secret Garden created by you, in your mind, with many paths leading to unknown destinations – these may in turn be the subjects listed below.
The distant view of a soaring mountain.
Looking into a dark pool of water
Walking along a beach of freshly washed sand with no foot prints before or behind
Being in a dark cave
Being in a small cool temple or church
Your own kutir (kudhil) or yoga retreat
Looking at a representation of your deity
Being in a round clearing in a wood
Following a stream from the source to the sea
Watching a tree seed germinate, grow and die
Sitting on a cliff top watching the sea
Listening to the sound of the sea on the sea shore and how it corresponds to your breathing
Looking into the heart of a flower
Taking a sensory walk around your garden – feeling the different textures with hands and feet - listening to the sounds in your imagination – seeing colours – smelling
Perfumes
Walking through a wood
Entering a building of many rooms – each containing a memory or person of your past.
Walking down a corridor pushing aside curtains of thoughts and memories
A corridor of portraits
Meeting yourself at various stages in your life
Mounting steps to your retreat at each step leaving behind: Responsibilities and duties, fears, expectations placed on you, self imposed expectations, physical problems, mental problems. Enter the room like a new born baby.
Floating in the sea
These possible sources for visualisations leading to meditation are in no particular order.
A Secret Garden created by you, in your mind, with many paths leading to unknown destinations – these may in turn be the subjects listed below.
The distant view of a soaring mountain.
Looking into a dark pool of water
Walking along a beach of freshly washed sand with no foot prints before or behind
Being in a dark cave
Being in a small cool temple or church
Your own kutir (kudhil) or yoga retreat
Looking at a representation of your deity
Being in a round clearing in a wood
Following a stream from the source to the sea
Watching a tree seed germinate, grow and die
Sitting on a cliff top watching the sea
Listening to the sound of the sea on the sea shore and how it corresponds to your breathing
Looking into the heart of a flower
Taking a sensory walk around your garden – feeling the different textures with hands and feet - listening to the sounds in your imagination – seeing colours – smelling
Perfumes
Walking through a wood
Entering a building of many rooms – each containing a memory or person of your past.
Walking down a corridor pushing aside curtains of thoughts and memories
A corridor of portraits
Meeting yourself at various stages in your life
Mounting steps to your retreat at each step leaving behind: Responsibilities and duties, fears, expectations placed on you, self imposed expectations, physical problems, mental problems. Enter the room like a new born baby.
Floating in the sea