Hello,
It's Dr.
Bethany Brown and thank you for joining me for this special place exercise.
If you have not already constructed and set up a special place,
I would invite you to go and do my setting up a special place exercise first.
To begin,
Allow yourself to take a position that feels as comfortable as is possible for you today.
This can be seated,
Standing or lying down.
If you feel safe and comfortable to do so,
I invite you to close your eyes.
But equally,
Maintaining a soft gaze at a neutral point is equally as okay.
Choosing what feels right for you today.
And in the first few moments,
I invite you just to settle.
And this can be physically settling into your position,
Softening around it,
But it can equally be settling into your breath.
Bringing awareness to your breath,
Following each in-breath and each out-breath without judgment,
Just observing it,
Using it as an anchor,
Each breath,
An anchor to the present moment.
And now I invite you to bring to mind the visualization of your special place.
Start to paint in your mind's eye your surroundings,
Doing so in as much detail as you can,
Observing the things close by in the foreground,
And also being aware of the landscape,
The background,
Looking to the horizon and as far as the eye can see in your special place scene.
Taking a moment to notice the colors,
The palette that has been used in your special place,
Tones,
Textures,
The fine details that aren't obvious on first look.
Taking a look around,
Perhaps seeing if you can notice three things that you haven't seen there before,
That you hadn't noticed.
And let's enhance the feeling of the special place and the strength of this visualization by adding in other senses,
Noticing what you would hear,
Sounds close by or further away,
Noticing their pitch,
Tone,
Rhythm,
Not searching for them,
But noticing when you hear them.
And now thinking about that sensation of touch,
What you feel in this special place.
And this may be points of contact between yourself and the environment,
Or it may be a temperature,
A breeze,
The ground beneath your feet,
And also noticing any smells or tastes that you experience in your special place.
Holding as much detail of this visualization as you can,
And any time the mind wanders,
Bringing yourself back and allowing yourself to interact in this special place as you wish.
It's your special place.
And now I invite you to bring awareness to how it feels to be in the special place,
Particularly noticing how your body feels,
Where you notice it,
What physical sensations are associated with being in this special place,
And seeing whether you can connect to those feelings now.
Bringing awareness to what we would call the felt sense of being in your special place.
And now holding those two things in mind,
We have the visualization of the special place and the connection to that felt sense in your body right now.
Holding them together,
Gently placing your awareness on them,
Connecting to them.
And for the last element of the special place,
I invite you to use the keyword or short phrase that goes with your special place,
That summarizes this experience.
Bringing that into your awareness,
Allowing yourself to therefore notice those three aspects,
Your special place,
The felt sense in your body now,
And the keyword or short phrase.
Holding those three elements together,
Building that association between the three.
And just allowing yourself to take two to three further deep breaths here before gently finishing the exercise and opening your eyes.
