Still Your Mind With Visualisation

Still your overthinking mind with this refreshing, informative meditation. Designed to help you feel both relaxed and fully present, in this “mediteaching” Christoph briefly explains -in accessible language- why your mind is often stuck in the past or worried about the future and how we can use our senses to break the cycle of rumination. It includes a helpful visualisation exercise using your senses and ends with a brief body scan. No added music to help with focus and appreciation of the moment.

Transcript

Hi,

I'm Christoph and I'll be your guide for this meditation.

Thank you for being here,

Thank you for your interest in my work,

And more importantly,

Thank you for taking time out for your own self-care.

Let's relax and let's get started.

Let's close our eyes.

And you're welcome to do this meditation sitting down or lying down,

Whichever is most comfortable.

I'm just going to give you a moment to arrive here,

To really settle into this moment,

To still yourself.

Gently shifting from the very busy doing mode to the more relaxing being mode.

And I invite you to place one hand on your heart gently and the other hand on your lower belly.

And for now just notice how that feels.

And perhaps bring a gentle smile to your face.

Just a smile of contentment as you bring your focus back to your hands resting on your body.

As you feel your chest rising and falling with every in-breath and out-breath.

And allow yourself to be here just a little bit more fully.

Let anything that is bothering you,

Anything that you're carrying,

Just let that drop for now.

Give yourself full permission to be here.

This is your time.

And internally I would like you to say I am here and now.

I am here and now.

Now gently move your attention away from your hands on your body to your neck and your shoulders.

And just rest your attention there for a moment.

Relax your shoulders and your neck just that little bit more than before.

And how about your facial muscles?

Are there any parts of the face that still feel a little bit tense?

If so,

Try to relax your facial muscles simply by resting your awareness in different parts of your face and your head.

How about your tongue for example?

Can you relax your tongue?

How about the forehead and your ears?

How about your nose?

The chin?

The whole back of your head?

And remember that gentle smile.

That gentle smile which guides your brain into thinking,

Rightly so at this moment I hope,

That you are fairly relaxed and happy to be in this moment.

And therefore in turn your brain by ways of activating what's called the parasympathetic branch of your autonomic nervous system helps you to further relax and shift into the rest and digest mode rather than the survival or fight or flight mode.

Just enjoy the stillness of this moment for a few moments more.

And it is very normal for our minds to wander.

That is what minds do.

That is what they are designed to do.

And so I'd love to remind you of one of the key pillars of mindfulness which is non-judgment.

In other words when your mind does wander you simply notice it and you bring your attention back to the now.

And sometimes your mind wants to be heard.

That's fine.

So when the next thought pops up just simply label it thought and then come back to the now.

And I'll give you a few moments to practice that.

And use your breath as the anchor point in the now.

Notice how the airflow is a little bit cooler when you inhale and nice and warm when you exhale.

You are doing really well.

And for the next part of our time together I'm purposefully going to ask you to now think of something.

But please visualize an object of your choice for the purposes of this practice.

A book or a pen or a teddy bear,

Whatever.

Just visualize an object.

And I'm going to ask you to follow my guidance as you picture yourself taking a closer look at this object.

I would like you to imagine touching that book or the pen or whatever object it is you chose.

Imagine that you are touching it,

You are holding it if that's possible.

See how you would describe that in terms of size and shape,

Weight perhaps.

Now looking at this object,

What can you see,

What stands out?

Is it something you can notice you didn't appreciate was there before?

Or you can see with a new pair of eyes?

Just have a look.

Is there a certain smell?

Does it have a scent?

Or is it neutral?

Does it make a sound?

Could it make a sound?

And if somehow you could taste this object,

What would it taste like?

Thank you for joining me in this practice.

You might sit there or lie there thinking,

What was that all about?

I will briefly share that with you as you keep this object still in focus.

One of the main ideas of meditation and mindfulness meditation is to bring our awareness with intention on purpose in the now and without judgment to something that we choose to focus on.

And that could be our breath,

It could be our body or an object,

Something that we visualize.

And the beauty of that practice is that by doing so,

For example,

By deploying your senses,

You shift your brain activity away from something called the default mode network,

The DMN,

Which is a collection of regions,

Parts of the brain where our retention is constantly in the past or in the future,

But never in the now.

And the default mode network is incredibly important.

It's where our thoughts are,

Our beliefs,

Our personality,

Our autopilot,

Very important activity,

But it's also the cause of overthinking and overstimulation of another part of the brain closely linked to the default mode network.

And that is our amygdala.

And that's the part of our brain that makes us very stressed out or not.

And so by focusing on our breath or the body or an object of our choice,

We downregulate the default mode network by activating the direct experience network instead.

And I promise that's it for the technical terms,

But it's just nice to understand what actually happens in our minds and does our bodies as a consequence when we practice mindfulness meditation.

It is much more than sitting still.

It is scientifically underpinned.

So when we use the task specific network or the direct experience network,

We take the needle of the overthinking part of our mind and we are in the now moment instead.

So enjoy this now moment.

Be here fully and be with yourself.

And we're going to slowly but effectively wrap up.

Wrap up this particular meditation with a body scanner.

And we're going to start with our feet.

Bring your awareness to your feet and feel your toes.

And your ankles.

And then gently move your awareness to your left leg,

Lower leg,

The knee,

Upper leg.

And do the same for the right leg.

Lower leg,

Right knee,

The whole right leg.

And enjoy any gentle sensation you might feel in your legs and your feet.

And imagine them being topped up with vital life force energy.

Those amazing legs and feet that carry you everywhere.

And we're slowly going to move up to our lower back.

Up the spine,

Towards the upper back and shoulders.

Feel your whole back.

And now the whole front of your body as well.

What does your belly button feel like when you rest your attention there?

And how about your left arm?

From fingers to the whole hand,

Lower arm,

Elbow,

Upper arm.

And visualize that arm filling up with life force energy.

And do the same for your right arm,

From the fingers all the way up to your right shoulder.

And now bring your attention to the whole of your head.

And the whole body,

Head to toe.

The whole body filling up to the brim with life force energy.

And you can give that a color of your choice.

And know that this energy restores you.

And of course this body scan has also shifted the needle from the overthinking part of the mind to the now moment parts of the mind.

And let's take a deep breath in and out together,

In,

Hold and out.

And in a few moments I'm going to ring the bells and you can gently bring yourself back to the room and then open your eyes.

Thank you for joining me in this practice guys.

I hope it has been helpful.

I hope it has been a relaxing experience.

I love you.

Please take good care of yourself.

Namaste.

Reviews

Lovely practice in the morning. Loved the body scan at the end. Exactly what I needed for midweek start💜 thank you!

I especially liked the sound of your voice and your direction to have a slight smile.

What a calming, clear and reassuring voice. For those who experience distraction and interference from added background music, this track is without any background sound. This is a great benefit to me. The quiet and moments of silence between the gentle guiding words enhance my ability to settle in and quiet my mind. Thank you 🙏🏼

Thank you for this very interesting meditation with the explanation of what happens in the brain. I enjoyed. And feel much calmer 🙏

a very calming and positive bexperience!
thankyou🙂

Thank you, that was excellent.

This is a highly effective mindfulness meditation that encompasses the mind, emotions and body in a well thought out process. Soothing and caring voice and manner contribute to the feeling of trust and help center the self. One of the finest meditations I have experienced.