Guided Visualisation Meditation Technique To Be Yourself

In this podcast, we look at what it is to be “normal”, and how we can use meditation to not be afraid to be ourselves. What is it to be normal? When we use this word “normal” - what does it mean? And what has this to do with meditation? Meditation does two things: 1) Allows you to discover who you really are 2) Gives you the strength to be yourself. The more you meditate, the more you shed off all of the norms of your personality and become closer and closer to who you really are.

Transcript

Hi, This is Dhyansi and you are listening to Dhyansi Meditation Podcast. This session is about being yourself and not forcing oneself to just be normal. This session was given in Basel, Switzerland on 11th of November 2018. A very warm welcome to all of you in this lovely Sunday evening, Rainy Sunday evening, In this meditation session with me, Dhyansi. I'm happy that you took out time on a Sunday and are here. We'll spend the next 60 minutes, First of all in a bit of introspection, And then in meditation. For those who are new, The format is first 15-20 minutes. I'll be introducing the theme for today and roughly 30 minutes we'll sit for silent meditation. For today's session, I was inspired by what I was going through in the last week. And I have a question for you before I introduce the theme, Before I introduce the meditation. And that question is, If I tell you that you're not normal, How would you feel? Would you feel good? Would you feel bad? Offended? Because in the last week, I was in some conversations where I mentioned to somebody that you're not normal, And the person got offended and I had a discussion about that. It made me think, It made me contemplate, And that's what I would like to share with you. What is it to be normal? We use this word, You're normal, You're not normal, I'm normal, I'm not normal. What is this word normal? What does it mean? I inquired and what I understood was, It's nothing but a mathematical concept. It's a statistical concept to describe a bunch of things that look alike, That are alike. But as human beings, We are all unique. We take birth as very unique individual souls, Individuals, Individual minds, Totally unique, Totally different from others. But we still dare to use the word normal as a collective for describing all of us. And this is something which we should rethink next time when we use the word normal. Because when, For example, I say I'm normal, All I'm saying is that I am maybe like others in the group. And that's fine. But if I'm saying that I'm not normal, All I'm saying is that I'm not like others. And there's nothing wrong with it. There's absolutely no reason to question that, To add any negative connotation to that. And this is something which I would like you to take as a contemplation for the meditation today. And afterwards, During your daily life, If you ever use this word again, Am I normal? Is the other person normal or not? What are you actually saying? What does this actually mean? There was also a social experiment done. I don't know how many of you have seen that on YouTube is also available, Where a bunch of people, They were actors, They were put in a waiting room and they were, This was staged. There was, These were all actors, Roughly 10 actors. And a person came into the room not knowing that it was staged, Not knowing it was an act. In this waiting room, After every three minutes, A bell rang and all the actors, They stood up. And this person who was just sitting there waiting for his appointment, The person looked at when the bell rang, Everyone stood up and he looked at everybody and he was wondering, Why is everybody standing up? There was no reason for anybody to stand up except for the fact that the bell was ringing. The second bell rang, Everybody stood up, The person got uncomfortable. That why everybody standing up, Maybe I'm doing something wrong by just sitting down doing nothing. The third bell rang, Everybody stood up and the person also stood up for no reason. And the experiment continued where one by one, These actors went away and normal people came in one by one and became a part of that group, Part of that experiment. After a while, All the actors were gone, All 10 people were gone, All normal people were sitting there, The bell rang, Everybody stood up, Bell rang, Everybody stood up for no reason. And this continued. Just something to think about, Just something to take back with you from this session. When you define your behaviors, When you define your approach to your own life, Try to see yourself as a unique individual than as a normal human being necessarily. What does this to do with meditation? Meditation enables you to be yourself. Who you really are. It does two things. One, It allows you to discover who you really are. And two, It gives you strength to be yourself. It gives you psychological balance, Psychological strength, Spiritual strength to be who you really are. The more you meditate, The more you shed off all the norms of your personality and become closer and closer to who you really are and live also who you really are. So if you are waiting to gather that strength in your life to be who you really are, Try meditation. Try to bring meditation, Integrate this into your life and see where it takes you. In meditation, Today's session, We will focus on gaining this spiritual strength, This psychological stability, This mental stability through something that is very much underrated. A part of our body that is very much underrated. Whenever we talk about intelligence, Strength, We only talk about mind or heart or something else, But we ignore something very obvious. What is that obvious? Our spine. Our backbone, Our spine is something which appears just as a physical thing in our body, Having only a physical function. But it's where all the magic happens. It's where all your thoughts, Feelings, Decision making, Your memory, All those are based on the central nervous system, Which is heavily dependent on your spine. In the mother's womb, The first thing that is formed is the spine of the baby, And then the brain is formed as an extension of the spine. Spine is one of those subjects on which you can research scientifically or based on yoga, Whichever direction you take, You will only find lots of solutions, Lots of interesting facts which are just adding to your understanding of how your psychology is functioning, How your thoughts, Emotions, Your memory, All these components of your psychology, Of your mind are functioning. In yogic traditions, This spine, This backbone is known as Meru Danda. What that means is it's the axis of your movement. It's the axis of your body, Not just physical movement, But the movement of your mind, The movement of your psychology, The movement of your heart and the movement of your spirit. If the energies around your spine are somewhat in disorder, Everything is in disorder. If the energies around your spine are all in harmony, All in order, Everything is in order. So today's session is dedicated to activating the spine, Activating the spiritual energies around your spine. How do we do that? Three steps, Very simple steps. In the first step, We will become aware of our spine. You must have never, Never done this in your life before or never needed to take your awareness to your spine and feel actually how your spine feels from inside. Maybe there is no feeling, Maybe there is no awareness that you could take and really realize your spine. If that's not happening in the session today, It's absolutely fine. But with practice, If you try it out a couple of times, You will be able to realize and become conscious of your spine fully. For this session, We will break it into five parts. We will start with the tailbone at the very base of your spine, The tailbone. You will take your awareness there and we'll slowly move upwards. Then to the second part, The area around your hips. That's where you will become aware of that part of the spine. And third, Your abdomen area. This is where you will try to become aware of your lower back and keep your awareness at the lower back section of your spine. Then we'll move upwards to your chest area where you will become aware of the mid part of your spine behind your chest. And lastly, Behind your throat. So the area around the neck. These five areas will gradually go one by one and we'll reach to the neck. We'll spend 10 minutes, Roughly 10 minutes in this awareness. It's done just to take all your awareness away from what you were doing before, Things going on outside and drawing all this energy to become aware of your spine. And hopefully eventually you could bring your awareness to your entire spine after this 10 minutes. That would be the step one. Step two would be you would imagine or visualize that your spine is like a hollow bamboo, Like a very thin hollow bamboo or a tube which is open from the top. And as you inhale your breath, You would inhale energy from the top flowing in, Reaching down to your tailbone, All the way down to your spine. And then when you exhale, That energy is going all throughout your body. It's spreading throughout your body from the spine, From this axis of your body. We'll do this for 10 minutes. Every inhalation, We'll imagine that energy is flowing from the top in this hollow bamboo, In the spine and going all the way down until the tailbone. And with every exhalation, It's spreading throughout your body. We'll do this visualization several times. If it's easier for you to visualize in some form, You can imagine like as if a white liquid, A milky liquid is flowing from the top as you inhale and it flows down to your spine until the tailbone. And when you exhale, It spreads out all throughout your body. We'll do this visualization, This imagination for the beginning for 10 minutes roughly or a bit lesser. And whatever time is left, We will leave this imagination and sit in silence, Sit in awareness for roughly 10 minutes. Three parts. First part, Becoming aware of the spine. Second part, Imagining or visualizing that energy is flowing in your spine from the top as you inhale and as you exhale spreads out in your body. And third part, Silence, Awareness, Doing nothing, Sitting down in awareness. Is it clear how we are going to do that? Before we start today, I would like you to switch off your mobile phones. Just if by any chance anybody has left your mobile phone open, That would just disrupt everyone else's meditation as well. Over the last 40, Roughly 40 sessions, One thing which I have been always mentioning is to keep the spine erect, Is to keep the spine straight as you sit for meditation. And today is the time to emphasize that fact even more, Allowing your body to remain straight, Not stressing yourself about it, Not overstretching it, But just maintaining a nice erect, Stable posture where you could allow your body to be stable, To be in rest and let go so that you can go into this visualization. And taking your awareness to your spine. Let's close our eyes. Take a nice deep breath from the nose. Inhale from the nose. And also exhale from the nose. Keep your back straight, Shoulders down. Your hands in your lap or on your thighs. Take another deep breath in from the nose and out from the nose. For the next minutes, Allow yourself to be here, To be in meditation and nowhere else. As your body is settling in this posture, Take your awareness to the lowest part of your spine. Keep your eyes shut for the next contains of uninsured breathing time. Take your time to let your awareness reach to the lowest part of your spine. If it helps you can visualize how it looks and then try to become aware of your tailbone, The lowest part of your spine. And as you do that, Allow your body to relax and settle. And as you do that, Allow your body to relax and settle. Slowly move upwards to the spine area around your hips. Try to visualize, Become aware of the spine. As you do that, Allow your body to settle more. If you get distracted, Simply bring your awareness back to your spine. And as you do that, Allow your awareness to come back to your spine. And as you do that, Allow your awareness to come back to your spine. Feel the sensations in your spine as you become more and more aware of your spine. Move further up to the area around your abdomen. This area, Become aware of your spine. You may visualize how it looks. Try to feel any sensations that are going on in this area of your spine right now. As you do that, Maintain a restful posture of your body and allow your body to become more still. Move further up to the chest area and visualize the spine around your chest area and keep your awareness there. As you do that, Allow your awareness to come back to your spine. Feel the sensations in your spine, In the chest area. And move further up to the neck. Bring your full awareness to your neck. And now try to visualize your complete spine from the top to the bottom. Become aware of your complete spine. And now visualize your spine as a hollow bamboo. And as you inhale from the nose, Energy flows in from the top and flows all the way down with inhalation, All the way down until your tailbone. And as you exhale, It spreads out in your body. As you exhale, It spreads out in your body. With each inhalation, Draw the energy from the top opening of this hollow bamboo. Take it all the way down and with exhalation spread it across your body. With each breath, Draw this energy from the top and take it all the way down. Spread it across your body. Maintain a nice rhythm of breathing in this energy and spreading it throughout your body as you exhale. Engage your entire spine in this visualization. Energy flowing in from the top of your head down until the bottom. Maintain a nice rhythm of breathing in this visualization. At all times remain aware of your spine. Your body is completely still. Your mind has calmed down. Now leave this visualization and remain silent. Maintain a nice rhythm of breathing in this visualization. Maintain a nice rhythm of breathing in this visualization. Enter your inner silence and go as deep as you can in this moment. Don't touch. Don't touch anything. Remain absolutely silent and aware. You are here for this very moment. Stay in this silence. Stay in this awareness. Okay. Absolute stillness. Let go of everything and go deep in your inner silence. Go further, Deeper. Let go of your body. Let go of your mind. Let go of everything. Let go of everything. Let go of everything. Allow yourself to open up to this silence and stay in it. Let go of everything. And slowly bring your awareness back to your spine, Back to your body. Feel the sensations in your body, The stillness of the body. And very gently and slowly you may open your eyes. I would like to close the session by once again thanking you for joining me in this session. The next session will happen on 26th of November, So we'll take a break for two weeks. Thanks a lot once again and have a lovely evening, Lovely week ahead. Namaste.