Hi there dear one,
My name is Karine,
I'm an anesthesiologist and I'm here to help you prepare for your surgery.
Thank you so much for being here,
Listening to me and allowing yourself to have this experience.
General anesthesia can be seen as having three very distinct phases.
We can make a comparison with an airplane flight.
The first of them,
Takeoff,
Is called the moment of induction in anesthesia.
This is when the anesthesiologist will begin the infusion of drugs that will transport you from a state of total consciousness to a state of unconsciousness.
Your five senses will temporarily lose their ability to connect to the external world to your mind.
Your eyes will stop seeing.
Your ears will stop listening.
Your nose will lose the ability to smell.
Your mouth will be unable to perceive flavors.
And your skin stops feeling touch,
Temperature,
Or pain.
The second phase,
The moment of the flight itself,
Is called in anesthesia the maintenance phase.
Your physical body continuously receives medications that will maintain this state of unconsciousness.
This phase lasts for the duration of the surgery,
Regardless of how long it takes.
It is the time when you will be in balance with this new way of existing.
The third phase,
The moment of landing,
Is called awakening in anesthesia.
Here,
The anesthesiologist gradually stops applying the medications that were keeping you unconscious.
Sometimes it is necessary to reverse the action of some of them.
All of this with the intention of letting your body return to the state of alert consciousness.
Little by little,
Your five senses reconnect you to the external world.
And your mind becomes conscious again.
Understanding how the process happens helps you to better deal with all the anxiety involved.
Now,
Let's experience these three phases in our meditation.
I would like you to sit in a comfortable position.
Place your hands on your legs,
Palms facing downwards.
Lift your face slightly upwards.
Slowly close your eyes and take a deep breath in and a nice sigh out.
Focus your attention on that space between your eyes in the middle of your head.
From this place,
Bring to your awareness your vision.
This incredible ability that your eyes and brain have to receive the light reflected from everything that surrounds you and transform it into colors and images.
This function is governed by the fire element that is part of your constitution.
Now,
Visualize a fire in front of you.
What colors do you see?
What shape does this fire have?
Focus on the heat that emanates.
Take a deep breath in and let it go.
Bring your awareness to your hearing now.
This true work of nature's engineering,
Which is capable of capturing sound waves traveling through the atmosphere and condensing them into something that the brain perceives as sound.
This function is governed by the space element which is part of your constitution.
Visualize in front of you an open sky with no clouds,
Just the infinity of space.
And in the middest of all this grandeur,
Take a deep breath and let it go.
Bring your awareness to your nose now.
What smells are you noticing?
This ability to receive tiny volatile molecules and perceives smell is governed by the earth element that is part of your constitution.
Visualize a beautiful lawn of grass full of life now in front of you.
Imagine that it has started to rain,
A gentle rain.
Sense the smell of the earth and the wet grass rising up your nose.
Take a deep breath in and let it go.
Bring your awareness to your mouth,
This place where you can understand the world through all its flavors,
Sweet,
Salty,
Acid,
Spicy,
Bitter,
Astringent,
Realize that the moisture of your saliva is the vehicle through which all these flavors are carried to the buds present on your tongue.
This ability is governed by the water element that is part of your constitution.
Now visualize something really delicious in front of you,
Something that brings your memory to a mmm moment.
Can you feel the saliva building up in your mouth?
Feeling ready to carry all the flavors to your buds?
Take a deep breath in and let it go.
Bring your awareness to your skin now,
This place on your body that allows you to feel the world through touch and temperature.
Millions of nerve connections transmitting impulses from the outermost boundary of your physical body at incredibly fast speed directly to your brain.
This movement of electrical impulses is governed by the wind element,
Movement,
That is part of your constitution.
There is now a mountain,
A high mountain.
There from the top,
Feel the force of the wind caressing your skin.
Feel the intensity of this breeze increase,
Increase and then decrease slowly until it disappears,
Just let it go.
Take now a deep breath in and let all the air out.
Without seeing,
Without hearing,
Without smelling,
Without tasting,
Without feeling.
Feeling your skin.
Your connection with the world outside is no longer perceived by your mind.
Without these five instruments your mind has the chance to enter a state of stillness.
And so,
With the mind in a state of rest,
It is possible to connect with your divine essence,
Your true self,
Which is always there observing everything.
Let's take a small silence pause now,
So that we can feel all this divine energy present in each one of us.
At the end of this period you will hear a bell.
Don't worry,
I'll be here holding this space with all my love.
Let's begin by taking a deep breath in and letting it out.
Take a deep breath in and a nice sigh out.
Gently move a bit of your body.
Gently hold your hands together.
Feel the touch of your skin.
Now take your attention inside your mouth.
How is the moisture?
Gently swallow a bit of your saliva.
Is there any flavor present at this moment?
Take a deep breath once again and bring your attention to your nasal cavities.
What smells are present in your environment right now?
Listen.
What sounds are you hearing?
Slowly and gently open your eyes.
Look at the surroundings around you.
Maybe a nice good stretch now.
Take your arms way above your head and stretch,
Stretch,
Stretch.
And so we finish this little exercise on the three phases of general anesthesia.
Induction,
Where you gradually no longer have access through your senses to the external world.
Maintenance,
Where silence resides,
Space.
And awakening,
Where little by little your connection with the outside returns to functioning in a normal way.
You can do this meditation as many times as you feel necessary before your surgery.
Think of it as an exercise.
This way you train your body,
Your mind,
Which can help you a lot to reduce the anxiety that accompanies these moments.
If you would like to tell me about how this experience was for you,
I would love to hear it.
Please do so.
With all my love and hoping to be together with you soon,
Namaste.
