Wise Mind Meditation

Wise Mind meditation, rooted in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), integrates our consciousness's rational and emotional aspects to foster balanced decision-making and emotional regulation. This practice encourages you to access your "Wise Mind," a state where reason and intuition harmonize. By cultivating mindfulness and acceptance, practitioners learn to acknowledge and validate their feelings while employing rational analysis to make wise choices.

This Wise Mind meditation empowers you to connect with inner wisdom, assisting you to navigate life's challenges with clarity, compassion, and resilience.

Transcript

Welcome to this wise mind meditation exercise.

This practice is designed to help you connect with your wise mind,

The place within you that balances reason and emotion and helps you make grounded intuitive decisions.

Find a quiet comfortable place to sit or lie down.

Make yourself comfortable.

Just choose what is more comfortable for you.

Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.

Let's begin.

Start by focusing on your breath,

Breathing in deeply through your nose,

Feeling your lungs expand,

Holding the breath for just a moment and then exhaling slowly through your mouth.

And with every breath you take,

Letting go of any tension or stress.

Repeating this pattern of breathing in and breathing out and every time you breathe out,

Letting go of more and more of the tension in your body.

Starting from the top of your head and slowly moving down through your face,

Your neck,

Shoulders.

With every breath you take,

Allow yourself to relax even more fully.

So letting the top of your head relax,

The muscles in your face to relax,

Any tension in your neck or spine,

Let it go,

Allowing your shoulders to relax,

Your arms and hands to relax,

Your chest and stomach to relax,

Your hips,

Your legs,

Your knees,

Your ankles,

Your toes.

With every breath you take,

Allowing each part of your body to become more relaxed and more comfortable.

And now just bring your attention to this present moment.

Just notice what you're feeling in your body.

Notice the feeling of your feet or the contact that your body is making with the chair or the couch or the bed.

Notice the temperature around you.

If your mind wanders off,

That's alright.

Gently bring it back to just noticing what is happening in this moment.

Noticing the smells,

The textures,

The sounds,

Whatever it is that you're noticing.

And just notice whether or not you are even wearing anything on your feet as you walk along this path.

Notice what the path is made out of.

Notice what texture the path has,

What colors the path has.

This path is going to take you to someplace beautiful,

Somewhere you would love to be.

And so just imagine that you are walking along this path,

Just watching your feet as they move,

Taking one step after the other.

And as you grow closer to this place of beauty,

You notice that there is a curtain along the path.

And behind that curtain is the place that you are wanting to go to.

It can actually be a place you've been to before in your life.

It could be a place that you want to go to in the future.

Or it could be a completely imaginary place that your mind has created just for you.

Whatever you choose is perfectly okay.

And you're going to be in this place during the best of times.

The environment that will be at this place is the perfect place.

The weather is beautiful,

The temperature is beautiful,

The time of day is beautiful.

And so you continue to watch your feet walking along the path,

Getting closer and closer to this curtain,

Until you reach the curtain.

And then you step in.

And as you step in,

You look up and you look all around you and you notice the sights,

The smells,

The sounds,

The colors,

The textures,

All of the things that are in this beautiful space that has been developed just for you.

And take a moment to walk around and really soak in the beauty of this place that you want to be in,

That you love to be in.

Notice the sounds,

The sights,

The textures,

The smells,

Anything.

Notice whether you're inside or outside.

Notice whether there's any sunshine on your face or there's a breeze in the air.

Notice whether there's any water or trees or whatever happens to be there.

And just become aware of as many details as you can.

And continue to walk around this beautiful place until you can find just the perfect place to sit,

The perfect place to be.

As you wander around this environment,

Find that spot that's just that beautiful spot where you want to continue exploring your wise mind.

It can be sitting on the grass,

It could be sitting on the ground,

It could be sitting on something,

It could be lying on something,

Whatever it is.

And I want you to just breathe into that and get yourself settled into this special place.

And then take a deep breath and let it go.

And just notice as you're in this place that you want to set an intention.

That intention being that you want to be able to connect with the wisdom inside of yourself,

To become more closely aware of and connect more fully with the wisdom inside of yourself.

And now notice that above your head to the right there is an energy that's known as your emotional mind.

It is floating above you right outside of yourself and notice what that energy is made out of,

What kind of texture that energy has,

What kind of color that energy has,

What kind of temperature that energy has.

And in that it's full of all the emotions that you feel on a regular basis,

Especially the emotions that are the hardest for you to sit with and deal with.

It could be anger,

It could be sadness,

It could be irritation,

It could be frustration,

It could be fear,

Anxiety,

Depression,

Whatever those emotions are that just hover in that energy field.

And just notice as you are sitting there and seeing that energy floating up to your right,

How it makes your body feel.

Paying attention to those emotions as they're floating,

They're noticing that they're just outside of your body,

They're not in your body,

But just noticing how your body reacts to that emotional energy that's rich with feelings and passion,

Textures and intensity.

Just notice that,

That it's there.

And then take a deep breath and let it go.

And now notice that there's a different kind of energy on your left hand side that's just floating right above you to the left.

And this is your rational mind,

This is the rational energy.

It's full of evidence and logic and rules and details.

And just kind of notice what that energy looks like,

Feels like,

What kind of texture it has,

What kind of temperature it has,

What color it is,

What temperature it is.

Just notice that this is really rational mind energy,

Just the facts,

Just objectives,

No emotion whatsoever,

Just knowledge and reason.

And notice how your body reacts as you connect with that energy,

That rational energy.

And you're not bringing it into your body,

You're just letting it stay outside of yourself,

But you're letting it be there and just noticing how your body reacts to that.

Paying attention to how your body responds.

And then take a deep breath.

And now I want you to imagine that these two energies begin to send tendrils of energy down into your body,

Like two streams of water from two clear beautiful lakes.

And as they do so,

The streams turn into a river and then the river merges together until it's,

Both of them are together and it's coming into your body in a very balanced way.

And notice where that energy goes,

The energy from the emotional side and the energy from the logical side and as they come together,

Fusing together and moving into your body,

I want you to just do a body scan from the top of your head all the way down to your toes until you can find to your toes until you can find where that energy is being centered.

And breathe into that energy.

And just notice what color that energy has,

Notice what temperature that energy gives off,

Notice the texture of that energy,

And notice the intensity of that energy.

This is a fusion of logic and emotion,

Together creating a sense of wisdom within yourself.

Within yourself.

Just notice how that feels,

And with every breath you take,

Breathe into that energy.

Breathe it in,

Allowing that energy,

That wisdom to expand and grow inside of you.

And now consider,

Is there some situation in your life where you're struggling to find an answer,

Struggling to know what to do or where to go,

There's a decision that you might be trying to make and you really are not sure what to do.

As you are sitting here in this calm place,

I want you to connect,

I want you to put your hands over this wisdom energy that you've discovered within you,

And I want you to ask that energy the question that you are pondering about,

Or just sit with a sense of clarity and allow whatever comes up,

To come up listening quietly for any insights,

Feelings,

Thoughts that arise from this place of wisdom.

Trusting and knowing that your wise mind has the answers that you need.

After you have connected with that sense of clarity,

Connected with that sense of wisdom,

Offer gratitude to this centered wisdom,

This place of wisdom within you that comes from yourself,

As part of you,

And offer gratitude for the insights that you have received.

And then when you feel ready,

When you feel ready,

Slowly bring your awareness back to your breath,

Taking a few deep breaths in and out,

Feeling the air enter and leave your body,

Wiggling your toes and your fingers,

Gently stretching,

And when you're ready,

Open your eyes and take a moment to reflect on your experience.

Consider journaling any insights or thoughts that came to you during this meditation.

Connecting with your wise mind can take practice,

But with every session you will find it easier to access this place of inner wisdom,

Remembering that your wise mind is always within you,

Ready to guide you with balance and clarity.

Thank you for practicing this wise mind meditation.

Be kind to yourself as you continue on your journey towards greater peace,

Joy,

And understanding.