Healing Concepts progressive relaxation Using guided imagery and meditation for healing.

Using guided imagery and meditation for healing.

 No, I am not talking about learning to be your dog’s pack leader. The alpha state, is a relaxed, yet alert state of mind, that is ideal for guided visualizations.  When we are in the alpha state, our mental chatter gets slower and quieter and we pay more attention to mental imagery. And the imagery has a greater power to influence our health and emotions. In the alpha state we are more suggestible than in the beta state, or normal waking consciousness. In this case, being suggestible is a good thing. We can ask our subconscious minds and our bodies to make certain changes, and they are more likely to carry out those suggestions.When doing healing imagery, we always spend a few moments to relax our bodies, calm our minds, and turn our focus inward. That is all there is to getting into the alpha state. Most people who write scripts for guided imagery, use some combination of breathing, counting, and/or imaging, to lead you into the alpha state. Some people also use some form of progressive relaxation. Most of us respond well to the standard instructions, though it may take practice to get good at it.If you use the same technique, over and over again, then like Pavlov’s dog, you will get conditioned to go into the alpha state very easily with that technique. My Alpha State Technique I like to spend a few moments

 just settling into my body

into my body, letting go of any obvious tension, then bringing my awareness to my breath. Then for a few slightly deeper than normal breaths, I exhale twice as long as I inhale. This seems to relax the body and calm the mind nicely. Next, I go through a visualization. I imagine I am in a room filled with red light. I cross the room, then go down an escalator to a room filled with orange light. I go through all seven colors of the rainbow that way. i like going down an escalator, because it makes me feel like I am going deeper; deeper relaxation, deeper state of mind. The escalator makes it effortless, as opposed to a flight of stairs. I just let go and I am taken into deeper states of consciousness. I like to go through the colors of the rainbow, because I associate the brighter colors at the beginning with a wakeful state, and the deeper indigo and violet at the end with a deeper state of consciousness. Now that I am more practiced, I don’t need to go through all of that, every time. For short sessions I may just watch my breath for three to five breaths. For longer sessions, I spend more time with this exercise, but may just walk from one room to the next. If my mind is particularly active I need to spend more time to get it to calm down. Practice getting into the alpha state using these techniques, or ones that you are already comfortable with, for the more you practice, the asier it becomes to quickly and effortlessly glide into the alpha state. The most important thing is to elax and enjoy. Click here (or right click and choose save link as) for a free alpha state mp3. This mp3 gets you there. You have to decide what to do after that.