Expanding into the back of the head, neck, shoulders, down the arms, and through the fingertips. Go as slow as you need to feel like the cleansing orb has deeply permeated every level of tissue all the way down to the bone, and even inside the bones themselves. Down the front and back of the torso. Experiment with the size of the ball shrinking it or expanding. Allow the breath to lead the way, focus on the rhythm of the breath. Down even further into the lower back, hips, thighs, legs, calf, ankles, and all the way through the toes. Explore your body and find the places that need the most attention – linger there. Repeat several times to get the most benefit.

Having completed several cycles of the body scan, imagine this soothing light coming from inside your body, the bones, organs, muscles, and skin all glowing. Let the center of this light rest in the chest or heart area, and feel the rays radiate from there. Beyond the skin, and out into your surroundings. Allow the light to spread further and further till you can no longer keep track of how far its traveled, then, with a deep breath let it all go. The image, the thoughts, expectations, judgments, and desires. Let everything relax and allow your mind to settle into the sensations that are happening in the present moment. Repeat often, breath and enjoy!

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How do you get ready for meditation? What are the steps necessary to get into the proper mind set and how do you release stress from your busy day? You want the body to be so relaxed and comfortable that you can forget all about it. The mind should be alert, focused, and present in the moment. Here is a great stress management exercise that can be done anywhere. Its quick and very effective. This technique is also extremely beneficial for people that can’t fall asleep and have restless body syndrome.

Laying on your back, begin to do a mental scan of your whole body. Start at your toes and work your way up the front side of your body and down your back. Once you have identified the muscles and places where you feel the most tension, it is time for the full body contraction.

Taking a deep breath in, contract all of the muscles you have just scanned. Systematically from your toes all the way up to your neck. At this point, you should be squeezing everything so hard that your legs are off the ground a bit, your head is off the ground, and your face is all squeezed up like a dried up prune. Holding this for one or two breaths, release everything with a big AAAHHHHHHH breath out. Taking another deep and slow breath here relax everything even deeper. You can imagine your whole body relaxing and sinking into the floor. Warning, please don’t overdo this and remember that the point is not to punish your muscles but to help them go from one extreme to the other.

Now, do another body scan and compare how you feel. If there is still some tension in your body you can work with your mind to breath soothing light and warmth into those places to relax them even further. You may experience a deep feeling of comfort, softness, or heaviness sometimes accompanied by a warm sinking feeling – like your body is about to liquidize and merge with whatever you are laying on.

At this point, you are ready for meditation, relaxation, an obe, or sleep. Enjoy the journey!

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See yourself in it: When you see yourself inside the scene that you wish to happen, you make it that much more powerful. Imagine seeing yourself in the exact mood, surrounding, and situation that you would like to happen, you can even bring in other people that will help you make this manifestation become reality. Clarity, focus, and realism are key.

Action: When you see the scene happening, try to create action, aliveness, and vividness. If there are people, they can be moving, talking, cheering, smiling. If there are no people, see yourself in motion, get some feeling into this mental movie and make sure you can actually feel the motion in your body, that is one sign that your body is going along with the mental movie.

Focused: Make sure that you clear your mind, before beginning this meditation. A clear mind is able to focus much more then a distracted and scattered one. It is the difference between a lightbulb that scatters light everywhere and a laser beam that hits a small spot with all it’s power – 100′ away from the source. You want your intention to be that focused, and clear so that there can be no doubt or confusion as to what you want to manifest.

Multi-sensory: Because life is perceived through all of the senses, the mental movie should mimic real life as much as possible. Therefore, if your intention is to have the perfect chocolate cake on Thursday, you should be seeing the cake, smelling the cake, tasting the cake. Meanwhile, imagine the feeling of holding that fork in your hand as you bring the first piece to your mouth. The more senses are involved, the stronger the intention will be.

Time: The frequency with which you repeat this meditation will also determine the speed with which it manifests itself. In my own life, if I want to attract something or somebody, I practice this meditation daily until the imaginary outcome becomes the real thing. Running through this exercise for the first time may take a while, but once it is well formed it becomes easy, quick, and much more clear. The power and effect increase dramatically with every repetition similar to practicing any other skill, the more you do it, the better you get.

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While siting at a workshop last week, I noticed that several people around me were having trouble paying attention and sitting still. The topic was interesting, the presenter was being extremely engaging and yet here they were, fidgeting. As part of an exercise in non-judgment and listening, attendants were asked to pair up and take turns give advice on problem areas in their partner’s lives. I was not surprised to see that patience was one of the top resources that people frequently wish they had more of, but just don’t know how to get. In the past, I have frequently found myself becoming extremely impatient which quickly lead to frustration and anger. While I can’t say that I no longer experience impatience, I now have many tools at my side to deal in a quick and healthy manner. Here are a few meditation techniques for doing exactly that.

Chinese Man: See an old Chinese man standing with his hands clasped behind his back. He has a relaxed, calm, and slight smile on his face. As you see him standing there, begin to move closer and end up looking at his face. As you zoom even closer, move behind and step into him. Feel the patience, calm, and peace washing over you.

Clasped Hands: When experiencing a moment of patience, clasping your hands behind you, begin to lean back and take a deep breath. When you need more patience, repeat the patient stance and follow the breath – deeply settle into the experience.

Breath Sip: Take a long slow deep breath in, hold for a count of five, and then slowly release. As you do this, pay attention to how the breath is coming into your lungs, filling them up, and leaving. This is one sip. Repeat several times as necessary.

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Unlike the law of gravity, this law is subjective and its effectiveness is determined by several factors. The focus, concentration, clarity of the goal, ability to achieve the optimal state, and ability to let go will greatly affect the results of the manifestation of intent. I like to think of the law of attraction as a process that we all use, every day, some have greater conscious control over their abilities to manifest and others wield their power unconsciously. Here are the four basic steps that will ensure great success, self-awareness, and effectiveness in manifesting your intention:

4 Steps:

1. Set Intention: First, a focused intention must be determined, without knowing what you want, it is difficult to get it. While this may see obvious, many people have a general idea of what they want but are unable to get a clear and concrete image in their minds. At this stage, it can be helpful to write out or list your intention. For some it is easier to create a story, draw a picture, make a song, or dance. The method does not matter as long as the intention becomes clearly defined and focused.

2. Optimal State:  Second step in the process is to get into the optimal state – a relaxed body, clear and focused mind are necessary to have best results. There are many techniques, some of which are listed in the techniques section of this website, for achieving this and it is important to be aware of what works for you.

3. Make it Real: The third step is to make the intention convincingly real, vivid, and personal. If you intention is to get a good grade on a test, having achieved the optimal physical and psychological state, begin to feel, see, and hear yourself finishing the test with confidence. Imagine what it would feel like to get the grade you want. What are other people around you saying? What are you saying to yourself? Where are you located and what are you doing, is it bright, dark, loud, quiet? To make it personal, try adding people that can help you or that you greatly admire into the scene. Work and play with the image/movie until it is superbly fine tuned to maximize the “realness” of the intention.

4. Let it Go: Finally, as you hold this perfect/ideal scene of the desired outcome in your mind, imagine letting it go out into the world. By letting it go, you are practicing non-attachment and releasing expectation.

It is important to experiment and be playful with this process to find out what works best for you. My optimal process is to form an image, give it motion, add people, make it larger then life and put myself into the scene as I look down onto it. As I do this, I assess the “realness” of the constructed image by the quality and strength of feelings and sense of movement within my body. This process gives me a sense of power and control over my destiny adding to my self worth, confidence, and ability to succeed in the world.

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The Law of Attraction – Powerful Meditation Techniques To Manifest Intention

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I am reading a good book today, called “Caught Between a Dream and a Job”, and as I sit here and read the lines, “… keep swinging from vine to vine until you land at your dream.” I imagine myself swinging from vine to vine, working my way towards that golden glowing object in the distance. I see this object as the dream, it is vivid, it is real, and it is within my grasp. Just another vine and I am there. Having landed, I look around and I see all the wonderful things that await me in my dream. In this particular situation, it is my dream job and I see it in full color. All of the senses are engaged, sounds, sight, smell, touch, motion and activity enliven the scene. This may be just a day dream to some, but to me, I am creating my future. Actively pursuing and engaging in the creative process that will eventually manifest.

Imagery, sometimes called guided visualizations, is a very powerful tool in the meditation arsenal. Seeing an internal cinema makes the experience, and therefore the goal, significantly more real than a floating amorphous thought or abstract concept. A powerful image, in context and connected to the real world, formed in your mind is much more likely to manifest than a hazy, dull, and motionless one. If you are unskilled at making images, practice and rely on the senses that are your strongest suite. Perhaps you are not a particularly visual person but your sense of hearing is very sharp and you experience the world more through your ears then through your eyes. Since none of us are the same, it is difficult to expect everyone to have the same modalities, however, I find that developing an internal cinema is one of the most powerful manifestation tools.

When I first began experimenting with this type of meditation, I was unable to hold onto or vividly perceive an image for more then 5 or 10 seconds. To practice, I started with a simple object, a single candle, and I would stare at it for a while and then close my eyes and hold that image in my mind as long as possible. I did this frequently, for short periods of time throughout the day with other available object and found that I quickly gained the ability to hold a relatively complex image for several minutes without any fading of fuzziness. Over time I have made this mental muscle strong enough to hold complex visual simulations that I can physically experience. You will know that your inner cinema is powerful when a motion image causes physical-bodily sensations of movement.

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2. Breath- I concentrate on my breathing when I want to feel calm, energized, or patient, however this technique can be used for any mood or emotional state. Slow, deep breaths typically have a relaxing and calming effect while fast shallow breaths speed heart rate and other biological systems.

3. Smile- I love this because it’s so easy and it does wonders when I am starting to feel crappy or start to worry about something. It is amazing what happens when you smile at other people, they almost always smile back. Just the act of smiling improves your mood and improves other people’s moods also.

4. Acceptance – In January, I decided that I needed to apply to graduate school and by April I had taken the proper exams, filled out all the paper work and sent my application to the program. I was terribly excited at the opportunity to study at a graduate level, but I was also aware that I had a lot of competition and it would not be easy to get accepted. I made sure that all of the hard work that I had put into the application process would not bring my hopes up and as I received my letter of rejection, I took a deep breath, looked within and said to myself, “This is fine, take it in, don’t fight it, it is absolutely out of your control. You did the best you could and now, move on.” Acceptance is a powerful force and resource in my life. Instead of fighting something, I just let it wash over me, and once it has filled me completely, I let it go. I find this to be true in many situations and I frequently use this to ward of cold wind and low temperatures outside.

5. Perspective- People often get caught up in their own issues and it can be difficult see things objectively. When this happens to me, I literally imagine myself stepping out of myself, or floating out, and looking down at the situation. Having done so, I then ask myself, “Is your reaction appropriate for the situation? How would somebody else look at this if they were standing out here?” It also helps to think about you in the third person; I would say, “Vlad is getting really worried about this exam at the moment, is this something that he can do anything about? How would John feel if he was standing here next to me, looking at Vlad’s situation right now?” By shifting the angle from which you see yourself and viewing the situation from a third person perspective, you can disassociate from the emotional reaction and gain greater freedom and flexibility in your emotional responses.

6. Help others – I seize every opportunity to help others. From a place of selflessness, I want to help them better their situation and improve their life, meanwhile, I feel better about myself because I have given a hand to someone who is in need. This gives me a thrill of satisfaction and a boost of inner power.

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We all have a story in our heads, or at least I think we do. This story tells us who we are, how we should behave, what we think of the outside world and how we relate to it. It seems odd, but looking within myself one day I found a story unfolding, a tale of reality yet unconfirmed. But, I was already telling myself how this would happen and what it should be like. This is the story of my personal story, and how I changed it and what it means.

I began with a process of understanding and analyzing the personal story. What was I telling myself, how did it shape who I was, my interactions with the people and the world around me. I then took this story and gave it a solid shape, a form conjured up out of my imagination and a mysterious object, both ugly, and boring unfurled. There was nothing exciting about it, nothing beautiful or magical for that matter, it was mundane as a candy wrapper and more boring and ugly then an abandoned parking lot on a lousy winter day. Yes, this was the image that I received that my imagination called up to associate with the story. And so, sitting cross-legged in the tradition of many eastern mystics and fools, I began to shape my future destiny be unraveling this ugly mess and giving it beauty, design, light and mass. I gave it motion where there was stagnation, light where there was grayness, and laughter where there was despair. I fed it good thoughts, lots of love and many parties. People came and visited my newfound beauty, my crystal future which represented the present outlook as well as the future yet untold. If thought shapes reality, then this will be a great day to remember, if I can keep it up. For you see, I still find myself telling the story, although not in the same way. But the words are habituated and that will take some time as well as watchful awareness to get rid of. In fact, every time I now think these thoughts, it brings to mind the crystal beauty that I have seeded within myself, and it makes me smile. Every time I feel this, I give a great “Thank You” for life being so good to me.

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