MIND TOOLS
by Walter Last
Our thoughts,
feelings, attitudes, beliefs and emotions form the fabric of our inner world.
They are the main factors that determine whether we are healthy or unhealthy,
happy or unhappy. They have a direct influence on our body by changing or
maintaining our inner blueprint and by directing, blocking or enhancing energy
flows and glandular activities. They also act in an indirect way by determining
which foods we eat, which environmental factors we choose, which kind of
knowledge we acquire and how we use it.
The necessary
steps in this direction are as follows.
1.
Examine your present condition on all levels; make a
list of what you do not like and another one of how you would like to be
instead.
2.
Acknowledge and release emotional blocks and past
negative or unwanted conditioning. This may well be the most difficult step in
your improvement program because most of these problems exist on the
subconscious level.
3.
Use mind-control methods to reprogram your subconscious
mind; participate in workshops.
4.
Adopt a holistic or spiritual philosophy of life.
There are some
techniques that might be used specifically for either step 2 or step 3 of this
program, while others may be used in varied form for both steps.
RELAXATION
Deep relaxation is
a precondition for being successful with most autosuggestion methods as well as
with meditation and all other methods to contact the inner self. You may
experiment with the methods listed below and see which one works best for you.
You may combine
several of these methods in one exercise to achieve deeper levels of relaxation.
Autogenic Training
This is the most
thorough body and mind relaxation technique, developed by J.H. Schultz. It
requires diligent practice for several weeks or even months to master the
technique, but it is worth the effort, especially for those who are tense or
who have difficulties in contacting their body.
Lie comfortably on
your back, arms loosely alongside the body, palms down, or hands folded over
the abdomen. Close your eyes and breathe slowly into the abdomen for a few
minutes. At the same time focus your mind on the formula: "I am
peaceful".
For the next step
add the focus: "My right arm is streaming warm". After you can
easily feel the warmth in the arm, include also the other arm, the legs and the
torso. The warmth does not need to be taken back at the end of a session, only
the heaviness.
Now you can move to
the next step. Support your right elbow with a pillow so that your right hand
lies over your heart. Feel it beating and hold the mental focus: "My
heart is peaceful and strong". When you
can experience your heart, you may later keep the right arm in the usual
position.
During further
practice, add the focus: "It breathes me". Feel the breath
flowing in and out without mental control. After a week or
two include the solar plexus (inside the upper abdomen):"My solar
plexus radiates warmth" or "My solar plexus is streaming warm".
Each time go first
through all the previous steps, such as heaviness, warmth, peaceful heart, and
the focus on the next step you want to learn. Practice each new step for one or
two weeks. After several months it will be easy to relax the body completely
within a very short time. Body and mind will be still and peaceful, with the
body feeling warm and heavy and the head cool and light. You may be in an
altered state of consciousness but should be inwardly alert and definitely not
drowsy. This is an excellent preparation to follow up with any of the
autosuggestion methods and other forms of communication with the inner self.
REMEMBERING
Regression
A special
technique of re-enactment that can be employed professionally, in a group
situation, with a partner or friend, is regression therapy. In regression you
go backwards in time until you remember an emotionally charged incident.
Professionally, regression may be induced by hypnosis, but it also works well
with self-hypnosis or simply suggestions given by a friend. However, the person
leading the regression should have some experience or good common sense in
guiding emotionally distressed individuals.
Lie down
comfortably on your back, close your eyes and relax in response to your own
relaxation exercise or to given suggestions. Now your helper asks you to
remember a recent emotional incident and to talk about it. Skillfully he or she
will encourage you to go deeper and deeper into your feelings in that
situation, while all the time keeping verbal contact. Then the helper will
suggest that you slide back in your memory until you encounter a similar
situation or feeling.
You may also be
asked how old you are in the remembered situation, who is present and what is
happening. The questions should be formulated in the present tense. When you
stop talking or reacting for a while, your helper will gently lead you back
into your feelings.
Another starting
point for a regression is to find an unusual phrase that you sometimes use or
one that expresses an inappropriate belief about yourself, preferably in
connection with an emotional problem. You may sometimes say or think: 'I am too
old (or too ugly or too shy) to find a suitable lover' or 'I am afraid of
crowds (cancer, confined spaces etc.)'. Then, after relaxation, you repeat this
phrase audibly over and over again until a vision or memory develops which you
relate to your helper. Prompting questions will be used, as with the other
regression method, to lead you deeper into your emotions.
Still another
method, which is my favorite, goes as follows. We assume that this time you are
the helper or therapist to regress a friend or patient. Have the friend lye
relaxed on the back while you give instructions in a soothing voice. The
initial aim is to induce as deep a relaxation as possible.
Then you may
suggest: 'Now you feel very light and begin to float upwards. You rise higher
and higher into the blue sky'. After reinforcing this suggestion for a while,
it may be suggested: 'You look down but cannot see the earth because of a dense
cloud cover. You continue to fly over the clouds to look for a place and a time
that hold an important clue for understanding your present condition. When you
have found this spot, dive through the clouds and descend to earth. After
landing look around and tell me what you see or hear or feel.'
After each
suggestion make a suitable pause.
A patient with
cancer of the mouth and throat, for instance, related to me that he had landed
on a beach. Some distance away he saw a group of people amicably gathered at
another beach. I asked him to join the group to see what was going on but he
found it impossible to approach them. He then realized that he had felt as an
outsider all his life.
Another patient
related a true incident. He saw himself as a young man in a fishing boat with
friends. They were drinking moderately. While all the others had just fun, this
patient became rather ill and had to vomit. He said that this happened usually
when he drank alcohol. This shows that he had inherited a weak liver that he
damaged still further by trying to keep up with his mates.
In still another
regression, a lady in her eighties recalled that as a baby she was nearly
suffocated by a cat lying across her face. All of her life she had bee afraid
of cats, even if thy just appeared on television. After I suggested that she
imagine the baby jerk her body and throw off the cat, she immediately lost her
fear of cats.
Most common is the
experience of a violent death as a cause of serious present problems. Someone
with Parkinson-s disease was so afraid of fire, that she became rigid just
watching a fire in a movie. In a regression she relived the experience of being
burned as a witch at a stake. After suggesting that she can burst her ropes and
run away, she was much improved. However, after some weeks she started smelling
smoke when there was none. Another regression saw her being burned to death in
the 'great fire of
Instead of
inducing the regression as indicated here, you may find other suitable methods
and invent your own. To end a regression, give some positive suggestions for
coming back into the here and now. If memories become too disturbing and
emotional, the session may also be ended with positive suggestions and repeated
another time.
Repeated regressions may probe more deeply
into subconscious problems or explore different situations. If a strong
negative experience arises, always ask the friend or patient to reinvent that
experience with a happy or emotionally satisfying ending. One can also continue
to work on unearthed problem areas with affirmations and guided imagery. As
with all of these methods, it is good to start with a prayer or affirmation,
stating your goal for the session and ask your Higher Guidance for protection
and your Inner Self for cooperation.
Rebirthing
Rebirthing is one
of the methods that may be used to release emotional traumas that have
accumulated since conception. Preferably have one or more initial sessions with
a professional rebirther or with a rebirthing group.
Find a helper with whom you feel emotionally secure and who has some experience
or a good measure of common sense in emotional guidance.
Lie down on your
back without restricting clothing under a light cover. The helper may initially
sit at the head end and lightly hold your head for reassurance. Breathe deeply,
in a fast, regular rhythm, without a pause between inhalation and exhalation.
The helper watches that the lower as well as the upper rib cage moves strongly.
During inhalation press shoulders and buttocks into the mattress, while during
exhalation, let both relax. Breathe through the mouth and with an open throat
to make a sound during exhalation and preferably also during inhalation.
Let go of any
emotion that arises, with the helper assisting by pressing, stroking, cuddling
and giving verbal encouragement to bring them out. If no feelings well up, then
try to remember an incident when you where irritated, angry, fearful, worried
or resentful and deepen that feeling. After first working on more recent problems,
try to relive your birth experience and rectify any emotional upheavals
associated with it. A surprising number of people can actually come to remember
their own birth in amazing detail.
Preferably use powerful, stirring music with a
strong, regular beat during the first part of the session, becoming quieter
towards the end and finishing with harmonious, uplifting qualities. Let your
feelings follow the music. The session may last for one to two hours.