As promised, a guided visualization on anger in 2 parts.  I have not been able to upload the meditation and am in the process of finding out why but I will have it up at some point.  In the meantime, I hope you find the visualization exercise useful:-)  As always, feel free to share your comments and ask your questions.

Visualization on managing Anger Part 1

Visualization on managing Anger Part 2

Also, may I invite you to share these links with others who may benefit from them!

Before I go, a reminder:  Have you signed up for my free meditation course sent to you by email?  It runs everyday for a week and is probably one of the easiest ways of helping you maintain peace and joy throughout your day:-)

Lucy Lopez

Awakening to Happiness!

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Hi Everyone!

It’s the weekend and I know most people are trying to relax and make the most of this time that they have away from work.  Not always easy if you have a ‘To Do’ list that has been just waiting to grab you by the throat and demand you attend to each item or else spend the entire weekend feeling guilty, unworthy and resentful whether about yourself or your partner, kids, pets, car, garden, washing…you know which ones better than I do :-).

However, here is something that I would implore you to do for your immediate happiness :-).  In fact, get that ‘To Do’ list whether it’s on the fridge or buried in your mind and put this item right at the top:  Give someone or something the Look of Love or the Gaze of Peace.  Once you’ve done that, scan through all the items on your list, take a deep breath, smile, release and then do the following:

Find someone or something to give the Look of Love/Gaze of Peace to.  It could be your partner, child, pet, garden…in fact, it could be absolutely anything!  But as this might be your first time, find something/someone that you perceive to be a bit more ‘responsive’.  (However, you will see later that their response is irrelevant).

Sit with this person/thing so that you are facing them fully.  Now, here is what you must keep in mind throughout this exercise.  Oh, did I forget to mention that it will only take you ONE MINUTE to do?  Yes, that is all that you need to change your entire state of consciousness.  (Actually, changing your state of consciousness only requires a moment but I will post about that another time…I seem to have a lot to post about ‘another time’ I’ve noticed :-)).

So, what do you have to keep in mind?  Here’s what:

1.  You are NOT TRYING TO SEND LOVE OR PEACE

2.  You are NOT LOOKING FOR A RESPONSE.

2. You are NOT TRYING TO PSYCHOANALYZE

3. You are NOT JUDGING/EVALUATING/INTERPRETING

4.  All you are doing  is LOOKING or GAZING SOFTLY  for ONE MINUTE

Please read that list over and over again until you are quite clear about what you are about to do. Note, I used the word ‘softly‘.  The mind responds very favorably to this word.  For most of us, the associations with the word ‘softly‘ (not ’soft’) are very positive associations.  So, focus on looking/gazing SOFTLY.

As you sit with this person or thing in front of you (about 2 -3 feet away would be ideal), begin by closing your eyes and taking a few gentle but deep breaths, slowly and effortlessly.  Let the word ‘SOFTLY or ‘SOFTEN‘ float in your mind as you do this. You do not have to think of it, but just have a sense that you have allowed yourself to soften, to sit softly.  Do not put any pressure on yourself, do not look for particular changes, just allow the idea/sense of ‘softly‘ or ‘soften‘ to wander through your mind and your body.

Okay, when you have taken a few deep breaths, slowly and softly open your eyes and let your gaze rest ever so softly on your partner, child, pet or whoever else you have chosen to offer the Look of Love or the Gaze of Peace to.  Just let it rest there. It doesn’t have to do anything except rest on the person/thing in front of you.  If it is a person or a pet, let your gaze rest on their eyes.  If it is an object, let your gaze rest more globally.  Focus on keeping the gaze soft.  You can do this by taking deep breaths and by remembering the words ‘softly‘ or ‘soften‘.  Hold this gaze for one minute.

That’s all!  Now tell me if you did not experience a wonderful sense of peace and quiet joy, a huge shift in your state of consciousness toward happiness!  And I bet your partner or whoever else you offered the Look of Love or the Gaze of Peace to would have also felt a huge shift.

Now here’s another wonderful thing you can do.  It makes use of something I wrote about it my last post, about how the ‘imagined’ and the ‘real’ have very similar effects on the brain and body.  You can offer the Look of Love or the Gaze of Peace to someone (or something) who is not physically present with you.  Just follow the same procedure this time visualizing it (or using a photograph if you prefer) and experience the marvelous change.

Please do it now.  It only takes one minute but it has a tremendous flow-on effect.  You’ll find yourself completing all the other items on your ‘To Do’ list effortlessly and joyously!  And should you find yourself deciding you do not need or want to complete all the items on your list, you will not feel inclined to  beat yourself up for it!  Being happiness with the Look of Love or the Gaze of Peace is one of the easiest things you can do to bring about immediate change within you and around you!

Try it and let me know how you go!

Lucy Lopez

Awakening to Happiness!

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Hall of Mirrors at Damanhur – Image from Daily Mail

The brain processes ‘imagined‘ and ‘real‘ events in very similar ways.  The same visual centers of the brain are stimulated, for instance, when you see something in your bedroom and when you imagine it.  And because information in the brain is stored, not in isolation but in association, visual stimuli trigger emotional, sensorial, mental and physiological responses.

Such is the nature of the complex networks of  associated information.  It is the reason behind ‘wet dreams’, waking up in a panic and finding butterflies in your stomach when you are anxious or nervous :-). Whether ‘imagined’ or ‘actual’, the brain and the body’s responses are similar.

This fact can be used to great advantage and it is, by athletes, scientists, teachers, healers and anyone wanting to effect a reality different to their current reality.  Children are born with this ability, which, sadly for many, diminishes as they get older.  Why?  Because we live in a society dominated by the belief that values and respects only that which is physical, tangible and quantifiable.  Anything ‘imagined’ is treated with suspicion and often dismissed.

Yet, interestingly enough, we hold a conflicting belief, or rather, a ‘knowing’ that our imagination is the basis for some of humanity’s most spectacular achievements, from the Taj Mahal to computers and the internet to high consciousness communities in Damanhur, to name just a few.  Many of us are also familiar with the story of Einstein visualizing himself riding on a ray of light, the speed of which would be impossible for us to appreciate through mere reasoning but possible to ’sense’ through imagining or visualizing as Einstein did.

So, how does visualization work?  When we visualize something in our mind’s eye, we activate the associated sensations, emotions, thoughts and beliefs.  I explained in previous posts about affirmations and the need for them to be supported by our beliefs and emotions.  Visualization provides us with a powerful means of generating those emotions rapidly and effortlessly while bypassing conflicting beliefs! This ability for visualizations to bypass conflicting beliefs is what makes them particularly powerful.

As the appropriate and most supportive emotions are generated, our entire mental, emotional, biochemical and physiological ‘maps’ and patterns are changed.  Clearly, the more often we visualize and the more deeply we enter into the sensorial and emotional aspects of our image i.e. we see, taste, smell, hear, feel that which we are visualizing, the more powerful and stable are the new patterns or ‘maps’ that we create.

Put another way, if you are having trouble believing that you will find your ‘perfect partner’, visualizing being with the perfect partner, doing things with her/him by using the brain’s ability to ’see’, ‘touch’, ’smell’ and ‘taste’ will evoke strong emotional responses that start to lay down the ‘maps’ or patterns for that reality!  You are therefore primed and set for that reality!

The fact is, all the things that we do routinely/habitually are the outcomes of what was once consciously desired, imagined, thought and felt.  Having a cup of coffee, for instance, once began with the desire, thought and positive feeling for coffee.  Over time, this ‘map’ of desire, thought, sensation and emotion was laid down, refined and accessed/retrieved so frequently that it became an ‘automatic‘ response.  In other words, you no longer had to consciously go through the entire gamut of desire-thought-emotion-sensation to get you to the point of making and drinking a cup of coffee (action/tangible, physical reality).  The entire process has been truncated to go directly from thought (mental) to action (physical)!  But more of that another time :-).

What is important to remember here is that visualization is something that we naturally and routinely do.  As far as the brain is concerned, visualizing activates the same centers in the brain as information received from physical stimuli.  It is an elegant, efficient and powerful technique (natural ability) that we already possess but which most of us have forgotten how to use to our advantage.  Visualization is particularly powerful because it enables us to rapidly and effortlessly arouse the emotions and beliefs that are needed to support our desires and intentions/affirmations and to turn them into reality while bypassing conflicting beliefs.

Do you have trouble visualizing things you desire?  Or are you a pro?  Share your experiences in a comment!

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