The
Healing Power of the Mind
by Shirley Ryan
Meditation heals!
Yes it heals, sooths and promises so much that we get boggled down
with all of the prescriptive thinking on how it will help us lead
a better life. Even so, when we think of meditation we think of Buddhist
monks sitting cross legged on a mat, cut off from society in their
temples worshiping in much the same way they have done for hundreds
of years. The contemplative meditation practices of religions offer
much and require much in terms of practice and commitment.
Another part of
me, my higher self said, “You know it doesn’t have to
be this way. There are other ways to get the same and more from the
practice of meditating.” I began to use some of these practices
with my clients and myself and eventually put it into a book to share.
Using guided visualization combined with art, metaphor, questioning
and archetypes I have found a way to magnify the action of the journey
into your inner self…a journey that helps healing take place,
reduce stress, and open up to a larger vision of possibilities. So
how does it all work? The combination helps you to focus in a different
way.
The use
of art helps us see what we’re missing. Sometimes,
we will see another person’s point of view; sometimes we
will see how limited our own point of view is, and sometimes we
will see that we aren’t alone. Seeing more or seeing better
always improves the quality of our decisions and how effectively
we work with other people.
We unconsciously
play out ideas through art that we would never attempt to work on
within the confines of words. Words are left brained activities,
and want to be based in reality. Emotions can be better addressed
with the right brained activity of art. When we use color, imagination
and symbols, we can reach another part of ourselves that escapes
us in daily life. It completely side steps the mundane use of logic
and reason to quickly access a healing response.
The use
of metaphor draws inner maps for us. Metaphor
uses short anecdotes to offer new ways to look at things, tap experiences,
beliefs, and ideas that lay quietly in the meditators mind waiting
to be unearthed. This communication creates a soft healing bubble
that let’s you choose how and what we work on next. The experience
can then be reframed to the meditator to make the healing transition.
The use
of questioning delves deeper into the self. Asking
the right question at the right time allows us to go deeper into
ourselves. We all know that this is the basis of a therapeutic
alliance, to maneuver with questions into areas that we have never
gone before. Using this gentle questioning enhances the guided
visualization process, taking the meditator deeper into areas of
self awareness. Whether we are looking for healing, reducing stress,
reaching for a higher level of consciousness or spirituality, gentle
questioning guides the process.
The use
of symbols’ illuminates an invisible reality. A
symbolic experience is real and affects us as much as the actual
event. Symbols are intuitively understood regardless of the culture
we live in. They have universal "meaning" because we
are the same souls in all times and in all cultures, just as all
people have the five senses of taste, touch, smell, hearing, and
sight.
The use
of archetypes helps us to see patterns of the unconscious to better
understand our own conscious existence. What
is an archetype? The dictionary defines an archetype is a, “symbolic
expression of the inner unconscious drama universal to all of us.” We
see this projected in events played out in nature and our life.
We can understand the universal meaning of archetype in this string
of examples: father, mother, crone, divine child, spiritual teacher,
mandala, seasons, sky father/earth mother, journey, garden, death/rebirth,
hero, outcast, shadow.
So there you have
it. Some of our favorite fairytales and cultural myth’s use
various elements of metaphor, symbol and archetypes. Throughout the
centuries we have escaped into myths and fairy tales, allowing the
child in us to play out these stories and heal. Today our current
day movies are inundated with symbolic meaning. Have we grown too
old to use these symbolic tools to escape to a world of healing,
power and self revelation? Not a chance! Take a healing journey of
discovery using guided meditation, and have some fun along the way.
