I say this at every class I teach because it is the truth! I feel that a lot of people who struggle with anxiety and depression are highly intelligent people who have such powerful minds that they are always focused on something internally while going about their everyday lives. While they are at work, they are thinking about what they have to do when they get home; when they’re home, they are thinking about what they have to do at work!
Other times it’s thinking about family issues and other things that might happen, or (even worse) they are stuck thinking about the past. I find it no mystery that almost everyone who has this type of overactive mind struggles with depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. When you give people who struggle an outlet in their lives you will find they excel at whatever it is they are doing.
It can be exercise, running, walking, or playing a sport, their forward thinking explodes and they get right into whatever they are doing and can apply the same energy to those activities that they do when they are worrying or when they are stuck in the past thinking about the things that happened to them. It can be too easy to allow past traumas to control their futures and limit their growth as a person.
If you give these overactive-minded people an art form (painting, music, dance, theatre, writing etc.) they will get lost in the moment and they will truly be free. They can become some of the best musicians, painters, dancers, and artists, creating breathtaking works of art and reaching levels in each art form that would blow your mind.
learned over time that meditation became one of my building blocks so I could focus my over active mind. It also became the foundation to my recover from my depression and anxiety.
Starting meditation is no easy task. I still fight to calm my mind and push the outside world away, as it is not easy to just turn off. But my secret is that I don't turn off, I just redirect my overactive thoughts towards what I am trying accomplish.
Learning to meditate starts with learning to relax. Learning to relax is all about taking control of that overactive, powerful mind, putting it to good use for yourself instead of wasting it on worry and thinking about the past. I would like to share with you a simple meditation that will help you relax and calm yourself and refocus that wonderful mind you have.
The first thing I do when I am relaxing before I meditate is find a peaceful place. That can be anywhere you’d like, such as a park bench, in your bedroom, your living room floor, your sofa – it really can be anywhere you feel at peace. I have meditated sitting on a chair in the middle of a busy downtown street in front of my favorite coffee shop. Anywhere you feel comfortable is the right place to be.
Making sure you are 100% comfortable in the position you are sitting is very important as well. Sometimes I am sitting cross legged in front of my pond and sometimes I am just sitting straight up in a chair, feet on the floor and hands on my knees. How ever you choose to sit, the main thing is that you feel comfortable in order to relax and calm yourself. If are not comfortable you will never just relax because your mind will be focused on how you need to change the position you are sitting in. If you cannot get comfortable in body then the mind will be distracted and you will never relax.
Ball of light Meditation
Using meditation to calm yourself is just one of the many ways we can benefit from using it on a daily basis.
I would like to share a meditation that I like to call the ball of light!
Close your eyes now breath deep and slow, feeling each breath from the beginning of the inhale to the end.
Then allow your exhale to pass slowly and with out effort to leave your Body
When you are completely relaxed, I want you to picture a ball of light that is floating in front of you. Make it as big as you like, this ball is going to represent the stress that is in your life right now. Or it can also be a positive emotion you are feeling.
Look at this ball floating in front of you and imagine that you can name it! Put a name on the ball of stress and allow it to sit there Infront of you. Imagine that this ball now contains all your thoughts, your emotions that are attached to the stress or the positive feelings you have today.
As you breath deep this ball is growing in size as it fills with your stress and your emotions. This ball is heavy and needs to be held up.
You now reach out with both hands and you grab the ball on either side. Holding the ball between each hand.
You feel the balls energy and with each deep breath you take, you bring your hands together closing in on the ball and making it smaller, changing it’s energy from negative to positive, or breath into your positive emotions that are in the ball, The ball enjoys this change and you continue
With each breath imagine it is getting smaller and smaller
1 smaller
2 smaller
3 smaller
4 smaller
The ball is now just the size of a soft ball and it is no longer filled with the negative energy, but it is filled with positive energy.
You now let go of the ball and it is glowing brighter then ever before, the stress that you named and the emotions that you felt are placed in the ball and are comfortable there!
The ball is happy and is floating freely in front of you with now help at all, you no longer have to hold it. The ball now needs a new name, so name this ball and own the new positive energy you have created.
The ball is now happier than ever before and you now take an open hand and hold it out Infront of you. The ball floats into the open hand and you bring the ball up to your chest.
The ball slowly moves forward into your chest and fills you with the new energy that you made.
Breath slowly and allow the ball to send out it’s energy into your body and comfort you, allow it to level you out with the feelings of joy and happiness. Sit with these new emotions, believe they are there and when you are ready open your eyes.
Learning to focusing that overactive mind and slowly learning to put it to good use is what these exercises is all about!
The more you practice the easier it gets. Do these breathing exercises everyday and take the time out of your day to treat yourself with love and kindness, learn to focus that highly functioning brain and wonderful imagination.
As you can see the power of meditation is just unbelievable, meditation worked it is way into my life in many ways and I started to use it in different ways to help me deal with things in my life that I couldn’t deal with. Learning to accept change and learning to trust are two ways I learned to use meditation to help me let go move forward.
To learn more about my meditation techniques check out my book “My Guided Meditation” Using Meditation as a Therapeutic Tool to Focus Your Overactive Mind.
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