Part 1 – Scanning Eyes for Rapid Stress Control – EMDR and Eye Movement Therapy
Based on EMDR and related eye movement thereapies, Scanning Eyes is an easy way to bring down stressful “edge” and clear the head for increased calm, creativ…
How-to-Do Imagery Video Series: Preparing
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Easing into Meditation
I hear this all the time: “I’ve tried meditation but I just don’t get anywhere because I can’t slow my mind down. I can’t relax.”
Not unusual since most of us start this way. I was never given much instruction, nor did I see others getting advice about how to ease into meditation. The instruction was all about meditating itself. As a beginner, I was expected to come into the hall, take my cushion and get down to hard work. Most people can’t go from the frazzle of everyday living to slowing down to zero miles per hour. We stretch and limber up for physical activities; how about a way to stretch and limber up for meditating?
Here is what I suggest to make the transition from rushing to the meditation hall to getting well underway with meditation:
1. Once seated, take a few deep breaths, to an in-count of 4 or 5 and an out-count of 4 or 5.
2. Mentally tell the muscles of your forehead to “let go and relax.” Keep repeating these words and the command to your muscles to make your forehead (from temple to temple) as calm as possible. Give attention also, to the muscles over the eyebrows and at the bridge of the nose. Surprise yourself and see how relax you can get those muscles.
3. Extend the relaxing of muscles to around your eyes. Again, take the time to relax those muscles as completely as possible.
4. Relax your jaw muscles in the same way.
5. Relax the front of your neck, from under the chin to your chest.
6. Lastly, relax your tongue.
Now….begin your meditation practice.
Theta Brainwaves: The Little Known Door to the Unconscious
Our brains, waking and sleeping, pump out an assortment of brainwaves: beta, theta, delta, gamma, alpha. Of this list, theta may be the most important for exploring and using the imagination. Research and experience since the 1960s shows theta enhances creativity; increases insight; discharges old and unresolved emotions; and opens us to changing and adding beliefs.
Theta was first explored in detail by Elmer Green. Green invited all sorts of meditators into his biofeedback lab to see what type of brainwave activity they could produce. Deeper meditation and experienced meditators produced more theta and less alpha and beta. Curious about his own practice of observing imagery, emotions, and insights as he coasted off to sleep (hypnagogia), he had someone monitor his brainwaves as he moved from regular awareness to deep inner observation. There, too, were higher levels of theta.
Peniston and Kulkosky came along later and tried theta biofeedback training on people who were suffering from major psychological issues such as trauma and addiction. Several times a day and for several days, patients would be coached on how to let go of tension in their bodies and in their minds. The deeper they were able to relax, the more theta was produced and the biofeedback machines provided tones to let the patients know they were on the right track. In recent years, the theta training protocol has been refined and streamlined from multiple sessions across multiple days to single sessions once or twice a week.
Anna Wise attached theta work to goals commonly sought by recent explorers of self-development. Answers from within could be evoked and brought up from the deep unconscious. In fact, theta work seems to work better if it is purpose-driven in the sense we set out and expect to do some inner work when we go to theta. Wise points to two types of content worthy of exploration: specific events of our past and current feelings; and general content such as what makes a good life; what is inner peace; image of god; wisdom, etc.
How Can Theta Waves Do What They Do?
Few have explained how theta waves can produce such results. However, some research (see references section) is connecting learning and memory to theta. This makes sense when we consider that it has been known that young children, roughly 4 to 7 years old, produce more theta than older children or adults. Assuming that the ages 4 to 7 (some say 2 to 5) is a crucial period for a child to learning the most important lessons of living (i.e. look both ways; how to recognize a friend from a foe; a happy person from an angry person), then theta could be facilitating rapid and deep learning.
If this is true, learning to produce theta at will, pushes are ability to learn to new levels and speed. We could learn new patterns such as habits and core beliefs. And we could replace old, unhelpful habits and beliefs with new ones that are healthy and helpful. Essentially, get into theta and slip back to when your mind was very young, very open, and very capable of learning at a tremendous pace and depth. We have a second chance to get things right.
Knocking on the Door With Your Theta Brain-waves – The options:
Option 1 – Find a biofeedback center and ask for Alpha-Theta protocol training.
Don’t expect this to be short and cheap. It can take 20 to 30, half-hour sessions costing $150 or so per session.
Option 2 – Purchase and Experiment with Neurosky/Mind Reflector
Mind Reflector is affordable and comes with a built-in alpha/theta protocol created by biofeedback/neurofeedback experts.
Option 3 – Work with the Anna Wise System of Imagery
Anna Wise did a great deal of work charting brainwaves and their related mental and physical experiences. Wise wrote that we can learn to spot theta brainwaves at work by watching imagery. Not what is appearing in the imagery, but the qualities of the images. When alpha brainwaves are predominant, images will appear sharp and clear. In theta, imagery appears less defined. She doesn’t explain why that is, but in my experience, theta imagery is fuzzy because we are not simply observing the images as we do in alpha but becoming immersed within the images. We are getting lost in the dream-like experience and we lose touch with ourselves. Just like in our waking life, if we are immersed in getting through the day, most sensory details are fuzzy since we have little attention focused on them as they happen.
I highly recommend her book, The Awakening Mind for its fantastically helpful insights and information alongside her imagery scripts. CD Baby sells recordings of the scripts narrated by Anna Wise herself.
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Resources:
See Elmer Green’s – Beyond Biofeedback (out-of-print but used copies can be found)
See Anna Wise – Awakening the Mind: A Guide to Harnessing the Power of Your Brainwaves
How to Get Rapid Imagery
It is a standard move in hypnosis and imagery work to use an “induction phase” to start things off. Hypnotists and image workers ease people into closing their eyes and heading down stairs or to a nature setting for a walk.
Why is this necessary? These opening images and suggestions are needed by most of us to shift inward, relax, and be open to what the imaginal world contains. Typically, it takes a bit of time to move from our everyday concerns towards a place that is quite dreamy and less goal-oriented.
But we can get masterful enough that long induction times are not needed. We can have powerful images without closing our eyes and descinding a staircase. In fact I freely get people to resist closing their eyes as I lead them through a standard induction to prove this point.
Spot Imagery Popping Up Everywhere in Your Daily Life
A big obstacle to having imagery upon command is realizing just how much imagery we engage in during the typical day. We don’t just think and feel using words. Images rapidly fire up and die away as we: imagine some worry; figure out what we want for lunch; as we describe some event to a friend; have a gut feel about someone we like or don’t like; as we look at photos, diagrams, and movies online; and give instructions to someone who has lost their way on the road.
Start now to notice just how much imagery is in your life. Catch it everywhere you can. This will show just how fast imagery can fire in your mind under conditions not resembling a long imagery induction.
Get Simple, Drop Imagery Blocking Thoughts and Feelings
Inductions were developed to get us to move away from blocking thoughts, feelings, and tensions we too often carry with us everywhere we go. For rapid imagery, get good at learning how to drop that stuff, at least for a few minutes. This usually requires a change of life philosophy. Regular life philosophy has us on alert carrying concerns about any unfinished business or worry a bit or a lot about what is coming up next. When we are not doing that, we are analyzing and planning. We need to drop that stuff to enter deeply into imagery. We need to become simple. Simple in the sense that we are going to bring our focus to the moment (goodbye worries and guilt) and do what we have to do. In the case of imagery, we have to tune inward and get dreamy. The more stuff we leave behind and be our simple selves, the quicker and deeper we can go.
Find the Feeling
Adding to this practice is the practice of regular imagery practice. If a person has consistently practiced getting into an altered state, in time, this state can be evoked. The practitioner knows they are there through a combination of a physical sense of a shift in their body towards quiet and ease and a mental shift towards imagery, dreaminess, or at a minimum, a deep quiet receptivity.
But getting there takes some time. Here’s the practice steps:
-consistently practice with moderate or long sessions so you create the opportunity to experience the full range of shifting that happens
-consistently observe in these sessions what it feels like for you to go deeper into imagery. Pay attention to your body: look for shifts in breathing, changes in muscle tone, expanding ease and even disconnection from your body; and pay attention how you loose your grip on inner chatter and the external world.
-when you are comfortable that you have done enough of the above, try shorter sessions of 5 minutes or so and see how deep you can go. Make comparisons: how does the short experience compare to the longer sessions; what is the same between sessions; what can you accomplish in the longer sessions that you can’t and can in the short sessions with no lengthy period of easing into deep imagery.
Start in the Same Place
Our overall goal is to get to where we can: shift to inward focus, move into a space which feels poetic in the sense that imagery has a feeling tone that draws us in by way of our curiosity and desire to know more, and a space that calls us to be open to abstractions, surprising combinations, mystery, and discovery of what is important for us to know at the time of our looking.
To get in that place faster, start off all of your sessions with the same place. Find an inner spot that is special to you and stick with it. Develop it over time by getting to know its details. This depth of knowledge, picking a spot that is special to you, and regular practice will start up an automatic association in your unconscious. Bring up the spot in imagery and your body, thinking, feeling, and unconscious will start to move quickly into the routine patterns of being that you have created in your past sessions.
Truth: Powerful techniques can be learned and mastered quickly
The media has exposed us to all sorts of exotic, hard-to-learn, long-time to master methods of stress management. Zen masters, biofeedback pros, hypnosis experts, and yoga gurus have their place and make great copy but they don’t have the corner on all things related to stress. Learning a few simple and powerful techniques can change your life. Got two minutes? Learn the following techniques. Spend some time to master them and you will have three friends for life.
Find Yourself by Finding Your Body
When we are in the thick of things our attention is cast outward and frequently carries our projections of what we think we are seeing in the people and events of the moment. When we are caught inwardly, we are away from our basic and simple selves and are in the past, future, or in some sort of analysis. When we need a break from either or both, all we need to do is find ourselves by finding our bodies. When we find our bodies, we pull back our projections and outward bound attention and we stop our mental time-travel.
1. Withdrawal your attention from the outside events and from your inside mind chatter and direct it towards finding your body.
2. Scan your body from head to toe, not looking for anything too special but just feeling your body
3. Repeat the scan but this time focus on scanning in the middle of your body. For instance, start at the top of your head and assume that you are focused in the middle of your head, the middle of your throat, the middle of your chest, middle of your stomach, and the middle of your pelvis. Next, feel yourself scanning down the middle of one arm and hand and next the other. Next move to each leg. The goal is feel the solidity of your body.
4. Repeat these scans as many times as you wish to bring your attention more and more to your body.
Flow Along With Your Breath
Your breath takes care of itself and it works sort of like the sea. Waves of air are drawn in and the tides of air go out. Watching the smooth rhythm of your air waves takes your attention, mind and heart along on this easy journey.
1. Come back to your body and find your breath.
2. You don’t have to change its speed or depth. Just start to follow it by focusing on the in and out of your breathing at the tip of your nose, at the up and down movement of your chest/belly, anywhere you can see the changes of inhalation, pause, exhalation.
3. Follow the flow.
Contacting the World
We contact the world in many ways but the most basic is the small area where we place our body against the surface of a chair, couch, bed, or ground. This is truly contacting the world. It is point that has some tactile and gravity pressure sensations and it is a good way to anchor us within simple reality for a moment or two.
1. If you are seated, be aware of where your butt, hips, and back touch the chair. If you are lying down, feel the larger area that is in contact with the surface of what you are touching.
2. Note all sensations of this intersection across the entire area that is in contact.
3. Hang out there as long as you want.
Technique Ratings and Notes:
Speed to relaxation onset: Quick
Level of relaxation experienced in first 2 minutes: Mild to moderate
Where can it be used: Anywhere
How noticeable when being practiced: Invisible
Best use (pre-stressful event, during stressful event, post-stressful event; general relaxation): All uses
Difficulty/speed to learn: Easy and fast
Equipment required: Perhaps a watch but a watch is not really necessary; go on feel.