Powerful Visualizations for Abundance, Releasing/Manifesting, Relationships, Protecting/Grounding Energy & Opening the Heart

Below are some more of my favorite visualizations to help when I want to open my heart, attract prosperity, manifest and create, protect my self/space, release emotions, negative situations or connections, promote healing and/or ground my energy.  I hope you find some of these helpful, too.

OPENING THE HEART

The Lotus Flower:

Use this one when you feel that your heart chakra’s energy is closed or blocked. 

What to do: Close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths.  Imagine a green and pink light flowing through your heart center.  Now, picture the image of a beautiful lotus flower inside your heart.  Visualize its petals opening slowly.  With each inhale, watch the petals unfold and expand outwards – opening up to receive loving light energy.  With each exhale, picture the petals closing, taking the loving energy deep within your heart.

You may also use this visualization to send out loving energy to an individual, a situation, or the world.  With each inhale, the petals are closed, as you pull the loving energy within your being up into your heart.  With each exhale, the petals open up as you send this loving energy out.

RELEASING & MANIFESTING

Trust in the Four (4) Elements:

Use this when you wish to release emotions, a situation, or a tie to someone; or when you wish to manifest certain dreams, situations, or emotional/mental/physical/spiritual well-being.

What to do:

Earth: Write down a list of the things you wish to manifest or release (the act of writing them down on paper “earths” these wishes).

Air: Find someone you trust implicitly (i.e., a friend or loved one), or alternately, yourself, and “air” out this list by reading it out loud.

Fire: Burn the list you made until it all turns to ashes.

Water: Ideally, collect these ashes and release them into a body of water (i.e., a lake, ocean, river, etc.) in nature.  If this isn’t a viable solution, you may flush them down in your home.

Trust: Have faith that what you desired to manifest or release has now been set free to the loving Universe.   Wait and observe what develops in your life.

Note: For releasing/letting go, it’s ideal to perform this ritual during a full moon (doubly ideal if it’s a blue moon).  For manifesting/creating, perform ritual during a new moon.

ABUNDANCE

Abundance Jar:

Use this to manifest more abundance in your life. 

What to do: Pick out a jar, box, or any suitable container.  You may get creative and decorate it with images, writing, pictures, symbols, etc. that represent abundance to you.  Make it something beautiful.  Each night, grab some coins or bills adding up to an “8” (i.e., 8 cents, 53 cents, $1.25, $8.00, etc.).  For double digits, add up the numbers, and break them down to a single number until they equal an “8” – the number of abundance. 

Closing your eyes, hold the coins or bills up to your heart, and visualize the abundance flowing into your life.  Concentrate on this until you can truly feel the abundance within your being.  Then, give thanks for all that is flowing your way, and put it into your abundance jar.  Repeat each night (it can be different amounts each night, so long as they add up to an “8”).  Wait and observe what develops.

Note: For an added spark, add a cinnamon stick (known to attract abundance), or sprinkle some cinnamon powder in the jar.  When the jar gets full, empty it out and put it into your savings, but take at least $1 and give it away as an act of charity, knowing that whatever you put out will come back to you tenfold.

PHOBIAS

Fear of Flying:

What to do: During take-off, turbulence, or landing, close your eyes, breathing in deeply, and picture a group of beautiful, protective angels around the plane.  Imagine them spreading their wings out far and wide, as if they were hugging the plane and cradling it within their wings – supporting it, slowing it down, making it steady, and leading it safely up to the sky and back to the ground.

GROUNDING & PROTECTION

Use when you are performing any sort of energy/body work (for protecting your energy/auric fields), when you’re feeling ungrounded, taking on others’ energy/around heavy energy, in a crowded place or negative situation, or after a sound healing, shamanic session, or other journeying type experience when you want to return safely into your body/ground yourself.

Roots of the Earth:

What to do: Imagine the bottom of your feet planted firmly on the ground.  Picture big, thick roots (i.e., like those of a tree) shooting out of your feet, traveling down, deeper and deeper into the molten core of the Earth.  You are bound to the Earth.  Picture the Earth’s energy flowing upwards from its core, traveling up through the roots and into your feet and your body, filling you with its natural grounding energy.

The Bubble:

What to do: Imagine your aura is like a huge pink bubble enveloping you in a strong, protective, translucent circle.  Picture it spreading far and wide: you can mentally use your hands to keep pushing it outwards, further and further away from you, creating a vast protective space where your own energy is contained and shielded from outside forces like a wall that cannot be penetrated.  Envision this bubble surrounding you wherever you go, always keeping your energy safe from outside influences/leaks.

The Creative Impulse: Leap into Your Authentic Life

My good friend, Ruthie, has a gift for revealing the unseen wholeness in others, bringing a blend of acceptance, humor, honesty, insight, and spontaneity to all her work.

A quick visit to her website provides a glimpse to this colorful, creative, artistic, one-of-a-kind soul.  In person, Ruthie’s positive energy is simply contagious: her genuine zeal for her work, combined with her keen awareness, intuitive gifts, and her compassionate and effervescent persona, remind me of that offbeat, eclectic, whimsical, fun-loving aunt we all had (or longed for) as a child – the one whose house we always wanted to go play in and explore, and whose warm-hearted nature would welcome us in, inviting openness and sharing.  With her, we feel understood: she is truly “tuned in,” exuding the sense that she could magically soothe away all our troubles.  In her presence, we feel free to express our authentic selves.

Having worked as a professional actor, director, writer, and acting teacher for many years, Ruthie became attuned to the suffering and struggles endured by many performers whose anxieties or fears, caused by a clash between their egos and consciousness, would often hinder the creative life force that yearned to move through them, thus dampening their authentic spirits.  Through her work, she also developed a sense of awe regarding how the actor’s skill set could serve as a guide to living a rich, vibrant, and truthful life.

Per Ruthie, having a vision is important.  Yet, being able to express that vision and take it out into the world is crucial.  The creative impulse connects us to our essence – to Source.  When we are freed from control or judgment, our creativity flows, and we feel playful, energized, and inspired.  Engaging our creativity enables us to reclaim the spontaneous, intuitive child inside, and to express ourselves freely in whatever medium we choose.

In one of her workshops, “Acting Skills for Life: Using Acting Techniques to Get to Know Yourself Better & Live Intentionally,” Ruthie helps individuals explore their persona – what we choose to show others, what we hide, and how we want to be perceived.  Using some juicy and transformative, innovative acting techniques that weave in the wisdom of the Enneagram (an ancient model of personality styles), Ruthie helps you identify the role you’ve cast yourself in, notice how it serves or limits you, and learn how to wake up from “automatic pilot” in order to play “the scene of life” effectively and intentionally.  By delving into the meaning of the 5 Ws (i.e., What do I want? Who am I? Where am I? What’s in the way? What do I do to overcome those obstacles?), and by incorporating a cornucopia of creative, experiential techniques that include mask-making and strong intentionality, her workshop helps you move to the next moment with a powerful, active, and authentic presence.

The Enneagram aids in this discovery process by helping individuals understand how they can expand beyond their limiting behaviors and patterns. Because the Enneagram is based on the three centers of learning – the mind, body, and heart – its patterns spring to life on stage.  As Ruthie explains, from a spiritual perspective, life is all an act, too – an illusion: we are “living the drama.”

She emphasizes that self-mastery is not a destination, but a process, and likens the human being to an instrument, saying that “what we should strive for is to be able to play the instrument of our lives like a virtuoso artist or musician.”  So, how does one accomplish this?  We get to know our instrument well by studying its patterns and its habits to understand how it works.

Much like her student actors, Ruthie used to constantly edit herself, like when she would try to “play the part” by acting all “corporate-like” in order to satisfy her corporate clients.  However, she soon realized that this wasn’t her gift to bring: she had to come to terms with that and just be herself – no modifications – just her wonderful, authentic self.  In order to teach others, she had to become the living embodiment of what she hoped to convey to her students.

Wanting to address these issues, Ruthie was led to become a body-centered psychotherapist.  According to Ruthie, the body has its own language, which we can use to work with the obstacles that inhibit us, such as rejection, shame, and fear.  She relates that psychology had always loomed in the background in the manner in which she approached all her work.  Even while directing troupes and doing ensemble work, she was always integrating all sorts of experiential, psychological work.  The desire to help others was always moving through her.

At the beginning, Ruthie thought she would just use her therapy work within the performance community, but then her practice expanded, and she discovered that her path wasn’t merely about healing others, but rather about healing herself at the same time.  Her soul was searching for where it needed to land: something deeper than performance was weighing on her.  She shares that her practice fills her in a way that merely being an actor or director never did.  It was much bigger than that: it was her spiritual calling.  Thus, every student and client became her teacher, too.

So, how did this teacher find her own way to living the authentic life?  By trusting Spirit, honoring her creative gifts, and listening to her inner voice.  When she was merely 22 years old, Ruthie made the leap.  She decided that she never wanted to be the person who says “if only…”  Instead, she asked the question: “What if?”  She would rather face failure than pretend and rationalize by avoiding.  Having witnessed so many others in her own family walk that path was a blessing in that it motivated her to move in opposition to that imprinted message.  Her many artistic talents were heaven-sent, but the key was her unwavering faith in the Universe – trusting that, even if things got challenging at times (and they did), the Universe would always support what she was destined to do.

What fills Ruthie’s Spirit and helps her stay the course is knowing how many people she’s touched along the way.  As the doors kept opening, allowing her to do her soul’s work, she had no choice but to follow where she was being led next.  Her mission began to crystallize: her purpose was to disseminate wisdom through creative means using one’s own creative life force in order to help others get to know themselves better, and rekindle their own passions and full engagement in life.

Ruthie’s inspiration is to be a vehicle of transformation for others – not just to talk about it, but to open the door so that everyone can find that wholeness in them.  She’s merely the “tool-master”: before any session or workshop, Ruthie asks herself, “What tool do I have in my backpack that might ‘be’ the way today?”

As Ruthie looks back, she sees there were no accidents, and all that she’s done has led her to this moment of her life, and provided her with the resources for what she does every day.  Ruthie feels that we are all led by something bigger than us, but we must pay attention.  Then, we must make the commitment to do our work.  In doing so, she recommends that we follow these steps:

1. Notice our ego and its pull towards suffering and doubt.
2. Be compassionate towards ourselves during those times when we get hooked, depressed, or hopeless.
3. “Wait until we have the breath to coax the smoldering embers back into the flame.”

We must “be” with what arises in us, and hold a strong intention and purpose for our lives. When uncertainty settles in, “imagine what your life would be like if you tried to NOT do what you were meant to do, and then see how long you can NOT do it.”  When a friend said this to Ruthie, the mere thought of it made her cry, so each time she gets to that place of uncertainty, she says, “out of the puddle of myself, I seem to rise again…because I seem to have no choice.”

The Enneagram: Transforming Relationships through Insight

Imagine a rich, practical tool that could help you understand how you and everyone around you is wired – one that helps you transform the messages you say and hear so that you may build stronger relationships based on respect, empathy, and accountability, as well as a mutual desire to connect authentically.  Using the Enneagram – an ancient model of nine personality styles and their inter-relationships, you can discover the depth of your own compassion, and learn to identify and clearly articulate what is “alive in you.”  This powerful system creates a paradigm shift by changing the distorted lens through which we see ourselves, our relationships, and the world around us.  By enhancing our self-awareness and understanding of others, the Enneagram is an invaluable guide for effective communication, successful leadership, conflict resolution, and personal growth.

The profound wisdom of the Enneagram can help one grow in self-mastery at work and at home.  Some of the key benefits include learning how to:

• Embrace change with ease
• Lead with vision and receptivity
• Access your authentic self
• Be fully in the moment
• Move through your resistance toward infinite possibilities and truth; and
• Sense greater intimacy and trust between yourself and others

According to my good friend, Ruthie (an Enneagram teacher), work is the point of departure for all of our relationships.  Our communication patterns (i.e., how we like to be talked to; how we affect others by what we say; what different individuals need in order to feel genuine support and appreciation; and how to build rapport and achieve positive results) apply to everything intimate.  Moreover, our decision-making processes are integral to learning how to read our selves (i.e., to understand how both our personality’s point of view and our emotional habits impact our relationships as they are filtered through our individual Enneagram type).

The Enneagram enables us to explore how own style informs our way of thinking, feeling, and behaving, and learn how to cultivate our unique gifts.  Moreover, it can teach us how to relate to the other Enneagram types and address the challenges inherent in each one.

Per Ruthie, every Enneagram type communicates in a different way – each one bearing its distinctive strengths and blind-spots that affect behavior in every relationship.  While effective communication skills are at the heart of any successful endeavor, blocks often occur because we fail to take each personality type into account, and each one is a necessary component of the whole.

The Enneagram provides a common frame of reference that emphasizes unity over separation: it brings awareness regarding everyone’s potential to contribute, and teaches us to speak one another’s language.  Learning to discern one another’s needs, motivations, and individual approaches to working and relating enables us to genuinely connect with others and our authentic beings to truly shine – allowing harmonious and productive solutions to spring forth.  Working within a context of self-awareness and self-acceptance, this model empowers us to make more successful and life-affirming choices, manage our personal reactivity, develop our emotional intelligence, and foster greater cooperation and support within our lives.

Finally, because the Enneagram is a dynamic system that encourages us to ultimately embrace the good in each of the nine points of view, we can learn to develop all nine parts within ourselves in their highest form.  According to her, that is where our wholeness lives.

As Ruthie explains, the premise is that we’re already whole, and we have all the answers we need inside of us.  The goal is to create a safe, supportive, non-judgmental space where we’re able to hear the programming from our past and become aware of what’s arising in the present moment.

Oftentimes, we accept old behaviors as a means of survival.  However, we should aim to notice when certain physical and emotional reactions no longer serve us, and invite our inner critics and our perfectionist warriors to find new resources by revising our distorted beliefs and exploring more joyful and supportive, physical and emotional patterns.

The Enneagram offers us possibilities and ways of seeing things that may never have occurred to us, and helps us identify our distortions as they arise.  Our limited point of view may repeatedly cause unnecessary conflicts and limitations in our choice-making.  Accordingly, by identifying our personal and professional challenges, and learning to receive them as growth opportunities, we can expand beyond our limitations and free ourselves to create and express a clear, authentic vision that is aligned with our core values, thus, allowing us to live and work with intention, presence, and purpose.

As a personal anecdote, Ruthie shared how the Enneagram impacted her in relation to the book she’s currently writing.  As a “2” on the Enneagram, Ruthie is a very relationship-oriented person – always wanting to connect with, help, and do for others – oftentimes at the expense of one’s “self.”   She always knew it was her calling to write this book, but she had to make the decision to write the book for herself.  As she explains, “2’s” have the tendency to deflect from the self as they are generally too outward focused.   At home, Ruthie encounters too many distractions between family and clients, so she came to the pivotal realization that, in order to actually move forward with her dream, she needed to make a commitment to herself:  for the past two years, Ruthie has been driving out to New Buffalo one weekend a month, secluding herself in a beautiful, lakefront home, where she writes for those 48 hours. Her hope is that this book will be a gift for others as well – a part collaborative memoir and do-it-yourself workshop where she shares her life-long experiments and experiences.

Ruthie’s intention is to know herself as a “2.”  According to her, the biggest gift she can give herself is to NOT do what’s habitual – a huge leap for her.  Thus, Ruthie uses intentionality and the language of the Enneagram to gain knowledge of self and follow her Spirit’s passion (i.e., to creatively disseminate wisdom via her creative life-force in order to help others get to know themselves better, and rekindle their own passions and full engagement in life).

Like Ruthie, we can all apply this insightful framework to discover our true Spirits and bring about beneficial changes into our lives.

15 Inspiring Questions to Promote Self-Awareness & Meaningfully Connect with Others

1. What does your joy look like today?
2. If you had something to teach, what would you teach?
3. What humbles you?
4. What experiences or activities make you feel truly “present” in your everyday life?
5. What gifts/moments have you celebrated lately?
6. When was the last time you tried something new/took a risk?
7. What lessons in awareness or growth have you experienced from a perceived failure or challenge lately?
8. What inspires the playful child in you?
9. What does love look like to you?
10. Where did you find/see expressions of compassion or beauty this week?
11. If your friend spoke to you like your inner child does, how long would you keep that friendship?
12. What words would you like to hear more often in everyday conversation?
13. What is the difference between coincidence, fate, and divine intervention?
14. What is the difference between living and merely existing/settling?
15. List 10 things that prove you are blessed in this world.

Becoming Whole Again: A Healing Journey through Breast Cancer

The magical words washed over Mary like a soulful symphony: “You’re in remission!” Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, she utters an excited prayer of gratitude as she reflects back over the past nine years and her transformational experience with breast cancer.

After a 25-year career working as a cartographer, Mary was diagnosed in August 2000. Early on, it dawned on her that this illness could kill her. Observing others, she had learned that stuffing one’s emotions and harboring a negative mental outlook were directly tied to one’s physical state.

Examining her own life, Mary realized that she hadn’t been taking very good care of herself for quite some time. She worked at a job for which she felt no passion or enthusiasm: her true self yearned to be creative, but she kept showing up – too scared to make the leap.

What’s more, Mary had just ended a long-term relationship and moved to her family home following her parents’ deaths – a house with passageways “stuffed to the gills” that mirrored the cobwebs within her own being. Her chaotic surroundings, coupled with an unfulfilling career and an unhealthy lifestyle, left Mary feeling depressed and sporadically toying with suicidal thoughts.

When she was diagnosed, she felt like it was God saying: “Okay, Mary. You think about ending things here and there. Here’s your chance if you truly want to go. Are you going to choose life…or death?” In that moment, Mary experienced an astonishing epiphany: all this time, she had actually feared living authentically more than she feared death itself.

At that point, she looked into the mirror and tearfully declared to the Universe: “I want to live!” Mary depicts choosing life as an intensely spiritual experience: a profound feeling of joy overcame her like none she’d ever experienced before. It was a celebration of sorts. From that moment on, her fears vanished because she knew that she would survive this journey no matter what things looked like.

Nevertheless, some real challenges still lay ahead. Mary reasoned that if she had created this in her body, she didn’t merely want to be cured without understanding the underlying reasons for her illness. Knowing that cancer recurs, she refused to live in an endless state of fear. She wanted the “truth” so that she could learn to heal from the inside out, and she was prepared to accept it in whatever form it came.

Her initial encounters with doctors proved to be rather disappointing experiences. Eschewing any conventional treatments, Mary was determined to play an active role in her healing process by taking some time to explore her options and make informed choices. In her mind, she wasn’t merely a patient or a passive victim. Yet, her efforts met with futile resistance. Feeling somewhat disheartened by the doctors’ dismissive behavior, Mary vividly recalls leaving her second clinic, resolving to find her own answers.

It was a pivotal moment of recognition: as she walked to her car, the Universe infused her with this inexplicable sense of courage and strength – like a lioness. Now, more than ever, she was filled with an unshakable certainty that this was her chosen path.

Undeterred by others’ fear-based reactions to her “alternative approach” to healing, Mary began a life-altering quest by following her intuition and standing firmly by her convictions. Her journey serendipitously led her to some metaphysical and holistic spaces where she met some compassionate energy workers and medical intuitives with whom she worked and studied to chip away at her deep-seated, egoic fears, resistance, and judgments, and to introduce holistic and alternative healing techniques.

These invaluable experiences enabled her to open up, truly get to know herself, and champion herself along the way, while also providing the impetus for her certification in several methods of energy work. More importantly, she found a supportive network of friends who trusted in her ability to take care of herself and make her own decisions. As a result, she discovered how strong she could be.

For the following six to seven years, Mary did an incredible amount of inner work to address her underlying issues regarding self-love, self-care, forgiveness, and self-confidence. Around this time, she was forced to leave her job following several, prolonged leaves of absence. While difficult at first, she accepted this fortunate blessing in disguise, admitting she’d have never found the courage to leave on her own.

Interestingly enough, Mary didn’t even have a tumor when this all began. The biopsy merely showed a few cancerous cells. However, over time, the tumor developed and grew to the point where she needed conventional medicine. In the winter of 2008, she returned to the hospital for what she thought would be a quick outpatient procedure, but turned out to be a prolonged stay. Mary had become septic and was quite ill. Luckily, this time around, the Universe provided her with a caring, open-minded oncologist who informed her of the latest developments in cancer treatment.

Independent by nature, Mary’ biggest challenge was in humbling herself enough to become aware of her needs and in learning to receive. Under compassionate care of the doctors and the hospital staff, along with the kindness and support of her friends and neighbors, she immediately realized how wrong she’d been in her prior attitudes towards conventional medicine and caretakers – an outlook that only served to block her energy and connection to Source.  Mary explains that letting go of judgment was perhaps one of the deepest lessons she learned. By channeling more light and being in joy, she experienced a dramatic shift that instilled her with a newfound sense of gratitude, love, and respect for others.

In the summer of 2009, Mary ran into one of the nurses who had cared for her during her hospital stay; the nurse told Mary, “You sure showed them!” As she soon discovered, not everyone on the hospital staff believed she would make it.  Mary remembers telling every specialist, “What’s the big deal? I’m going to be fine!” Yet, most of them looked at her like she was nuts. She had no idea they held such a fatalistic outlook because all she saw was complete healing – not death. Figuring out the “how’s” wasn’t important; just trusting the outcome was enough.

After leaving the hospital, Mary started chemo. Her response was very positive this time around: the tumor markers in her blood went from 160 to half that level within a few months time, and she didn’t even suffer the usual, harrowing side effects like hair-loss or nausea. Mary attributes these amazing results to the Yuen Method, as well as to the knowledge and experience she had gained from studying and practicing energy work, metaphysics, and spirituality. She says mushroom extracts and physical therapy helped, too.

After some time, she stopped the drugs: feeling too toxic, Mary wanted to rebuild her system energetically and naturally. Thereafter, she kicked her new regimen into high gear, and brought her numbers into the normal range, down to 33 at one visit, down to 27 at the next.

On January 7, 2010, Mary heard those sweet words: “Congratulations! You’re in remission!”

So, what did Mary learn in her journey through cancer? As she explains, “part of being on this path and loving yourself means following your bliss.”  In the past, she didn’t give herself permission to do that.  Learning to live mindfully infused her with the necessary energy and purpose that enabled her graceful passage through this trying period.  At 53, Mary feels like she’s emerged from a cocoon, and her life is just beginning to open up a whole new world of creativity and precious connections to others. Now, Mary engages in an endless flow of activities that enrich her life and her Spirit – through writing, playing music, creating artwork, dancing, inventing, and practicing energy work.

Powerful Visualizations for Energy, Health, Relationships, Meditation & Relaxation

Below are some of my favorite visualizations to help when I’m needing that extra boost of energy, to clear my mind of clutter, release emotions, negative situations or connections, promote healing, and/or to aid in meditation & relaxation.  I hope you find some of these helpful, too

ENERGY

The Light Switch:

Use this one when you’re running low on energy.  Say you come home from work, and you  don’t have time for a nap, but you desperately need a quick boost before you run out the door again or can focus on other tasks.  It works wonders!

What to do: Sit, or preferably, lie down, and close your eyes.  Take a few deep breaths.  Focus your attention on your solar plexus (i.e., the area just above your belly button).  Imagine you have a light switch there.  Now, in your mind’s eye, flick that light switch up as if you were turning on the light in your room.  Now, picture radiant rays of light spreading out in all directions, flowing throughout your body and filling it with energy.  Once you have the mental image of this glowing light infusing your entire being, sit with it for a minute or two.  Focus on circulating and expanding the light, filling every crevice and every cell with this rejuvenating, life-force energy.  Allow yourself to feel it.  This is your reservoir, which you’ve just re-filled with a divine, energetic spark.  You should feel re-invigorated and refreshed as if you had just sat in meditation or taken a quick cat nap.

RELAXING THE MIND DURING MEDITATION/BEFORE SLEEP/AT WORK, ETC.

Use these when your mind is so full of thoughts that the chatter is just deafening, or when you’re trying to relax, but thoughts keep popping in, distracting you and interrupting your focus, your meditation, etc.

The Windshield Wipers:

What to do: If you like music, put on some soothing, word-less music in the background.  Sit with your feet firmly on the ground.  Place your hands in an open position (palms up) on your thighs, or by your sides.  You may also sit in a yogic position if you prefer.  Close your eyes.  Take a few deep breaths.  Tense and release the muscles of your body, one by one.  Try to relax the mind.  As thoughts start to make their way in, imagine you have a set of windshield wipers behind your eyes (in your mind’s eye), and, like a car, imagine these wipers just gently washing away the thoughts as they do the rain.  Swish, swish.  Off they go!  It’s like clearing the window in your mind’s eye.

The Breeze in the Window:

What to do: Imagine an open window in your third eye.  Picture a light breeze is blowing in and out.  Refreshing air is coming in, clearing your mind and nurturing your being.  As the breeze blows out, it takes away the chatter, thoughts, and any pent up tension, and pent-up emotions.  Air in, air out.  (NOTE: this one may also be used for health: same concept, but imagine the pure, fresh breeze that comes in as cleansing and purifying your body, removing any unhealthy cells or disease as it blows out).

Ocean/Water:

What to do: Imagine yourself at sea.  Perhaps you’re lying in the sand.  You’re watching the water come up to the edge and slowly trail back to its source, taking with it all the random remnants left beside the shoreline.  Your thoughts are like the small sea shells and rocks: picture the ocean water coming up to the edge and washing away all unnecessary clutter, taking it back to the grand, wide open water where it is released.  Gently moving in, gently washing out – leaving a transparent, shimmering, liquid trail in its wake on the wet sand beneath your feet.  Your mind, like the sand, is now free – cleansed.

HEALTH

These can be used either for visualizing healing that gets rid of unhealthy cells, or to fill your body with new, healthy ones.

Coins:

What to do: You know how you always randomly find coins behind your couch, in an old jean pocket, in your laundry machine or car?  They seem to pop up everywhere, in unexpected places, at the most random times.

To find healthy cells/regenerate healthy cells: Imagine you are inside your body.  You are searching around for healthy  cells.  The cells are like the coins.  Picture yourself finding a coin here, another there, and so on, and so forth.  They start to multiply.  You are finding coins everywhere.  Each coin is a healthy cell.  This is a great visualization for those trying to get their cell counts up for lab tests (i.e., cancer, hiv, etc. or heart related tests – boosting “good” cholesterol).

To dissolve unhealthy cells: Inhale, and imagine a pure, green light infusing your being, traveling every corner of your being.  As you exhale, picture it carrying away any unhealthy cells, moving them outside your body, or dissolving them.  Remember those cartoons where a character would sometimes disappear in a ball of smoke: “Poof!”  Something dense would just dissolve into nothingness.  Similarly, imagine going within your body and searching for those unhealthy cells.  Use a flashlight if you’d like.  There’s one!  Now, zap it like a genie snapping their fingers, or like that cartoon figure going up in a ball of smoke, imagine the cell dissolving into nothingness:  “Poof!”  You can also use your fingers (in your mind) to grab the cell (or plaque) and squeeze it: “Poof!”  It’s gone!  Finally, you may also infuse it with a cleansing and healing green or white light.

REMOVING TIES TO NEGATIVE ENERGY, SITUATIONS, OR PEOPLE

This visualization is helpful for those who have a challenging time letting go of a toxic relationship to another individual, a situation, or a pattern/behavior within one’s self.   The situation, person, or one’s ego may be holding some negative energy or power over you, which generally presents itself in the form of an energy drain, blocks, power struggles, self-doubt, fear, etc.

Cutting the Cord:

What to do: First, try and think about where you feel this negative energy affecting you most.  Is it your heart, your solar plexus, your creativity or emotional center, your root chakra (i.e., sense of security, foundation, grounding), your throat chakra (i.e., your ability to express and communicate openly), or your spiritual self, etc.?

For example, if it’s an old, toxic relationship that you cannot seem to escape from (i.e., either the person has a continued “hold” over you, like an abusive or contentious ex, or you are merely still bombarded with thoughts about this person, and/or there’s a continued, one-sided emotional attachment in either direction), then you might focus on any of the following: heart center, solar plexus, sacral chakra, or throat chakra.  Think about which energy center is most affected in YOUR system.  Now, think about the root of the negative bond and energy coming from the OTHER person (i.e., if it’s a emotional/power struggle, their solar plexus energy may be tied to your heart center; or, you may feel incapable of fully communicating your needs, and thus picture their solar plexus and your throat chakra).

Now, visualize a cord linking the two chakras (energy centers).  Picture the person’s face (or situation) clearly in your mind.  Envision the infinity symbol, which has two circular loops.  Place yourself in the right circle/loop, and place the other person (or situation) in the left circle/loop.  See the cord connecting the two of you.  Now, envision a white light all around you for protection and healing, and a blue light around the other person (or situation) to wish them positive healing and energy.  Once the image is vividly set in your mind’s eye, picture a set of scissors.   Now, cut the cord linking the two of you.  As you do this, affirm to yourself that you are releasing and detaching yourself from this person (or situation).  Send them off with blue light.  Finally, visualize yourself now standing in your circle alone, surrounded by a luminous white light, and picture your chosen chakra expanding and glowing brightly.  You are free!  Hold on to the feelings of levity and blissfulness from cutting away the cord.

(NOTE: This can be used for self-created situations, such as self-sabotaging behaviors in one’s professional path, or addictive behaviors like drinking, smoking, etc.)

Repeat as often as needed if you feel yourself being pulled back in, but remember, while doing this, try to genuinely affirm and have faith in your definitive choice and action to break free from this toxic person or situation.  Trust that it will dissolve itself, and you are now paving the way to open new doorways for healthier, more nurturing, and supportive relationships and situations.

10 Invigorating Questions to Spice Up a Conversation and Truly Connect with Others

Next time you’re out with a friend, a significant other, a family member, or just meeting someone new, try trading in the typical “How are you?” or “How was your day?” with some of these thought-provoking, soul-inspired, and heart-connecting questions for a change.

I promise, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the dynamic shifts in your encounters with others

1.  What inspires you?

2.  What are you grateful for today?

3.  What surprising experiences or synchronicities have you encountered recently?

4.  What energizes you?

5.  If you knew you could not fail, what would you attempt to do?

6.  How can I support & inspire more creative flow and divine freedom of expression in your life today?

7.  What unexpected, thoughtful gift have you received lately?

8.  What playful activity have you engaged in recently?

9.  What nurtures your soul?

10.  How can I help deepen our sense of connection?

(Note: sometimes, I just post/write these questions on a colorful post-it, or use a washable crayon on a mirror or window, and leave these surprise notes behind for a loved one to find… Could even be a simple, spontaneous text or email.  Not expecting an answer, the intent may be to merely brighten up someone’s day, connect in a meaningful way, inspire them, let them know you’re thinking about them, or leave them with a delightful morsel for them to ponder upon throughout their day:)