Practice: Using Imagery (Mountain and Lake Meditations)Learning Objectives:After this session the student will be able to
Through it all, the mountain just sits, experiencing change in each moment, constantly changing, yet always just being itself. Using Imagery to Access the Body/Mind Feedback Loop to Evoke Positive EmotionEveryone knows that how you feel physically affects how you feel emotionally and influences what you think about a situation.
Did you know you can intentionally create positive physical, mental, and emotional states by deliberately inducing them in your imagination? The same areas of the brain activated during an actual life experience "turn on" when we induce positive emotion via imagery that evokes those poistive life experiences. If done repeatedly, these cortical areas grow more neural connections and get stronger. This strength, in turn, can lessen our vulnerability to worry, distress, agitation because we
Last, as in previous and future sessions, posture counts. Sitting in a proud way, or fully supported in a lying down position, can evoke the images about which you are imagining, and can deepen the practice. Imagery & the Emotional MindImagery can speak to our non-rational "emotional minds" using metaphor (e.g., you are a mountain, you are a lake), so employing imagery as a technique is an important mindfulness tool to have handy in the toolbox. For many, it can be more effective than logic to create and strengthen positive emotional states. In this session, we'll be using two different imagery practices borrowed from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). These practices are aimed at cultivating equanimity (evenness of mind especially under stress) and acceptance (it's okay to have strong emotion). These practices are
I grew up with the smell of the lake and the feeling of the woods. |
Let's give it a try
Mountain Meditation
Posture: This is a seated meditation in which posture is an important part of the experience. Your body will be seared like a mountain (at the beginning, the audio will describe how to sit), inviting a sense of stability. This is a 15-minute practice.
Mountain Meditation
Lake Meditation
Posture: This meditation is generally done lying down, but can be done in a seated position. If you wish to lie down, but often experience back soreness, some options are to place a pillow or rolled up blanket under your knees or thighs to relieve pressure on the back. Other lying variations:
- back and head on the floor with calves and feet on a chair, thighs at a 90 degree angle to the floor and chair back
- Lying on the floor with bottom against the wall and legs up the wall in a 90 degree angle.
Lake Meditation
How was that?
How were these experiences?
When could it be useful to do these practices at school? Home? Work? When with friends and family?
How might it help to have more acceptance of passing thoughts and emotions, including the unpleasant or undesirable ones?
When could it be useful to do these practices at school? Home? Work? When with friends and family?
How might it help to have more acceptance of passing thoughts and emotions, including the unpleasant or undesirable ones?
In the next week
- Try to do one or both of these practices a couple of times.
- Do a formal breathing practice on the days when you don't do a mountain or lake meditation.
- Do several informal breathing practices during the day.
- If you are doing this practice for class credit/extra credit, print the sheet below to complete and turn in to your instructor.
mt_at_mc_credit_sheet_for_students.docx | |
File Size: | 14 kb |
File Type: | docx |