Ten years after I read, ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’ by Susan Jeffers, there’s one exercise featured at the back that I found particularly effective.
If you’re a visual person and you have a vivid imagination, you might find this exercise useful. I see it as a kind of visual meditation that helps you to quickly access your subconscious mind.
If you’re struggling to make a decision, you’re afraid of something or you feel stuck in a rut, this exercise might help you to see your situation clearer.
First find somewhere quiet to sit or lie down comfortably. Now close your eyes and imagine that you’re in a meadow. What do you see around you? Is it day or night? Are you alone or with others?
The idea is not to analyse what you’re doing during the meditation. Just let your mind wander freely. If there are any nearby buildings, do you want to go inside? Does anything make you fearful? Do you know where you’re going or are you just wandering?
In ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’, Jeffers encourages you to explore anything you’re afraid or fearful of. For example, if you come across a house you’re scared of, you should go inside.
If you’re not doing the exercise to explore your fears, just see where your mind wanders to. It might seem pointless at the time, but once you open your eyes and you start to interpret the results, it will all make sense — at least I hope it will make sense.
In the past, for example, I’ve fallen asleep in the meadow; I’ve gone on magical journeys across the world, climbing up mountains that get thinner and thinner the higher I climb…
Just let your imagination run wild and see what happens.
Once you open your eyes, you‘ll hopefully be able to make connections between what you were seeing in your imagination and what’s been happening in your waking life.
For example, if you were moving really quickly during the visualisation, are you perhaps, working too hard in waking life or burning the candle at both ends? If you don’t know where to go, could this reflect anything in your everyday life?
As a result, you’ll hopefully be able to make positive changes in your life — if you need to, and also gain a better understanding of where you’re going, what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
