Happy Equinox!

The energy lately has felt very heavy for me as we transition into Spring. It is now time to start moving forward into this new Spring energy.  Use this guided meditation to prepare yourself for this move.

Read through this meditation and then close your eyes and remember what you can.  Let your meditation follow whatever path it takes.

Close your eyes and take a deep breath.  Find yourself climbing a staircase.  As you climb you feel heavier and heavier and it is harder to keep going.  Luckily you see a landing up ahead although the staircase continues beyond it. 

When you reach the landing you see there is a couch with a table in front of it.  Some tea things have been laid out ion the table.  There is tea and coffee, water and some snacks.  You collapse onto the couch feeling exhausted.  It feels as if every burden in the world has been laid on your shoulders.
After taking some deep breaths and laying on the couch you reach over to take something to drink.  As you sip you feel ask if some of the weight is being removed.  with each sip you feel lighter.  You then sit up and reach for some food on the table.  With each bite you feel reinvigorated.  You are amazed by the transformation.

As you look around the table you see that there is a menu of the items prepared for you.  The ingredients for each item are also listed but they are not food items.  Each ingredient is something you need in your life to lessen your burden.  They may be emotions or they may be activities or even people.  Read through the list.  Are you surprised by any of the ingredients you are craving?  Feel free to taste some additional items and feel yourself renewed.

When you feel you have absorbed all that you can of this amazing meal, rise and walk towards the staircase.  Now, with this new energy you bound up the staircase ready to tackle this new challenge.  When you are ready, begin to hear the sounds around your physical body.  Wiggle your fingers and toes, and open your eyes.

Now take some time to write down what you have learned in this meditation in order to enhance your experience.

What do you feel is weighing you down?

What ingredients were on your menu?

How can you incorporate those things into your life?

What is one thing you can do today to reinvigorate yourself?

What burden are you ready to release?

If you would like more like this check out my journals available on Amazon: Click Here.

Guided Mediation - Use this Energy

Is your intuition still strong from the solar eclipse energy?  Mine sure is.  Take advantage of it on this Full Moon.   

Take good care of yourself over the next week as you will need some time to recuperate from all this energy swirling over the past month.
  
Read the following guided meditation and then close your eyes and remember what you can.  Take whatever wisdom and relaxation you are given.  Whatever direction your meditation takes is exactly correct for you.

Take a few deep breaths and close your eyes.  Find yourself walking towards a large old mansion.  The mansion has not been kept up and looks run down and weary.  As you get closer you notice the front door is slightly ajar. 

When you reach the front steps a gust of wind blows by and opens the door even wider.  You walk through the open door and look around for any signs of life.  There are no sounds and it is pretty clear that no one has been in these rooms for a long time.

You walk through the dusty rooms and see there is still some furniture under sheets and even some pictures on the walls. You walk over to one of the pictures and blow off the dust.  A beautiful young woman is in the picture.  She looks happy and her eyes twinkle.  It reminds you that this must have once been a place of joy although those days are in the past. 

As you come to the end of a row of rooms you see a staircase that leads up into a turret room.  The stairs look sturdy and you are curious to see the view from the top of the turret. You walk up the stairs and notice that there are a few rooms near the top.  The doors to these rooms are shut but they do not seem as dusty.  The stairs at this part of the turret are clean as if they are being used.

Therefore you decide to know before entering these rooms.  You knock on one of the doors and hear a faint sound from inside.  You open the door slowly and see and old woman sitting in a straight back chair near one of the turret room windows.  The room is clean and seems comfortable although it is small and does not have must furniture.  There is a small but ornately carved bed, a dresser, a few trunks and chairs and table in front of which the old woman sits. 

She looks at you and smiles and you see the twinkle in her eye and recognize her from the picture.  She waves for you to join her in the chair across from her at the table.  You sit and look out the window and the view is beautiful.  You can understand why the woman has chosen this part of the house to occupy. 

The woman asks you to tell her about yourself and you give her a brief overview of your current life.  She asks how she can help you.  Ask her for some guidance.  She says that she can give you the wisdom of the very old who are less connected to this world and closer to the next.  Listen closely to what she tells you.  It may not be received in world but in pictures, ideas or even just feelings.  Take what is given and there will be time later to consider what it means.  You may ask a more specific question if you have one. 

Thank the woman and ask if you can do anything for her.  She asks you to pour her a glass of water from the pitcher on the dresser where there is also an empty glass.  You hand her the water and she takes a long drink.  She tells you it is the simple pleasures like quenching thirst that sustain her now.  She asks if you can also get her the book from the top of a pile of books on the floor.  Retrieve the book and you can look at the title before you hand it to her.  She takes it an places it on a stack of books next to her on the table.

She thanks you and you thank her again and say goodbye.  You head out the door and back through the steps.  You walk through the mansion to the front door and back outside.  Walk down the front steps and away from the mansion.  As you walk down the drive you look back at the mansion.  You see a small hand wave to you although you can't see her face.  You smile as you wave back and then continue to walk down the drive.

Begin to hear the sounds around your physical body.  Wiggle your fingers and toes, and when you feel ready open your eyes.

As soon as you can write down some notes about the meditation.

What did the woman tell you?

Could you tell what book she was requesting? 

Does that book have any meaning for you?

How can you commit more to yourself?

What wisdom is your own intuition giving you?

How can you support yourself in moving forward?

I really hope you enjoyed this meditation.  I enjoyed writing it so much.  I write these with my eyes closed while going through the meditation and I found this one very powerful.  I hope you do two!

Please let me know your experience in the comments.  If you have any questions or issues that you would like me to make a meditation for please let me know.

The Hormone that May Cause ASMR

I have a theory about ASMR (What is ASMR? Click Here).  I will preface this by saying I am not a Psychiatrist so my working knowledge of brain chemistry is rudimentary.  But, I have done a lot of research on stress for the various stress reduction trainings I have taught over the years.  

You may know about "Fight or Flight" and how your body prepares to physically fight or run away in reaction to stress.  Fewer people know of another response to stress called "Tend and Befriend." This is a reaction that is mostly attributed to women but I believe is also felt by many men. 

It is fueled by an increase in the hormone Oxytocin.  Oxytocin is often called the "love hormone" and increases the behaviors that build relationships.  In the case of stress it causes people to "Tend" to their families and their loved ones and "Befriend" by calling the people who support them to discuss the stressful issue.  

I feel Oxytocin may also be responsible for ASMR.  Since ASMR is a very physical, rather than emotional feeling, there must be some chemical change happening in the body.  The reason I believe Oxytocin may be involved is that I have also gotten ASMR when thinking about people I love.  It has to be a very strong love reaction, like when I was first falling in love with my husband, when my son was first born and I would just look at him most of the day, or even now when my son is sleeping (and not ordering me around, he is 5...).  

The feeling I would get on the back of my head in these situations is exactly the same as what I get when I am listening to ASMR recordings that trigger me.  One important component of ASMR for many people is personal attention.  I think it is that sound of someone really appreciating and taking care of you that creates this reaction for me.  It is the same way a really good friend or loved one will sit right next to you, hug or complement you and allow you to really feel seen. 

The fact that my brain can be tricked into this feeling by a recording created by someone I don't even know, still astounds me. I will not look a gift horse in the mouth though, as ASMR has allowed me to reduce my stress dramatically.  

Thank You, to all the talented ASMRtists who have given me the instant relaxation tool that has changed my life.  I so appreciate you, and am glad to have actually befriended some of you!

So here is my gift of relaxation to you.  I hope you can feel appreciated and cared for while you relax.

Relaxation Technique I Don't Teach

I suffered with anxiety all of my life.  From a very young age I began researching and trying different relaxation techniques to try and reduce stress.  This search is probably what led me to study Social Work and want to share what I had learned with others.

I have tried many techniques and have always been very optimistic about their benefits.  Unfortunately for most of these tools, once the placebo effect wore off, the actual changes were not enough for me to maintain the practice.  

Only a few have passed the test of making a significant change and being easy enough for me to maintain them for more than a year. 

If you read my blog or watch my YouTube channel you know the two techniques that have changed my life and that I teach: ASMR and Guided Meditation.  

There are a few others though that I do not teach.  One is yoga.  I have done yoga periodically throughout my life but it has only become a regular practice for me in the past several years.  

One reason this finally stuck is that I created an easy 10 minute routine that I do the first thing in the morning, often before I even get out of bed.  This is a Kundalini yoga routine that keeps my back flexible and allows me to start the day off relaxed.  

I do not teach this routine because I am not a yoga instructor.  I do show a little example of it in this silly video.

The book I used to create this routine is Kundalini Yoga by Shakta Kaur Khalsa.  If you want to create your own routine, this is a good book to check out.

I often suffer with low back problems and I highly recommend trying this active type of yoga.  Again, I am not a yoga instructor so definitely seek some expert advice to help you create your own routine.  If you want information from someone who does teach Kundalini Yoga check out Kundalini Yoga School: http://kundaliniyogaschool.org/2016/07/18/how-can-kundalini-yoga-totally-de-stress-you-in-only-33-minutes/ 

This is one of the relaxation tools I use daily, and in combination with ASMR, Guided Meditation and probiotics (which I will discuss in a later blog), I have reduced my anxiety to nearly non-existent. 

If you want to delve deeper into the techniques I teach, I hope you will join me for "Zenvigorate - a Relaxation Workshop" starting on September 17, 2016.  This is a seven week online workshop with relaxation tools you will be able to use at any time and live support and videos.  

I hope to take this journey with you,

Jessica Cross
www.jessicacrossasmr.com