\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\nThat makes sense. It’s the difference between listening. I think Einstein once said, “You could break a Beethoven sonata down “into wavelengths and frequencies, “but you’d be missing the point.” So there’s that linear, scientific part. There’s that experiential part. We’re after that. So imagery, it’s a\r\nnatural way that we think. It’s very closely linked to emotions. It’s natural, if you think\r\nabout it as a coding language, it’s a coding language of the\r\nemotional, intuitive gray. And it’s just that we haven’t had much education in using it, and runaway imagination is\r\nprobably the primary source of modern stress. It’s not just what’s happening, it’s what you think will happen to you, and how it will affect you that sends the signals\r\ndown into your body. On the other hand, developing\r\na skillful imagination is one that you can use to\r\nsend messages of calmness, confidence, creativity,\r\nand there are a lot of different ways to use it.\r\n\r\nYour most potent tool for stress relief, but you need to learn some skills to use it on purpose. So the imagery, what the\r\nimagery does is if we’re having a problem that we can’t\r\nsolve in that cortex, the imagery brings the\r\nlimbic brain into it. It brings the emotional,\r\nintuitive intelligence to that issue or problem, so it just brings a whole\r\nother big area of the brain to bear on whatever the problem is. So it doesn’t take anything away. It adds intelligence to\r\nyour problem-solving. So you can calm your brain with imagery, just like you can make it anxious. I could take you through a little imagery, just ask you to imagine the scariest thing you’ve ever been through. Don’t do that right now. If we went through it and had you really, “What do you see? “What do you hear? “What do you smell? “Imagine you’re there again.” You could work up pretty good anxiety.\r\n\r\nIf I asked you instead to\r\nimagine that you go to a place that’s peaceful and beautiful to you and that you just loved to be in, we have nothing to do and it’s safe and it’s the right temperature and notice what you see and hear and smell and immerse yourself in that daydream. Your brain will send messages down through the limbic system,\r\ndown into the lizard brain. It’ll say, “It looks\r\nbeautiful, peaceful, and safe. “It sounds beautiful, peaceful, and safe. “It smells nice. “It’s peaceful here, it’s safe. “Hit the All Clear button.” And your body will shift into that. So there’s that place is, “Where right now do I\r\nwanna focus my attention? “What train of thought do I\r\nwanna put my attention on?” And again, few people have\r\never really been taught this, so we have got … I’ll get to the commercial aspect later, but it’s one reason that\r\nI’ve devoted as much time as I have to write books and\r\ndoing audio CDs and downloads to teach people these skills.\r\n\r\nThey’re very, they’re simple skills. Your imagination is your birthright. It’s built into you. Nobody ever really just taught you how to do some fairly simple,\r\nbut potentially profound moves with them that can\r\nliterally change your life depending on what you’re doing. It can certainly improve your life. So rather than talk with you more, I wanna offer you a chance. Let’s do it, would you\r\nlike to do some imagery? Some guided imagery instead.\r\n\r\nWe’ll rest your left brain. We’ll fan it off, cool it off. So I wanna share with you\r\nfairly simple imagery that we call evocative imagery. How many of you have used guided\r\nimagery on purpose before? So a fair number. Maybe half or a little more than half. So this is a way to use imagery to help you access particular quality that you might wanna have more of. Okay, and that could be, it could be courage,\r\nit could be confidence, it could be created,\r\nit could be patience, it could be humor, it\r\ncould be assertiveness. Any quality that you wanna think about. And the way that we usually use this, and you could do this is to think about the situation that\r\nyou’ve got going on, that you have had difficulty\r\nsolving or resolving.\r\n\r\nAnd you just feel like you just haven’t been able to resolve it and it seems like something that you could potentially\r\nsolve or resolve. Well, you just don’t feel you have enough fill-in-the-blank to do this. You need a little more,\r\nagain, courage, assertiveness, patience, humor, whatever it is, okay? If you can’t think of\r\none right off the bat, just think about a quality\r\nthat you would like to experience more of in yourself. Joy, calmness, again,\r\nconfidence, self-love. Whatever floats your boat. Just some quality you’d\r\nlike to experience more of. And give it a name. Think about the name of it, and you could do a couple of qualities. I wouldn’t do more than, sometimes it’s unclear\r\nwhat you need more of. I feel like I need more, I don’t know if it’s courage\r\nor I need more strength, so you could do them\r\nboth kind of together.\r\n\r\nKinda know what you’re after. But think about a specific\r\nquality or a couple of qualities that you would just like to\r\nfeel more of in yourself, okay? And then let yourself be as comfortable as you can be in your seats. You can close your eyes. You don’t have to. But it’s usually easier to pay\r\nattention to your imagination and your inner world if you do. And then just let yourself take a couple of deeper breaths in your breathing. Let your breathing get a little\r\ndeeper into your abdomen, and-\r\n(exhaling) let your out-breath be kind of\r\na letting-to-go kind of breath.\r\n\r\nWithout forcing anything\r\nor straining anything, just, again, drawing a deeper breath into your abdomen and to your belly, letting the out-breath be\r\na letting kind of a breath. Just inviting your body to\r\nbegin to soften or relax. And just another time or two as you welcome the breath into your body. Just notice that you’re\r\nliterally bringing fresh energy and oxygen into your body. You can invite it to circulate\r\nand flow around your body in the bloodstream to\r\nevery cell of your body.\r\n\r\nBrings fresh energy. And as you let the\r\nbreath out, if you like, just let it be an invitation to your body, your mind, even your spirit, to just let go of any tension or discomfort you don’t\r\nhave to hold right now. And you don’t even have to worry about whether you need to hold\r\nor what you can let go of. Just invite the body to soften. The mind begins to quiet. And invite your body to\r\ncontinue to soften and relax. Perhaps to become a little more spacious without worrying about how it does that. Feel free to shift or move\r\nto be even more comfortable. And if you haven’t already\r\nlet yourself go inside to a place that’s very beautiful to you, let yourself daydream yourself to a place that’s very beautiful, peaceful, safe.\r\n\r\nAnd that might be a place that you’ve actually been in your life. Either in your outer life\r\nor even in your inner life. Or it might be a place that\r\njust comes to mind right now, an imaginary place, or some combination. It doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s a place\r\nthat’s beautiful to you and peaceful and safe. And if more than one place comes to mind, just pick whichever one\r\nattracts you the most right now. And imagine in your own way\r\nthat you’re actually there. And take a few moments to just look around and notice what you imagine seeing in this beautiful, peaceful place. Notice the colors and the shapes and the things that are there, and don’t worry about whether\r\nit’s very vivid and clear like your usual eyesight or\r\nwhether it’s kind of vague or it comes and goes, but just notice what you imagine is there in this peaceful, beautiful\r\nplace, safe place. And notice what you imagine\r\nhearing in that place, or if it’s just very quiet.\r\n\r\nNotice any sounds you imagine hearing. Notice if there’s an aroma or a fragrance or a quality of the air. And notice what time of day\r\nor night it seems to be. And I wonder if you can tell\r\nwhat season of the year it is. Just notice, find the spot in that place where you feel most\r\ncomfortable and at ease. And just trusting your instincts just like a dog or a\r\ncat will circle and find the most comfortable place to be and let yourself get comfortable there.\r\n\r\nAnd then think about a quality that you think you’d like to feel more of. The name of a quality, a\r\nparticular quality or feeling state that you’d like to feel more of. And then let yourself\r\ngo back in your memory to some time when you experienced yourself having that quality in yourself. Just let your memory go back to some time when you felt that quality in yourself. And some of you may not have a memory of having that quality, so\r\nlet yourself go to some time when you witnessed\r\nsomebody else expressing that quality or embodying that quality. that could be a real person\r\na fictional person, or a historical person. And if you found a time when\r\nyou yourself had this quality, imagine that you’re there again now. And notice what you see,\r\nwhat you hear, what you feel as you’re feeling that\r\nparticular quality within you.\r\n\r\nAnd if you’re imagining somebody else embodying that quality, imagine that you bring them inside you so that you can feel what it feels like to have that quality inside you. And then notice where you feel that quality most strongly in your body. You might want to just\r\ngently scan through your body with your attention from\r\nhead to toe and back up as if your attention were a\r\nsonar beam or a radar beam, and just see if you, where do you feel that particular quality\r\nmost strongly in your body? Strongest in your feet or your legs? Your pelvis? Abdomen? Chest? Your neck and shoulders? Arms and hands? In your face? Just notice wherever it\r\nseems to be strongest. And let it grow a little bit larger. Imagine that you can just allow it to grow a little bit larger and\r\nstronger, just a little bit.\r\n\r\nAnd notice how it feels to\r\nfeel that quality in yourself. And notice what your\r\nposture wants to be like as you feel that quality\r\nmore strongly in yourself. And if you’re comfortable with it, imagine that you turn up the volume on that quality like you had control, like a volume control on\r\na radio or television, and you turn it up so that it radiates out from wherever it’s\r\ncentered in all directions. Radiates out and fills your body with that particular quality. And as you feel that in your face, notice how your face feels.\r\n\r\nAnd as you feel that quality, notice what you imagine\r\nyour voice would be like if you were in touch with\r\nthat quality when you spoke. And if you like the\r\nfeeling of this quality, go ahead and turn it up even more so that it overflows the space of your body and fills the space around your body for a foot in every direction. And imagine that it\r\nradiates inside your body and touches every cell in\r\nyour body with that quality. From the deepest part of your\r\nbone marrow to your bones. To your connective tissues, your muscles. The organs and your pelvis. In your abdomen. In your chest. Especially in your brain. Your spinal cord and your nervous system. As if every cell of your body were touched by a ray of this quality.\r\n\r\nAs if you were a sponge and you\r\nwere bathing in this quality and could soak up as much as you’d like. And if you like, you can turn it up even stronger and bigger, fill the space around your body for several feet in every direction. You can experiment with that. Never turn it up so strongly\r\nthat you’re uncomfortable, but if you like the way it feels, imagine you can turn it up. That there’s an abundant\r\nsource of this quality, and you can turn it up so\r\nthat you fill the space around your body for\r\n12, 15, 20 feet around. Fill the room with it. Fill the bay area with it. Fill the world with it. Just experiment, and then\r\nlet yourself turn the volume into whatever’s most\r\ncomfortable for you right now.\r\n\r\nNo matter how strong or weak,\r\nhow big or small that is, just permit yourself\r\nto let it be like listening to music when you’re all by yourself. Whatever volume is most\r\ncomfortable for you right now is exactly the right volume. And just let yourself rest in\r\nthat for a few more minutes. And just take a moment before you bring your awareness back into the room. Just take a moment to\r\nreview what’s happened in this brief imagery experience. What quality you were looking\r\nto experience more of. Whether you have or not. What it was like. And if there’s anything in particular that you want to bring\r\nback from this experience and remember when you come\r\nback to the outer world. And before you come back to\r\nthe outer world, take a moment.\r\n\r\nIf there’s a particular situation that you wanted more of this\r\nquality to address, imagine addressing that situation while being in touch with this quality. And just notice whatever you notice. Notice whether it seems the\r\nsame or different in any way. Whether bringing more of this quality into the situation seems\r\nto change anything about it or your relationship to it. And before you come\r\nback to the outer world, just remember that you\r\ncan recall this quality, access it, feel it, built it more strongly in\r\nyourself anytime you like just by going through this process again. And so when you’re ready, just let the images go back\r\nto wherever they came from and become aware of the\r\nroom that we’re in together. And just gently start\r\nto bring your awareness from your inner world back\r\nout to the outer world. Us in this room here together. And if you like, just very\r\ngently stretch your body and feel your fingers and toes\r\nand everything in between.\r\n\r\nI wanna give you just\r\na few minutes to write or draw anything that you wanna remember about this experience. This is just for you. I’m gonna give you about\r\nthree or four minutes just to write or draw anything, and I would recommend that\r\nyou do it, whatever happened. Even if nothing happened. Let’s take three or four minutes and write about the experience, especially about anything\r\nthat you want to remember that you thought was important or that you thought was\r\ninteresting about this experience. Let’s just have some discussion. Comments, questions? Did everybody hear that? Sometimes you get into\r\nsuch a stressful state and an anxious state, it’s just. She’s had experiences where relaxation, guided imagery have been very useful. And other times when\r\nshe’s been so stressed and so anxious and upset that\r\nshe couldn’t even get into it, or if she did, it just\r\ndidn’t even touch it.\r\n\r\nAnd yes, that can happen. This is not a magic panacea. So sometimes that’s a place where you can use\r\nsomebody else to help you or to take enough time or\r\nto do some things that are, get a massage, take a hot tub. Talk to a friend. This is a place where\r\nmedications may come in. I find a double shot of Jack\r\nDaniels works really well. I wouldn’t recommend it as a daily diet, but it certainly helps really\r\nget your anxiety level down, and you may be able then to\r\nrelieve enough of the anxiety that you can pay\r\nattention to these things.\r\n\r\nSo there are many other things we can do, from medications to\r\nnutrients to other relaxants to doing whatever you\r\nneed to get to that place, where you can focus. One of the qualities of imagery thinking is that it can help you\r\nconnect with the bigger picture and how things are connected\r\nin kind of a bigger picture, so that can include your faith. Or you may find, “Well, if that happens, “I don’t want that to happen. “But maybe there’s a good part of it, “or maybe I’ll just deal\r\nwith it the best that I can.” So that’s just to expand\r\nthe picture and let yourself kind of go out to what\r\nthe consequences might be.\r\n\r\nBecause that’s part of\r\nreally sorting it into things that you might be able to do, something about things you\r\ncan’t do something about, is to let yourself run it out. Does that make sense to you? Yeah? So sometimes when people\r\nare making treatment choices that are very difficult, I’ll invite them to imagine\r\nthat they’re at a crossroads. Again, this happens when, and\r\nif they go down this road, they choose this kind of treatment, and just imagine walking down that road and just imagine it\r\ngoing as far as you can and see what you imagine go down this road or go down as far as you\r\ncan see what you imagine.\r\n\r\nAlong the way, you’re just\r\ngonna flesh out the picture, and part of that’s gonna be able to see, “Is there something I can do about that? “Is there not something\r\nI can do about that? “Which one do I imagine “is gonna ultimately be better for me?” And kind of make that choice. What’s the difference between\r\nimagining going to the beach and being at the beach? So imagining being in a\r\nquiet, peaceful, safe place is the next best thing\r\nto actually being there. And it has certain advantages in that you can go anytime you want. And it’s, you can be there very quickly, and it’s very inexpensive. So you can go, so I’d like to go to the beach in Hawaii a lot.\r\n\r\nBut I can’t go every day ’cause I work and I have responsibilities and so on, and I’m lucky if I can\r\ngo every couple of years. But, I can, when I decide, “I’ve had enough, I need a break.” I can take a few deep breaths\r\nand I can close my eyes and I can be back in a particular, floating in the water just off of a beach. And I can immerse, when\r\nI do immerse myself and take the time to notice the\r\ndifferent sensory qualities. What we know now from looking at brains on the functional MRI, is that if I make an effort to notice what I imagine seeing\r\nand hearing and feeling in the weightlessness of my body as I’m floating and the lapping\r\nof the waves on the surf and the smell of the plumerias\r\nand the humidity in the air, and I go through all that sensory stuff, that when I’m noticing what I’m seeing, the part of my brain that\r\nprocesses vision is active.\r\n\r\nWhen I’m noticing the sounds I’m hearing, the parts of my brain that\r\nprocess sound is active. When I’m noticing the sensory details, that part of my brain’s\r\nsensory cortex is active. So what you have is you\r\nhave more and more parts of your cortex sending\r\nmessages down to those lower, more reflexive parts of your\r\nbrain and they’re saying, “It looks like I’m in Hawaii,\r\nsounds like I’m Hawaii. “It feels like I’m in Hawaii. “It smells like I’m in Hawaii.” And that part of your brain just goes, “Okay, all clear.” Sends out the All Clear signal, and a lot of things in your\r\nthe body starts to go to work in a more effective manner\r\nthat haven’t been able to work as well when\r\nyou’re constantly reacting to messages of, “Lookout.\r\n\r\n“What’s next? “How am I gonna get that done? “Danger, threat, problem.” So on and so forth. Which is where we spend\r\nso much of our time, and that, so this little lizard brain is sitting there, “Lookout.” Right? And it’s constantly\r\ngetting the body prepared for that and that’s exhausting.\r\n\r\nSo if we’re spending\r\n98% of our waking time and half our sleeping time dealing with those kinds of things, we see why we get exhausted. We get wired and tired. We have trouble sleeping. The body starts to signal\r\nthat it needs something. So finding a way to get\r\nto those deeper levels and plug in a couple of\r\nthose relaxation places as just a basic tool is I think one of the real fundamental\r\nbenefits of guided imagery, which is a type of\r\nmeditation at that level. And I really appreciate your attention. Thank you very much. I hope it was useful. (audience clapping) (upbeat music).\r\n\r\n