Below are some of my favorite visualizations to help when I need 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 and relaxation.  I hope you find some of these helpful, too.

ENERGY

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!

The Light Switch

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:  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 by the 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 to 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 oneself.   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 opening new doorways for healthier, more nurturing, and supportive relationships and situations.

When you ask yourself "what do I want?" what response do you get? In asking myself that question, I hear many different parts of myself that often don't agree - one part of me wants this, another wants that, and another part of me wants something different from the first two.  Sometimes this isn't an issue because all the wants/needs/wishes/desires can all be accommodated.  At other times, the things that different parts of me want are on different sides of a choice, on different sides of a decisive action.  Then, how do I decide?  How do I know what I really want?

Occasionally, the answer that feels best to me will jump out of the muddle without much work.  At other times, the matter seems less immediately clear and I have to discern what the best path for me is.  I find that working with the elements can be helpful in framing my efforts at discernment.  In my experience, each of them provides valuable approaches to deciding on the next step and that, as a whole, they span the many different ways I "know" things.

Using Air, I harness the powers of my intellect - I can make a list of pros and cons, I can hold the perspective of a bird in flight and be aware of the"'big picture," I can analyze, translate, and weave together the information I get from the other approaches into language.

Fire challenges me to see what I am passionate about - I can illuminate my shadows and the unseen, I can burn away the slag to reveal my mettle, I can see what I really burn for and what burns within me, I can prioritize and see what's really important to me - If my house was on fire and I could go in and get three things...

Water shows me the power of emotions and the flow of a situation - I can listen to what emotional signals a situation brings up for me, I can sense where I feel "stuck" or stagnant, I can wait at the "well" of my being for insights to float to the surface and reveal themselves, I can reflect and see myself in the mirror of water.

With Earth, I rely on my body to reveal its knowing to me - I can follow the movements I am called to and hear the story they communicate, I can notice where and when I hold muscular tension, I can practice sitting meditation to feel the answer in my flesh and bones.  Over time, I find that I can begin to cultivate a "center of gravity" in myself that helps me be more aware of my earthy, embodied wisdom at all times.

Between the four complementary approaches, I often am able to gain insight into what it is that I want and what's right for me.   And these are merely some of the elemental approaches available for "knowing myself in all of my parts"  - how do you engage Air, Fire, Water, and Earth in choosing your path? How do they support you on your journey of discernment and becoming?

Last Friday night brought light, love, and wisdom through a truly amazing channeling session with Sharyl Noday and the Siria Family.  LFAC's Main Space became an entity in and of itself, existing outside the flow of time and space, as these nonphysical beings spoke to us through Sharyl's voice.  Afterward, someone asked her whether she had any idea what was going on during the channeling experience, and she stated that "when the Siria Family is here, I am not."

I pondered this concept in my mind as the questions continued, and then was called upon to demonstrate the shamanic/channeled dance that Joan and I perform.  Like every time, I felt the energy in the space and tried to respond to it with my body – but this time was different.  This time I told myself to get out of the way – attempting to completely let go into the hands of Spirit without any kind of trying to control or direct the performance.  I felt my body shake violently, moving and manipulating the residual rage we had all released during the session.  And then I asked myself the same question I ask just about every day:  as a Christian, should I really be doing any of this?

A Google search for "channeling and Christianity" turns up several websites, all saying that channeling, astrology, mediumship, shamanism, and just about everything done at LFAC are forbidden according to the Bible, that no one should ever even think of doing them, and "If you'd like to know God's true plan for your life, please contact us."  I am not making that last one up.  However, other perspectives certainly exist, and have for the last two thousand years.  For instance, take the story in the book of Acts in which the disciples began to speak the words of God to their audience in languages they did not themselves know or understand.  Or Galatians 2:20:  "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me..."  This seems a fairly clear argument for believers to strive to "get out of the way" and be a clear channel for Christ.

As expected, I am not the first person to think of this.  Perhaps the best-known example in our current era is A Course In Miracles, written by Helen Schucman based on the dictation of an inner Voice, which she identified as Jesus.  Neale Donald Walsch has also channeled God through his Conversations with God series.  Going further back in time, St. Theresa de Avila and countless other Christian mystics fully experienced the dying to self that accompanies union with God. 

Opening ourselves to the spirit world always carries a risk.  However, the Bible advises believers not to avoid all contact with the spirit world, but to "test the spirits to see whether they are from God..." (1 John 4:1)  This verse is like a magic key, unlocking the door for every person, regardless of religion, to build their own relationships with the spirits, safely and without fear.  After all, we've already eaten the apple, and there's no coughing it back up again...

Since early in 2007 the efforts to deliver a message of hope as offered in A Course in Miracles to prisoners have been ongoing. Prisoners have been a pet project for this writer for several reasons. The first of these reasons might be attributed to the personal experience of having served most of a 10-year sentence in prison, but the greater reasons have to do with what occurred while there. It was 1974 and I was 24 years of age at the time. My own history up to that point was one like so many stories of a young street thug, growing up in a working class Chicago neighborhood, discouraged and disillusioned by the mediocrity and grind of what life had to offer.
 
That there had to be something better was always a predominating thought. So "better" for me, was the excitement and the radical camaraderie of our little clique of thugs, always plotting, always stealing, always looking for that thrill. So when those activities resulted in my first arrests, confinement in juvenile punishment facilities, and finally in a 10-year prison sentence (the big time), I was brought to a juncture. I would crash and burn. Previously embraced justifications for my anti-social behavior would soon be shattered, and all of the "glamour" of the life of a criminal would cease to contain even a trace of validity.
 
The underlying conviction that there had to be something better still remained, but now (after the experience I'll describe below) that something would take on an entirely new and remarkable definition.
 
So at 24 and while wallowing in the misery of prison life, this is what occurred that would lead to forever changing the way I would perceive the world:

The real Me...The I...The Essence of Who and Where I AM emerged for just a few short minutes one summer afternoon after an entire sleepless night of worry and immense fear over the possibility that I might be killed the following day.
 
For the first time in many years I turned to the God I perceived, and I prayed for deliverance. I begged and prayed for many hours with fever and intensity never before offered. "He" answered..."He" delivered me. And for a few brief moments "He" lifted Me from the body and embraced Me as a loving Father does His Son and assured Me once again that I would be alright.
 
While the body lay on the prison cell cot below, the awareness of "I" expanded to include every molecule of air around Me... every feature, the sunlight that streamed through the barred window, the trees and grass outside, the room itself...everything was Me. A crescendo of "sound" accompanied the experience that completely absorbed all sound on earth and played as every instrument in every orchestra all over the world, in perfect harmony.
 
Now, many years later, and after much search, many books, and after the message of Forgiveness as gently prescribed in A Course in Miracles, I came to realize that the "person" who searched would never find the answers. That person, a product of the same thought system that created him, would seek and never find because he was simply in the way. His beliefs, his concepts, and ascribed personage blocked the very awareness of that which he sought. He had to get out of his own way first. He had to surrender his own image of who he thought he was before any Real knowledge could enter.
 
The Law of Forgiveness would lend him the means to do just that. In Forgiveness, the little self would fade into the oblivion from which it came and what would emerge is what was there all along. That Essence of the Real Self, that "I" and that assurance that everything would be alright. And from that Essence a Power uncommon in this perceived world would accompany it, and everything would change for the better, forever.
 
Today, almost every day this writer visits the local post office to deliver copies of the original edition of A Course in Miracles [donated by Course in Miracles Society] along with an easy-to-comprehend introduction to The Course as made available through the text version of Gary R. Renard's The End of Reincarnation to lists of prisoners who have expressed the desire to learn more about the Course. With the text version is my brief essay describing what I refer to as "The Five Signs," five mystical experiences during my life which led to adopting a practical application of the spiritual discipline taught in A Course in Miracles.
 
With the help of people like Jon Mundy and his Miracles Magazine, Regina Dawn Akers and her The Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the New Testament, Gary R. Renard and Tami Simon and their The End of Reincarnation, and Dov Fishman of The One Mind Foundation and its ACIM Gather Radio, as well as Beverly Hutcheson, Marrianne Williamson, Robert Perry, and those friends who assist with postage donations, and especially Course In Miracles Society, a new wave of compassion is spreading throughout the populations of prisons all over the country.
 
For many of these prisoners, long forgotten by family or friends, this new avenue of communication brings welcome relief and a gentle, warm, and loving response to their cry for help. It brings Hope where apathy, despair, and grief make their home. It delivers Love where blame, guilt, and punishment saturate the atmosphere. It brings the possibility of the Peace of God to a "place" where the ego's appetite for misery, pain, and hopelessness can now move aside to welcome a glimmer of Light.
 
May the Love, Light, and Peace of God be experienced by them, and with every second feel another moment spent in His Endless Embrace.
 
"Compassion is the radicalism of our time." - Dalai Lama

Writer, speaker, and teacher Joe Wolfe is the founder of Spirit Light Outreach, which is the prison ministry for A Course in Miracles. He facilitates the A Course in Miracles study group at The Peace Center in Berwyn every Sunday at 9:00-10:00 a.m. Joe is available to speak on his experiences that led him to A Course in Miracles, a compelling account that will touch your soul deeply, and strengthen your faith in a forgiving force of Good in the Universe. Come hear his "Introduction to A Course in Miracles" at LFAC on Tuesday, July 20, 2010, at 7 p.m. You can contact Joe at spiritlightoutreach.org or write him at: Spirit Light Outreach, c/o The Peace Center, 6833 Stanley Avenue, Berwyn, IL 60402.