HomeYou all did very well with your assignment. I’m very pleased :)
Now.. sometime today or tomorrow let’s use that information.
I’d like for you to do the following for me:
1. I want you to think of something that is stressful in your life. Perhaps it’s someone at work that annoys you. Maybe it’s a problem with not having enough hours in the day. Just something about which you would like to feel less stressed or anxious.
2. Select something from your list (or the list of one of the other commenters) – pick that one thing that for you is the most hypnotic and relaxing. Do not choose anything that would ever require your concentration to be safe (for example, even though being in car is very, very relaxing, I don’t want you to associate trance with it).
3. Find a time when you can be alone and uninterrupted. We’re going to focus a bit :)
4. You know what to do next. Slow your breathing. Long, slow, deep breaths. Let your body just relax. Then focus on whatever you found so relaxing. Allow that sound or that sight, whatever it is, take you to an even more relaxed place. When you feel your mind and body letting go, begin to also see yourself letting go of the stress associated with that thing that is causing you concern. You’re not letting go of the situation – you’re simply reminding your subconscious that you are doing ok. You can let go of the stress and still deal with the problem.
5. Do this three days in a row.
6. Don’t worry if it feels silly or impractical. Just remember, you’re doing this to please me (smiles – you know you’re doing it for you the most, don’t you? :) It will please me, too, though.
Let me know each day how you’re doing and feeling.
By the way, I’m going to do this with you. I’m super stressed at the moment and I need to change my thinking about something. I choose a warm bubblebath as my most relaxing, mesmerizing thing. Focusing on the warmth of the water, the feel of my skin as it’s caressed by the silky bubblebath. I can let the stress wash away and allow a calmer manner of dealing with the situation take its place.
February 18th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Day One
I recently hired a divorce attorney and am about to file papers on my soon to be future ex wife. This is long overdue, as we’ve been seperated for a long time. This process has me wound up so tight that I am having problems sleeping.
I live alone so privacy is not a problem. I chose to use my favorite music mix (with headphones) and lie on my couch. Bringing myself down was easier than I thought. The disc is about 70 minutes. During most of the time, after slowing my mind and body down, I didn’t think about the situation (well, maybe once or twice) but as a whole I was able to reduce my level of stress more than I thought I would. I did notice that when I was finished, the stress level crept up again.
I’ll repeat the process tomorrow.
February 19th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Lady Julia,
I hope that whatever is stressing you is better.
I completed the assignment. I was able to relax. I was able to visualize better than I usually do. Images come and go with me when I try to visualize a scene. This time I noticed more things and the scene was in color. Frequently I visualize things in black and white, and they fade in and out.
I don’t believe I went into a deep trance though. As I get relaxed I find it more difficult to focus. My attention wanders as I get more relaxed.
Mike
February 19th, 2010 at 8:59 am
Just did my first relaxation Started with the fire in fireplace but that didn’t seem to work as well as i thought it would, so i changed to Sea and waves crashing to shore and could immediately feel myself relaxing. Seemed to work really nicely and I might have nodded off. When I came back my feet were still feeling heavy and i could not bother to move them for a while. The letting go of worries part seemed to work too as I feel lighter and better after the trance. Worked better than I would have thought for a first attempt. =)
February 20th, 2010 at 12:09 am
Relax and Focus. Dear Lady Julia: As I read your instructions yesterday evening I was thinking, “stress? I have no stress”. When I returned home from work today there were boxes full of books and record albums on the living room floor, and I remembered “oh, yes, we are moving!” I had a good laugh at myself for living in a complete state of denial since She announced that the new house would be ready for occupancy this weekend.
After a nap, I went to the music room and tuned my guitar, then spent about half an hour plucking out harmonics. For the nonmusical, harmonics are overtones on guitar strings, those high ringy sounding notes that you will hear punctuating guitar music. They are produced by plucking a string while resting a finger lightly over certain frets on the guitar, If you play them on two strings together, they will ring out in harmony for a quite a while, and you can get lost in the subtle shifts of tone and volume. It is one of the most relaxing sounds I know. A half hour of mindless plucking past timelessly. I put the guitar away and reported for duty.
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening loading and unloading the car with books and worthless treasures, parking them in the new house. For the first time I can ever remember, I found myself enjoying the process of moving. So many objects with so many sweet memories attached to them, so many reminders of a partnership that has lasted for 25 years.
February 20th, 2010 at 9:21 am
Day two.
I did it again last night. I was physically very tired, so I only did about 10 minutes. I had the best night’s sleep I had in a long time.
Thanks,
Mike
February 20th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Day 2
On the 2nd day I switched my focus from the divorce problem I wrote about above to a personal issue I’m dealing with. I repeated the same preocess as day one and the results were about the same. I found it relitively to take myself down but had a bit of dificulty with my mind drifting back to the issue a few times. Overall the relaxation itself seemed to clear my thinking. Saturday, I’ll focus on the same situation again and see if I’m more sucessful.
February 20th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Relax and Focus, 2nd Day: The day’s not over yet and I may need a second go at the guitar to maintain that R&F buzz. First thing in the morning, I made the coffee and saw to Her immediate needs, then asked to go practice for half an hour. I knelt on the floor in the music room with my guitar on my lap. After a head to toe letting go, I tuned the instrument by ear. I haven’t done that in some time, relying on the electronic tuner. Doing it the old way really focuses me more on the sound, and before long I was lost in the spaces between the harmonic pitches. By the way, you don’t want to do this ten minutes before a gig. Your bandmates will get very impatient.
Once again, I started the day with a very pleasant ability to stay focused on the task of loading and unloading the car, taking care to listen carefully to Her instructions, and putting things in their designated places without breaking anything. Hmm, this suddenly sounds suspicious. I confess, I was not the perfect good boy I’d like to pretend to be.
There were moments when I was thinking up excuses to be elsewhere. The morning exercise seemed to help me get back into the swing of things. I would pause and hear the harmonic sounds in my head, then get back to the task. She seemed pretty pleased with the way the day went, despite the difficulty of working with physical pain. It just occurred to me that I have not been focusing on the task, but on Her, and the task of moving just seems to be effortless and even fun at times as long as I am paying attention to Her.
February 21st, 2010 at 10:28 am
Day Three
Again today I brought myself down fairly easilly The big difference from the first 2 days is that I dozed off rather than focusing on the music. I did have a vivid dream about the issue, but in the dream I wasn’t stressed in the slightest. I suppose using that criteria, I was able to let go of much more of the stress than I’d been able to previously. When the disc ended, I woke up.
February 21st, 2010 at 10:52 am
Day 3.
Repeat of yesterday. I went into trance. However, staying focused while relaxed is difficult. My mind starts to wander.
I have slept better the last two nights than I have in a long time.
Thank you,
Mike
February 21st, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Day 2
I did my trance training a bit too late in the day so I had to be careful not to fall in sleep and that was somewhat distracting. Managed to trance though and got that familiar heavy feeling on my body.
Day 3
The trance went nicely watching the waves feeling wind in hair and being moved by the waves up and down. felt again refreshed after coming out of trance.
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Day 1
A bit behind……
I had difficulty thinking of anything that is stressing me out at the moment. Really I think over the years I have learnt to handle things at work and not stress out. In my personal life I have been mostly spared stress and in any case when it is there I think I apply the same “survival” strategy as I do at work. I think I am a bit Zen as well “the water in a stream does not ram into the rocks and stop – frustrated and stressed, it flows around them and flows on”
So I turned the exercise into trying to focus on weight reducing strategies, where I *could* loose a few kilos to improve my well being!
I relaxed each part of my body and then imagined the slow movement and soft fluffiness of white clouds on a blue sky. I must admit I relaxed quite well but didn’t really get into trance. Lady Julia, I think I need to hear your soothing voice guiding me :-)
I will try again tonight and see how I go.
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:25 am
I just wanted to let you know this relax and focus exercise really works. This week I had a run in with a person I have difficulty with. As I started getting heated I thought about this exercise. With in a few minutes I regained my composure. He left and later we discussed the issue rationally. It works. Thanks Lady Julia
February 23rd, 2010 at 6:17 am
Lady Julia,
Yesterday, on day one, I started to use something from my previous list when I actually found another hypnotic and relaxing thing in my environment: the hum and vibration from my external hard drive on my desk! It’s so weird that I never noticed it before! It was the perfect sensory tool to help me relax and let go of some job-related stress! The hum is almost a white noise and the vibration that goes through my desk is pleasant, low-key and soothing.
Thank you for helping me find that!
I’ll post day two later today because I think I’ll be able to do the exercise before it gets too late.
Regards,
cdbtoo
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Just persist, Jay. You will get there, I promise :) You’re such a good boy, I suspect when you make up your mind to do something, you do it.
February 24th, 2010 at 5:04 am
Relax and Focus Day 3: A day off, so I was able to start the day with my “tuning up” exercise. I combined it with what has become my daily morning kneel. My wife walked through the music room and gave me the smile that says, I love you but you are the Prince of Wierdness. So, at various times during the day, when stress intruded like a bad driver cutting me off, I turned up the music dial and the harmonics were still resonating, reminding me that it would all be ok. I think this little exercise has helped because I am learning to keep the space of trance awake in my mind and available for use in the present.
February 24th, 2010 at 7:49 am
Day 2
Again, something in my environment presented itself for me to focus on: rain hitting the skylights in my apartment. We had a consistent rain shower last night and I was able to use the sound of raindrops against the glass of my skylights to center myself and think about another situation that’s causing me some stress. I was able to let go a little. I don’t think I went into trance but I did have an easing of the mind.
I call that a win.
Regards,
cdbtoo
February 24th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Day 2…
Today a little better….
I relaxed my whole body bit by bit all the time breathing slowly and deeply. Once relaxed I imagined the clouds floating in the sky.
I certainly relaxed and went a little deeper than yesterday but I think I was too conscious of the process and started to get fidgety.
Maybe the bed at camp (not the most comfortable) maybe the lack of oxygen at 15,000ft ?
I will certainly continue to try, especially after showing such confidence in me. :-)
Jay
February 24th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Jay… you brainy men analyze everything, don’t you? :) Just let go for me next time. Imagine you can hear the words you are so familiar with.. sit back, relax, close your eyes, and begin to slow your breathing. Yes, that’s right.. just let go and slip down…
You can hear me saying every bit of that, can’t you? Let those words, that feeling sort of wash over you the next time you relax. Imagine you’ve put control in a little box that you can hold in your hands. As you begin to relax, sit it right in front of you or beside you. It’s right there if you need it – you can easily take it back, but you’ve let go of it for now. As you continue to let go, all those other things like the uncomfortable bed, won’t matter. Your mind has already been trained to slip down… to find a nice, deep hypnotic place – whenever it’s time to do so. Isn’t that right?
I know you can do this :)
February 24th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
cdbtoo – I call that a win as well :) Keep going. I’m really interested in watching you as you proceed.
You boys don’t mind knowing I’m paying very, very close attention to how you are doing, do you?
February 24th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Rumi, I think your wife sounds lovely. “My wife walked through the music room and gave me the smile that says, I love you but you are the Prince of Wierdness.” To me that’s a lovely marriage.
You’re doing very well. Stay with me :) Just continue to obey.
February 24th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
Thanks for letting me continue, Lady Julia. I had hoped to begin the next stage today, but there’s just too much to get done around here. I will continue to obey your instructions as best I can, and begin the next stage tomorrow morning, if it pleases you. I had exactly 15 minutes alone all day today; sitting outside my workplace, I got relaxed and imagined those beautiful musical sounds that have now taken up residence somewhere in my head. They swelled and faded, and took me away from the street traffic noise and the thousand details of the job for just a short while, but it recharged me.
February 25th, 2010 at 10:55 am
Day 3…..
Today much better :-) :-)
Lady Julia, thanks for your comments they were really helpful. I managed to go much deeper. I relaxed, breathed slowly and urged myself to let go and go deeper. Then I counted down 15 steps, opening my eyes at 10. With each count I alternated between thinking “let go” “going deeper” “see the fluffy clouds” “feel the mist rolling in” “only 5 steps more” etc. Strangely, the thoughts came automatically….
And I had two great surprises.
Firstly, the situation I was wanting to improve – reduce my weight – was *just there*. I didn’t have to try to think about it.
Secondly, the fluffy white clouds and the blue sky were actually there…in colour with my eyes shut – a first for me. I could have stayed “looking” at them for ever. As it turns out, it was for about half an hour. Not sure how I eventually came out of my “nice, deep hypnotic place”
Thanks again for your help. If my imagining is as vivid in the next two stages….I can’t wait :-)
Jay
February 26th, 2010 at 6:19 am
Lady Julia,
I out of the loop for a couple of days. I’ll post my day three tomorrow (Saturday) and move on to the next part as soon as I can.
:)
March 1st, 2010 at 7:31 am
Lady Julia,
I am going to have to postpone my completion of this experience indefinitely. :( I’ve got a big move ahead of me and I won’t have time to give the experience the attention it deserves.
I’ll try to complete the first this phase when I can but it won’t be for awhile.
Regards,
cdbtoo