Drawings

This experiment with drawings builds on the relaxed awareness that concentrative meditations—like Soft Belly—help to cultivate. Drawings are one of the simplest, most reliable ways to bypass the fears that arise from our amygdala and the hope-limiting doubts of our “rational” left hemisphere. They give us immediate access to the right brain’s intuitive wisdom.

Drawings are easy for everyone to do and are a safe, playful way to express and share what’s going on inside us. Drawings invoke our imagination, our intuition, and empower them to play a creative, guiding role in our life. As you do them, you’ll see what’s possible, that even when you may feel empty of ideas or in despair, you have the capacity to imagine change.

In this module, we’ll do three Drawings. All you need is three sheets of blank paper—8 1/2″ by 11″ is fine—and crayons or magic markers.

Lemon Imagery

This first experiment with imagery will give you a direct experience of how images can affect your autonomic nervous system and, through this, your physiological functioning. Lemon Imagery is a good place to start if you’re new to Guided Imagery: it gets you comfortable with using imagery and gives you an immediate felt sense of imagery’s power.

Safe Place

Safe Place imagery can be particularly important in giving you relief when troubling memories are surfacing, when you’re facing an experience that evokes previous trauma, or when you’re just living through a stressful time. When you create a Safe Place, you draw on happy memories—or the imagined end of distress—to create a place and a feeling of calm and peace.

Wise Guide

Once you’ve cultivated a sense of calm and peace in your Safe Place, you’re ready to meet your Wise Guide to access your intuitive wisdom.

For aboriginal healers, the Wise Guide’s words are a communication from the Spirit World. Some people are sure, when they meet their Guides, that they are contacting a Higher Power. Most scientific researchers believe the Wise Guide is an Inner Guide, a manifestation of our own unconscious wisdom, the creative right hemisphere of our brain, our intuition. Set aside twenty or thirty minutes for visiting your Safe Place and meeting your Wise Guide.