Susanne West's Newsletter: "IN THE MOMENT" PRACTICES

Guided imagery is a powerful psychospiritual tool that has many applications. There are simple ways that you can use self-guided imagery in your personal and professional life to evoke positive emotions, ignite your creativity, ground and center you, and help you deal with challenges of all kinds. Take a few deep breaths before you begin each practice. Spend as little or as much time as you'd like with each one.

Choose a quality that you want to experience, e.g., you are tired and want to feel refreshed.

Select an aspect of nature that represents this quality, e.g., a waterfall.

Include all of your senses, and imagine that you are there by the waterfall. Imagine this as vividly as possible in your whole bodymind. See and feel yourself waking up, coming alive, feeling refreshed.
If you are conversing with someone either in person or on the phone who is directing hostility or any unwanted energy in your direction, imagine that you are a 400-year-old oak tree - tall, sturdy, and strong. This person's words and energy are coming toward you, but the negativity is bouncing off.
The following practice can be used if you are in a situation where you want to have good boundaries. This can help you to maintain a strong connection to yourself so that you don't merge with the person you're relating to.

Imagine that a flexible, transparent barrier is between you and the other person. As you imagine yourself on one side, sense your feet and legs making solid contact with the ground, helping you to feel steady and stable, and to stay "in your own skin" as you're connecting with this person.
If you are stressed or ungrounded, engage your senses. Imagine being in a beautiful natural environment and see, hear, touch, smell, and, perhaps, taste what is around you. If you are in a meadow, feel the warmth of the sun against your skin, hear birds, touch the bark on a tree trunk, pick a juicy peach from a tree and take a bite. Savor each of these experiences, and take them in deeply.
To evoke the experience of being loved, bring to mind someone who loves you. Imagine that he or she is looking into your eyes, feel them holding or hugging you, and hear the sound of their voice expressing love to you. Take some deep breaths and let yourself receive this from your head to your toes.
To awaken creativity, recall a time that your were fully expressing yourself creatively. Relive this as if it's happening now, actively experiencing your aliveness, spontaneity, or joy.

Maintain your connection to these feelings and physical sensations as you let go of the visual memory.

Then, bring to mind a current or future project, e.g., writing a poem, making a collage, or planning an event. Imagine fully immersing yourself in this activity, experiencing these feelings and sensations as you express your creativity, and wholeheartedly enjoy the process.