"journey To The Inner Sanctum"

[natfredricks]

"Journey to the Inner Sanctum" (Gestalt approach)

Can anybody try this, please, and share if they liked it or disliked it?

You should be aware that this a journey to a sacred place within yourself - to your Inner Sanctum. This place is unique for each person.

Initially, you client should stretch out on a floor-mat or blanket placed on the floor and close the eyes.

Become aware of the weight of the body and how the ground supports you. Let go of tensions as you connect with your breath. Take a few deep breaths and exhale slowly through the mouth. Imagine that you find yourself in a quiet environment in nature.

For Example:

A sun flooded forest, an open space such as a mountain plateau or an endless beach; the setting is your personal choice.

You are ready to undertake a journey on foot. Become aware of your surroundings and notice the colours, sounds, smells and temperature. You are following an inner calling to set off on a particular journey and in a specific direction. As you walk you keep your senses fully open to the world around you, at the same time checking in with yourself how you feel right now:

· excitement

· weariness

· freedom

· impatience

After walking for a while the surroundings change gradually to a very different setting -

o climbing a mountain path

o entering a dark forest

o the weather changes

At this point you feel the need to rest before you can go on and so you sit down in a nice spot looking back to where you have come from. You also contemplate for a moment that you are going to visit a very special place. Thus, having refreshed yourself, you go on your way again, having to work somewhat harder because the path is getting much steeper now; more difficult to see or the weather is getting very hot or very cold.

After having crossed through this difficult part of your journey, the last leg becomes easier, almost as if you had wings attached to your feet. The surroundings are now changing accordingly and becoming easier to traverse.

In the far distance you can now make out the contours of a building and you become aware that this is where you are heading. As you get closer, details of the building become clearer.

o materials of which the building is made

o the roof

o its size and shape

o its colours

o the immediate surroundings

You walk around it once before you open the front door ....... and enter.

Now take in with your senses how the building feels: its smell, the play of the light and the shade inside, the sounds. You explore the building for a while, but then you feel drawn to a particular room where you seem to be invited to sit on a specific spot on the floor, in a beautiful corner, on a special rug or platform.

After having settled down you close your eyes and turn within to get in touch with your own awareness. It is as if the floor on which you sit very slowly gives way and you begin to move downwards, sinking deeper and deeper into the earth. Eventually you come to a halt and you find yourself in a wonderful and magical place deep inside the earth. Notice the colours and the sounds. Take a few moments to connect with this sanctuary of your awareness and open your heart.

You become aware that the space is filled with one word and as you listen more closely you can hear that it is your name - just your name. There is a light movement in the air and it is as though something has been placed into your open hands which rest on your lap. Nothing material is there, no weight, no density, and yet you realise that you have received a gift. Something that is special and precious to you. Perhaps it is a particular quality that you wanted to bring into your life.

Contemplate and appreciate this gift for a few moments and reflect on what this quality means to you. Feel the difference that it can make in your life. Hold your gift in your hands and with gratitude and joy in your heart you find yourself back in the building in your special place. You know now why you have made the journey and you also know that you can always come back to this place, whenever you want or need inspiration and inner awareness.

Your path back is easy and it takes you no time to arrive at the place you started from earlier - refreshed and richer; the gift is yours and nobody can take it from you.

At this point you become aware of your body again, of your breathing and gradually of the room you are in and the people with you. Spend a few minutes before you get up taking in the quality of the gift you have received, just in the same way as you reflect on an inspiring dream after waking up.

Please, can anybody share if they found this exercise helpful, refreshing and so on...or not?

[carlylight1]

very helpful! thanks so much for posting

i didn't mean to but as i was reading i automatically started doing what it suggested and it was amazing, very serene.

the power of the imagination is astonishing it really is a gift xxx

[Lily-Bee]

Beautiful! Found it most helpfull.

[natfredricks]

Dear Vivien and Lily! Thanks a lot. The reason I wanted to know other members' opinion, is that my experience was quite negative,don't know why, especially upsetting for me was receiving a gift... Don't know how to explain it all really....

[Pickle59]

(((Nattfredricks))) This is very similar type of meditation that I try to get a positive experience from when I go to group meditations. I think if you are in a good place then this can feel good ((Lily)) and ((vivien)) but if you are in a bad space, it can be very very uncomfortable, but still worth practising anyway.

[natfredricks]

Dear Pickle. Thank you for your reply.

This thing seems to work for everybody except me-I am sort of a freak, I think...i

[Pickle59]

((natfredricks)) .xxx

[Saharah Blue]

I found in refreshing too, but I can recall a time in my life, I would have found, someone trying to guide my thinking and experiences as negative an threatening.

[natfredricks]

Thank you, Sah, for your point of view.

We are discussing now how some are guided and 'helped' in my new thread 'Thought Provoking' in

Treatment section.I thought may be you will be interested.

I find Gestalt method quite controversial (for me).

[carlylight1]

i see where you are coming from having a negative experience with meditation things. this one i found soothing but sometimes if i'm not feeling very well meditating can make me feel a lot worse and has been quite scary at times. if i'm not feeling mentally strong at the time its better for me to do something active like walking for relaxation purposes rather than meditation.

[natfredricks]

That's unusual, Viv,that you find it scary.I never did meditations,I feel it is not for me. I like

walking by the way.

[carlylight1]

for the most part meditation was great for me. but if i was feeling mentally frail and meditated sometimes it felt like i got lost in my imagination too much and couldn't find the way back to 'reality' again-it was quite scary. i think it happened because i've not got a firm sense of self to begin with. doing active things like walking is much better when i'm feeling frail.