飛揚

Ruth’s Trick #1

Relaxing the Body

1. Find a time and a place to do this exercise so that you will not be interrupted.
2. Do not start if you are already stressed, have other matters distracting you, have drunk alcohol, used recreational drugs, or are tired.
3. Before beginning sit for a few minutes and just relax. Think of what you wish to accomplish with this exercise. Define your intention.
4. Now close your eyes.
5. Begin by taking three deep breaths in through your nose and slowly out through your mouth. Repeat until you get used to thistype of breathing so that the breathing itself is not distracting you.
6. Once you feel comfortable breathing in this manner, specifically think about how you are sitting and imagine that you are looking at yourself.
7. Now begin focusing on your toes and relax them. Now focus on your feet, relaxing your muscles. Imagine them almost melting away as you continue to breathe in and out. Only focus on your toes and feet. When you begin, it will be easy to be distracted or to have your thoughts wander. When this happens, simply begin again, relaxing the muscles of your toes and feet.
8. Once you have been able to relax your toes and feet, extend the exercise upward, relaxing your calves and thighs.
9. Then relax the muscles of your abdomen and chest.
10. Next think of your spine and relax the muscles all along your spine and up to your shoulders and your neck.
11. Finally relax the muscles of your face and your scalp.
12. As you are able to extend the relaxation of the muscles of your body, notice that there is a calmness overcoming you. That you feel good. At this point, it is not unusual to feel sleepy or even fall asleep. That’s OK. It may take several attempts to get to this point and be able to hold this feeling of being relaxed without falling asleep. Be patient. Be kind to yourself.
13. Now focus on your heart and think of relaxing your heart muscle as you slowly breathe in and out. You will find that your heartbeat will slow as your body relaxes and your breath slows.
14. Imagine your body, now completely relaxed, and experience the sense of simply being as you slowly breathe in and out. Feel the sense of warmth. Many will feel that they are floating and will be overcome with a sense of calmness. Continue to slowly breathe in and slowly exhale out.
15. With intention remember this sense of relaxation, calmness, and warmth.
16. Now slowly open your eyes. Sit for a few minutes with your eyes open and just be with no other intention or thought.

Breath and relaxation are the first steps toward taming the mind.

Ruth’s Trick #2

Taming the Mind

1. Once your body is relaxed (Ruth’s Trick #1), it is time to tame the mind.
2. Begin again by focusing on your breath. It is common for thoughts to arise and for you to want to attend to them. Each time this occurs, return your focus to your breathing. Some find that actually thinking of their nostrils and the air entering and exiting helps bring their focus back.
3. Other techniques that assist in decreasing mind wandering are the use of a mantra, a word or phrase that is repeated over and over, and focusing on the flame of a candle or on another object. This helps avoid giving those wandering thoughts attention. In some practices, the teacher gives the mantra to the student who tells no one else the mantra, but you can pick whatever word you like as your mantra. Or you can focus on a flame or on another object. Find what works best for you. Everyone is different.
4. It will take time and effort. Don’t be discouraged. It may take a few weeks or even longer before you start seeing the profound effects of a quiet mind. You won’t have the same desire to engage emotionally in thoughts that often are negative or distracting. The calmness you felt from simply relaxing will increase because when you are not distracted by internal dialogue the associated emotional response does not occur. It is this response that has an effect on the rest of your body.
5. Practice this exercise for twenty to thirty minutes per day.

The reward for taming the mind is clarity of thought.

Ruth’s Trick #3

Opening the Heart

1. Relax your body completely (Ruth’s Trick #1).
2. Once relaxed, focus on your breathing and try to empty your mind completely of all thoughts.
3. When thoughts arise, guide your attention back to your breath.
4. Continue to breathe in and out, completely emptying your mind.
5. Now think of the person in your life who has given you unconditional love. Unconditional love is not prefect love or love without hurt and pain. It just means that someone loved you selflessly once or for a time. If you can’t think of anyone who loved you unconditionally, you can think of someone in your life to whom you have given unconditional love.
6. Sit with the feeling of warmth and contentment that unconditional love brings, while you slowly breathe in and out. Feel the power of unconditional love and how you feel accepted and cared for even with all your flaws and imperfections.
7. Think of someone you care for and, with intent, extend unconditional love to that person. Understand that the gift you are giving him is the same gift that someone gave to you and will make others feel cared for and protected.
8. As you are giving that same unconditional love to one you care for, think again how you feel when you have been given unconditional love and acceptance.
9. Again reflect on how it feels to be cared for, protected, and loved regardless of your flaws and imperfections and think of a person whom you know but have neutral feelings for. Now with intention extend the same unconditional love to her. As you are embracing that person with love, wish her a happy life with as little suffering as possible. See her happiness. Let yourself be bathed in that warm feeling.
10. Now think of someone with whom you have had a difficult relationship or for whom you have negative feelings. Understand that oftentimes one’s actions are a manifestation of one’s pain. See them as yourself. A flawed, imperfect being who at times struggles and makes mistakes. Think of the person in your own life who gave you unconditional love. Reflect on how that love and acceptance impacted you. Now give that same unconditional love to that person who is difficult or for whom you have negative feelings.
11. See everyone you meet as a flawed imperfect being just like you who has made mistakes, taken wrong turns, and at times has hurt others, yet who is struggling and deserves love. With intention, give others unconditonal love. In your mind bathe them with love, warmth, and acceptance. It does not matter what their response is.

What matters is that you have an open heart.

An open heart connects with others, and that changes everything.

Ruth’s Trick #4

Clarifying Your Intent

1. Sit in a quiet room and close your eyes.
2. Think of a goal or something you wish to accomplish. It does not matter that the details of the vision are not fully formed. It is important that such a goal or vision is one that does not involve harm to another or bad intent. While this technique could help you accomplish such a goal, it will ultimately result in pain and suffering to yourself and make you unhappy.
3. Relax your body completely (Ruth’s Trick #1).
4. Once relaxed, focus on your breathing and try to empty your mind completely of all thoughts.
5. When thoughts arise, guide your attention back to your breath.
6. Continue to breathe in and out, completely emptying your mind.
7. Now think of your goal or wish and see yourself as having accomplished it. Sit with the vision as you slowly breathe in and out.
8. Feel the positive emotions associated with accomplishing your goal or having achieved your wish. Experience how good it feels to have taken a thought and turned it into reality. Sit with the positive feelings as you see yourself having accomplished your goal.
9. Once you have seen yourself having accomplished the goal and have sat with the positive feelings, begin to add details to the vision. Exactly how do you look? Where are you? How are people responding to you? Add as much detail to the vision as possible.
10. Repeat one to two times daily or more for ten to thirty minutes. Each time begin with the vision of yourself having accomplished your goal. Sit with the feelings. Each time as you look at the vision add more details. It will start fuzzy, but the more times you do the exercise, the more the vision will become clearer.
11. With each time you do the exercise you will find you are refining the vision as your unconscious mind begins having clarity of the intent. You may be surpeised what you discover and how you end up achieving your goal. What is important is the goal, net exactly how you get there.

It is with clarity of intent that vision becomes a reality.