Relax and Re-Create Your Self, Part One

Re-Creating Your Self by Christopher Stone

Re-Creating Your Self can be as easy as relaxing. That’s because deep relaxation is the key for effectively using two important tools for personal change: meditation and self-hypnosis. Both of these simple techniques are highly effective ways to acquire new, positive beliefs and discard old, negative ideas. Let me explain how you can use basic meditation and self-hypnosis to help you to become the person you want to be, living the life you desire.

Your beliefs shape the life that you call “yours,” and those beliefs are expressed through both mental and physical actions. But the mental action always exists first; the physical action follows, having been initiated by the mental act. Meditation and self-hypnosis are dynamic methods for altering the mental actions that eventually create your physical experiences.

Everyone is familiar with physical action, but you may be asking, ‘Exactly what is a mental action?’  I answer, ‘A mental action is the inner, metaphysical catalyst that makes the physical action manifest.’ It’s an individualized portion of thought energy generated and shaped by a personal belief. A mental action is always based upon your ideas about reality. It represents your inner readiness and agreement to allow a specific physical action to occur. Once created, the mental action works to transform the inner information into a physical experience.

Both meditation and self-hypnosis allow you to introduce and encourage positive mental actions that will eventually create the physical experiences you desire. Relaxation is the fundamental and indispensible basis for effectively using these potent tools for personal change.

In addition to relaxation, both of these methods have many other things in common. Consider these important similarities:

* Both are completely natural methods of self-improvement.

* Both methods are active, not passive. The individual initiates specific mental actions.

* Both processes depend on the individual’s self-direction and determination.

* Both methods require focused attention.

* Both strive to decrease the individual’s field of attention and increase the intensity of attention.

* Both meditation and self-hypnosis speak to the inner self.

* Both processes can influence major areas of behavior.

* Both methods can benefit almost anyone in a short period of time.

* Both meditation and self-hypnosis are largely misunderstood by the public - shrouded in mystery and misconceptions. The so-called experts have made these simple, natural tools for change appear complicated and inaccessible.

I’m about to demystify and simplify meditation and self-hypnosis. I’ll also give you easy guidelines for using these methods to re-create your self.

Basic Meditation

Basic meditation is quite simple. But many people have been misled to believe that it is a difficult, rigid discipline, a state of physical detachment far beyond the abilities of most mortals. By and large, meditation is perceived to be the domain of spiritual masters who already have one sandaled foot on a higher plane. These false beliefs are misleading and intimidating. In truth, basic meditation is accessible to anyone who wants to use it.

With Mary Sheldon, I proved this truth in three hardcover books of guided meditations, known collectively as The Meditation Journal Trilogy.

Quite simply, meditation is the process of directing the conscious mind inward in order to concentrate upon and examine a single subject. The meditator’s increased focus on his subject automatically filters out conscious awareness of other stimuli.

In everyday life, your mind automatically filters the stimuli you perceive. This filtering mechanism is a protective device that prevents your central nervous system from becoming over-stimulated and “blowing a fuse.” In meditation, you consciously use your mind’s natural ability to focus attention and filter stimuli. Your attention is focused on the subject of your meditation and you filter out stimuli unrelated to your subject.

To meditate successfully, you don’t require anything that you don’t already possess. You don’t need a teacher. You don’t need religious or spiritual faith. You don’t need to become “one with the universe.” Becoming one with the subject of your meditation is good enough. You don’t need to buy a mantra from a guru, burn incense, chant, or twist your body into a lotus position.

What you do need to meditate successfully is basic, inherent. You need a subject on which to meditate. You need the desire to meditate. You need the willpower to do it regularly. A scant fifteen minutes a day can yield surprisingly successful results.

A Re-Creating Your Self Thought: Relaxation is the starting point for so many good and healthy aspects of life to become physically real.

Next time: Meditation: How to Do It.

Please send your Re-Creating Your Self comments, observations and questions to me at recreatingyourself@mail2teacher.com.

Copyright 2009 by Christopher Stone