• Find a comfortable place to sit
• Take 3 soft breaths and place your hand on your heart.
• Start repeating silently or outloud the name of your spiritual connection, your higher power or however you would describe your spiritual life. You may even use the word “Love” if that works for you.
• Repeat for at least 10 times
• Then envision the closest people in your life; Partner, family, parents, etc. You may even say their names as you envision them with your hand on your heart. Feel the love and warmth that is in your heart for them, soft breaths continuing…
• Envision your friends, those who you turn to for strength, truth and support, saying their names, staying with each one as long as you want.
• You may want to envision pets that you love and who love you and bring joy to your heart.
• Envision your coworkers who you spend much time, saying their names and setting the heartspace to have an open, comfortable and supportive workday with them, soft breaths….
• Then start to take in those who you share your world with who you don’t know well, setting an intention for them to have a heartful day.
• As we started with hand on heart and are broadening the circle, keep broadening to your geographical area, and spreading wider and wider as you take in other states, countries, and the planet, as you envision the oceans and bodies of water and the life forms living there, mountains, plains, rainforests and so on…

When you feel complete, notice how your heart feels under your hand, notice that your face and your body are softer, and notice that your heart is more open and accessible to you and others.

My favorite magazine is “Spirituality & Health” and in the March-April 2011 issue there is a lovely little article called Mastering Anxiety-Creative Incantations. Here’s how it works: We are going to use the deep breath as a container for a specific thought.

Practice some deep breathing (I like to suggest to take a long soft inhalation and notice your belly rising but do not force it and then consciously allowing the breath to leave just as softly).   Your intention is to inhale for 5 seconds and to exhale for 5 seconds.  If you can’t breathe to 5 seconds I suggest that you do it to a comfortable point, which for you may be 3 or 4 seconds.  No forcing please.

Now insert a thought into the breath, and stating in your mind half the thought on the inhalation and the other half of the thought on the exhalation.

I like to use one thought and breathe on it for a while instead of running different thoughts in a sitting.  Sitting for 5 or 10 minutes with this practice will be a deeper and more calming experience than just doing it a few times, but I believe something is better than nothing because you are providing positive messages to your body, mind and spirit.

Some ideas for thoughts might be:

I release – the future.
I receive – peaceful thoughts
I am open – to calm
I embrace – the present
I inhale peace – I exhale stress (or anxiety, or negativity)

Try this every day for a week and see how you feel. You might even practice it several times a day.   It’s a proactive way to bring a positive more peaceful feeling into your life.

Spirituality and Health retrieved this write up from Mastering Creative Anxiety: 13 Lessons for Writers, Painters, & Musicians from America’s Foremost Creativity Coach by Eric Maisel, PhD. New World Library March 2011