Your body is your best ally in finding peace of mind.
The following meditation exercise incorporates tools I’ve learned from studying Reiki for the past couple of years. It takes 20 to 30 minutes and is best done lying down.
I call it the “sense and shift” technique: you use your hands to “sense” the areas of your body that are holding tension, and then you gently guide the energy to a state of peacefulness and expansiveness through the power of your imagination and intention. With practice, the result is a profound sense of calm and well-being.
The sense and shift technique
Step 1: Ground and centre
Put your phone on silent mode and sit on the edge of your bed. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Before you lie down to begin the meditation, take a few moments to ground and centre, so you can rid yourself of some of the anxious energy circulating in your body:
- Put your hands face-down on your thighs. Take deep breaths in, and with each exhale, imagine any excess energy in your body flowing down your legs, through your feet and down into the Earth. Silently tell yourself, “I don’t need that energy right now. I’ll give it to the Earth to keep for when I need it.”
- Put your hands together in prayer pose at the centre of your chest. When you inhale, imagine breathing in fresh, cool air. When you exhale, breathe out gratitude and positivity. Infuse the space around you with peaceful white light and imagine sending it out into the Universe.
Step 2: “Charge up” your hands
Now, lie down with a pillow behind your head and shift your body around until you’re comfortable. Rub your hands together to warm them up and then hold them above you, hovering them about 12 inches (approximately 30 centimetres) apart with palms facing each other. Make the motion of playing the accordion in slow motion, moving your hands slightly closer together and further apart as you “sense” the energy between your hands.
When you feel the subtle sensation of energy emanating from one hand to the other and back again (or when you’re able to imagine this clearly), freeze your hands in that position for a moment. Imagine you’re creating and containing warm healing energy between your hands like a glowing sphere, and infuse the energy with positive intention.
Step 3: Do the hand positions
Now it’s time to lay your hands on yourself, in order to “sense and shift” the energy in nine parts of your body, starting with your eyes:
- Eyes: Place the palms of both hands gently over your eyes, cupping them slightly. Feel the warmth of your hands ease the tension in your eye muscles from spending so much time staring at screens. Keep your hands there until the space behind your eyes feels as calm and clear as an empty, sunny room. If that sounds too abstract, simply wait until you feel your eye muscles relax and then move on to the next position.
- Ears: Place your hands over your ears. Again, enjoy the soothing warmth of your hands and hold your position until you feel the energy become calm and clear.
- Back of head: Lift your head enough to place both of your hands under it, cupping the back of it, and lie back down. Do the same thing as you did with your ears: sense the energy in your head and allow it a few moments to shift into a calm state.
- Neck: Cup your hands gently around the sides of your neck. It’s helpful, in this position, to visualize any unspoken thoughts or feelings that are blocking the flow of energy in your body. Imagine clearing this block in your throat so the energy can flow freely. I like to imagine a waterfall of clear energy flowing down from my head, all the way down to my feet and out into the Earth.
- Heart: Place your hands over your heart, resting one over the other. Infuse your heart with warmth and loving energy.
- Belly: Place your hand over your belly, just under your chest, positioning your hands so the tips of your fingers are facing each other and maybe gently touching. I hold a lot of anxious energy here—all of the gut feelings I have and am ignoring—and I spend as much time as I need to until I feel the tight coils inside unravel and loosen a bit, while reassuring myself that I am there for myself, and then I move on.
- Waist: Place your hands in a similar position—palms down with fingers pointing towards each other—about an inch above your belly button. This is a powerhouse area of your body. It may require some time to tune into it and allow it to settle down.
- Pelvis: Place one hand on either side of your pelvis, roughly on the crease where each thigh meets your torso. This is where the root chakra resides and is home to concerns about stability and safety.
- Shoulders: Place your hands on the tops of your shoulders. Allow “the weight of the world” to soften and melt away.
Step 4: Ground and clear
Once you’ve finished the last position and your shoulders feel lighter, take a deep breath, open your eyes and brush off your arms from the shoulders down to the wrists, as if you were dusting them off. This clears off any stagnant or negative energy that’s around you. Do the same thing from the tops of your thighs towards your knees. Then shake your hands out a bit.
Take another deep breath and then either clap your hands once or snap your fingers once. Do it firmly, with the intention of sealing your practice and absorbing all of its benefits. Then go about your day, comforted by the healing power of your own hands and intentions.
Step 5: Trust the process
Don’t worry if you don’t achieve the level of results you’d hoped for. I can say with certainty that my skill in using this “sense and shift” meditation technique has improved greatly over time. Practice makes better.
If nothing else, taking time out of your day to lie down, take some deep breaths and focus on how your body is feeling is itself incredibly powerful. We spend so much time caught up in our heads that we frequently neglect all our parts from the neck down.
Unless you slow down and take the time to converse with your body, you’ll never discover the wisdom it holds.
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