by Ben Deutsch

Created on: March 22, 2007   Last Updated: April 28, 2007

This is a simple but powerful visualisation that I do before starting a new course of study or undertaking a task for the first time. If you wanted, you could use it every day as a way of welcoming the new possibilities that each day brings. It's all about allowing the old ideas that we no longer need to drop away and new beneficial ones to come painlessly into our lives. It's also about trusting this process to take place as effortlessly as possible.

Begin by lying flat on your back, somewhere comfortable and warm. Close your eyes. Give attention to your breathing and slowly relax your muscles - take your time, there's no rush. When you feel ready, picture yourself lying on a field of fertile soil. There is a gentle wind blowing across the field and rain is falling, though not heavily.

Now, beginning with your toes, picture your own body turning to soil and crumbling. Some of the soil is carried away by the wind, some washed down to the earth by the rain. Try not to concern yourself about what is being carried away, just trust that the process is happening as it should. Take your time to allow this crumbling sensation to work its way up your legs, your torso, across your shoulders and down your arms. Finally let your head crumble away - this was the hardest part for me when I first practiced this visualisation, but if you struggle too, remember that the visualisation is only a metaphor, your physical body is perfectly safe.

When you've visualised your whole body crumbling away to soil, take a moment to experience that sense of non-being. Then see and feel green shoots coming up from the earth where your body had been lying. Gradually the shoots weave themselves together to form a new body, strong and vital, incorporating the best of your old self with the lessons of your new experiences.

When you're ready, open your eyes, take a few moments to collect yourself and head out in to the day.

As I've said, the important thing for me in this visualisation is not to be try and choose what aspects of myself are let go of and what new ones are brought in, but just to trust that whatever changes occur are for the best.

By the way, this visualisation just came to me when I was actually trying to follow a completely different visualisation I'd read in a book about healing. So, don't be surprised if you try this out and find things happening that are completely different from what I described. Just pay attention to what happens and (maybe some time later) you'll probably discover a valuable lesson in your inner experience.

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