Breathe!

Here are a few visualizing exercises I've found helpful during stressful times. When I began experimenting with them I was skeptical (a familiar condition for me) but have found that practicing them on a regular basis has made a difference in how I respond to certain situations and people.

Guarding against negative stress: a self-protection exercise

• Get into a comfortable position and relax in whatever way works best for you.
• Visualize yourself being surrounded by a globe of light. You can make this light whatever color you want but make it clear, so that you can see through it.
  
• Give it a flexible but definite boundary, one that will screen out the harmful effects of negative interactions.

This is an especially good exercise if you're feeling the effects of others' emotions or energy, such as happens in a job with high public contact.

Grounding yourself: an exercise for when you feel overwhelmed

• Relax in whatever way works for you.
• Visualize yourself as a sort of human tree. Make your trunk as solid as possible, extend your roots downward and anchor them into the ground. Send your branches upward.
• Just sit for several minutes, holding the image of being rooted firmly in the ground.

This exercise is especially helpful when life feels like it's getting out of hand, you feel spacey or you'll be dealing with someone who always tries to knock you off-center.

Heart Breath: an exercise for practicing neutral compassion

• Take slow deep breaths but imagine your breath is coming from your heart area. As you inhale, imagine compassion for yourself filling you up. As you exhale, imagine that compassion flowing out of you into the world.

I've found this exercise especially helpful in developing an attitude of neutral attention so that you can help others in a way that doesn't drain you.

Finally, a mindfulness exercise I learned from a Zen meditation instructor: every hour on the hour, simply stop what you're doing, take three deep breaths and say to yourself "Here I am." It's a great way to train yourself to stay in the present rather than drifting off into the past or future.

Mental Vacations

We all need them, especially when the creative well dries up. But what if you can't take time off from work or you don't have the means to fly (or sail or drive) off somewhere? One alternative is to close your eyes and take that trip in your mind. I polled friends and acquaintances to find out favorite mental vacation destinations:

• Town in Tuscany: Sun-baked houses with red-tiled roofs embanked on a sunny hillside with clusters of olive trees interspersed.
• Caribbean Paradise: Vivid turquoise sea, diamond sand, waving palms.
• Green Pine-y Forest: Better yet, with a crystal-clear glacier lake.
• Sidewalk Cafe in Picturesque City.
• Imaginary Spa: Hot water for soaking, a massage, lovely scents...
  
• "My Grandparents' House."
• Seaside (Oregon) in Winter: Cool, misty and solitary, tide out, breakers rolling peacefully.

What's your favorite mental picture or visual memory? What calms you? What makes you happy? Choose some favorite images for a mental photo album. When you're feeling stressed, tired, sad or depleted, close your eyes and get outta there, even if only for a few minutes.