My Rainbow Meditation Experience

Hi everyone

           So we meet again in this, the third week of our class: Creating Wellness. The time just seems to fly by.  In two weeks we will be at the halfway point in this term. I wanted to share with you my reflections concerning where I rate myself in terms of my physical well-being, spiritual well-being, and psychological well-being on a scale from 1-10. Then I want to tell you what my goals are in these areas, and then mention some things I can do to facilitate my goals in them also.

A. Physical Well-being – I rate my physical well-being at probably a 4. I rate it this way because I am nowhere in the shape that I used to be because of certain medical issues I have been dealing with along with some leg and foot things that occurred earlier in the year. Before that I was somewhat overweight but I was working on getting the weight down. I will need to continue to do that. In this area my goal is to get back to at least the shape I was in before I got the leg injuries. That means that I would be at least 10 pounds lighter than I am now and I would be able to breathe better because I would have more stamina to go along with my loss of weight. Something that I could implement in my life to assist me in moving towards that goal would be to start up my walking program again. That way I can build up to what I was doing before, which was walking a little over two miles, twice every day.  I also can go back to the gym and continue to do more cardio work and strength training like before and then I would be able to lose the weight that I need to.

B. Spiritual Well-Being – I am going to say I rate my spiritual well-being at a 4 also.  This is because I used to go to Church every week and I was very active in ministry items. I used to be a Deacon back in the day in the church I usually attend but I haven’t been that active for quite some time in that regard. I guess I am still thought of as a Deacon but I certainly don’t feel like one. I still believe deep within my heart that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior but my connection to Him seems to have some issues. It is something that needs my attention in the very near future. In this area my first goal is to make sure that my relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is completely restored to a point that I feel the total connection that I used to feel. It is totally something that I need to take steps with because He is always there waiting to be in my life. The second goal is for me to be able to reach the levels in my mind of higher consciousness. I think that would be a great thing to be involved in. Something that I could implement in my life to assist me in moving towards these goals are to make sure that I don’t miss going to church because then I would have at least one day that I would be devoting a good chunk of time towards keeping my lines of communication open to Jesus plus it would be a very good idea to go back to praying at least once a day.  As far as the second goal, I will have to continue to learn how to work on the steps that it takes to get to those higher levels of consciousness and experience these exercises with mental imagery that help to do that.

C. Psychological Well-Being – I am going to say I rate my psychological well-being at a 4 or less. This is because I have been struggling with issues of not being able to concentrate or focus on anything to where it has been affecting my schoolwork. You have to know that schoolwork is very important to me because I just don’t want to pass with a “C” in my classes. This and other issues were really getting to me earlier in the week and it became a life crisis Monday night.  While we were in seminar a dear classmate picked up on something I said and realized I was about to do some harm to myself and emailed me asking certain questions about it.  She called me on the phone and we spoke for about an hour and cleared some things up. I am still struggling to a point but I want to publically thank Natasja Theriot for caring enough to get involved which averted a bad situation thus far.  So my goal is to clear my mind of all the negative thoughts and feelings that have brought me to the edge on more than one occasion. This goal also means that I have to gain much more confidence in my abilities than I have now because this will give me the self-esteem boost that I need to move on. Something that I could implement in my life to assist me in moving towards these goals are to continue to work on the schoolwork to the best I know how and to make sure I use better time management skills so I can get everything done in a timely manner. As I implement this I will do better and get good grades which in turn will boost my self-esteem. Talking to people who care is also something that I can do to help me get through these things that are holding me back in life. One other thing that would help is if I was finally able to work again after almost three years of hardly any work.

          Now, let me tell you about my reflections concerning the “Rainbow Meditation” Exercise.  It was a great experience for me once I was able to get through it all the way. It was frustrating because I tried seven times to do it and six different times I was interrupted in various stages of the exercise. At the beginning I had to focus my attention on my breathing. Slowly inhaling and exhaling made me feel pretty relaxed. It was very cool because the narrator told me to imagine that my body was like a prism and I had a beam of light that was shining on it with seven colors that separated out. These seven colors were supposed to correspond with seven different body regions. The narrator asked me to imagine that at each different body region that I had a small round window where colored beams of light were supposed to shoot out from. I thought about the base of my spine where a beam of light that is the color red shoots out and this body region symbolizes my ability to feel grounded, which means that I feel safe and secure in my environment. He asked me to take a couple of deep breaths and tell myself that “I feel grounded” a couple of times. I then focused on the spot that was a little under my belly button where there was a beam of light that was the color orange that shoots out and this body region symbolizes the feeling of being centered. This is the actual center of my body. This feeling of being centered means that I feel confident and self-worthy. When I took a couple of deep breaths, I said to myself “I feel centered” a couple of times. Then I moved my awareness to my upper stomach area where there was a beam of light that was the color yellow that shoots out and this body region symbolizes feeling love from people and friends in my environment. As I took a couple of deep breaths, I told myself that “I feel loved” a couple of times.  I moved my awareness up to my upper chest right above my heart where there was a beam of light that was the color emerald green that shoots out and parallels all the other colors. This body region in the area of the heart symbolizes my ability to love. This love means that I can share any of my positive feelings with anyone I want to.  I took a couple more deep breaths and told myself that “I choose to love” a couple of times. Then I moved my awareness to my throat area where there was a beam of light that was the color aqua blue that shoots out and also parallels the other colors. This body region represents my ability to feel that I have a meaningful purpose in my life. It also represents my willpower and creativity.  I couldn’t help but think about the fact that when I use my willpower and creativity that I begin to accomplish those things that have meaning in my life. I took a couple of deep breaths and told myself that “My life has a meaningful purpose” a couple of times. Then I brought my awareness to my forehead area where there was another beam of light and this one was the color indigo blue that shoots out and this body region symbolizes that I find balance within myself.  This sense of balance comes from the right-brain and left-brain being used together. It also comes from my ability to tap into my unconscious mind as well as my conscious mind. This sense of balance also comes from my being able to tap into my body wisdom.  I took a couple of deep breaths and told myself that “I feel balanced” a couple of times.  Then I focused my attention to the top of my head where there was a window that was bigger than the others. The beam of light that was there was violet and this color and body region is symbolic of being connected to a bigger part of the universe.  I thought to myself of how I would feel if I was connected, how I would feel being bonded with friends and family, with nature and the earth and the universe.  I thought to myself that I am not alone and when I feel connected that I would be at peace.  I took a couple of deep breaths and said to myself that “I feel connected” a couple of times. As I was getting to the end of the meditation I reminded myself of the colors and where they are in my body areas. The top of my head was the violet color, my forehead was the color indigo blue, my throat was the color aqua blue, my upper chest that is right over my heart is emerald green, my upper stomach was the color yellow, my lower stomach was the color orange and the base of my spine was the color red. I thought to myself that these are all the colors of the rainbow that separate out when a bright light shines through a prism. I was thinking that I wanted to bring all of these colors back together again and have my body surrounded by a brilliant white light. I imagined that my body was surrounded in this brilliant white light and how calm and relaxed my body had become. I took a slow deep breath and when I exhaled I told myself “My body is calm and relaxed”. My body had become very calm and peaceful and I thought that it would be great to be able to store this feeling in my memory. Now I know when times come when I feel tense, stressed or nervous, I could just reach into my memory and remember the phrase I was saying “My body is calm and relaxed” and again feel the sensation of relaxation throughout my whole body.  As I was feeling calm and relaxed, my body was able to restore its sense of calmness and sense of homeostasis. I really felt energized when this experience ended. I have to say that it was beautiful and I would do it again and recommend it for anyone who wants to de-stress and relax.

Craig S Aronoff