When I was a little girl, I used to imagine thoughts that did not serve me as soccer balls - then visualize an actual foot kicking the balls out of my mind. Lol! Sometimes I would have to kick them several times, but eventually they would stay gone. These days I sometimes employ a similar method, though the soccer balls have been replaced by doves which fly away. If I am really brain-looping on something negative, the old lady comes out. Think of Carol Burnette with her bucket and mop - a little old lady with a cap on her head; she comes and sweeps, sweeps, sweeps. The sound of her broom is rhymthic, and easily falls in tune with my breathing - eventually the scene fades away. Other times, if I am physically and mentally restless, I imagine my body as a piece of paper floating on a pond. Not sure why, but that one came from a dream and is fairly effective - for me. I float, soak up the water but do not sink. I am so thin and light - barely there. I am pretty sure Yogananda doesn't teach these particular images - lol - sometimes you have to go with what works.
i live in the country at this time....far from SRF groups or other meditation groups. But i have always liked to add that dimension.... That is meditation groups. But nature sings her song to me in the sound of the wind blowing thru the tress, the soft soft snow falling on the ground, the sound and smell of the water so prevalent here in the streams, rivers and lakes. And above all the dead silence and stillness of nite which is hard to find where i have lived before this. Once i stepped out of the car in the stillness of nite and heard the sound of om oooz out of the stillness of nite. Such a gift--- to have total silence --- to b alone or share that silence with someone else that understands the language of silence and unspoken communication.
