Meditative Exercise: Journey on Relaxation

This meditative exercise was new, and deceptively challenging. I am often stressed out with life's constant challenges in the foreground and anxiety nipping at my efforts toward peace in the background.

As the mediator starts to lead me into the visualization and relaxation meditation I can hear my mind's reel betraying my will to cooperate. "Get into a relaxing position", "Focus on moving heat and energy into your extremities", heck "Breathe". My conscious mind persists with its agenda: "Did you turn off the stove?", "Was that the baby?", "What am I going to eat for lunch?".

The most challenging part of the meditation was the immense effort it took to quiet my mind enough to allow entrance to the mediator's instruction. I was also surprised that the not knowing where the moderator was going, and not knowing him, made me slightly anxious and a bit apprehensive. I felt more vulnerable than I could imagine I would, especially when I'm in the safety of my home simply listening to a voice through my computer, a soothing and gentle voice, the voice of a man who can't see, hurt, or judge me.