A visualization exercise for growth that I just typed up. I would love to do this for someone.

We don't have to go "outside" of ourselves to grow and improve- we don't need to GRAB onto anything. I want you to sit still for a moment and imagine this pretty typical perspective on growth and improvement (specifically personal growth and personal improvement). Sit there and in your mind, picture your body, you're floating in space and there's nothing around you except for a large piece of gold. It's just out of your reach. Now I want you to go back to your body again and imagine this process of "Searching"

What do you see in your mind? What do you feel?

Imagine yourself reaching out as far as you can to grab onto that piece of gold. It's just at your fingertips but you're trapped in a chair by chains and a straight jacket that leaves every part of you trapped, sitting down, unable to move- except for your arms. You can stretch your arms as far as you are able but no matter how far you reach, it's just at your fingertips- you can even put a finger on it but it's a slippery piece of gold and your fingers slip right off of it, as they touch the side. Imagine yourself reaching and stretching your arms as far as you can but no matter how far you reach, you keep slipping off of that piece of gold. It's so slippery. It's shining brightly but you just can't reach it. You keep stretching and stretching. Your shoulder feels like it's going to come out of its socket. It hurts. It's there but you can't reach it. Your shoulder socket is in pain and feels like it's about to snap but you keep reaching. Keep reaching. Do not stop reaching. The gold is right there. Now stop.

Come back to reading this.

That's how I've looked at the game for so long. That's how I've looked at life for a very long time. But I'm done with that. That image has created constant stress and pressure in my life. It's caused me anxiety, anger and frustration. Forget that image. Let go of it completely. Take a breath and center yourself and focus your mind on your breath and only your breath. Completely let go of that stress. It's like a piece of energy and I want you to just gently let go of it. Don't throw it, don't stretch, don't put any effort into this at all. Simply breathe. Breathe in and breathe out. Feel the solidness throughout your body. Just breathe. Relax and let go of that previous stress. Don't throw it. Don't stretch. Don't even push it away. Don't put any effort into this at all. I want you to simply breathe. Breathe and imagine your hand in a fist. All the stress that you felt from the last visualization exercise is packed tightly into that fist. It's dense. It's incredibly dense. Your hand is struggling to stay in a fist. Hold that image. Fight to keep that fist closed. All of the stress that you've ever felt, associated with that "Search" is entirely held in that fist. Keep it there. Breathe. Stay with it. Don't run from it. Stay with that stress. Stay with that fist. Just breathe and feel the solidness throughout your body as you hold onto that stress.

Now, it's time to let go. Let go of that stress completely. Don't throw it. Don't stretch. Don't even lightly push it away. We're going to let go of all of that stress. We're going to let go of all of the stress you've ever felt associated with that search. Come back to your breath. Slowly open that fist. Slowly, very slowly, imagine opening that fist and letting go of all of that stress. You don't need to push it away, you don't need to put any effort in at all. Just slowly, very slowly, open that fist and imagine the stress simply dissapearing into the air. Imagine it floating away. Now come back to your breath. Forget that image. The stress is gone. Come back to your breath and I want you to just focus on each breath.


Okay, come back to your breath and take 10 of them. Focus entirely on your breath and feeling the solidness throughout your body.

Now we are going to replace that other image with a new one. This is the new image. it's relaxing. It's calm. It's warm.

Imagine yourself as a giant ball of wax. I want you to replace the image of yourself, in your mind, with a giant ball of wax- we're talking a HUGE ball of wax, with tons and tons of caked on layers of very hard, clumpy, dirty, wax and inside the mounds and mounds of this wax is a small but EXTREMELY dense, completely solid and completely shining sphere of metal. It can't be seen at all, at first, because this ball of wax is so dirty and packed so high with layers upon layers of gook. This metal, It's shining extremely brightly, is the smoothest surface you've ever touched and despite it's density, it's the lightest object you've ever held- it's almost as if when you hold it in your hand, the sphere just rests there, the equivalent of the weight of the air on your hand. You don't even feel it. It just rests there, entirely weightless- yet simultaneously it's so dense that if you were to drop it, it would crash directly through the floor, break through the floorboards, crash into the room below and keep going until it makes a crater in the earth.

Now imagine that ball of wax and imagine in your head a warm, vanilla scented candle, sitting right below that ball of wax. The candle is bright. It's extremely intense and bright but motionless and never flickers. It sits directly below that ball of wax. The ball of wax is floating in the air right above the candle. Imagine that candle. It's incredibly bright. It's almost blinding but it doesn't flicker and it's warm. It's incredibly warm.

Now imagine the wax ball. It's beginning to melt. Come back to your breath and feel your whole body relax. The wax ball is melting. You can feel the heat of the candle, you can see the intensity of its light. You can see the wax ball dripping as it slowly melts. It drips perfectly uniformally and you can imagine drops of wax dripping off from every area of the ball of wax.

As this ball is melting, feel the warmth of the candle and the vanilla scent. It's intoxicating with it's relaxation. You can't help but feel relaxed and at ease. As the warmth of the candle melts the wax, you can begin to see a faint shimmer of something. It's the sphere inside. You can begin to see a hint of what's inside. The wax ball continues to melt. It's getting smaller and smaller. You can see it decreasing in size. Breathe. Focus on the wax ball becoming smaller and as it does, the shine of the metal sphere begins to get brighter. The wax ball is so small it can fit in your palm now. The sphere is incredibly bright now.

Finally, the last drop of wax rolls off the cylinder and all that's left is that sphere of metal. It's incredibly smooth and shiny. Now where the ball of wax used to be, simply imagine yourself. The cylinder is at the heart of who you are. It's inside of you. Now just breathe. Breathe in once. Breathe out again. Do not attempt to grab onto the metal sphere. Don't focus on it. Let it just float in the air. It's floating inside of you. Let it sit there, floating. Feel the ease with which it sits there. Focus on your breath.

Now take a moment and come back and open your eyes.


That's literally how I imagine the difference between reaching for something outside of ourselves, for growth and finding it within ourselves and simply relaxing into ourselves.

Let me know what you think. Tough to do without someone dictating it to you but simply reading it might be nice for some people.