There are many meditation techniques or types that one can practice and incorporate into their self-care ritual. Here are five types of meditation you can practice to achieve a balanced body and mind.
​
1.) Mindfulness Meditation
This type of meditation is a combination of concentration and awareness. It can be done anywhere where one is able to close their eyes and focus on their breathing. During the practice of meditation, you allow yourself to simply observe your thoughts and feelings as they pass through the moment. It’s important to focus on your thoughts and feelings without judgment or efforts to escape them, regardless of whether they’re negative, positive, or neutral. Practicing mindfulness is a great way to be present in the here and now.
​
2.) Focused Meditation
Focused or concentrative meditation is a meditation technique that requires one to direct their attention towards a single object with any of the five senses. Examples include moon gazing, counting your breaths, or simply staring at a single object.

This technique aids in improving concentration and increasing attention span. This may seem simple, but it does require practice to be able to hold their focus without their minds going through other thoughts or worries. It also takes practice to be able to gently turn one’s focus back onto their chosen target or object after being directed elsewhere. So it’s best to give yourself time and start with shorter sessions first. Feelings of frustration may prevent you from achieving its effects.


3.) Movement Meditation
If you’re the type of person who prefers a more active form of meditation, then you may want to try movement meditation. This technique is not simply moving for the sake of it; it involves building a deep connection and awareness with your body. Movement meditation also requires you to focus on the thoughts and feelings that arise as you practice your preferred type of movement meditation. Movement meditation comes in different forms, including:

• Yoga
• Tai chi
• Walking
• And other types of movement where you can be in tune with your body and mind

 
4.) Loving-kindness Meditation
Also known as Metta meditation, loving-kindness meditation is the practice of directing well wishes to others and opening your mind to receive them as well. This practice will help you strengthen feelings of compassion and kindness towards yourself, loved ones, and other people or living beings. Practicing loving-kindness meditation can be done while in a comfortable sitting position and reciting a mantra that evokes positive and warm feelings. This practice can be great for individuals who are experiencing feelings of anger or bitterness towards themselves or others.

5.) Progressive relaxation
​People’s stress and negative feelings tend to manifest physically, and this includes muscle tension in one or more areas of the body. Progressive relaxation is great if you’re someone who experiences any tension in your body due to mental or emotional stress. This type of meditation is a technique that can help you release the tension in your body. An easy way to start practicing this technique is to focus on one area of your body at a time. You concentrate on relaxing that part of your body before you move on to another area until your whole body feels relieved of any tension. You can include progressive relaxation practices in your evening ritual to relieve stress and relax your mind and body before going to bed.

Welcome to this week's episode of the free edition of ​The Healing Sanctuary! Today, we're talking about the feeling of being stuck in a rut. This is one of the most frustrating feelings I know, as it quickly builds momentum and sucks all motivation and joy out of me.

If you're in a place where you feel like you're just completely stuck, and you know how the rest of the week, your year, or even your life is going to go, then this one is for you! We're going to dive right into shifting you back into the energy of new possibility and potential. And then we're going to do a guided meditation that will help you to feel rejuvenated, renewed, and reconnected to the natural movement and change that is within you and available to you at all time.​

These public episodes are provided as a service to all who are on a healing journey, in need of some support, and in the process of awakening to their powerful inner self. You can find the private, members only version of The Healing Sanctuary here!

Below, you will find a transcript of this episode (it's based on my notes and is not an exact replica of the episode, there are a few differences). If you know someone who would benefit from this talk, please share it! You can find me on all the podcast apps, including Spotify and iTunes, under The Healing Sanctuary. These podcast episodes are free resources for anyone who needs it, and separate from my membership service.

Hello, and welcome to The Healing Sanctuary! I’m your host Melissa Field, and this week we’re going to be talking about feeling stuck or in a rut. We’re going to talk about ways to shift your inner perspective so you feel less stuck and open back up to flow, and then we’re going to do a little meditation and reflection. If you aren’t able to meditate, just pause the episode when you get to that part and come back to it when you can.

One of the most frustrating feelings I know is feeling stuck and like nothing is changing or happening in my life. It’s a very suffocating and depressing feeling, and it tends to build momentum on itself. The more things stay the same, the more depressed I feel, and the more depressed I feel, the less I do to get out of my rut, and the less I do the more stuck I feel, on and on until I feel totally drained of energy and disconnected from my inner self.

I was recently stuck in that cycle of “nothing ever changes” myself, and what got me out of it was something entirely unexpected. This last Sunday, I went outside to drink my morning coffee, and there was a random duck swimming back and forth in the pool.

This would be less surprising if I lived on a large property out in the country, but I live in the middle of the suburbs. It was such a strange and unexpected site that I had to ask myself if this was actually happening. It was funny and weird and the first thing that had made me feel surprised and delighted in a long time. Here was this duck, happy as could be, eating bugs and acting as if this happened every day. To start my day off with something so unexpected was the mental shift I didn’t know I needed.

So often in life, we think we know what’s going to happen in a day from the moment we open our eyes. We think we can predict each day, and because we live from a place of confirmation bias, if we believe nothing ever changes, then we’ll see only the information that confirms this and disregard all else. We begin to feel as if life itself is predictable, and not only can we predict how each day will go, we can predict the next year, the next ten years, maybe even the rest of our life.

This is a depressing place to be in, because it doesn’t allow in any magic or surprises from the universe. And as that little duck reminded me, being surprised by life is essential to our happiness and sense of well-being. We need the Universe to surprise us, because what we can predict about our day, our year, or even our life is based on very limited information. We ourselves cannot see every possibility, but the infinite intelligence of the Universe can, and if we’re not open to the surprises that are beyond our perception, we lock out the truly magical moments of synchronicity that you cannot explain, but that take your breath away when they happen.

However, to receive something unexpected, something that is far beyond what we ourselves can see, we have to be open to it from an inner place. We have to align ourselves energetically with the possibility that there are things bigger and better than what we ourselves can see, and we have to trust that the Universe is guiding us to them, step by step. What we believe and energize in our inner world is reflected back to us in our outer world. This is often called the law of attraction, but another way to put it is to say what you see within you, the Universe sees also, because the Universe is you. The Universe is a mirror to your inner thoughts and beliefs, and so if you see stuckness and stagnation and a lack of change, then the energy of the universe, the energy that composes all of life, will align itself to match your inner world, because that’s how powerful you are.

About twenty years ago, when I was in my early 20's, I wanted to travel for the first time. I wanted this more than anything, and fantasized about being in exotic, foreign lands every time I was bored.

Other than a few family vacations to other states, I hadn't actually been anywhere. And at the same time, all of my friends had passports and been to places I could only dream of. Not only that, but they were also graduating from college and moving forward with their lives in solid, tangible ways.

I myself had dropped out of college and was working as a night janitor for a medical office. I knew I wanted to be a writer, but I didn't know much else. And so I spent my days writing, my nights cleaning, and felt a sort of existential dread for my future.

I often wondered if this was it for me, if all of my daydreams had been delusions, and I needed to forget this dream and figure out a real plan for my life.

Within two years of what felt like a dead end existence, I would be in one of the farthest and most remote corners of the world. I would be spending six months in Antarctica, and not only that, but I would have the entire trip paid for, including the time I spent in New Zealand on my way in and out.

This all seemed like a magical dream, like the most miraculous turn of good fortune and good luck that one could imagine. What I didn't know at the time, and what would take me years to understand, was that I had first created this experience from an internal place.

Without knowing it, I had energetically created this experience, which then allowed it to manifest as a physical experience. How did I do this? Keep reading to find out and to learn how you too can use visualization to manifest amazing trips and experiences!

Right now, you might be wondering to yourself, but why did you visualize Antarctica? What was it about the coldest and driest place in the world that drew you there?​

In all honesty, this was something I'd never even thought about. And this is one of the most important but also challenging aspects of manifestation. What you envision and what the Universe delivers are rarely going to be the same exact thing. BUT, and this is a big but, what the Universe does deliver is going to be so much bigger, better, and more fulfilling than anything you yourself could imagine.

The Universe can see all possibilities, including the ones you don't know are available to you. It can see what will work out best for you, what will fulfill your soul, and what you might not know you need, but is exactly right for you.

And so, no, I never imagined myself going to Antarctica. And if I'd stuck to my desire, to travel throughout Europe, without any flexibility, it's very possible I never would have gone anywhere!

What I find most amazing about all of this was how much I loved my time in Antarctica. It holds some of my best memories, I met some lifelong friends there, and I discovered a person within me that I never knew existed. I truly left as one person and came back home as someone else entirely.

To make a long story short, I was hired to work on a research base there as a dishwasher. They flew me down, I lived in a dorm, ate in a cafeteria, and saved all the money I made. Which meant... drum roll please... not only did I manifest this experience, but I was able to travel to Thailand, Laos, and Bali afterwards! Talk about a dream come true!

At this point, I'm sure you want me to get to the point. What is the HOW of it all? How did I manifest this? Let's get into it!!!

Manifesting, at its core, is feeling as if you're experiencing something before it ever exists in your physical reality.

Rather than having a desire to go travel, you have to feel as if you're there already. You have to see yourself walking down the streets of Italy, eating a gelato, speaking Italian (or attempting to), and truly seeing your feet on those cobble stone steps, breathing in the ancient air of Rome, and loving every minute of it.

Feeling into the fact that it will feel good to be there is an essential part of this. I know it can be tough to get into those feelings, because if you could feel them now, you'd just be there, right? Why would you want to feel something BEFORE you experience it? Isn't that the whole point of the experience???

Not necessarily. Have you ever been in happy anticipation of something? Let's say, your best friend is about to get married. Would you honestly wait for the wedding to feel all the joy and love this brings up in you? Isn't it more wonderful to feel those feelings ALONG the way, like a wave carrying you into one of the most beautiful nights of your life?

This is what you're doing by feeling it BEFORE it arrives. You're building energetic momentum that aligns you with what's coming, and when it arrives, those feelings just get bigger and more expansive and it just gets BETTER.

This, in essence, is was what I was doing every time I got bored and daydreamed about myself in Europe. In my mind, I wasn't working a dead end job and going nowhere in life. I was having an ADVENTURE. I felt the feelings so fully that I experienced it in my mind LONG before I even thought about needing a passport. I felt how good it would be to wake up there. I felt how satisfying and exciting it would be. I felt the joy of telling people my own travel stories. I lived and breathed adventure before there was even a hint of it coming my way.

And because the Universe could see that there was no way to get me to Europe at that exact time, it found the experience that included all of those feelings that was available now. It got me the adventure I was dreaming of. And even better - this led to other jobs, which led me to being able to pay for my own trip to Europe a few years later.

It all worked out. But I had to let go and trust and surrender to the process.

The important thing to note about this is, feeling as if it's here is the opposite of the feeling of the desire itself. To desire something is to be aware that it's not here. It's you tuning into the lack, and saying to yourself, I want something more than what I have now.

To desire something is absolutely an important step. It's not one to be skipped over or maligned or frustrated by. In fact, the bigger the desire, and the more fully you want something, the bigger the manifestation, so feel those desires fully and completely.

This whole process began with me being jealous of my friends who were travelling the world. I wanted what they had. I wanted it in every cell of my body. I deeply desired it, in a way that burned inside of me, and this in turn fueled the inner visions of what it would feel like to be there.

The problem is, most of us get stuck in the desire stage.

​We stay fixated on what's not here, and because the Universe will ALWAYS mirror our inner world back to us, if your inner world is living the experience of lack and disappointment, then your outer world will live this reality also.

​In order to take something from a desire to a hold-it-in-your-hands physical manifestation, you've got to move past the desire stage. You've got to let go of any frustration or sadness or resentment over it not being here, because that just keeps it away longer.  You've got to let the desire go, feel as if it's here, and trust that it's all being worked out, and better than how you imagined. The more you can trust and EXPECT the next step that will get you there is coming, the faster it will come.

​In some ways, it's that simple. But in other ways, getting out of our own way and letting the Universe do its thing can really challenge us. Turning our thoughts away from the lack and onto the feeling that it's here now can sometimes feel impossible.

To help you experience what that would be like, right here and now, I'd like you to try this 5 minute visualization. Use this visualization to see yourself experiencing your trip or vacation. This will help you to feel how quickly you can shift your inner world and energetic momentum - 5 minutes isn't a lot of time, but it can DO a lot. And also, because it's guiding you, your mental chitchat won't get in the way, and you'll get into those feelings much easier.

If you enjoyed the above visualization, and you'd like to continue to work with your energy and learn more about how to channel it into manifestations, I have several ways you can work with me.

1. Manifesting Magic (A Law of Attraction Course): This powerful course is going to get you feeling as if your dream is here RIGHT NOW. It's not only going to align your energy in the right direction, but it's going to teach you everything you need to know about manifesting. You will understand all the components of a successful manifestation, and play with them as if you're already a master at this.
2. Empowering Visualizations: This package includes 18 powerful visualizations that will transform your life on every level. If you've ever wanted to feel like you held the keys to your best life, and like you're in control of your destiny, then this is for you. It includes the above visualization, as well as ones on money/abundance, confidence, self-worth, and more!
3. The Healing Sanctuary: A monthly subscription service, The Healing Sanctuary is your one stop resource for everything you need to build powerful and positive momentum right now. If you keep finding yourself stuck in the negative feelings of lack, you will find everything  you need in here to shift your energy in positive and powerful ways every single day. It's a library full of over 100 meditations and visualizations, and a new audio is added every week! On top of this, when you join Tier 2, you will gain immediate access to ALL my courses, included the two listed above!

Thank you so much for taking this time to learn about energy and manifestation with me. If you enjoyed this post, please share it with someone else who would benefit! And if you have any questions, drop them in the comments below.

In this episode, we continue our discussion of negative and hateful self-talk, how it develops, and how to transform it into positive, loving, and supportive self-talk.

We talk about my own negative inner monologue, and the hurtful things I often say to my self, such as "I'm a worthless loser," and what actually happens in the brain when we transform those thoughts into positive ones. This episode is designed to help you to understand your brain and your thoughts better, so that you can understand what's happening when you transform your inner monologue.

​You will come to understand why these thoughts DO NOT define you, what they actually are, and why they feel so true and overwhelming (even though they are 100% false). You will understand that you can CHANGE them, and can start right this very minute. Thank you so much for tuning in! If you know someone who would benefit from this episode, please share!

​Below, you will find a transcript of this episode (it's based on my notes and is not an exact replica of the episode, there are a few small differences). If you know someone who would benefit from this talk, please share it! You can find me on all the podcast apps, including Spotify and iTunes, under The Healing Sanctuary. These podcast episodes are free resources for anyone who needs it, and separate from my membership service.

Hello, and welcome to The Healing Sanctuary! I’m your host Melissa Field, and this week I’m going to continue talking about our negative self-talk, how to manage it, and how to change it into something more positive, loving and supportive.

Before we dive in, I want to reassure you that you can change your self-talk. Your brain is malleable, meaning it is not a fixed thing, but flexible and capable of changing itself at anytime. In last week’s episode, I mentioned some of the hurtful ways I talk to my own self, and it includes things like telling myself I’m a worthless loser, I have no value, no one will ever love me, and I would have more value if I didn’t exist at all. This is pretty dark and destructive, and these thoughts felt so real and true, I actually believed them for a long time. I have experienced a huge turn around in how I talk to myself, and I definitely still have my bad days, but I wouldn’t be making this episode if I didn’t know from first hand experience that even the darkest and most deeply rooted negative thoughts can be transformed.

Whatever your negative, critical, or hateful self-talk is, I want you to know that you are not alone in what you’re experiencing, and there’s nothing wrong with you. These thoughts are deeply painful, and they are rooted in painful experiences in our past, and I have so much love and compassion for you for showing up here today. Looking at these thoughts, acknowledging them, and feeling the feelings associated with them is so uncomfortable that we will often go far out of our way to avoid it. We’ll distract ourselves in any way we can, sometimes even falling into addictions and unhealthy patterns. I myself struggled through years of self-destructive behavior, which only added fuel to my inner monologue that I was just a worthless loser. Breaking free of this cycle was difficult, but what I came to understand, and what I hope you discover in time also, is that we are all deserving of love and happiness. We are all born eternally worthy. We just have stories that tell us so convincingly the opposite that we believe this lie, and why this happens and how to change it is something we’re going to cover today.  

So first of all, I just want you to put your hands on your heart, take a few deep breaths, and honor the courage and strength it took to show up here today. I spent years of my life avoiding looking inwards, because I was so scared of the bottomless depths of my own darkness. Just by being here, you have already taken a huge step. And that’s really what changing your self talk is. It’s one step after another, until one day you look back and you realize your entire inner landscape has changed.

In last week’s episode, I talked about how I manage the thoughts when they’re really overwhelming and intrusive. As a quick recap, I do 4 things. I first tune in and rate the intensity of what I’m thinking and feeling on a scale of 1 to 10. I’m not looking for a number in order to judge where I’m at or how I’m feeling, but merely as a reference point for where I’m going. I then take that number and go down two notches, so that I can start aiming for a place that’s lower in intensity. 

Last week, I had a really bad episode of intrusive thoughts and negative self-talk. After working through it, I wanted to share how I manage these thoughts, what I've learned about how they develop, and what you can do to manage and work through your own. This episode is based on my own experiences with thoughts that tell me I'm worthless, I have no value, I will never be loved, and so on, and I hope it helps you to feel better and find some relief from your own. Please note that I am not a therapist, I share based on research and personal trial and error, and I am not qualified to give medical advice.

Below, you will find a transcript of this episode. If you know someone who would benefit from this talk, please share it! You can find me on all the podcast apps, including Spotify and iTunes, under The Healing Sanctuary. These podcast episodes are free resources for anyone who needs it, and separate from my membership service.

​The Healing Sanctuary: August 19th, 2022
Managing Intrusive Thoughts and Intense Negative Self-Talk

Hello, and welcome to The Healing Sanctuary! I’m your host Melissa Field, and I wanted to talk about intrusive and intense negative self-talk today. I wanted to do this episode because I was spiraling into a dark space myself this week, and I know there’s a lot of people out there who struggle with this type of thing also.

My intrusive thoughts go something like, “I’m a complete loser. Everyone knows I’m a loser, but no one wants to tell me. I’m worthless. I have absolutely no value. I would have more value if I didn’t exist. No one will ever love me. I am unlovable. I am human garbage.”

And on and on like that. These are intense thoughts. These are vicious thoughts. These thoughts silently destroy me from the inside. Up until recently, I wouldn’t even share with people that I was thinking them, because I knew how dark and hurtful they were. On some level, I knew these thoughts were not an okay thing to think. And this shame of how mean I am to my own self added to the deep and bottomless void that existed were my sense of self-worth and self-should should have been.

It wasn’t until a few years ago, when I shared one of them out loud with a close friend, that I began to actually confront the thoughts. Up until then, I’d felt powerless to do anything about them. I felt that if I acknowledged to anyone at all I thought them, that I would finally hear someone validate them, and I would be told that YES, they were true, and I was all the horrible things I thought about myself.

In a moment, I want you to close your eyes and imagine something.

Imagine you are walking somewhere, in the middle of the day. On this particular day, everything is going absolutely PERFECT for you. Your life has shifted in the most spectacular and miraculous ways. All of your dreams have come true, and as you walk to your destination, you are practically glowing.

As you close your eyes and feel into this, really see yourself there. Where are you going? Are you holding anything? Is anyone with you? How's the weather? Get as detailed as possible. See it as if you're directing a movie, and you're in charge of ensuring every last detail in this scene lines up with your inner feelings of YES.

If you'd like to try visualizing your perfect day through a guided audio, click play below! This audio contains inspiring music that will take you even deeper into this experience. After you've played with your vision for a few minutes, continue reading the next part!

Now that you've sat and marinated in this perfect day, begin to reflect on what your energy was like during this vision.

How did you hold yourself? Did you stand a little taller? Were you smiling? What sort of vibe was radiating off of you? How did the people around you react to the energy you were putting out?

Really sit with these questions and answer them clearly. Go back into this vision of you, walking in perfect alignment with your dream life, and ask yourself these questions:

1. What words do you associate with this perfect day? How would you describe it - calm, peaceful, exciting, and so on.
2. How did you feel in this vision? Confident, happy, etc.
3. Did your energy seem open or closed?
4. How did you feel about the people and the world around you?

Next, take a moment and tune into the energy you normally feel in a day. When you see yourself on an average day, what is your energy like? Is it bright and open or closed and heavy? Just take a moment and tune into and get honest about what you feel and experience on an average day. What are the words you associate with your energy and the feelings of an average day?

And now compare the energy of your average day with the energy you just felt and experienced in your vision. How big is the gap between these two? Is it pretty close, and you could fall into it at any moment, or is it several leaps away?

As you reflect on this, try to withhold any judgement of yourself and where you are. This isn't a test to see how good you're doing. This is simply a way to gauge where you are now versus where you want to be.

Remember, everything in this Universe is energy. If you want to live that perfect day of your life NOW and every day going forward, you've got to align with the energy of it NOW. You cannot wait for something outside of you to show up and shift you into that energy. You must shift your energy from within, and the outer world will change to match your inner vibration. This is a law of the Universe - it must be so. 

If this sounds impossible, and you don't see how you can radiate that high, positive energy now, take a moment to consider that you just did it! The time you spent visualizing yourself on your best day was a powerful exercise in quantum shifting. You stepped into the energy of your best life, and during that time, everything in the Universe lined up with the energy you were marinating in.

You literally just created powerful new avenues of manifestation for yourself! Knowing you can shift your energy is the first step in realizing you can shift and upgrade your life, and you can start right now. In fact, you already have started! You just have to keep going.

I've got two powerful packages that will help you to fully immerse in the experience of quantum shifting. You can read about them below and then click the buttons to learn more about each one!

This powerful course won't just teach you all about how to create using your energy. It will get you doing it, practicing it, and mastering it. It will take you through the Law of Attraction one step at a time. During each step, you will have high energy guided meditations, workbook prompts, and examples guiding you. This isn't just a course in energy - it's a course in living from a place of joy and empowerment!

This package is for anyone who wants a shortcut to reprogramming their thoughts and beliefs. If you've ever wanted to rewrite the story you tell yourself about who you are and what's possible for you, then this is for you. This package is HIGH energy and will awaken you into levels of yourself you didn't know were possible. It's also a powerful experience in learning the difference between visualization and meditation. When I need to shift my thoughts, and I just cannot stop the doubt, worry, and fear, this is what I use.