Join me on this star-filled adventure as we raise our vibration to uplift our human selves through spiritual direction, Reiki, ceremony, mantras, guided meditation and stories for the soul. Thank you for joining me on this cosmic adventure!
Can guided meditation truly unlock hidden parts of yourself and reduce stress? Discover the transformative power of guided meditation with me, Shannon, on Starseed Evolution. In this insightful episode, you’ll gain a deep understanding of what guided meditations are, how they function, and the benefits they bring. Drawing from my background in Craniosacral Therapy and energy healing, I’ll share my unique approach to incorporating these practices into guided meditations to facilitate powerful healing experiences, even for listeners I've never met in person.
Explore the various types of guided meditations and their specific intentions, from fostering relaxation and grounding to balancing energy centers and boosting self-esteem. I’ll walk you through my process of setting intentions, channeling intuitive insights, and crafting guided journeys designed for personal growth and well-being. Whether you’re looking to connect with your higher self, alleviate stress, or unlock the secrets your mind holds, this episode offers a comprehensive look into how guided meditations can support your spiritual and emotional evolution. Join me and see if my approach resonates with your unique journey.
Thank you for music by: Chris Collins of Indie Music Box and Blue Dot Sessions
Hi, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Shannon and this is Starseed Evolution, bringing the wisdom and insight of the cosmos to you. I'm grateful that you're listening. In our episode today, I'd like to share with you about guided meditation what are they, how I use them, why they're helpful in our lives, and the intention of guided meditation and its benefits.
Speaker 1:
In my day-to-day practice, when I work with clients in person, we often find things whether it's emotional, physical or psychic that is affecting their body or their wellness. When I studied cranial sacral therapy, which is working with the pulse of the cerebral spinal fluid of the body, it helps to heal or regulate the rest of the nervous system, but its pulse also helps tell the story of different things that have happened to a person over their lifetime. It holds these memories that circulate throughout the body, which then affect the cellular system as well. So when I was thinking about how can I also affect a change for someone I've never met in person, but using my voice, I discovered that craniosacral therapy allows you to also dialogue with the body or the mind or the spirit of a person. So what I decided to do was integrate those practices of my in-person work with my ability to channel Reiki or energy in connection with storytelling, which then allows me to use guided meditation or visualization to then bring these healing properties or aspects to online listeners or online students. When I teach live events as well, the guided meditation is a way for me to bring all these gifts together. The reason that I'd like to focus our episode today on guided meditation its foundation structure intention is so that when, in the future, I post guided meditations in upcoming episodes, you'll have an understanding of my background and my approach to creating these guided journeys and, just like in any profession, you'll see that each person that practices uses their methods in different ways. So today, when I talk about how I create guided meditations and how they work with individuals, then you'll see how I create these from my own background, and it may differ from other teachers that you come into connection with. This doesn't make one teacher better than another. Instead, it's bringing all these gifts and allowing individuals to see who they resonate with and what's helpful for them on their own journey. First, I'd like to talk about how guided meditations work, or my interpretation of how they're working in how they've helped me as well in my own life.
Speaker 1:
A guided visualization allows you to go on a journey, directing your mind, using imaginary spaces. By directing your mind, you're giving your mind a job of focus and you allow yourself to connect with your own intuition, because by using your imagination, you're accessing the intuitive part of your subconscious that understands what you're delving into through the imagery process. Also, when you listen to a guided meditation, having someone else take you on a journey, it allows your brain to also let go and allow new possibilities to arise. The brain often believes what it sees. The brain often believes what it sees. So if we give it images on a journey for a specific intention, it believes it's on that journey and then allows you to unlock or discover different parts of yourself that want healing or just want you to understand yourself more deeply, or just want you to understand yourself more deeply. So I'd like to share with you how I create different guided meditations based on different intentions that I set.
Speaker 1:
There are different types of guided meditations. For example, we can have guided journeys that create relaxation. We can have guided visualizations that allow us to decrease the stress within our body. We can use guided journeys for grounding and connecting with nature. We can use guided visualizations to connect with our higher self, our soul self and its wisdom. It's always present for us if we just ask. We can use guided visualization to balance the energy centers, the chakras of our body. We can use guided imagery to access our self-esteem or self-worth and help us grow that self-confidence that we might be lacking.
Speaker 1:
So once I decide on a specific intention for a visualization, I set that intention and write it on a piece of paper and then move into a place of stillness to connect with the energy of that intention that I've set. I take that intention then into meditation or stillness to listen to what wants to come up. Then, having a journal present, I channel by writing through my intuition, as it sends me images or projected pictures about the journey that allows us to meet that intention. As I begin to channel the guided journey, I see myself walking the whole journey and writing down everything. Each guided journey always starts with a pathway or a doorway into the journey, as well as a way out of the journey at the end. So that allows you to come back to the present moment and bring that energy, grounding or wisdom that you connected with during the journey back into your physical space with yourself.
Speaker 1:
It's important, too, to understand that when you take a guided journey accessing the different parts of your brain that connect with whatever intention that meditation was setting, sometimes the effects can be immediate or the information that comes forward for you can make themselves known right away. However, sometimes it can be days, weeks, even months after specific journeys that more information reveals itself to you as you go along your daily life. So it's important to understand when you take these journeys that sometimes what gets unlocked may not happen until later, when your soul feels that you're ready to unlock those parts of yourself. One of the other things that I like to gift during guided meditations is sometimes I will channel Reiki energy into the sessions so that you're also receiving this universal energy that's coming through. Depending on if different guides, master teachers, angels, fairies, if they come into the guided journey, then sometimes I can channel that energy to you through these recordings as well. I always set the intention that the energy and the imagery that comes through is for the highest good of each person and what they're able to process in the moment that they listen to the meditations. And if I do channel energy, I will always share with you before I do it so that you know that the energy will be coming through. The other thing I'd like to say is that I know that some of you who come to this podcast or this episode might be well experienced in either creating your own meditations or going on guided journeys. However, I created this so that it's a foundation for in the future, when I do share guided journeys for those people who might not be as familiar with the aspects of what guided visualizations are.
Speaker 1:
For Now, here's a mental note to keep to yourself so that, when going on a journey, you realize that guided imagery or visualization is not meant to be literal. It is meant to be a metaphor or an imaginary practice that actually allows you to access information that is real in your life. The journeys themselves are not literal, so let me give you an example so you can hear what I'm talking about. Let's say that I take you on a journey and we go into nature and enter a wooded forest and all of a sudden in the journey, a bear steps into the forest and comes towards you. Let's also say that in the imagery of the journey, I have you connect with the bear by sitting near a tree, the bear sitting next to you and you placing your hand on the bear's fur. In this journey we're connecting with. In this journey we're connecting with, for example, let's say, the strength of bear, the mothering aspect of bear, the fierce connection with nature and having that strength inside of yourself.
Speaker 1:
This type of guided visualization is often referred to as part of a shamanic journey or connecting with the energy and wisdom of bear in the imaginary world. By connecting with the spirit of the bear telepathically and psychically, you can receive information and energy through the guided imagery. But remember that I said energetically and imagination. A guided journey is not literal. So what do I mean by this? I mean please do not go into a real forest with real trees and find a real bear and try and touch it In the real 3D world. If you attempted to do this, the bear could severely hurt you. Remember it's a wild animal. That's why we connect with the spirit of the bear through the meditation, through our imagination, through these energetic fields of connection. Our guided meditations allow you to connect with that energy. So you're building this psychic bridge so that you can receive that connection. Don't be that person who tries to pet the cute little buffalo. This is a big no-no. Remember when you are in wildlife territory, all animals are wild and it's important to keep your distance with respect, and that's why connecting with them through a visualization or imagination can be a safe way of connecting with their energy.
Speaker 1:
In the guided journeys, I also like to add relaxing music underneath the meditations that also help induce the ability to relax during the journey, induce the ability to relax during the journey. The music is a way to bring forward that energy of connection with the journey that we're taking. All of the music that I use underneath the guided meditations are what's called royalty-free music by licensed musicians that allow you to purchase their music so that you can create these wonderful meditations, and I'm grateful for the music that they provide because it brings these journeys to life. A couple of sources that I like to use are Indie Music Box by Chris Collins. He has wonderful royalty-free music for purchase. Also, I connect with Blue Dot Sessions and subscribe so that I can purchase different types of music to place underneath the meditations as well.
Speaker 1:
Now, once you've gone through a meditation, it's a nice practice then to journal your experience. Journaling can be anything from writing down notes about things you saw or felt. Some people have an art journal so they might create art based on the journey that they took, and this is another way to journal your experience. Other people can take photographs out in nature to help capture the images of what they saw or felt during a journey. There's all different ways to connect with information so that, once you take the journey, you can go deeper into listening to your own self as well. It's important to understand, too, that because you're going on a journey and depending on the intention of it, sometimes as the healing process happens, then different emotions can come to the surface. Allowing yourself to be able to process these emotions are important. Make sure that after any journey, you get plenty of rest, eat lots of good food that nourish your body and drink lots of water.
Speaker 1:
There's also one other thing that I would like to talk about. Sometimes there's an idea that you, as the listener, have to be able to see in your mind the picture that I'm painting for you. This is not true. I know that some people because I've worked with different students who are not able to necessarily visualize what I'm saying. If you're one of those people who can't picture the things that I'm saying, even if you have your mind listening just to the words that I'm saying, whether you can see them or not, your body will still be able to hold the journey within itself. So, just listening to the voice or the guided journey, hearing the words, being on the journey itself, you'll still benefit from being in this adventure together. As a gift to you today on this episode, what I'd like to do is close with a love note by EE Cummings, and I'd like to share his poem with you.
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I carry your heart with me. I carry your heart with me. I carry it in my heart. I'm never without it and anywhere I go, you go, my dear, and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling. I fear no fate, for you are my fate, my sweet. I want no world for beautiful. You are my world and it's you are. Whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing, is you. Here's the deepest secret. Nobody knows. Here's the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life, which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide. And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart. I carry your heart, I carry it in my heart. Just know, on this journey together through life.
Speaker 1:
Like EE Cummings shares in this poem, I imagine carrying each of you in my heart and help you know that you are part of this wonderful world of imagination, of beauty, of healing, of journey. Wherever you are, may you always know that you're surrounded in this love. Thank you so much for joining me today. In this episode we focused on how and why guided meditation is important. Because of that, I bet you can guess that our next episode will be an actual guided journey, grounding and connecting with nature. Remember, you can always catch me live Wednesday nights on Insight Timer. I'll see you next time and remember, let the wisdom of the stars find you wherever you are. I'm Shannon, this is Starseed Evolution, and I wish you a beautiful day, namaste.
