Author Archives: nickyminter

About nickyminter

I have spent over 10 years helping people cope with stress, using therapies such as Hypnotherapy and EFT. I am now also passionate about helping people access their deeper inner happiness and spirituality using guided meditation and visualisation techniques.

Balancing and Healing Meditation

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Here’s a lovely healing breath meditation to balance your chakras and to send healing thoughts and prayers to the planet for a more loving and peaceful world.

Sit in a place where you are comfortable and undisturbed

Follow your breath in and out of your lungs and feel your body relaxing

Notice your breath flowing down to the bottom of your feet and back up to the top of your head, continue for a few minutes

On your next in-breath take your awareness to the base of your spine, (your root chakra), breathe and feel grounded and safe (see the colour red)

Next take your breath to your naval area (your sacral chakra) and feel happy and strong (see the colour orange)

Next take your breath to the area just under your sternum between your rib cage (your solar plexus) and breathe feeling calm and courageous (see the colour yellow)

Now take your awareness to your heart (your heart chakra) and feel love for yourself and others (see the colour green)

Moving up now to your throat (throat chakra) and breathe feeling true to yourself with honest and kind self-expression (see the colour of the sky)

Next move up to the centre of your forehead and feel open to your intuition and clarity (see the colour indigo purple) and breathe

Now take your awareness to the top of your head and feel wisdom and inner knowledge and connection to all life (see the colour mauve) and breathe and relax.

Now imagine a beam of golden light pouring down into the top of your head spreading through your whole body, filling every cell with healing and love. Breathe with it and feel the unconditional love filling you up and filling your heart and pouring from your heart out to everyone and everything on the planet. If easier you can imagine the whole planet as if from space and the light spreads around and within all things. Send unconditional love and peace!

Continue for as long as you have time for!
To finish, feel a bubble of light surrounding you for your everlasting protection, come back to the room, take a few shorter breaths and open your eyes

Honestly, that feels so good, so please try it!
lots of love til next time
Nicky xxx
© Meditation Moments. Nicky Minter 2015.

Meditation during times of immensely stressful situations – am I turning into a snail?!

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So …. once again, a long time since I posted anything. What can I say – it’s sad that when big stuff happens you either get inspired and create through your pain, or turn inwards, like retreating into a shell – and just cope! I have done the former in the past, but when things are too big it is far easier to do the snail thing – and that is where I have been lately – popping my head out every now and then, but more often retreating into my safe shell house!!

However on the plus side, during this on-going stressful time I have completed a Mindfulness Meditation course – very interesting – for a long time I have been aware of and attempted to spend more time in the ‘now’ – or the ‘present moment’ and if you can switch the mind off long enough and really ‘be’ in the moment it does feel ‘special’ and can be very calming. As I have discussed before, our thoughts of the past and the future can totally take us away from actually experiencing what is actually happening in that very moment. Whether it is missing a truly enjoyable moment while too busy planning the next thing, or supressing a very powerful negative feeling to prevent feeling the pain or dealing with the issue.

How does it compare to my normal meditation methods of Creative Visualisation?

Hmmm that has been very different because while ‘visualising pictures or colours’ or ‘changing feelings’ one is still using the mind to do something – it is busy and still ‘doing’ rather than ‘being’! Mindfulness Meditation involves focussing on the breath and returning constantly to the breath (this is the basic Meditation – there are other aspects which involve feeling and sending loving kindness and working on stressful physical and emotional feelings – however ultimately it comes down to constantly bringing thoughts back to the breath). THIS IS SO HARD!!! However once mastered (this could take your whole life – I am 2% of the way there) bringing awareness to the breath and the felt sense (feelings within the body) creates an amazing self-awareness, self acceptance and a healing transformation starts to permeate the mind and body. Every time something hurts whether physical or emotional, bringing ones attention to the feeling and the breath and the present moment helps to heal….amazing…..

Is it helping during my times of immensely stressful situations – YESSSS!! I would highly recommend it!!

p.s I’m not giving up the creative visualisation meditations – they will be back!

Love to all
xx Nicky xx

Chakra balancing

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Hello Hello, fellow bloggers, friends and family!!

Don’t worry I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth! I am busy writing lots of lovely relaxing, uplifting and positive visualisations and meditations, ready to then record and get out here online for you to listen to and feel the benefit of daily relaxation, rebalancing and de-stressing!!

For the time-being, if you want to learn more about your Chakra Energy centres, check out the websites below: if you know of other good ones, let me know!

http://chakraenergy.com/

http://sacredcenters.com/the-chakras/chakra-basics/

Happy days – until next time!
lots of love
Nicky xx

Why Meditate?

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Much research is now being carried out that proves how meditation can make a difference and transform our lives:

Research into neuroscience has shown that brains of people who meditate have increased Alpha and Theta rhythms. The brain has five different wave frequencies: Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta, and Gamma.

In your normal waking consciousness you are in the Beta state. In this state you are fully awake and your mind is alert and logical. Beta brain waves are important for effective functioning throughout the day, however, too much time spent in the Beta state can lead to increased stress, anxiety and restlessness.

The Alpha state has been associated with better focus, relaxation, learning, creativity, and heightened performance. It is an optimal time to program the mind for success and it also increases your imagination, visualisation, memory, learning and concentration.

The Theta state is deeper meditation or light sleep. It is said that a sense of deep spiritual connection with yourself and the world around can be experienced while in Theta and it is where you may experience enlightened visualisations, great inspiration, profound creativity and heightened insight.

Meditation and visualisation help you to access the Alpha and Theta states, enabling you to feel less stressed, better able to cope with life and to feel happier and more content. It also helps you to access your personal creativity, intuition and connection to your spirituality.

Simply Breathe!

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Something we all do as humans is breathe. As focussing on the breath is a main constituent of meditation, it means we can ALL meditate! The simplest, however hardest method of meditation is to focus on the breath and be in a state of ‘no thought’. Because most of us have thoughts running constantly through our minds, it can take perserverance, practice and focus to come to a place of ‘no thought’. However, the more you do it, the easier it gets!

What are the conditions most conducive to meditation?

Everyone is different, but it is important to be somewhere that you won’t be distracted.

Some people like to listen to relaxing music, others prefer not. Apart from music, it’s best to have minimal exterior noises going on.

It is best to be sitting comfortably upright, or lying down. Ensure the upper body is straight so breathing is easy.

Some people like to sit in a particular posture, like the lotus position or half lotus. It is up to you. Comfort is important.

Meditation can take anything from a few minutes to an hour, however most find 10-30 minutes is the amount they can fit into their day and the most beneficial.

When you are comfortable and the conditions are just right, take some initial relaxing breaths.

Close your eyes and relax into the position you are in.

Be aware of the breath entering your nostrils, to the back of your throat and moving down into your lungs. Then follow it’s passage back out again.

With every breath, feel your body and mind relax, letting go.

Keep your awareness with your breathing, following it in and out, noticing how your ribcage expands and falls.

Any time a thought comes into your head, acknowledge it, don’t judge it, let it go and bring your awareness back to your breath.

Have an awareness of your body and mind relaxing even more on every breath.

If you like, you can have a sense of your breath moving up and down your body, following it up as you breathe in and down as you breathe out.

If thoughts come in, let them go again and follow your breath up and down your body.

Continue for as long as you want. When you want to return to consciousness, hold over your naval, take a nice deep breath into that area and open your eyes when you are ready.

Enjoy and until next time!
lots of love
Nicky xxx

Accessing the Power Within YOU

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Many of us go through life feeling frustrated and unhappy due to feeling a ‘lack’ of something. We often see the problem being down to needing more of something from someone, or a solution from outside of ourselves, whether it is more love, more appreciation, more success, more fulfilment, more motivation, more confidence, more trust.

What are you NOT experiencing in your world that you want to experience?
What are you NOT getting from the people around, your job, your life, that you feel you deserve?
What would make you feel happier and more content and at peace?

The wonderful thing is that we can CREATE these feelings for ourselves, we are incredible creative beings and are capable of giving ourselves everything that we need to be happy and content.

Find a quiet place to sit or lie down listening to relaxing music.

Take some nice deep breaths and feel your body relax and let go of any tension.

Spend a few moments thinking about what you feel you are missing from your life right now.

Once you have decided what it is (best to stick with one at a time), just be aware of it and acknowledge it.

Take your awareness to your breath and follow the rise and fall of your abdomen as you breathe in and out.

For the next 4 breaths, when you breath out, squeeze as much air out of your lungs, using your rib muscles to assist with this. Notice the breath in becomes much longer as you draw more air into your lungs.

Return to normal breathing and get a sense of a tingling vibration throughout all your cells.

Your cells are now creating, bring the awareness of the positive feeling you want to experience into all your cells, saying the word over to yourself.

As you repeat it, see this feeling growing and multiplying, growing and multiplying within all your cells, filling your body entirely.

You are now brimming with this feeling, it is overflowing out of your body and completely surrounding you like a bubble.

Have the intention to stay tuned to these feelings from now on and say it as an affirmation to yourself: ‘I am filled with …….

When you are ready, come back to the room, open your eyes and notice how much better you feel.

It is beneficial and reinforcing to repeat this for 21 days. You can add other positive feelings you wish to bring into your experience using the same exercise.

Good luck and enjoy!
Until next time
lots of love
Nicky xxxxx

Coming soon as MP3 recording.
© Meditation Moments. Nicky Minter 2013.

All you need is ‘YOU’

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Much of the time we look for comfort, love, fulfilment and happiness from experiences outside of ourselves. Unaware that actually we can create ALL of the feelings and experiences that we wish for within ourselves, we are a whole universe of every feeling that ever was and ever will be – waiting to be tapped into.

Fair enough… to experience LIFE … to be part of LIFE, rather than a hermit living in a cave, we interact with people, with nature, with everything going on in this planet, and can gain much happiness from the experiences we have. However, if our LIFE situation is such that we aren’t feeling loved, we aren’t experiencing positive things, we aren’t feeling appreciated or valued, it IS POSSIBLE to go inside ourselves and tap into the energy of positive feelings and create them for ourselves.

Check out this relevant parable from the start of Eckhart Tolle’s book ‘The Power of Now’:

“A beggar had been sitting by the side of a road for over thirty years. One day a stranger walked by. ‘Spare some change?’ mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old baseball cap. ‘I have nothing to give you,’ said the stranger. Then he asked: ‘What’s that you are sitting on?’ ‘Nothing,’ replied the beggar. ‘Just an old box. I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember.’ ‘Ever looked inside?’ asked the stranger. ‘No,’ said the beggar. ‘What’s the point? There’s nothing in there.’ ‘Have a look inside,’ insisted the stranger. The beggar managed to pry open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold.

I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and who is telling you to look inside. Not inside any box, as in the parable, but somewhere evern closer: inside yourself. ‘But I am not a beggar,’ I can hear you say: Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth. They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfilment, for validation, security or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.”

Follow my next blog for a meditation to help you tap into The Power of ‘You’.

Until next time!
lots of love
Nicky xxx

Spread a Little Sunshine!

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‘The greatest satisfaction in Life is from Giving’ Richard Branson – Choicepoint Movie

The biggest gift you can give yourself, is to give to others without wanting anything in return. To give them your time, your compassion, love and laughter.

If you are feeling depressed, if your own emotions are overwhelming, if you aren’t feeling fulfilled or satisfied with your life, think about getting involved in work helping others whether paid or unpaid, or helping out a neighbour, joining a community group or facing a challenge for a charity – we all have it within us to spread sunshine to other people and you’ll be amazed at how it enables you to experience your own personanl growth and healing.

You can try this visualisation:

Find a calm, quiet place to sit, listening to some relaxing music.

Take some calming breaths, following your breath in and out of your body, bringing your attention back to your breath whenever your mind wanders.

Allow the music and your breath to relax your body, letting go of any stress or tension.

Take your attention to your heart and now imagine waking up to a bright sunny day, seeing a field of spring grass filled with yellow buttercups and the blue blue sky. Feel that uplift and sunshine in your heart.

The energy of the sun is pure gold and is filling your heart with compassion and wellbeing. Imagine your heart smiling

With every breath, the feeling spreads from your heart into the whole of your chest, up and down your body reaching your fingers and toes, up into your head, so your body is alive with this energy.

Now that energy grows and the golden sunshine smile spreads out of every part of you into the surrounding area, spreading further to encompass all you come in contact with.

Feel a big smile light up your face right now and take a nice deep breath.

From now on you can give and recieve love and compassion more easily.

Stay with that feeling as long as is appropriate, coming back to the room and opening your eyes when you are ready.

And remember, just smiling spreads some sunshine!

Enjoy. Until next time!
Lots of Love
Nicky xx

Change the way you feel!

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So to live a content, happy and fulfilled life, we mainly want to feel emotions such as compassion, acceptance, love, gratitude, peace, enthusiasm, motivation, positivity, empowerment, forgiveness and hope.

But sometimes we can’t help but lose ourselves to the lower energy emotions such as fear, anxiety, disappointment, anger, frustration, pessimism, shame, sadness and bitterness.

It is normal, it is life, often driven by our egos, by past experiences, by attachments to possessions and people and a constant barrage of gloomy news and media driven expectations.

If we have a desire and have an intention to spend more time living the higher energy positive emotions, we can use relaxation, meditation and visualisation to help us achieve this:

Find a quiet place to sit or lie down, listening to some relaxing music and close your eyes
Take some nice deep breaths, allowing your body to relax with every outbreath.
Get a sense of what emotion it is you are feeling and whether you feel it in your head or anywhere else in your body.
Breathe into that area, and imagine you are letting it go, it is softening and releasing.
Use your intention to release the feeling, and on every outbreath notice it moving and letting go, see it leaving your body from wherever feels appropriate.
Sometimes it is helpful to imagine a jug of liquid gold light pouring into the top of your head and as it travels down your body it heals, moves and helps the negative feelings on their way – out of your body.
When that feels better, as you breathe in, draw in the positive feelings you want to experience. Say the positive emotions to yourself and keep breathing them in, allowing the feelings to fill your entire body.
Repeat for as long as you need, imagining the colours associated with those feelings and allow those colours to fill all your cells.
Enjoy the new feelings and make an intention to do this any time you need to change the way you feel.
When you are ready, take some awakening breaths and return slowly to the room and your day.

Have a happy day! Until next time.
lots of love
Nicky xxx

Before you Meditate

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Usually when we sit down to meditate, we have loads on our minds. Here’s a tip:

Write anything down that is on your mind – it could be negative things or anything you are excited about or planning.

Include all the detail that is bothering you or takng up your thoughts.

Have the intention that these things are taken care of and you don’t need to think about them for the moment.

If you know how to do EFT, do some tapping before meditating to reduce the intensity of your thoughts.

Enjoy your meditation!

Return to the things you have written down and notice how you feel so much calmer about everything.

Until next time
lots of love
Nicky