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Thanks for requesting my free seven-lesson e-course. "Spiritual and Emotional Support for Persons Experiencing Cancer"Lesson # 7: Using Guided Imagery 
Hello again. I'm Bob Miller ND, with Lesson # 7 of your course on spiritual and emotional support for persons experiencing cancer. In your previous lessons, we discussed and explored how the loss issues you were experiencing as a result of the diagnoses of cancer created fears, anger in its many forms, may lower your self-esteem and create worry, over thinking or anxiety. In Exercise # 1 in each lesson, you discovered how your various losses you experienced as a result of your cancer diagnosis may have created these emotions in you. In Exercise # 2 in each lesson you pictured, pretended or imagined how it would feel and how you would act after you conquered the negative emotions or feelings and replaced them with a positive one. Then, you learned how Exercise # 3, using guided imagery, helps you easily learn the new methods of thinking, or cognitive restructuring as we called it. In this lesson, I will help you fully understand what guided imagery is, and why I believe it is one of the fastest, easiest and most cost effective methods to learn new ways of thinking, feeling and acting. Before I show you how you can easily use faith based guided imagery, let's do....... A Brief Review When we experience a traumatic life event such as the diagnosis of cancer, we typically experience many losses in our life. If you had removal of a breast or prostate, these loss can be significant for some. If your treatments has changed your routine, ability to do your tasks, or results in income reductions, theis is a loss as well. Typically, the life losses create fear. Fear for your well being, possibly financial fears, fears of what may happen or fear of procedures or treatments. It's not unusual to be angry. This anger can be expressed outwardly, or turned inward as depressing thoughts, shame or even guilt.The next typical progression is a feeling of less value, and lowered self-worth or self-esteem. Finally, persons with cancer may start to worry, over think, or feel anxious, due to the traumatic life events. Your solution is..... Learning New Thought Patterns and Ways of Thinking
When these principles are a part of who you are and how you think, not only will your stress levels plummet, but you will feel good about yourself, and have all the confidence you need to continue in your path of spiritual and emotional healing and restoration. The Key to Accomplish this is...... Cognitive Restructuring - Learning New Thought Patterns Cognitive is your thinking, and restructuring means to change. You need to learn how to change the way you think about the loss issues before you. When you learn and implement these principles, you will see light at the end of the tunnel and will be on your path to spiritual and emotional healing and restoration. In your previous lessons, you learned how you would feel and act if you felt complete despite the losses you are experiencing, moved past fears, released anger, restored your self-esteem and stopped worrying. Here once again, are the five new thought patterns you need to learn and implement: 1. In mind and spirit, you can become complete and whole. 2. Fears are illusions. You can find the courage you need to move past your fears. 3. Release anger, resentment, bitterness. Let it go. Forgive 4. You are worthy and valuable 5. Learning to release worry and anxious thoughts and have a peaceful mind. I'm sure you agree, you would like to think this way, but perhaps are unsure if you can change. That's a normal reaction. Let me show you how easy it can be.
Using Mental Imaging to Learn New Ways of Thinking Interestingly, your mind works in pictures. If I were to ask you to describe the kitchen in your home, you would immediately pull up a picture of your kitchen in your mind and then describe it. Your mind often thinks and learns with pictures. So, to learn new ways of thinking, I am going to teach you how you can make pictures in your mind that represent your old way of thinking, then have you imagine this picture changing. When you do this, a very powerful thing happens. When you picture and imagine in your mind that an emotion you are feeling is a picture and then you see that picture changing, your thought processes will follow along and over time, you will permanently use this new way of thinking. Let me say this again. When you picture and imagine in your mind that an emotion you are feeling is a picture and then you see that picture changing, your thought processes will follow along! Here's all you have to do......
Take your emotions of loss, fears, anger, lowered self-esteem and worry and make a mental picture of them. Then, in your "minds-eye" see this picture changing. As you see this picture changing, your mind "learns" this new way of thinking. Using Guided Imagery to Create the Mental Pictures Guided imagery is as the name implies, guides you through making mental images in your mind. On the Tranquilities for Persons Experiencing Cancer CDs, the people speaking and guiding you are myself and Rev. Donna Shenk, Chaplain at the Ephrata Community Hospital in Ephrata, PA. To use guided imagery, you sit comfortably in a chair, put on headphones and start the CD. It's best if you are in a location where you won't be disturbed. It's important that you are calm and relaxed, so there are no distractions. So, on each of the five CDs in Tranquilities, there is soft gentle music along with relaxing environmental sounds, such as the sounds of the ocean, a gentle rain in the forest, a campfire, a gentle stream deep in the woods, or wind chimes blowing and ringing in a garden. To help you relax, Donna and I guide you through some simple breathing exercises and muscle relaxation techniques. Then, after you have closed your eyes, and the music and environmental sounds have you deeply relaxed, we begin telling a "story" that easily guides you into making mental images that represent your sorrows, fears, anger, lowered self-esteem and worries. It's easy, relaxing, peaceful and usually fun to do. In each story, we gently guide you into making a mental picture of the negative emotion, and then, as the story weaves along, the mental image is changed. You will understand this when I give you an example, and you will see how easy this really is!! For example, in the Courage CD, after we step you through the relaxation process, we encourage you to imagine that you are at the ocean. The gentle, rhythmic sounds of the ocean help you create this mental image. Then, we invite you to pull up a fear you are currently dealing with and want to find the courage to move past. We then instruct you to make a mental picture in your mind of a wall, a wall that represents your fear. Since this is your imagination, you can make the wall any size and shape you want. Next, Donna and I gently guide you in imagining that the ocean waves gently wash away the foundation beneath the wall. Just as when you are read a story, you see the action in your mind. Here's the exciting part, as your mind "sees" your fear as a wall, and then "sees" the ocean washing it away, your innermost part of your mind accepts that this fear is gone. That's all there is to it, you are training your mind to change it's perception, or cognitive restructuring. One of the biggest challenges I have is helping people understand the power of this simple exercise. To many, it seems too simple, and therefore ineffective. However, this is a powerful and easy to use technique that you can easily use to improve every part of your life. Each CD follows the same format:
Since the entire program is based upon "loss issues" creating grief and loss, followed by fears, then anger, then lowering self-esteem and creating worry, the five CD's in Tranquilities follows the same format. Here's the title of each CD and the Mental Images Used Restoration - To help you feel complete and whole despite losses, you "imagine" your loss as an "emptiness" or "something missing" inside you. As you go through the imagery, you see this part of you being filled in. Courage - As we discussed above, for fear, you "see" your fear as a wall that the ocean waves wash away. Release - To release anger, guilt, shame or depressing thoughts, the imagery we use is to imagine your anger as a hot ember in your right side, that's taken out and placed in a gentle rain, where it cools. Value - To build your self-esteem, we encourage you to imagine the life incidents that lowered you self-esteem as a weight around you neck. This weight is removed and placed in a campfire , where it is consumed by the flames. Serenity - To release worry, we encourage you to imagine any worries as a knotted rope in your stomach area. Then, the rope is loosened, and you release your worries. Including Your Personal Faith For many individuals, their personal faith is important to them. It's for this reason, on each CD, there are two versions of the imagery. On the first track, we encourage you to feel God's presence and read an Old Testament scripture, usually from the Psalms. The imagery also suggests that God is helping you during this time. On the next track, the imagery is identical, except that the religious references are removed for those who do not want to use them. Aromatherapy and Affirmations I added two more powerful techniques to the imagery; Aromatherapy and affirmations, to really help your subconscious learn these principles. Aromatherapy oils are liquids that come from the inside a plant. The oils that are used in aromatherapy have very distinct odors. Historically, some oils are used to help support a person with a specific emotional issue. For example, Lavender is very calming Tranquilities includes five bottles of aromatherapy oils. There is one bottle to use with each of the five CDs. One bottle is called Restoration, to be used while listening to the Restoration CD, the one to be used for sorrow issues. When listening to the CD, we ask you to pull up the emotion of loss. You have the bottle in your hand, and then gently smell the aroma. The oils in the blend were carefully chosen to assist with the feelings of grief and loss. The Conditioned Response Then, after you have "changed" the mental picture , you are instructed to smell the aroma again. As you do this, your mind learns to associate this aroma with the new positive emotion. This is called a conditioned response. After you learn to associate the smell of the oil with your new thought pattern, any time in the future, you can smell the oil and you will be reminded of your new positive thoughts. Affirmations After the imagery has you change the mental picture to the new one, you are given a positive affirmation to say. For example, for the CD on loss, the affirmation is "I am complete in this present moment." You are instructed to say this affirmation while smelling the oil. As you do this, you will associate the aroma of the oil with the affirmation and desired outcome. After you associate this unique aroma with the positive desired outcome, we also suggest on the CD, that in the future, when you smell this aroma, you can also say the affirmation, and the two together will continue to reinforce your new desired thought process. So, you can carry this aroma around with you during the week, or apply a drop to you wrist or a tissue, and continue to smell the aroma while saying the affirmation. You learn by repetition. To my knowledge, this is the only program that combines aromatherapy with guided imagery, so that many factors are working together to help you down your path of healing and restoration. Review of Tranquilities The five Tranquilities CDs and five aromatherapy oils, logically take you through these five emotions and help you learn positive ways of thinking. Each CD follows the exact same format:
Frequently Asked Questions Can I hear what the CD's sound like?Go to www.cancer-support-imagery.com and you will find links that offer a 30 second clip that includes the music, environmental sounds and Donna and me giving a brief description of the CD. How Long do I need to Use the CDs ? The length of time to use them varies for each person, but if I had to make up a general rule of thumb, I suggest the following. Identify the loss issues most significant in your life, and then use the Restoration CD daily for a week. If you can't listen every day, keep going until you have listened at least 7 times. If after 7 days you feel like you are ready to go on, move on to Courage. If not, keep going. Then, I recommend you use the CDs in the order of how we experience the emotions, Courage to move past fears, Release to let go of anger, Value to build self-esteem and Serenity to relax your mind from worry and over thinking. Using Tranquilities is relaxing, easy and fun. You kick back and relax in an easy chair, close your eyes and make some mental pictures. What could be easier? I trust in these seven lessons, you gained some valuable insight in to how to begin your path of healing and restoration. 
The Five CDs and Five Aromatherapy oils in Tranquilities is only $49.95. As an added bonus, I'll include a sixth CD called Peaceful Rest. This CD is perfect for those nights that you may have trouble sleeping. The night sounds of crickets combine with very soothing music to easily get you relaxed enough to fall asleep. Also, I'll include the CD called Comfort that is used to help relax so pain is felt less intensely. If for any reason you don't like Tranquilities, just send if back for a full and cheerful refund. There is no risk on your part. I believe that guided imagery is the easiest, most effective, and fastest way to learn these important principles that will change your life. Learning how to stop worry has never been this fast, easy and inexpensive.
It is not unusual that persons who are experiencing the shock of being diagnosed with cancer to have difficulty understanding how the losses they are experiencing are impacting their self-esteem and self worth. Some people can do much better when they have someone to speak to, and guide them through the process.
To purchase Tranquilities for Persons Experiencing Cancer, click on one of these options. I wish you the best in your personal path of spiritual and emotional healing and restoration. I trust and pray that you can recognize that in mind and spirit, you can move towards feeling complete and whole, you can conquer your fears, release your anger, restore your self-esteem and find peace of mind. For Your Spiritual and Emotional Healing and Restoration, Robert Miller ND Gilead Enterprises247 North Reading Road Ephrata, PA 17522 Home Page of Breast Cancer Support |