EXERCISE TO CULTIVATE SERENITY
Approximate duration: 5 minutes of reading + 20 minutes to do the exercise (exclusive dedication)
To carry out this exercise, read section 1 of Chapter IV of the book up to the point where it discusses cultivating serenity. Try to learn this technique, and if you have any questions, you can ask your coach.
Next, read the following session, which you will then put into practice:
Session 5: Affirmations and visualizations to cultivate serenity
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Observe the sensations of tension in your body and mind. Try to locate exactly where they are situated, feel them, and try to describe exactly what they consist of.
Next, focus on a part of your body that is particularly tense and visualize yourself relaxing it, applying a needle or wand that eases it, an injection that sedates it, or any instrument you feel comfortable with. If you prefer, you can imagine giving it a massage or that the tension is a knot you are undoing.
Tell yourself “I loosen and let go,” visualizing how the muscle relaxes, and if you find it difficult to loosen, tell yourself “just a little bit.” Now focus on words such as calm, quiet, relax, slow, gentle, serenity, stillness, peace, little by little. Visualize a car or a bicycle gradually decelerating until it stops.
Choose another part of your body that you notice is tense and apply the previous affirmations and visualizations, or any others you can think of to relax and unwind.
Continue doing this exercise with different parts of your body where you notice tension until the session ends, or longer if you wish.
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The next step is to perform a 10-minute focused awareness session on the previous visualizations and affirmations, listening to the audio file “I.5. Serenity” and letting yourself be guided by it. You can download this audio file by clicking here.
After completing the session, download the table that you can find by clicking here. Fill it in and send it to your coach by email.
Go to Step 6.
