When you get up the morning, does your mind immediately leap to your tasks for the day? Do you think about work? Do you think about the children, the bills or the mortgage? Do you then spend the day a prisoner of your mind? The mind is a powerful tool but only if we can master it first. If we allow ourselves to become it's slave, we can find ourselves in all kinds of negative thinking arising from our environment. We can become trapped in our own thought control dramas. Negative thoughts can sink into our subconscious minds and effect our performance throughout the day and indeed have a continual impact on our lives. But just a few moments of meditation at the start of the day can begin to change all that. Here is a simple but effective meditation you can try in the shower...

• run the shower at your usual temperature and cleanse the external body in the normal way.
• stand directly under the shower with the water falling on the centre of your head.
• in your imagination, take yourself to a beautiful country scene. You are standing under a waterfall.
• feel the warmth and the water washing your skin. Try to hear the sounds of the countryside, the birds, the wind in the trees. Feel the sun shining down on you, a rocky surface beneath your feet.
• now imagine the water is washing through you. Beginning with the head, feel the water washing downwards cleansing away any negative energy and thoughts
• feel the cleansing water pass through the whole of your body and 'see' dirty water flowing away from your toes.
• when the whole body has been cleansed in this way, sense what it feels like to be totally clean and pure within. Scan the whole body with your awareness taking note of particular sensations.
• then visualise and feel the water becoming a beam of light penetrating the head and filling you with positive loving energy. Be in this feeling for a few minutes. Feel it warming, comforting and liberating you.
• then turn the water to cold - as cold as you can. Experience the water as cold but try to 'know' that YOU are not cold. Try to move beyond your immediate reaction to jump out of the water. Stay for a few moments (as long as you can stand!).
• then turn the water off and stand with your eyes closed scanning the body with your awareness. Notice any particular feelings.
• then visualise and feel vibrant energy flowing through your body and radiating outwards.
• get out of the shower and dry yourself off. You should feel completely cleansed, positive and invigorated.
• throughout the day, think about radiating this energy outwards and bring love, positive thoughts and healing energy to all those you encounter (even if they are rude to you - they need it most!).

When you've tried this - perhaps you would like to share your experiences...chris@openhandspirit.org