Visualization for Healing: Mining Out The Pain

So last night my daughter was struggling with a pretty icky headache. As we were trying many remedies to help her lessen the pain, my partner’s son, who is 13, offered this visualization. He said, “You know, when I get a headache, I imagine all these little miners in my head carrying out buckets of yucky stuff from my head. Then I imagine that I set fire to all of it and watch it go away. And then I get busy watching the smoke from the fire and it takes my mind off it. That’s what helps me.”

I smiled SOOO BIG. Brilliant!!! Kids these days are so amazing. They show me more and more about the power of the mind. They are living examples of how applying this stuff really works in life!

The power of visualization to help with pain has been proven again and again in research studies. The brain doesn’t know the difference between made up and reality–so what we think in to it, we have the power to create with. Brings meaning to the phrase “your mind is your play dough–what will you create?”

So, hearing his brilliant idea, I decided to create a mini-visualization for kids to use when they are in pain or when they want to clear out the contents of their mind. The “little miners” can be mining negative/unwanted thoughts or they can be mining out “pain.”

Mining Out The Pain

Close your eyes and get comfortable. Take a deep breath in through the nose and let it out slowly through the mouth.

Begin to breathe normally. Allow your body to just melt into the chair or floor or where you are resting.

Feel the softness of the air as it touches your cheeks, as it touches your skin.

Check in with the temperature of your body. Are you feeling too warm or too cold or just right? If you are too cold, maybe you can imagine that you have sunlight shining down on you or that you are next to a warm fire. Or, if you are feeling too warm, maybe your body wants to be lying near a block of ice or a glacier, or on top of a snowy mountain. If you are just right, then enjoy feeling how comfortable your body is right now. Just imagine what your body needs right now and give it to your body.

Next check in with the part of your body that is feeling pain (or, get in touch with the thoughts that are bothering you). See if you can allow your attention to travel right to that place.

Now imagine that you are entering a dark cave. Maybe the cave is totally dark or maybe there are rays of light coming from cracks in the ceiling. Just notice how dark the cave is.

Walking into the cave you see that it is a cave where they mine things. Today there’s an army of little miners in there, working and bustling in every direction. They are working hard.

Now you see that these little miner’s are busy mining out your pain. Each bucket they fill they march it over to a big bonfire and dump it into the fire. Allow yourself to imagine that they are mining out all of your pain, each little bit of it. The more and more buckets that they mine out, the better and better you begin to feel. More and more of your pain is getting marched over to the fire.

As you watch continue to breathe in and breathe out, relaxing your body more and more with each bucket. See if you can really let go and allow those little miners to do the work.

Pretty soon, you begin to feel as if the miners are all done. You imagine a bright beautiful light coming in and filling up all the places where the pain was inside of you. What color is it? Maybe it’s a soft blue or green, or a light yellow. Whatever color it is, just allow it to swirl inside you and begin to fill you up with relaxing, peaceful feelings.

It’s time for you to go, so wave goodbye to the little miners, tell them thanks. Know that these little miners are always available to help you with your pain or with any thoughts you no longer want. Begin to make your way out of the cave. Slowly return your attention to the room around you. You can open your eyes when you are ready.

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Mining Out The Pain

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