Hello,
I'm Dr Bethany Brown and thank you for joining me for this special place setup exercise.
What we aim to do here is to help you to create a special place and this will become a tool which you can begin to practice to build up and eventually to utilize as a way of soothing and calming your body's threat system.
It will become a tool which you can use to help you drop into a sense of relaxation and safety and that feeling of calm and content.
This exercise is about building it,
About creating it and about setting it up.
Once you have done this I would encourage you to practice it,
To build that tool,
To strengthen that tool and the way I would advise you to do that is to go to my special place exercise track and practice it that way.
So as I said this one is about creating it.
So what we're going to do is we're going to think about a place which will become your special place.
We want this to be a place that is completely associated with calm,
With relaxation,
With being at peace.
Somewhere that you just feel the most relaxed you could ever feel and this can be a place that you know,
It can be a place from your past or your present.
Whether that be a special holiday,
Maybe a beach or whether it might be your favourite sofa and your reading nook or it might be your grandmother's kitchen table when she was cooking but just thinking about a place where you felt totally calm,
Totally at peace and totally relaxed.
If something isn't jumping out to you and you can't think of a place that you have been when you have felt that way,
We have many other options.
So what you can also do is think about a place which feels totally calm and relaxing from literature or a movie,
Somewhere that you've seen in a place that you can imagine.
So if you're really into Harry Potter for example,
Is there a part of that film book franchise that just thinks,
Goodness me if I was there I would feel totally at peace.
That could be my special place.
And again if nothing is jumping out,
We also have the option of completely creating a place in your own imagination.
Asking yourself the question,
What would my special place look like?
And creating it,
Drawing it in your mind.
So what we're going to do is start to build the visualisation of your place.
If you feel comfortable and safe to do so,
I invite you to close your eyes.
But if this doesn't feel right for you,
A soft gaze at a neutral point is equally okay.
And what I want you to do is start to visualise your special place.
Painting the scenery around you,
Noticing the landscape that you are in,
Whether you're inside or outside.
Taking time to fill in as much detail as you can,
What's nearby and what's further away.
And we're really wanting to build this imagery as vividly as we can.
So noticing the colours,
Tones,
Textures,
And perhaps now looking around and noticing five different details that you hadn't even noticed before.
Bringing all your attention to your special place and all those things which make it special.
And noticing yourself being in this special place and allowing yourself to interact with it as you wish.
And what we're going to do now is move to the second part,
Which is noticing how does it feel to be in that special place?
Connecting with how it feels in your body.
Being connected with that imagery in that special place,
What do you notice in your body?
Seeing if you can connect with that feeling physically of being in that special place.
Connecting with what we would call the felt sense.
Which parts of your body would you notice sensations in?
And seeing whether you can connect with that feeling now.
Holding those two things in mind,
The image of your special place and that felt sense in your body now.
And anytime your mind wanders,
Which of course it will do,
As that is what the mind does.
You're human,
Just notice you've been distracted and bring your attention back to your special place and that felt sense in your body,
Connecting the two.
And if we move to the third element,
I want you to now think about a word or short phrase that summarises this experience for you.
Whether it be chill,
Relaxation,
Freedom,
I'm at peace.
Whatever that word or short phrase that fits your experience is now our cue,
Our cue word or phrase.
And this is the third element of the exercise.
So now,
I invite you to try and hold those three elements together.
The image of your special place,
The felt sense in your body and that cue word or phrase.
Holding them together and just taking two to three deep breaths before we finish up this exercise.
So the way that I want you to think about this is those three elements that we talked about.
The imagery of the special place,
The felt sense in your body and the cue word are like the three points of a triangle.
And each time you practice this exercise,
You are connecting those three dots.
The pathways in our brain will be making the connections and building the associations between the three.
So the first time you practice it,
You'll just be drawing the line with a pencil,
A faint line connecting the three dots.
But each time you practice it,
You're connecting the dots with a stronger line.
From a faint pencil to a biro to a fountain pen to a sharpie.
Until you've practiced it so much,
They are joined by a big chunky permanent marker.
And this is where we want to get to.
We want to get to the place that they are so associated that you can say that cue word and your mind will quickly build that image and feel that feeling in your body.
We want to get to the stage that you can say that cue word and your body will feel calm,
Peace and relaxation quickly and effectively.
So I invite you to now practice this using my special place exercise meditation.
Good luck.
