Pebbles in a Jar: The Buddhist Way of Practicing Meditation With Visualization
Mindfulness needs practice and I often use meditation to be mindful. Meditation helps to calm the mind, still the mind, silence the mind, and the thoughts just come to a halt. And that helps with being Mindful, being and staying in the present, and just appreciating the present moment.
But there are times that old thoughts come up. Thoughts of what hurt me years back and how some things have not changed OR there will be something that triggers a memory of me being hurt by someone and how I could have reacted or rather responded more appropriately and…emotions explode! It is very easy to slip into these thought patterns and it takes practice to break these thought patterns.
I have always been practicing meditations with visualizations and incorporating them in my life then and teaching them as well. That was the important part as that kept the consistency and the real practice going!!
This meditation below involves a visualization of throwing pebbles in a pond…a very old Buddhist meditation, modified over the years. In this meditation, you throw pebbles in a pond…pebbles that represent your thoughts that you do not need or want anymore. Just simply throw them rather than struggling to decide how to ‘let go’ OR instead of focusing on the negatives, focus on the positive and throw pebbles of kindness and love or compassion in the pond of your life!!
Meditation is effective but sometimes what is needed is action. The real act of throwing pebbles…throwing pebbles in a meadow or a trail, just imagining that each one is a thought or an emotion I would like to ‘discard’ from my life sends a message to the mind creating a new memory of ‘throwing away’ or deleting a memory. But why always think of emotions or thoughts that are unpleasant?
Adding pebbles of kindness and hope to your life can increase positivity. A simple activity of taking a mason jar and putting a pebble in it every time I feel I need to add some kindness to my life. It reminds me of my blessings and how grateful I am. We are our biggest self-critics and seldom do we talk kindly to ourselves. When you visually see the pebbles growing…the love growing…the kindness growing…the self-compassion growing…it motivates me on my journey of connecting to myself and the source. Get ease and peace. It is that simple!
Monica Kamran is an Intuitive Energy Healer, Corporate Wellness and Stress Management, and Mindfulness/Meditation coach. She is the founder of Inner Sanctuary Wellness, based in San Ramon, California, which offers opportunities to learn tools to attain deeper consciousness of the self and one’s surroundings and the ability to use those skills and modalities to lead a fulfilling life, being mindful of the present.