The Down Dial

Turn the dial down on your nervous system to catch some solid sleep and bring your body into repose. When we invite the deep yin into our being, we can surrender our nervous energy and find a sense of peace.

A Room of Their Own

Tune in to my first visualization for teens wherein we do several somatic exercises with visualization to move energy in the ribcage and diaphragm, to land in our bodies with a sense of belonging and connection. Adults are welcome to do this too, of course. It’s really for anyone. Let me know how it goes for you! You can find me at Night Sky Acupuncture or on Instagram at Metaphor_Medicine.

Love Nest for Kids

Our first visualization for kids! This exercise is designed to help kids feel surrounded by safety and tenderness as an experiential antidote to anxiety, worries, and fear. I recommend that adults do the exercise alongside the kids so that they can share their experiences afterwards. Let me know how it goes!

An Explanation of Guided Self Work

This episode is not a guided visualization, but rather it’s a talk about doing this work on one’s own. I walk you through the way I use guided visualization as a practice in my self care. If you listen and give it a try for yourself, I’d love to hear how it works out for you.

Play that Song

There’s music coming from the ribcage when we use the superpowers of our imagination to turn the diaphragm into a DJ. Sound weird? Give it a try and let me know if you feel different after.

Clear the Lungs

Using metaphor medicine we clear the lungs with a series of varied images and acts of tenderness, practicing how to move energy in the body.

Viral Combat

Together we look to the movies to inspire our immune system to fight with swords. Then we clean up and take a long qi shower. We are using our imaginations to help us feel better.

Awaken and Empower the Immune System

This GV (guided visualization) is 22 minutes. Allow some extra time on the end to rest and continue the visualization in your own mind-body or else just space out. You can listen solo or with your family and then all compare experiences. Your immune system contains a dynamic and rich blueprint of biodiversity which runs without your input largely, but in this visualization, we offer our input, using language to speak directly to our cells, to communicate our intentions and desires for all hands on deck throughout this magnificent system in our bodies and in each others.

SEASON TWO - INTRO - WELCOME BACK

It’s March 17th and we are starting Season Two together. We are in a topsy-turvy time of great uncertainty and we have — each other. We have our bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits. We have our connection uniting us and the commonality of care among us. We have that between us and inside each of us. That’s our spark. We are going to work with that on all levels. I got a big lesson in viruses last week when I was sick and I will pass along what I learned from my body’s various responses. This season I’ll give you visualizations on: the Immune System, the Throat, the Lungs, Viral Load, Anxiety, Depression, Insomnia, and the Nervous System. Along with the guided visualizations, I’ll also include talks on kitchen remedies and accessible plant medicine you can hopefully find in the park or the median or in your neck of the woods. I’ll share links with you to tai chi and qi gong exercises and folk medicine techniques and all kinds of self-care tools you can practice at home. I’m here for you. Send me your requests. Liz@nightskyacupuncture.com If you grok this podcast please leave some stars and a review on Apple. Thank you. If you’d like to make a donation you can do so at BODYLAND on Venmo. I appreciate you. With my clinic temporarily closed, I am switching, like many providers, to online care. You can schedule a Telehealth session with me where I can advise you on health concerns, teach you acupressure and home herbal remedies, and do customized interactive guided visualizations with you. Sign up on on my website or through this direct link. Offering virtual hands— Liz

The Darkest Dark

If you are feeling the depths of dark winter or a dark soul, try this.

Dive into the deep yin of darkness to let go of static emotional states through some wild and colorful methods.

There's a little explanation first and then it shifts into the meditation. 

Art Rx for all the Dark Feels:

Visionary artists who paint themselves and others flying and floating: Faith Ringgold and Marc Chagall

Check out the cosmic connectivity of Chani Nicholas 

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Just Me Being a Tree

 No shade in pretending to be a tree. 

 Let's get basic and be trees together. We'll go through the seasons and feel all the shedding and growing and windfall and snow. Get ready to get leafy and stuff. 

Need a Rx of art along with your visualization? Check out: 

Stunning Aerial View Photography

Artist Nils-Udo 

Artist Agnes Denes 

This Here Joint

Let's get wacky all up in this joint. Got a sore knee, elbow, wrist, kip, ankle, shoulder? Let's start at the source of your pain and see if we can use your imagination to shift the way you are holding tension there.  

Hey btw, FIRST-- if you don't have an image come to mind when you hear me say: atom shape -- google 'atom' first, so you can see it and have it readily accessible in your mind. :-)  

Your Art (and Wildlife) Rx:

Livestream honey bee hive

Artist Hilda af Kimt  

The poem What's Broken by Dorianne Laux 

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Let's Get Real about the Diaphragm

Really, it would be more accurate to call this “Let’s Get Surreal About the Diaphragm!

For real, when your diaphragm is in a pinch you can feel all kinds of crummy symptoms: anxiety, shortness of breath, heartburn, ribside pain, poor circulation, headaches, and more, but I'll stop there. Sheesh. Let's ambush the diaphragm with lots of imagery to help you release tension from this beast of a muscle. 

(P.S. the diaphragm is particularly influenced by creative expression, that's why we are going this route. P.P.S. Never worry if you are visualizing something different or at another angle from what I'm trying to describe. Just let your imagination do its thing.)

Art Rx for curious people who want to look stuff up: 

Images of treetops and a phenomenon called crown shyness

Listen to Chavela Vargas, one of the most expressive singers ever 

Artist Hiba Schabaz  imagines the self immersed in natural 

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Parachute

 This one goes out to your inner child. 

 We're going old school, all the way back to pre-school for this one, mixing memory into our senses and embracing wonder while we bloom bloom bloom the diaphragm.

Curious for more? This episode's Art Rx is full of delights:

Agnes Pelton (1881-1961)- abstract artist with spiritual vibes

Eiko and Koma's Delicious Movement Manifesto - guidelines for living 4 sure

Using Memory and Sound to Regrow - creative uses of sensory memory on NPR and in the coral reef

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Still Life with Feather

Be an artist and make an internal meditation tool.  

 Build an assemblage in your body so that you can focus your breath. 

 

Curious to see some examples of still life painting? 

Still Life with Peacock Pie, Pieter Claesz, (Dutch) 1627 (vegans avert your eyes!) 

Surrealist Still Life (Pirate Souvenirs), Pierre Roy (French), 1930

 Andromède prisonnière, Pierre Roy (French), 1930

More here:  

How Artists Have Kept Still Life Painting Alive Over Thousands of Years, By Kelly Richman-Abdou 

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Be a River

One River. One Body. Feel them merge. Be the current.  

 Water is soft and silky, mighty and powerful, and deeply cleansing. 

We have a lot of work ahead of us to make our rivers as clean and fresh as they are in our imaginations. If you feel called to make a donation, here are some organizations doing deep work: 

Native American Rights Fund 

Center for Biological Diversity 

The Ocean Clean Up