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It is a fairly new Seishindo Practice and my clients and
myself have been finding it to be particularly enjoyable,
and effective in helping to bring about a change in the way
we approach what we perceive to be "problems."
1. State your "problem"
or what you want to be able to accomplish.
If you are stating what you consider to be your problem you
might say for instance "I have difficulty getting up
in the morning."
If on the other hand you state what you would like to accomplish
you might say, "I would like to get up on time each morning,
and feel fine when I get up."
2. Create an "I am"
statement.
You do this by making believe you have already achieved the
outcome you desire, and making a statement that signifies
this.
"I am getting up on time every morning, and feeling great."
Within reason, keep your statement as short as possible.
3. Write down in very brief
form what seems to hinder you from achieving your goal.
For instance: "I can't get to sleep at night."
"I have too many worries." "My baby wakes me
up numerous times each night." "I am just a natural
night owl."
4. Write down what it is about
your nature/character, and or life circumstances that can
help you to achieve your goal.
For instance: "I have a strong interest in self improvement."
"I have a tremendous amount that I want to achieve in
my life." "I hate feeling stuck or addicted."
"My partner gets up early and I want to share more of
my life with him."
5. Choose some music that
is calming, and play it in the background. Usually it is best
to have music without lyrics, but music with lyrics can also
be fine.
6. Take all that you have
written so far and place it on a large piece of paper. Usually
I disperse the statements like you will see me doing below.
You might also want to somehow bold certain words to make
them stand out, or use different colored felt tip markers.
"I have difficulty getting up in the morning."
"I am getting up on time every
morning, and feeling great."
"I can't get to sleep at night."
"I have a strong interest in
self improvement."
"I have too many worries." "I
have a tremendous amount that I want to achieve in my
life."
"My baby wakes me up numerous
times each night." "My partner
gets up early and I want to share more
of my life with him." "I am just a
natural nighttime person."
"I hate feeling stuck or addicted."
7. Create an improvisational
jazz chant for yourself.
With your soothing music playing in the background, create
a free form improvisational chant, and chant for at least
ten minutes.
You want to make sure that you have free time, and you will
not be interrupted, and I would strongly suggest that you
set an alarm clock if one is available, so that you do not
have to check the clock to see if your time is up. Ten minutes
would be great, but if you find this too challenging then
start out with five minutes.
Before you begin your chanting you want to make sure you are
seated comfortably. If you are sitting on a chair, please
sit towards the front of the chair and do not lean back against
the back of the chair. Take several deep breaths before beginning,
and notice whatever rocking motions (if any) your body has
at this time.
When you are ready, begin your chanting.
There are an endless number of ways to do the chanting. Usually
I would start out by reading through the above text with bolding,
once or twice, slowly, with pausing,
and taking some deep breaths. After I have done this
I would start improvising from there. I will write a few possible
improvisations below, for the instance of someone having trouble
getting up in the morning.
"Getting up in the morning……..with my partner…….getting
up on time……..even though I can't sometimes
sleep at night……..My baby, my partner……sharing
more of my life……a natural nighttime person……..I
have difficulties……..too many worries………to
stay awake at night…….I have a tremendous amount…….Strong
interest………strong worries……..strong
desire to change……..addicted feeling, feeling stuck………at
night……in the morning…..all of the time………getting
up in the morning…….
Like any of the other Practices, it might take you a few run
throughs before you feel like you get the hang of it, but
please do give it a shot, because many people find this Practice
to be especially beneficial.
I was doing this Practice recently and I had a concern about
following through with certain ideas, rather than flitting
from one idea to another. I was doing the Practice as outlined
above, and suddenly a thought and an image came to me in an
aesthetic fashion. I saw myself sitting by a small river rapids,
watching how the water, over time, ate away at the rocks below,
and then these words came to me:
Dripping water,
On the surface of a rock,
Penetrates deeply over time.
This poetic statement felt really right to me, and I switched
from my other chanting to mainly just slowly repeating this
refrain.
I offer this as an encouragement to let your creative spirit
soar when doing such Practices!
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