Just when we think things are too much to handle, here comes a monkey wrench. “While in the hospital for leukemia treatment, the hardest thing was to care for myself as a patient and to be an ombudsman, too” says Nancy Mramor, Ph.D., author of Spiritual Fitness: Embrace Your Soul, Transform Your Life (Llewellyn Publications, 2005). “I had to detach from each role to get through. I was determined to hold my spiritual self as ‘me’ and the illness as ‘it’.”
Mramor used a technique she calls ‘Mind Washing’. She still uses it personally and in her practice as a holistic psychologist. It’s good for meditation, to relax before bedtime, and for any time stress arises. The goal is to calm the Monkey Mind chatter, to hold onto your spiritual self, to detach from everything else.
Whenever you are upset, picture yourself in front of the ocean.
As each thought comes up, don’t judge it or pay attention to details; make yourself disinterested before you even finish it.
Imagine placing it on a wave as it rolls to shore, and watch it float away.
As you watch with detachment, it’s your spirit that observes your personality, your mind, body, ego, worries, and problems. Let your thoughts go one by one until your mind feels clear.
By Judith Lazarus
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