Peace and Rich's blessings. I am Michael Bebeckwith.

Thank you for tuning in to take back your mind.

Life Question of the Week podcast.

Today, Marcia asks, do you have any advice for managing negative thought patterns?

I find that negative images often intrude into my mind, particularly during meditation.

For example, I'll be in the middle of a lovely guided meditation where I'm walking along a beach,

but then suddenly the boats on the sea will become coffins.

Or I visualize myself in a beautiful metal, the ground under my feet will suddenly open up and I'll fall into a pit.

There's a way to stop these intrusive images. I suspect that

they are connected to deeper fears I have regarding the safety of myself and others. Thank you so

much for considering my question. Marcia, thank you so much for asking. Two things. One, when you're in your state of meditation you're saying here

you're going through a guided meditation and when suddenly the image is changed

one without overly reacting to the images just become aware of them let it

just become a part of a focus of meditation where you're

watching the images, but you're not resisting those images. You're not trying to force

those images away. You're just observing. And the images that you've described oftentimes

mean, well, you said it might be connected to a deeper

fear you have regarding safety for yourself and others. That may be true. But it also may be the

ego is actually afraid. As you go into meditation, you're preparing yourself for transformation.

Meditation is transportation to transformation.

So when you're practicing the art and the science of meditation,

the main reason for doing that is to wake up

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