Praise for The Five-Minute Miracle
“Short. Simple. Specific. The miracle occurs when you take on this practice. Thank you, Tara!”
–Mary Anne Radmacher, author of Live Boldly and Simply an Inspired Life
“The Five-Minute Miracle has the power not only to transform the quality of your life and bring you much greater peace, love, happiness, and joy, but to heal your relationships, manifest your dreams, clarify your soul's purpose and contribute to the healing of the world. Do yourself and your loved ones a favor and buy it now.”
–Philip H. Friedman, PhD, director of the Foundation for Well-Being and author of Creating Well-Being and The Forgiveness Solution
“Tara Springett's higher consciousness healing technique, shared in The Five-Minute Miracle, is a practical and priceless gem. Each of us can benefit from adding this technique to our treasure chest of healing skills.”
–Sue Patton Thoele, author of The Courage to Be Yourself and The Mindful Woman
First published in 2010 by
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
With offices at:
500 Third Street, Suite 230
San Francisco, CA 94107
www.redwheelweiser.com
Copyright © 2009 by Tara Springett
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.
ISBN: 978-1-57863-458-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
Cover and text design by Kathryn Sky-Peck.
Typeset in Garamond BE.
Printed in the United States of America
TS
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Text paper contains a minimum of 30% post-consumer-waste material.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I THE HEALING POWER OF SYMBOLS
Chapter 1 A Method for Everyone
Chapter 2 The Discovery of Higher-Consciousness Healing
Chapter 3 How Higher-Consciousness Healing Works
PART II HIGHER-CONSCIOUSNESS HEALING
Chapter 4 Defining the Problem
Chapter 5 Measuring Our Suffering
Chapter 6 Relaxing Our Body and Mind
Chapter 7 Contacting Our Higher Consciousness
Chapter 8 Exploring Our Life-Path
Chapter 9 Asking for a Healing Symbol
Chapter 10 Working with Our Healing Symbol
PART III PRACTICING THE METHOD
Chapter 11 Formal and Informal Practice
Chapter 12 Getting Feedback on Our Process
Chapter 13 Working with Complex Problems
Chapter 14 Making Decisions with Life-Path Imagery
Chapter 15 Maintaining Well-Being in Our Life
Chapter 16 The Ultimate Healing Symbol
Chapter 17 Manifesting Our Dreams
Chapter 18 Healing Others
Chapter 19 Passing On the Power
The Complete Practice of Higher-Consciousness Healing
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I WANT TO THANK MY AGENT Lisa Hagan and my publisher Jan Johnson for believing in me and my work. A big thank you goes to the entire team at Red Wheel for making my manuscript into a beautiful book. I feel deepest gratitude to all my Buddhist teachers and, in particular, Rigdzin Shikpo and Garchen Rinpoche. They guided me safely around all the pitfalls that lay on the spiritual path and taught me how to find love—first in myself and then with others. Deepest thanks to Wally Sawford, who is a very special Buddhist and Taoist teacher. He introduced me to meditation experiences that inspired me greatly. Thanks also to all my psychotherapeutic teachers—most of all Phyllis Krystal, from whom I learnt about the amazing effectiveness of symbols in the therapeutic process. Thank you to all my clients who had the trust and the courage to try a new method and who shared their processes with me. And finally, thanks to my husband and soul-mate, Nigel, who readily tried higher-consciousness healing as soon as I discovered it and who supported me in every way. Without his generous help, this book would not have been written.
INTRODUCTION
IN 1997, I HAD AN EXPERIENCE that changed my life forever. I was sitting in the shrine room of my Buddhist teacher trying to listen to his talk. I could not concentrate, because I was inwardly struggling with a painful feeling of sadness that had been with me for many years. As I had often done before, I prayed for help and–lo and behold!–this time, my prayer was answered. Suddenly, the method described in this book just “popped up” in my mind. It was so clear and detailed that I assumed I had read it somewhere and was just remembering it. In the weeks and months that followed, I successfully used this method to dissolve my sadness and many smaller issues as well.
I then introduced the method to my friends and family, and later to my clients. I carefully monitored their individual processes and asked them to measure their success on a scale. The results were overwhelming. I have worked with many hundreds of cases and virtually every single person who has used this method has achieved significant improvement with a wide variety of problems within a few days or weeks. What's more, many people have told me that they achieved wonderful results all by themselves, simply by learning the method from this book. Most important, these improvements were stable and lasting. Higher-consciousness healing seems to have the power to resolve personal problems without lengthy analysis and without having to relive past traumas.
When I look back, it seems as if much of my life had been leading up to this experience–it had prepared me to “receive” this method, refine it, and then make it accessible to others. Thirteen years earlier, I had found Tibetan Buddhism, coming to it like a lost child running into its mother's arms. Since the very first time I visited the Buddhist center, I have meditated every day for at least an hour. I have spent virtually all my vacations in intensive teaching and meditation retreats with knowledgeable and experienced teachers who guided me along the way. Over the years, a deep motivation evolved in me: I wanted to develop enough happiness, insight, and love in myself that I could be of real benefit to other people.
A few years after I started to meditate, I began to work as a counselor and psychotherapist, trying to put my desire to help other people into practice. I had completed several long-term counseling trainings and had earned qualifications, so I felt that my ability to help had grown considerably. However, after working as a psychotherapist for a few years, I began to wish I could find a more effective technique to help my clients than the one I had been using. Ideally, this method would be very simple, so that everyone could use it as a self-help tool. It would bring reliable results every time it was used. In addition, I wanted a method that would point people to the eternal truth that true happiness can be found only through the awakening of a loving heart.
When I discovered higher-consciousness healing, I had no idea that it represented exactly the ideal method I sought. Only when one person after another saw positive results from the method did I slowly become convinced that I had been given a real gem.
The core of higher-consciousness healing is, quite simply, to make contact with our higher consciousness–the part of our mind that is more loving and wise than our everyday consciousness. If we follow a spiritual path, we may choose to perceive our higher consciousness as a central figure of our religion or tradition. However, we do not need to be religious or spiritual in order to benefit from higher-consciousness healing. The essence of our higher consciousness is altruistic love–a form of love that is avai
lable to everyone, regardless of whether they are spiritual.
Higher-consciousness healing will help us communicate with our higher consciousness and make its wisdom and love available to solve our personal problems. We will receive this help by using symbols. These symbols, when visualized regularly for just four minutes a day, have an amazing power to transform. They can reach deep into our unconscious mind and put things right at their root. We don't even need to know all the intricate causes of our problem, because higher-consciousness healing focuses entirely on the solution. The practice is absolutely safe, and we can achieve a significant decrease in our suffering from almost every type of problem in a matter of days or weeks. This may sound exaggerated, but it is true. Ellen's results are a good example and demonstrate the sometimes-stunning transformative power of higher-consciousness healing.
Ellen
Ellen had been suffering from depression, social phobia, and low self-esteem almost all her life. She had been in and out of psychotherapy, counseling, and selfhelp groups for over fifteen years. Her depression had lessened by the time we met, but she still suffered terribly from her social phobia and low self-esteem. I asked her to measure her suffering on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 being no suffering at all; 10 being utter desperation). Ellen said she was at 7. This meant that she felt strong and painful anxiety every day in many different situations.
Ellen agreed to try higher-consciousness healing and I guided her into relaxation. She chose to see her higher consciousness in the form of a beautiful bright light and she received a purple gem as a healing symbol. Then I encouraged her to visualize her symbol in the middle of her heart and breathe out its good qualities with love first to herself and then to the people she feared. Unfortunately, Ellen was not very optimistic.
“I don't expect instant results,” she said seriously.
“Okay,” I said. “Just give it a go.”
Two weeks later, Ellen and I spoke on the phone.
“My anxiety has decreased from 7 to 1 on the scale,” she said, but she still wasn't very impressed. “I definitely feel better,” she told me, “but I can't believe it is because of this symbol. I probably feel better because it is the holiday.”
“Just try it for another two weeks,” I said, smiling inwardly. I had experienced her reaction myself. Sometimes the results of higher-consciousness healing are just too good to believe.
Two weeks later, Ellen came to my office. “Tara,” she said, “I am 0 on the scale and I have never been 0 before in all my life. The holiday is over and I even had a terrible argument with my daughter's doctor. Normally, that would have left me shattered. But I am still fine. I am cross with the doctor, but happy with myself.” Ellen has remained well. Sometimes, her old fears try to resurface, but when she remembers her healing symbol, she can return to her positive state of mind in a very short time.
• • •
Higher-consciousness healing is based on the principles of Tibetan Buddhism, but the technique itself is new and unique. It can be used by anyone who feels inspired by it, and it will not interfere with the practice of other religious or spiritual beliefs. It is a short and simple method that can be learned and practiced within minutes. Here's how it works:
Define your problem–I suffer from feeling (emotion) about (problem)–and rate the strength of your emotion on a scale from 1 to 10. After practicing higher-consciousness healing for two weeks, check how far this number has gone down.
Relax and visualize your higher consciousness in a form that pleases you–for example, as a central figure of the religion you follow, as an angelic being, or simply as a shimmering loving light.
Ask your higher consciousness for a healing symbol to overcome your problem. With the technique explained in this book, a beautiful, brightly colored symbol will just pop into your mind.
Visualize your symbol in your heart and, with every out breath, see how it radiates loving and joyful light toward you and envelops you in a bubble of loving joyful light. The light of your healing symbol will then radiate to everyone who is involved in your problem and envelop them in a bubble of loving joyful light as well. These bubbles of light may touch, but should not merge.
Simultaneously, relax the tensions of your negative emotion. Practice in this way for two minutes, twice a day, and every time your negative feeling arises.
Even though higher-consciousness healing is a very simple method, it regularly brings great improvements to even the severest problems. I have worked with clients who were sexually abused as children, and clients who were raped or violently assaulted as adults. I have worked with people who suffered all their lives from panic attacks, addictions, clinical depression, violent anger, chronic pain, and debilitating tiredness. I have also worked with many couples on the brink of divorce, desperate parents, and children suffering from many problems. To my joy, they all–with virtually no exception–experienced dramatic and lasting improvements within days or a few weeks by using higher-consciousness healing.
1
THE HEALING POWER OF SYMBOLS
Chapter 1
A METHOD FOR EVERYONE
HIGHER-CONSCIOUSNESS HEALING was developed initially as a method of transpersonal psychotherapy. It was intended for use with emotional problems or relationship issues. As it turns out, however, the method works equally well on problems like addiction, financial worries, physical pain, spiritual blocks, and fatigue. Here are some of the problems you can tackle with higher-consciousness healing:
Healing Others
Many, if not most, of our problems involve other people. We may experience difficulties in our relationships or feel victimized by someone who has treated us badly. Higher-consciousness healing always has a positive effect on the people involved in our problem, because the core of the practice is altruistic love. Sometimes, higher-consciousness healing has profound effects on these people and changes them in ways that we never thought possible. It is important to note, however, that this influence does not come from our personal mind, with all its little egotistical concerns. It comes from our higher consciousness, which always works in the highest interest of everyone involved. Therefore, higher-consciousness healing will lead us to a solution of our problem that will reduce the suffering of everyone involved in the best and healthiest way possible. The following case study shows these effects quite clearly.
Susan
Susan was married to a man who was verbally abusive to her on a regular basis. I helped her receive a healing symbol from her higher consciousness and showed her how to send love to herself and to her husband by enveloping them both in bubbles of loving joyful light. In her mind, she said to him, “I wish you to be happy” and imagined that if he were happy, he would be very loving. Susan had initially thought that the solution to her marital problem was to become more tolerant toward her husband and to “learn not to be hurt anymore.” However, after practicing higher-consciousness healing for a few days, she did something that she had never considered doing before. She told her husband in clear terms that she would leave him if he didn't change his ways. At the same time, she was much kinder to him than before and started to cuddle him for the first time in years. To her joyful surprise, her husband gave up his abusive language and they both started to talk honestly about their feelings. After another three weeks, they were also able to rekindle their sex life. These improvements were stable and lasting.
• • •
Higher-consciousness healing is an excellent method for helping others in psychological or physical pain. I have seen particularly impressive improvements when parents have used it to alleviate the suffering of their children. Here is an example.
Philippa and Imogen
Imogen, age seven, suffered from extreme shyness—so extreme, in fact, that her teachers suspected she was deaf. Philippa, her mom, transferred Imogen to a Montessori school, but her condition did not improve. Then Philippa learned higher-consciousness healing and started to send love to her daughter with the help of a healing s
ymbol. To Philippa's great surprise, Imogen's shyness dramatically lessened within days of doing this practice. Imogen even started to play with other children—something she had never done before. Imogen's condition continued to improve over the following months.
Healing the Physical Body
Obviously, higher-consciousness healing is not a replacement for any medical treatment. However, I have seen many cases in which it greatly enhanced the effects of good treatment. In particular, it has been very effective in reducing physical pain and chronic tiredness. One of the therapists I trained in the method is a massage therapist. She gave me a long list of well-documented case studies that show how it has helped her clients reduce their various forms of pain. The following case study shows the effectiveness of higher-consciousness healing on the physical body.
Val
Val had suffered from extremely painful menstrual periods for over twenty years. She had tried all kinds of treatment without any lasting success and had resigned herself to the fact that she had to take a handful of strong painkillers every month. She really felt inspired when she heard about higher-consciousness healing and started practicing at once. When she had her next period, she found, to her amazement, that her pain was so reduced that she only needed a single painkiller. Encouraged by this success, she carried on with her visualization and, in the following months, she didn't need any painkillers at all. Since then, Val has stopped her visualizations, but has remained pain-free.
Empowering People to Help Themselves
The best help anyone can offer is to give people an effective tool they can use to solve their problems themselves. Higher-consciousness healing is one such tool. It is a self-help method designed for people looking for an effective way to solve their problems with a minimum of cost, time, and energy. Basically, everyone who feels inspired by this method can work with it.
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