When I was about thirteen, I was talking to a friend one day and she told me that she tried not to think about bad things in case they came true. I remember having two reactions to that. One was my rational mind saying that her belief was childish superstition. The other was a strong gut feeling that she was right. I remember thinking about it for a while but that train of thought brought me to the conclusion that, if it were true, it would mean a person having to monitor and control their thoughts all the time, which to me seemed impossible then. But I never forgot it and thought about it from time to time over the years until being given a book called Creative Visualisation by Shakti Gawain . In this book Shakti explains how we can use the natural creativity of our imaginations to visualise happier, more fulfilling lives for ourselves. At that time I had been suffering from severe headaches for several months for which I had got medication from my doctor but that did little to control the pain. I would just have to lie on my bed and try to sleep until the pain went away. One afternoon I was once again lying on my bed with a terrible headache. I was sick of feeling like a victim, disabled, unable to do anything to help myself when a headache came on. So I decided to try using my imagination to help myself. My headaches used to feel like there was a build up of pressure inside my head that had no escape so I imagined that the pressure was like steam that needed to be released. I imagined it travelling along my sinuses behind my eyes and escaping from my ears, nose and mouth. To my amazement, it worked. I could hardly believe it but the pressure inside my head had subsided so I continued to do it until it had decreased to a manageable level. It was such a simple thing but it gave me my life back because I don't really remember having those headaches after that.
