Witchcraft problem solving: Can't meditate and/or visualize? What now?
If you struggle with meditation and/or visualizing, it can be frustrating to read most books, spells, rituals and practices referencing these practices as staples. If you have experienced an endless struggle with meditation, visualization or both, here are some tips to try in their place.
Remember: You're not just out of luck
Some people are just not wired to be perfect at meditation or visualization practices. While repeated practice IS necessary for most to achieve meditation, some may just never quite get to a place where it feels comfortable or natural in any way. The good news is there are many alternative methods to accomplish the same goals without traditional meditation and visualization methods!
Creating/Crafting
Crafty people often seem to keep their hands busy. Maybe it's painting, crocheting, sculpting, or even just gluing together a vision board. Naturally crafty people will find tasks like this meditative on their own. Even if you aren't a creative or crafty person, you may benefit from having a physical activity for your hands to do helps your brain quiet down. You may even try creating something that represents what you are trying to visualize! There shouldn't be any pressure here, the point isn't the finished product at the end but the meditative act of creation.
Using The Other Senses
If visualizing is particularly challenging for you, try using a different one of your senses. For example, maybe your brain has an easier time creating/imagining sound than it does images. Or maybe you just want to focus on feeling, either physically or emotionally. If you're manifesting or releasing, it's often alternatively recommended to focus on how achieving that goal would make you feel physically. What kind of feeling would it be? Relief? Joy? Where would you feel it in your body? Finding strength in your other senses may also help you realize what other abilities and magickal strengths you have!
Turn to Nature
Often when we are sitting to meditate it is in our homes. A place where we also worry about deadlines, laundry, and whether we turned off the oven. We may also have noisy neighbors, roommates, family members, or even pets distracting us. In times like this, it may not be that you can't meditate or visualize at all. It may just be your environment! If you haven't already, try connecting to any local nature you can. I live in Los Angeles so I know how hard it can be to find peaceful, natural spots that aren't full of hikers or families that can be distracting. Finding a peaceful moment with a local natural environment may mean waking up or staying up past the rest of your household's bedtime to sit on your porch or near an open window.
I find it's easiest for me to focus on hearing first. Do you hear birds? Crickets? Waves lapping up on a beach? The sound of the wind rustling through trees? Can you feel the wind? Feel yourself connecting to the earth and the elements around you. This helps me personally release a lot of my racing thoughts and gives me something to focus on. It's a great grounding exercise! Once you feel tuned in, see how your meditation and/or visualization goes compared to how it was at home. If you're still struggling, keep focusing on your other senses (sound, smell, physical touch, emotional feeling) here and see if one is easier for you to focus on.
Experiment with new things AND things you're comfortable with
You can try out different types of fidget toys, pick up a new crafting hobby, join an outdoor yoga class. Maybe your form of meditation will come out of a different active task that you can do mindlessly, like just walking. The key is to release the mess of chaotic thoughts that enter our minds to find a moment of tranquility, the "alpha state." From here, witches often use this state to connect with our intentions and magick. It just may look a little different for you than it does for others, and that's okay! Maybe you'll even learn how to find and harness that calm state and apply it to more "traditional" meditation techniques!
