Anne Ornish: Sometimes, it can feel like a jungle outside.  Fortunately, your own private sanctuary awaits you inside, and it is only a few breaths away.

Let’s begin by adopting any posture you like that’s essentially at ease, supported and relaxed.  Take a moment to get completely comfortable throughout your entire being.   From here, turn your senses inward by anchoring your awareness on the free flow of your breath — feeling it flow slowly, fully, naturally and rhythmically.

Begin to hold a space for stillness and inner quiet by visualizing a place in your mind’s eye that’s beautiful, safe, serene and special to you.

Once you’ve unveiled it, fully inhabit this haven within you with a genuine curiosity. Enjoy the clear, ‘blue sky mind’ that’s fresh, open and naturally available while you inhabit this private sanctuary of yours.

Attend inwardly to your heart softening and opening itself like an exotic flower that only shows its full petals when the conditions are just right.  Invite a pure, loving light to shine down upon you, infusing each cell with such luminosity that you feel it radiating from within you and all around you.

Having bathed in your inner brilliance, you can now re-emerge feeling brighter and deeply connected to your source, knowing that this private sanctuary of yours always awaits you within, whenever you wish.