Relax your body. If it feels safe, close your eyes. Imagine before you a garden, enclosed by a fence. Only you have the key that opens the gate in the fence. You control who enters the garden, your own personal garden. When you are ready, enter the garden, closing the gate behind you. Let your mind play. Make this garden whatever you want it to be. It can be beautiful if you choose, safe or scary, full of flowers or trees, or maybe just grass. Maybe you'll find a pond, maybe a jungle. It can be whatever your heart desires. This is your own personal place. At first you may find it difficult to free your mind enough to imagine, but with practice, your personal garden can become a place where you find whatever you need. Remind yourself that unlike the world outside your imagination you have control over everything here, and everything happens only because you will it. You can use this control to attain whatever state of mind and body you wish to reach. Imagine yourself exploring the garden, lying in the grass, wading in the pond, sitting on a bench, sleeping under a tree. Whatever you want to do, imagine it.

For those who dislike gardens, here are some alternatives. The important part of this exercise is having a place that is totally your own, completely under your control. This place doesn't have to be a garden. Some people envision their dream home, with many rooms, each taking on its own personality. Depending on your current state of mind, you can visit the room that matches the moment, or allows you to achieve some peace or resolution. Your personal and safe place can be whatever you want --a tree house, a cave, a boat on or in the ocean, a world under the sea, an airplane, inside a tree….