Podcast: Kevin Anderson, PhD on Using Nested Meditations as a Powerful Tool

This week, Rabbi Rami speaks with psychotherapist Kevin Anderson, PhD If his name sounds familiar, Dr. Anderson is a regular contributor to Spirituality and Health (you can read his work here).

A psychologist, life coach, author, and popular speaker, Anderson’s latest book is Now Is Where God Lives: A Year of Nested Meditations to Delight the Mind and Awaken the Soul. He has written more than 1,000 of these nested meditations. Here is an example, based on a thought he wrote in his journal, “I want to leave this world awake.” (Read more about how this nested meditation was created here.)

I want to leave this world awake.

I want to leave this world a wake.
of love behind the speedboat of my years.

I want to leave this world a wake
of love. Behind the speedboat of my years
waves are rolling out wide and far.

I want to leave this world a wake
of love. Behind the speedboat of my years
waves are rolling out wide, and far-
ther back the water is glass again.

This nested meditations writing technique, he says, can cause a lightness of the mind, a sense of softening, and if you love language, you will love trying this writing process. “You actually feel these in your body as the playfulness cracks the heaviness of the situation,” Rami observes. “Have other people told you that?”

Anderson explains that nested meditations allow the mind to be playful, even when dealing with heavy emotions. It can be a form of cognitive therapy and a way to release emotions that have become stuck. He sometimes uses these in his practice. For example, a patient started with, “I am an invalidated woman, ” before writing through her meditation and circling around to a more empowered position using the technique.

Want to give nested meditations a try? Listen to the episode to be inspired!

Learn more about Dr. Anderson and his work at his website, thewingedlife.com.

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