May 2008
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May 2008
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Over 175 articles on: Help support Mood --
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Imagine yourself calm Guided Imagery can take you away |
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What if you could leave behind the worries that make you tense, sad or restless and travel to your favorite place in the world to get away from it all? A relaxation technique called guided imagery, or creative visualization, can help you do just that. And, it’s easy to learn. “It can make you feel more in control of your mood,” says Mary Rose, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “Guided imagery can calm you and help you sleep. You can use it to lift your mood when you’re feeling depressed and to soothe yourself when you’re anxious. Studies have shown it to be very effective” Our memories, our worries and our fears exist in images. And, you can use images to manage your mood. It’s an age-old method of meditation. To begin the meditation, loosen your clothing and sit or lie comfortably with the lights dimmed. Take a few slow breathes, listening to your breathing. Guided imagery works best when your body is relaxed. One way to do that is to concentrate on relaxing your body one small step at a time from your toes on up: relaxing your toes, then your knees, then your thighs, on up to your head. Using the technique after you’ve gone to bed at night is a good way to relax yourself to sleep. You might want to imagine biking or walking to your safe place. Once, there, use all your senses in your mind: hear the birds, feel the breeze, smell the pines. “You can visualize a place you’ve visited or an imaginary one,” she said. “Then, once you’ve developed a scene, go back to the same place each time you need to relax.” Spend about 20 minutes in your visualization experience, said Rose. “As you immerse yourself in the experience, you’ll feel your heart rate coming down,” she said. You can use the method on your own, whenever you need it. After you’ve practiced it a few times, you may be able to take yourself to your safe place just for a moment when you’re feeling stressed. Or, you can use it to practice coping skills while working with an experienced therapist who will guide you through the meditation. If you’re problem-solving, practice the mediation first, then turn your attention to the problems you must deal with. For example, if you’re dreading an upcoming meeting with your boss, you can use the method to relax, then visualize the scene and rehearse it. After the meditation, says Rose, you can see solutions more clearly, because you’ve reduced your stress level. “Your problems will still be there,” she said, “but you can leave them behind for awhile and then come back to them when you’re more relaxed.” |
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With practice, you can learn a guided imagery routine that will take you to a place of deep relaxation where you can heal and be soothed. It might go something like this: Here there is no need for a telephone. You leave it behind alongside your wallet and thoughts of work, thoughts of schedules and of everything upon your shoulders, what you should have said or done, leaving the weight of yesterday and tomorrow behind, because for now it is today. You walk away from your car and soon have no need for shoes either and so leave them at the edge of the beach where the city disappears behind a dune. Feel the warm sand between your toes. Smell the salt. Hear the waves crashing softly like they always have and always will. The ocean is vast. Beside it, everything is small. Close your eyes. Breath. Now, when you're ready, open your eyes, turn around and retrace the faded footsteps disappearing in the surf beneath you and return to your shoes and your car and your life. Suddenly, you're back on the road with places to go, but you realize that the phone sitting upon the seat beside you is nothing more than exactly that: a phone. Tomorrow is tomorrow, today is today. The sea is what it is and so are you. You are here and you are ready.
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