Guided Imagery

Let’s go to the beach!

Guided imagery is a form of focused relaxation to help create harmony between the body and the mind. This stress management technique is a way of focusing your imagination to create calming, peaceful images in your mind, giving you a “mental escape”.

With guided imagery, you utilize all of your senses (vision, taste, sound, smell, and touch) to build images in the mind that your body feels are as real as external events. This doesn’t mean that during the practice in your “real time” physical body you will be smelling, hearing and tasting objects, but your mind will be visualizing the makings of each sense, versus more traditional guided meditation that is focused purely on the mental state without the addition of whole-body senses. Guided imagery can actually stimulate changes in heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory patterns, because of the deep, physical mind-body connection.

Using words and images can shift your attention away from worry, stress, and/or pain to help you find creativity, relaxation, and even coping skills. Multiple studies have shown that guided imagery can stimulate changes in bodily functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory patterns.

So – find a comfortable spot, limit distractions, close your eyes, and let the video linked below guide you through a relaxing moment at the beach (under 7 minutes).

GUIDED IMAGERY VIDEO

Photo: ©iStock.com/valio84sl