Visualization
Table of contents for How to Relax
Have you ever tried visualization to reduce anxiety and relax? It’s really not too difficult. The steps are something like this:
1) Put some music or nature sounds on your CD player and close your eyes. Then
2) visualize yourself in nature.
3) Imagine your favorite wild animals all around you and yet it feels totally safe.
4) In your mind go under waterfalls, take drinks from mountain streams, feel the wet cold granite flats under your bare feet.
5) Last, make sure to breathe deeply as you visualize all this stuff. It will calm your body down and put you in a trance-like state so your fear can subside and you can get a clear perspective again.
Any visualization will work. You can get in the mood for sex, for example, by picturing your wife in a variety of babydolls and you don’t have to spend a dime! The mind is powerful.
It sounds a little out there I know, but if you give yourself over to it your creative mind truly comes alive. That is the part of our psyche we need to solve the problems that cause us to stress. I have used this method for close to 15 years and found it to be very helpful and rejuvenating.
This method and many others can be found in a profound little book called “the Relaxation Response.” You might want to pick up a copy. Stay tuned to this series I’m starting entitled “How to Relax,” it’s key to keeping our minds open to the possibilities that lay before us. I hope you’ll join with me as we explore this. Do you know how to relax?
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Kimberly Clay
wrote,
Yeah, Damien, relax. That’s funny. You’re a funny man. How do you spell that again, M..O..R..E..W..O..R..K…?
I remember relaxation. It happened one time about 20 years ago….:)
Link | May 16th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Jessica The Rock Chick
wrote,
I has a therapist teach me how to do this and it does work. My problem is finding the time to do it and when I try…..oops, I usually fall asleep. I’ve actually been trying to focus on getting enough sleep at night (which doesn’t always happen) because I think sleep deprivation is definitely a contributor to feeling stressed.
Jessica The Rock Chicks last blog post..Mirror, Mirror On The Wall
Link | May 16th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Marcia
wrote,
I’m with Jessica on the link between sleep and relaxation. I have never used visualization much – in the way you mentioned. I am more apt to rearrange the house in my head or just sit down and write or read – or look at the photos we have taken. Getting lost in those things I love relaxes me- I suppose I am, therefore, giving myself over to my creative mind, just differently. Looking forward to your next thoughts, Damien
Marcias last blog post..Positive 4 – A letter
Link | May 16th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Damien Riley
wrote,
@Kimberly Clay: I hope there is sarcasm in there! Then again you may be more of a type A when it comes to work than I. My brother sells Real estate and pulls down 200-300K a year. Then again, I wouldn’t trade because in my opinion, and for my tastes, he works far too much. I have a sensitive spirit when it gets overworked and stressed out so for me, relaxation is not an option. Maybe you’ll find someghing simple in my upcoming series to do to relax. I believe when you are relaxed (within reason), you make more money.
JTRC: LOL I had to laugh when you said visualization makes you sleep. That shows you need it! It did its job.
Marcia: I love the idea of rearranging the furniture with your eyes closed. I want to try that.
Link | May 16th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
timethief
wrote,
Because I live in the midst of a forested island what I do to relax is turn off everything electronic. Then I can actually hear the sounds of nature all around me. I can also walk on my own land and enter what I call my secret gardens. These are quiet meditation spots along the banks of a seasonal stream or creek running through my property or on the banks of my pond, which is very large. My other secret garden spots are in the heart of the forest, on a cliff ledge and in a cave.
I learned candle meditation in a yoga class in college and then the Buddhist form of meditation at a 10 day silent retreat many years ago. I simply follow my out breath without changing it, I transcend everyday consciousness and I reach still point.
In the warmer seasons, when I’m having a particularly stressful day, I get up from the keyboard and do a walking meditation on my own property, through the forest or on the beach or, I enter one of my secret gardens and sit to meditate there.
In the colder seasons I use nature based audio to set the mood for me to relax into, then begin I my breathing exercise and transcend everyday consciousness.
An hour of peace is so refreshing and enlivening that I can’t imagine not giving myself this gift once daily. Without the ability to relax and transcend everyday consciousness I am neither a balanced nor a happy person.
Namaste’
Link | May 16th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Damien Riley
wrote,
@Namaste: I could visualize what you were talking about. Excellent comment. I hope someone gets the message from it. When I turn everything electronic off, I actually feel my cells regenerating.
Link | May 16th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
timethief
wrote,
Helllo again Damien,
Not long ago I was in the city visiting a friend and was overwhelmed with the noise that is present every hour of every day and all through the night. The pace of life all around me and the sounds seemed deafening but I knew if I continued to think that kind of thought that I would develop a headache. Suddenly I remembered the teaching of my meditation instructors and I asked my friend to give me a 1/2 hour alone.
I shut the sliding glass door to the balcony to get cut down the volume of the music that my friend was enjoying inside the apartment. Then I just sat in a comfortable position on a lawn chair with my eyes closed. Once I felt all my muscles grow soft from the tips of my toes to my eyelids, I implanted the suggestion in my mind that it would be really nice if my hearing was keen enough to turn the volume up on the nature sounds.
Time passed as I followed my out breath, not changing it and not thinking of anything else. I began encouraging my ears to tune into the sound of the wind through the leaves on the trees, the birdsong and, then the insect hum. I had not a single thought about noise and therefore was barely conscious of it and was able to make a gentle shift into a state of deep relaxation.
Twenty minutes later my friend opened the sliding door and asked if I was ready to go shopping. I was. I felt really renewed and quite content.
I have learned that these small shifts are akin to recharging my batteries. They provide me with a power reserve that I draw on to maintain balanced emotions throughout my busy, buzzy days.
Namaste’
Link | May 16th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Damien Riley
wrote,
Very very well said. Thanks for that.
Link | May 16th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Dunn
wrote,
No matter how hard i tried, still hard to be relaxed when we still have problem hanging on around us.. :)
Dunns last blog post..Magic
Link | May 17th, 2008 at 3:22 am
Damien Riley
wrote,
Thanks Dunn. I empathize with what you said.
Link | May 17th, 2008 at 3:42 am
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wrote,
[...] wrote in a comment today how it is hard to relax when you have troubles in your life. That is very true. But I will say [...]
Link | May 17th, 2008 at 4:38 am
How to Relax: Maintain a Passive Attitude | Postcards from the Funny Farm
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[...] here, you may want to subscribe to my feed. Thanks for visiting!Table of contents for How to RelaxVisualizationDeep BreathingMaintain A Passive [...]
Link | May 19th, 2008 at 1:34 am
Playing in the Blogosphere: Issue 2: beplayful.org
wrote,
[...] Visualization by Damien Riley: It sounds a little out there I know, but if you give yourself over to it your creative mind truly comes alive. [...]
Link | May 24th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Meditation
wrote,
Meditation is a great way to connect with your spirituality. Not only that but we can actually heal our mind and body through meditation.
Meditations last blog post..Seventh Chakra Crown Chakra Sahasraram Chakra
Link | May 29th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Damien Riley
wrote,
Oh I know because I have experienced that healing.
Link | May 29th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Playing in the Blogosphere: Issue 2 « BePlayful.org
wrote,
[...] Visualization by Damien Riley: It sounds a little out there I know, but if you give yourself over to it your creative mind truly comes alive. [...]
Link | January 23rd, 2009 at 8:27 am