“Our minds have a vast capacity for healing through images….
“The notion of the healing power of images was valid long before brain scans could ever prove it. In 1913, Carl Jung coined the term ‘active imagination’, a technique that uses images (often from a dream) to enter into a dialogue with the unconscious mind, bringing to light what has been shrouded in darkness. Recently the idea of visualization for healing has gained widespread traction, with guided imagery programs readily available to lower stress, reduce anxiety, boost athletic performance, and help with specific fears and phobias…”
“… Dr. Dawson church describes how visualization, meditation and focusing on positive thoughts, emotions and prayers-what he calls internal epigenetic interventions-can activate genes and positively affect our health…” He states, “Filling our minds with positive images of well-being, can produce an epigenetic environment that reinforces the healing process.”
“The new image can fill us with a reservoir of calm, becoming an internal reference point of peace that we can return to again and again. With new thoughts, new feelings, new sensations and a new brain map ingrained, we begin to establish an inner experience of well-being that starts to compete with our old trauma reactions and their power to lead us astray… Brain scans demonstrate that many of the same neurons and regions of the brain become activated whether we are imagining an event or actually living it…”
It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle of Violence. Mark Wolynn.
Technique:
Get into a comfortable position, spine straight, either lying or sitting. Falling asleep is okay, you’ll just have a different experience.
Turn off all electronics. Create as much quietude as possible.
(Without a doubt, the most effective environment to engage in this process is within a floatation tank.)
Set a goal for yourself, something that you want to attain, or a change you seek to create in your life. For example:
A new job.
A new apartment/home
Feeling positive about yourself.
A new, healthy relationship.
When you see the picture in your mind’s eye, of yourself engaging and attaining your goal, call upon as many of your senses as you can, within the experience.
What do you see? Where are you? Someplace familiar? Someplace new?
Is there anything to taste? Is someone cooking? Are you sharing a meal with someone?
What are you smelling? Aromas of food? Salty ocean breezes? Damp mossy forest floor?
What are you touching? What do you see in your immediate environment?
Pay attention to your body and what you are feeling internally. How does this sequence leave you feeling?
Notice the imagery and feeling in your mind’s eye. Hold on to it for at least a few seconds or a few minutes. Develop the experience as much or as little as you need to. Fill out the experience with as much sensory awareness as you can. As you do so, repeat some positive affirmation/positive self-talk to yourself to further enhance the experience. For example:
I am worthy and deserving of health and success.
All of my needs are met on time.
I am at peace with the world and everyone in it.
These are only a few examples of positive affirmations that you can give to yourself. For further ideas see: Louise Hay.
If negative self-talk is preventing you from affirming yourself, just notice it, and respond by telling it that this is not how you currently wish to engage with it. Later when you are with a friend or a helper you can break down this voice (sometimes referred to as the Other) to determine its origin, the purpose of its existence and finally, to release its power over you.
Once you have gone through the practice of visualization with a particular goal in mind, you can recall it and focus on it, from time to time throughout the day, which reinforces the experience of it. As you gently recall the experience, continue to reinforce it through positive affirmation.
Creative /Positive Imagery/Visualization is the first step toward a new you. We first have to have a vision for our life, and then to think about our goals or the changes in our life that we seek. Our thought is then followed by our ability to speak our truth. Speaking of the goal is then followed by the deliberate work and action of bringing the change into being. These are the three elements of our lives over which we have control; our thoughts, our words and our actions. To engage all three of these in sequence is the art of living with intention.
An alternative process to use for visualization:
This process can be greatly enhanced by the use of Alpha Wave or Theta Wave music. Headphones will then further enhance the meditative effects of the music.
See: Steve Halpern, Jeffrey Thompson, Dean Evenson
Further reading:
“Creative Visualization” by Shakti Gawain