Creative visualization - A holiday in your head!

The imagination, the one reality in this imagined world.

Wallace Stevens

Sometimes what feels like a constant barrage of negative images and information can leave us feeling under siege. It may feel as if our brains are permanently tuned into a negative news channel. We can feel the physical effects of this in our muscles and in our gut. If we pay attention to our bodies we can notice how we automatically tense and steel ourselves when we take in bad news. It is clear to all of us that our thoughts can evoke a strong, often automatic physical response. We can feel disgusted or 'hot and bothered' or just 'hot' depending on the stimuli.
As humans our imagination - our ability to conjure up images and scenarios, is a pretty amazing tool. We can use it to feel good as well as bad.
Visualisations are a way to evoke a relaxation and feel good response at will. It's easy. All you have to do is choose a safe and inspiring image of a place or setting that has positive connections for you. It doesn't have to be a real place but it probably helps if it is as you will be more readily able to summon it up if you feel you know it.

NB. Some of these exercises which encourage 'going within' may not be suitable for people who are feeling particulary fragile or who may be depressed or suffering from trauma as they might lead to a release of tension or a disconect with reality that could be overwhelming. Trust your own sense of what is good for you.

• Find a quiet moment and place, even if it just means zoning out for a few moments at your desk or in the bathroom between appointments. I find it works! Take a mini holiday in your head! Close your eyes and picture your happy or positive place.
• Picture yourself going there - maybe opening a gate or walking up an avenue.
• Try to keep other people at a distance in your imagined place this is your chance to just relax and take 'me time'.
• Picture yourself at rest in this place.
• Perhaps lying on a beach or in a garden hammock.
• Allow yourself to be there and to gently notice what is around you.
• Notice what you can smell or hear in the distance
• feel the sensation of the warm air on your skin
• notice how your mouth tastes and what you can feel beneath you
• allow yourself to relax and breathe in and out gently
• don't worry if you find your attention straying, that is normal
• just gently bring your mind back to your happy place
• when you are ready, decide that it is time to return to the present
• mentally begin to leave
• imagine yourself walking back out the gate or up the path
• gently come back to your present reality and notice how you feel refreshed and restored.
• take time during your day to check back in to your relaxing place.