Guided Imagery For Healing:
Breaking The Barriers With
Types Of Alternative Medicine

Guided imagery for healing is used as one of the types of alternative medicine which is actually a normal process in everyone's life. Haven't you ever stopped and wished a headache would disappear, or wished a cut would stop bleeding or rubbed a muscle and willed it to stop cramping? The act of just mentally planning your daily activities, shivering from somebody's fingernails scraping a blackboard or getting sexually aroused by seeing a beautiful member of the opposite sex. All of these are just your mind's way of taking your observations, filling in the impressions to result in an experience. This process is a reflection of the process known as guided imagery for healing.

Imagery does not necessarily create an external experience, but if the thoughts create some type of fantasy in your mind or a reaction which enables a thought or desire for an experience, this is also imagery. Guided imagery for healing therefore is the process of harnessing those thoughts and energies and using them for the purpose of aiding your own body.

How Do We Harness Our Thoughts For Use

Relax and pick up a juicy yellow lemon. Roll it in your fingers. Feel the rough coarse knobby texture of its skin. Notice how it feels so solid in weight. Slowly roll it back and forth and feel how it slowly is softening up. Now take a knife and slice it in half lengthwise. Notice the pale yellow of the pulp, the whiteness of the inner peel, and nature's method of growing it from a seed or two visible in the pulp. Carefully cut one of those halves again lengthwise in two. Lift it up to your face and nose. Smell the aroma of the freshly cut lemon as the juices drip on your fingers. Lick it with your lips and then take a bite out of the pulp itself as you suck up the sour juice.

Now, what exactly happened during that exercise? Did you grimace, shake your head, or notice any other kind of physical or mental reaction during the process. Most people do- and the power of the mind can produce far greater results than if someone had walked up to you and just said "Here's a lemon. Please salivate."**

Conditions Commonly Treated By Guided Imagery For Healing

More severe conditions can also benefit from guided imagery during the recovery process. Although a remission of the disease is not always granted, patients explain how the pain, discomfort and stress levels are greatly reduced. The comfort levels of the patient during treatments are often reported as greater or they feel more relaxed and in better control of what is happening to them and their body. Often it has been reported miraculous results can be obtained just by harnessing the mind, called visualization, to help in the healing of the body.

Guided Imagery For Healing

Disbelief in the possibility it might work is usually the #1 complaint by most people who refuse to give it a try. But the human race as a whole is conditioned into believing what we can see. In this way we know that it is real. All you are doing in these exercises, through repetition, is creating an image and continually playing it over and over in your mind until for you- it becomes real. This is how harnessing that power can achieve greater results that many other forms of therapy can not equal.

How Does Guided Imagery For Healing Work

Pick a time(s) and place where you will undertake your sessions each day. As stated, remember repetition. Schedule your time(s) each day at the same time and same place. Sit, lay down or whatever is most comfortable for you. Close your eyes and just create a common mental image. You are going to write and direct your own movie with you in the starring role.

Pick any event you wish to dream about- just be sure to begin at the beginning of the story. Let your mind build the story second by second and think out every move you make, register every sound you hear (birds chirping, water trickling, horns blaring, music playing), smell the aromas (fresh cut grass, diesel fumes, hot dog vendor steaming his dogs) and touch (as the snowflakes fall to the ground). Keep adding to your story line but remember this is done second by second. Slowly and completely visualize every single second of your existence in the story-line.

Every session of guided imagery for healing does not need an ending. This is why this is a repetitive program. At the start of your next session, re-play your story again in your mind, slowly adding details as they come to you. Put yourself back into that earlier time and place until all of your senses know you are once again there. Continue to build your story line, remembering you are the lead actor. The story must be based on your thoughts, your experiences, your likes, your wishes and dreams. In other words, this story is completely about you. Other people can be present but refrain from conversations. Words are a distraction. If you concentrate too much on words, you do not have time to notice your feelings.To effectively make guided imagery for healing work, you must make your mind believe it is just as capable of a positive outcome as if you were physically carrying out the storyline itself.

With the passing of days and continuous practice sessions, you will have created a life of your own out of these sessions. Now slowly start introducing the condition or illness into your sessions. Tension, anxiety, rapid heart beat, heavy breathing will start to enter your sessions. Remember though, this is your dream world and anything you wish is possible here. Visualize your mind and body over-coming the body's distress. See yourself coping with the pain and how your strength and will can overcome this disease. See how you can cope with this invader and push it back and out of your movie. Feel the energy that courses through your body as it overcomes the effects of the illness. See yourself again with renewed vitality and spirit, being able to cope with whatever life throw's in your path. Build your movie so a strong supportive ending where your family, friends, job or whatever is important to you becomes the focus, not your health. Positive reinforcement continually enforces your strength to rid your life of this invader.

As is obvious, guided imagery for healing is not a quick healing philosophy as is the hope in conventional medicine. But by using your own body's healing powers, focusing on the energy to direct it on a specific cause, many people have reported absolutely amazing results that they would never even dreamed would be possible.

Return to "Guided Imagery" from "Guided Imagery For Healing".