By Allison Runchey, HTCP
On a busy day, if you find your mind working hard analyzing everything around you, remembering the past, or creating stories about the future, thoughts can seem like race cars zipping this way and that. They can feel like a traffic jam with no direction.
Artist: Aristal Branson
Enter guided imagery: a form of meditation that invites specific images or visual concepts into the mind to foster emotional, mental, or physical well-being. It may include vivid scenes, colors, sounds, or sensations. Rather than trying to clear the mind, which is challenging since thinking is a natural part of being human, guided imagery gently focuses our thoughts in ways that can relieve stress, increase vitality, and tap into inner wisdom.
Author and meditation teacher Belleruth Naparstek shares key principles about why and how guided imagery works in her book, “Staying Well with Guided Imagery: How to Harness the Power of Your Imagination for Health and Healing.” One core concept is that our bodies respond to images held in our minds as if they were really happening. This is why we often feel hungry after simply seeing a picture of a favorite meal, or we might notice our muscles getting tense when watching a dramatic movie. Another principle discussed is that when we’re in an altered state of consciousness we have a “greater capacity for intense healing, growth, learning, and change” (p. 22). By using a calm, yet active and concentrated awareness, guided imagery draws us into a type of altered state in which we can access an expanded sense of wholeness. A third important aspect is that using guided imagery is a choice, something over which we have control to start, stop, or change at any time. This form of personal empowerment and sense of mastery can, in itself, improve our ability to cope and optimism about the future.
I often incorporate guided imagery into Healing Touch sessions as a way to expand, heal, balance, or release energy. Because energy follows intention, introducing images that align with the client’s vision of health is a powerful force in the healing process. It uses the language of metaphor to go beyond logic and into the realm of intuition, memory, and the soul.