Focus On What You Want
As human beings, we are naturally good at focusing on all the things we don’t want and all the things that are wrong with our lives, but research indicates that focusing more on what we want is way more beneficial for our wellbeing.
Studies have shown that visualisation, including guided imagery and a positive attitude, may improve overall quality of life, illness duration, and surgery recovery times. A Scientific American online article from 2013 states that numerous studies have shown that mental imagery may speed up the recovery after surgery.
In addition to supporting overall health and wellbeing, visualisation has been shown to help reduce stress and anxiety, provide deep relaxation, boost immune function, manage pain and increase self-esteem.
Guided Imagery
Guided imagery is a technique which involves focusing on a specific end goal to help cope with a situation such as ongoing health problems. For example, if you are living with cancer, you may visualise yourself as cancer-free. When using this popular relaxation tool, you may be asked to sit or lie down and visualise your problem, for example, an illness or ongoing pain, which is then gone by visualising yourself as healthy and healed. By witnessing yourself fully healed, you start to believe that healing is possible. When you imagine every step of the healing process going well, you are preparing your body and mind to take those actual steps in reality.
According to the International Journal of Neuroscience article The Effects of Guided Imagery on the Immune System: A Critical Review, “Studies suggest that guided imagery can reduce stress and elevate the immune system; cell-specific imagery affects corresponding white blood cells, neutrophils, or lymphocytes; decreases in white blood cell count occur in the initial stages of guided imagery and relaxation due to fluctuations in white blood cell production or margination; and changes in white blood cell count or adherence occur earlier in medical patients.”
Create A Vision Board
Another popular way to visualise and manifest the things you want for yourself, is to get creative and make yourself a vision board, featuring words and images of the things you want to achieve or happen. Creating a vision board is a therapeutic exercise that makes you think deeply about what you want to attract and manifest into your life. Once completed, place your board somewhere you can see it clearly and give it focus every single day. Make it your compass for the months and years ahead. Every time you visualise yourself in your ideal state and life, you will bring that reality closer to you.
A Complementary Therapy
Whereas visualisation and imagery techniques are not recognised or approved as a treatment for cancer or any other serious disease, they have been recognised as helpful complementary therapies alongside conventional treatments. So, if you find yourself on a healing journey and you are in the process of assembling your very own personal toolkit to support you along the way, then you may want to include visualisation. If you are more of a verbal than a visual person, you may find affirmations easier to work with or using a combination of the two. The key is to do whatever works for you.
Written by Maria Honeker
Holistic Health Mentor and Cancer Support Coach
You can contact Maria through her website
References
https://www.scienceabbey.com/2018/10/24/power-of-the-mind-the-science-of-visualization-1/
