Guided Imagery: What it is and How to do it

Hey there, everybody, and welcome to this episode on guided imagery benefits and strategies. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. In this episode, we're going to explore the difference between meditation and guided imagery, identify the benefits of guided imagery, and then explore multiple types of guided imagery. I love using guided imagery because there are so many different applications for it. And there's really a robust amount of research that shows that guided imagery can be highly effective in a variety of different situations. So let's talk first about the difference between meditation and guided imagery. You might think that they're the same, but they're not. Meditation in general is a practice aimed at enhancing attention, awareness and mental clarity, being aware of what is in the moment. There's open awareness meditation, where you're just trying to be open and aware in the moment and notice anything and everything that's going on. And then there's focused meditation, where you're focusing your attention on one thing, such as your breath or a candle. Candle. Candlelight. Or a cloud or something that that's more focused. Guided imagery, on the other hand, is a technique designed to create a certain feeling or physiological response. A lot of times it's pain reduction, relaxation, a sense of safety, or even immune enhancement. Meditation is excellent for HPA axis regulation. Remember, your HPA axis is your threat response system, your fight or flight system. And meditation can help enhance mindful awareness of thoughts, feelings and needs. So as you become more mindful and you practice mindfulness meditation, you start noticing when you're getting stressed a lot sooner, so you can intervene sooner and prevent it from being overwhelming or exhausting. Guided imagery, on the other hand, can be used to help address some of those thoughts, feelings and needs and create a particular sensation. Benefits of guided imagery are many. It can be used to reduce stress and anxiety, partly by helping you take what we call a mental vacation. It helps you transport yourself and into a different mental space where you're not focused on all of the stressors you are unhooking, if you will, from the bombardment of the current distress. It can be used to address phobias through imaginary experiencing. Guided imagery is used a lot with people who have fears of flying or fears of spiders or snakes as a first step or set of first steps before actually experiencing something like that in real life. Guided imagery has been shown repeatedly to trigger happy chemicals like dopamine, serotonin and our bonding hormone, oxytocin. When you use guided imagery and you imagine petting an animal or holding your child, it actually sticks. Stimulates the release of oxytocin and when you imagine a happy scene or a pleasant memory, it can help increase dopamine and serotonin. Guided imagery can be used to reduce pain because of its ability to inform the nervous system to a certain extent. You can increase dopamine and serotonin, which are both involved in pain perception as well as the release of endorphins, which are your natural painkillers. Guided imagery can help you build new habits. You envision doing something like every morning before you get up and every evening before you go to bed. And it creates a virtual muscle memory, if you will, which takes us to a performance improvement. They've shown in many, many different types of sports that guided imagery, envisioning making that perfect dive like Greg Louganis did, or the perfect golf swing or tennis swing or whatever, that it actually, when the person goes to do it in real life, that mental rehearsal, that mental training has primed their body to be more adept at executing the movement perfectly. It also has been used for enhanced healing and immunity. It's been used with, especially with people with cancer and hiv. They've done a lot of studies that have shown that guided imagery actually can increase the activation of the immune system in both of those diseases as well as others. But the preponderance of the research has been on cancer and cancer and hiv. There has been some on post open heart surgery recovery and guided imagery has even been shown to be helpful in the prevention of stress related illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. Why is that? Because guided imagery can reduce stress. Stress increases inflammation. Inflammation increases our risk of a variety of different physical health as well as mental health diseases. Using guided imagery merely for relaxation actually helps reduce our risk for those stress related diseases. Guided imagery uses all of your senses to create an immersive virtual experience. And this is different than virtual reality because you can put on a VR headset and look at pretty things that are around and everything and that's wonderful. But your brain is not as engaged as it is in guided imagery. When you are trying to paint that image in your mind's eye. Prior to beginning your guided imagery sessions, it is essential to feel completely safe and ensure you won't be disturbed. During guided imagery, you are kind of transporting yourself to a different place. So you need to feel like wherever you're at right now, you're safe and you don't need to be guarding against threat or attack or anything. And you know, when I say attack, it could be the dog that jumps on your lap and licks you in the face. But if you are completely immersed in this experience, it's going to be very jarring if suddenly Fido jumps up on you or starts barking at the ups man. Guided imagery can be combined with, in real life, sights, sounds, tactile sensations and or smells to help with immersion. Now, ideally, the sights would be in your mind's eye, but you can also use nature sounds or sounds that correspond with whatever image you're thinking of. Tactile sensations. If you're imagining laying out on the beach, you can sit in front of a sunny window so you feel the heat from the sun. And you can even turn on a fan so you can feel a gentle breeze. And smells. You can use a variety of different wax tarts or essential oils if you want to enhance the smell. Maybe you're imagining walking through a rose garden. So you can either use essential oil of rose or you can actually get a rose potted rose plant and use that. Since guided imagery uses words to describe sensory experiences, your brain is occupied with the task, reducing its ability to wander to unwanted thoughts, feelings and sensations. When we have thoughts and feelings, those are created using words. So if your brain is already using words over here, it can't talk in two different tracks at the same time. Think about when you were little. Maybe your parents tried to convince you to try counting sheep in order to help you get to sleep. Well, you were seeing in your mind's eye, you were painting this picture of sheep jumping over a fence and you were imagined hearing them bleat. And you were seeing this. You were using your words, so your mind wasn't wandering. You were totally focused on these sheep and what they looked like. Pro tip, when you decide to do guided imagery, it can be really helpful to write it down on a piece of paper, because then you're not scrambling, trying to think of all the descriptions we're going to talk about. Write it down on a piece of paper. A lot of times it'll create a script that's like three to five minutes and that's perfect. Read it out loud and record it. And you can do that on your mobile device using a voice recording thing. It's really easy anymore to record things. And then when you're ready to do your guided imagery, you're going to play that recording. And that recording will walk you through your guided imagery experience. Now, some of the guided imagery scenarios we're going to talk about are really simple and you don't need to do that. But others can be more complex. Even with the simple ones, it can be helpful to write them down to encourage yourself to really focus on what's going on and not think about, what am I supposed to say next? Life is ever changing and so is your image. You're not going to be on the beach and it be a hundred percent the same. You're going to have waves coming in, waves going out. You're going to have crabs walking along, and sometimes there won't be any crabs there at all. So your image is able to flow with the moment. You can stay in your image as long as you want and notice how things change. The first thing you need to do, I'm going to say this several times. Get safe and comfortable and then move into your image. So I'm going to encourage you to start with a very simple image. The present, where you are right now, what are three things that you see? Look to the left, what else do you see? Look to the right, what else do you see? You know, we can only see so much. So when you look to the left, you're getting stuff you couldn't see in your peripheral vision. When you look to the right, you're doing the same. Look ahead again. Do you notice anything else? And a lot of times when you look away and you look back, you will notice things that you didn't notice the first time. What are three things that you hear right now? What are three things that you smell? And then change your position. If you're sitting, stand up. If you are standing, sit down or even lie down to get a different perspective. What does it look like? What do you see from that perspective? I know in our house we have a lot of animals, so I can be sitting on the sofa and seeing things, but. But if I get down on the floor, I see a lot more stuff. And there are usually little hairballs that I gotta clean up. But you will notice different things. You don't necessarily have to physically move. You can move in your mind's eye. So imagine, you know, you're on the beach and you're laying in the sun, and what do you see? And then imagine sitting up and looking around. What else do you see? What looks different now? So the first guided imagery experience that I encourage people to do again is starting with just noticing what's going on in the present, noticing how to all the things that can be incorporated in an image. Next, try it with a pleasant memory. Set the scene. How old were you? Where were you? Who was there? How do you feel and why? You know, one of my memories is going back to Christmas at my grandma's house. So I remember being about 8 years old, and, you know, my whole family was there, and I can see them all sitting in their respective places, and I can reminisce on how I feel and why I feel that way. Describe everything you see as if you're trying to help an artist paint it. Look to your left and describe what you see. Look forward and describe what you see. Instead of saying, I see my family sitting there, say, I see my Uncle Joel sitting in the gray armchair. I see my grandfather sitting in the brown velvet armchair. I see my. My Uncle Chuck's dogs lying in front of. Lying in front of the fireplace. You know, so really describe it in as much detail as you can. What do you smell in general? You know, just kind of think, what am I smelling? My. My grandmother's house used to smell of pine salt. So whenever I think of her house, I think Pine Sol. Whenever I smell Pine Sol, I think of her house. That's in general. But particular people also wear different colognes or different aftershaves or perfumes or what have you. So you may notice that you're sitting next to somebody who has a particular perfume on. I can distinctly remember my stepmother's perfume. So that would be another addition. That would be something else that I smelled on Christmas. My grandmother always got up and started cooking early. So when we would get there to start our Christmas celebration, you could always smell the remnants of bacon and eggs. So that's the third thing that I smell. What do you hear? You know, do you hear in this particular vision, you know, I'm hearing Christmas paper tearing, and I'm hearing people talking, and I'm hearing my grandmother's little miniature schnauzer running around and barking, because Fifer always barked. And what else do you hear? You know, every time you think you're at the end of describing what you hear or what you see, ask yourself what else that encourages you to look a little bit closer to see what else you might be missing. The next scene that you can try is your favorite place. And it can be real or not. It doesn't have to be a real place. My favorite place to escape to is a cabin in the woods. But if you are a Star wars fan, for example, maybe you want to go to the planet Alderaan. That's fine. Wherever you want to go, this is your mental vacation. Again, set the scene. Where are you? What do you feel on your skin? You know, is it cold? Is it warm? Is there a breeze or not? Are you wearing a scratchy sweater? Are you wearing a tank? Top. How do you feel emotionally? How do you feel physically? Describe everything you see as if you're trying to help an artist paint it. So again, you're going to look to your left and describe it. Look forward and describe it. And look to your right and describe it. Describe what you smell, what you hear. Now, this is your favorite place. So you're also going to describe what are you most looking forward to, and then imagine that happening. For me, going to a cabin in the woods, I'm most looking forward to hearing the birds, going bird watching and seeing chipmunks. And then when I imagine that happening, I get very excited. You know, if I can see that chipmunk in my mind's eye, I'm just over the moon. So thinking about those things, trying to make that experience real, as real as possible in your mind. When you start telling your mind that and you are feeding it sensory information, how it feels, how it smells, what you see, your mind actually starts to kind of believe it's there, at least in the moment. Now, I said we can use guided imagery for a lot of things. So the first three scenarios that I walked you through was just getting used to creating guided imagery scenes. And those can be used for relaxation, to help you go to your favorite place or return to a happy memory. For immunity, there are multiple scenarios. You know, think about, what do you associate with immunity? And the three most common ones that I found were the military. That's the one that's historically been used. Your thymus gland is behind your breastbone, and this is where your immune system is trained, basically. So this is like a military base that trains the soldiers. Your bone marrow, and that's in every single one of your bones, produces leukocytes, or immune cells, for which will be your future soldiers. So imagine, you know, production of those future soldiers in your bone marrow. And then the neutrophils are your soldiers, your army guys that patrol and are first on scene. They just continue to go around and look for problems. The monocytes think of maybe as the Marines. And they come in after the soldiers identify that there's a problem, and they may be like a special forces group, and that engulfs and eliminates the harmful particles. You can get more or less detailed with this analogy. Now, if you're not familiar with the military, this might not mean much to you. So imagery two Pac man and this. I think even people today know what Pac man is. But people from my generation, definitely Pac man used to go around and gobble up little pellets throughout a maze so you can think about your immune system going around and gobbling up the mutated cells throughout your system. And when Pac man would get to certain places, he'd get an energy boost. And that's like boosting your immune system so it's more able to fight off. It becomes stronger and more effective at fighting off invaders. And three is the smart home. As we have developed computers, a smart home keeps track of, for example, the temperature in a house. And when the temperature in one area of the house starts to get too hot, the smart home will do something to address it. When your body starts to have inflammation in one area or another, the smart home, your body responds by sending your immune cells and things there to try to address the inflammation and heal that part of the body. So think of it. Think of it kind of like a smart home. Other images for healing God's healing hand. Some people can feel God touching them and healing a particular area. Some people like to envision elves sewing tissue back together after a surgery or a muscle pull or something. Or a fairy godmother with a wand that comes over and bibbidi, bobidi, boo. All of a sudden you hear the bring of the fairy wand and you are feeling better. What do you think of when you think of a healing force? Guided imagery for compassion. And we've talked about the loving kindness meditation, and this can be used as guided imagery as well. Envision sending warmth and light and positive energy to somebody, or even to yourself. And as you do that, think to yourself, may your life be filled with peace, health and love. And envision that bubble of positivity or positive energy enveloping them and warming them and making them feel safe and happy and loved. You can also do the same thing for yourself. You can envision that bubble descending on you. You can envision the inner child of yourself. You know, what is your inner. Envision yourself as your inner child. And what does that inner child want to do? Or if somebody else is having a bad day and maybe they're being a little bit irritable, you might envision their inner child in their head, standing up and jumping up and down going, hey, pay attention to me. Every once in a while, our inner child will throw a tantrum. And if you notice it, if you see that inner child in. In your head or in the person's head throwing a temper tantrum, then you might be able to have more compassion for them. Instead of getting angry with them, you might understand that there's a part of them that feels very upset or feels very unsafe. You can use guided imagery to see life through another person's experience. Like a poor elderly person who is checking out by themself and they only have just enough for them. You know, they probably live alone. You know, you can envision, you know, what it's like when they get home. And that can help you develop compassion for people who may not have all the things that you do. You can try to see life through the eyes of an angry or pessimistic person. What must it be like to be living in their body and seeing the world through their eyes? That can help you get compassion. Or through the eyes of a lonely child that always hangs around your work or, you know, a neighborhood kid that's always coming over. You know, it may feel frustrating or irritating because that person's always there. But if you see it through their eyes, you know, what is this child seeing in you, and what is it that they're needing? And it can help you gain compassion. You can unleash your inner Jesus, Buddha, or Gandhi. Imagine that part of you, or imagine that entity, whatever you want to call it, in your mind's eye. And what do you see them doing in this situation? What would that entity do in this situation that can help you see compassion in action? Guided imagery for pain. What images do you associate with pain and what is the opposite of those images? What images do you associate with being healthy and comfortable? Examples. A color change. I think of pain. I think red, red, hot. I think of cool blue as comfortable. So you can imagine an area that's painful being red, and then gradually changing from red to purple to a cool blue as the pain reduces in intensity. You can do the same thing for warmth. It starts out hot, and then it cools down. You can also focus your energy and imagine somewhere else on your body. You know, imagine it being heated so you're not focusing on the pain. You're actually focusing somewhere else, which distracts you. Basically, you can use a knob adjustment, just like a volume on your car stereo. Imagine turning down the volume of the pain. And as you do this, you know, exhale very slowly as you turn down that knob a little bit. So you're exhaling for like 6. And then inhale very slowly. Hold and then exhale very slowly and turn that knob down a little bit again. Every time you turn that knob down and you slowly exhale, you're triggering that relaxation response. You can envision angels or elves massaging the area in terms of anger and anxiety. What images do you associate with safety and empowerment? What do you associate with Anger and anxiety. So you might envision, you might use guided imagery to envision your feelings, your anger, your rage going from this raging storm to all of a sudden, the clouds breaking and the sun starting to shine through. And you can feel. Feel the warmth on your skin. And all of a sudden, there's this beautiful rainbow. You can envision a force field to protect yourself from whatever you're feeling threatened by or developing superpowers to help you have the strength to cope. And it's not the best analogy, but whenever I think about superpowers, I think of the Incredible Hulk. When Bruce Banner would get. Feel threatened, when he'd get angry, he. He'd turn into the Incredible Hulk. And it would give him the strength and the power to stay safe and endure. You can also thank David and Goliath. You know, David was this little dude, and he slew Goliath, who was far bigger than he was. And you can envision yourself, whatever's causing this anger, no matter how small you are, is envision yourself only needing the power of David, only needing those little stones that he flung to bring down Goliath. Other examples to reduce anger and anxiety, using a thermometer, the volume knob. Bubble pop. Imagine blowing bubbles with bubble stuff and then seeing them pop in the air. And each time one pops and it is a negative thought or a stressful thought. Another one I love doing is blowing up a balloon. You blow it up with angry air, and then you envision yourself letting the air out and you know, the weird sounds balloons make as air goes out. So you can hear it, you know, deflating as your anxiety deflates. You don't have to do this in real life. You can imagine doing it, and I can imagine doing it in my mind. You can also just envision yourself surviving the experience. You know, see yourself getting off the airplane after a safe flight, or waking up after a safe surgery, or holding your infant after childbirth for loss and bereavement. You can imagine calling heaven to talk to that person that is no longer there. Or talking talk to your pet that is no longer there. You can imagine a visit from heaven. Maybe that person comes and is sitting down right there in your living room or having dinner with you and imagine them being there again. Imagine what it would be like to have them there, see them in your mind's eye, sitting at your dinner table with you. Or you can imagine visiting heaven. My grandmother, when she was sick with cancer, there were a couple of times that things got kind of dicey. And when they revived her, she would tell Us. Every time she would tell us that for her, heaven was a luau with a pig roast. So whenever I think about visiting that particular grandmother, I envision myself, you know, riding up the stairs to heaven and getting off and going through the pearly gates and. And I am at a luau, the great play. You know, Shakespeare said, all the world's a stage. You can envision yourself as one of the actors in the great play. And those that you have lost are people in the audience. They are watching you. They can't interact with you, but they are watching you through your life and seeing what you do. My aunt had cystic fibrosis, and I was very little when she passed on. And I remember her telling me that we would always be connected by this invisible string. And she took an invisible string and she tied it around my waist and then tied it around her waist, and she said, see, we are always connected now. So that can be something else. If you have advanced notice where you can tie the invisible string, then that can also make someone feel more connected. Or even butterflies. Envisioning something that was meaningful to that person and seeing it around you, feeling it around you. If you are envisioning a butterfly flying, or even just the wind as you feel it caress your skin, envisioning that being the person giving you a hug or rubbing your arm. For performance improvement and test anxiety, visualize yourself completing the task perfectly and confidently. This can be in athletics. It can be, you know, anticipating, asking someone out. You see yourself doing it perfectly and confidently, public speaking, test taking, or even just achieving a goal, whatever that goal is, whether it's cleaning your room or graduating college. Envision yourself completing it perfectly and confidently. If you're talking about new skills, you can visualize yourself using your new skills, like visualizing yourself remembering to practice your slow, controlled breathing. You can visualize yourself being assertive or responding to criticism. And with those, you're going to visualize yourself, you know, for example, responding to criticism, being criticized. And then you're going to see yourself responding in the ideal way for sleep and relaxation. You can envision yourself floating on a cloud or in the water. If you swim at all, you know that if you're tense, you don't float very well. You've got to be completely relaxed. So envisioning yourself relaxed enough where you actually just float up to the surface of the water. You can envision sheep, like we talked about before, or bubbles. I'm big on bubbles because I love them. Or you can even use your favorite memory or your favorite place. Those scripts that we talked about in the beginning that can help you go to a happy, relaxed place that will help you get more sleep. Guided imagery is a technique used to imagine sensations to produce a desired physical response. It's essential to be in a place in which you feel completely safe and won't be disturbed before you begin. The best guided imagery comes from whatever you associate with the desired sensation, whether it be safety, relaxation, pain reduction, healing, whatever. Think about if I had to imagine this happening, what might be a metaphor that I could use. Guided imagery can often be done in three to five minutes and should incorporate as many senses as possible in order to really get your brain engaged and convince your brain to believe it. You can use what I call sensory props such as nature sounds, a fan sitting in front of a sunny window, or even wax tarts or essential oils to intensify the experience. You can learn more@docsnipes.com YouTube this episode was produced by Mr. Charles Snipes and presented by Dr. Donnelly Snipes. They can be reached at 1633 West Main Street, Suite 902, Lebanon, Tennessee or by email at supportocsnipes.com.