10 Min Ideal Self Best Possible Selves Visualization with Music

This is an ideal self-visualization meditation to elicit the relaxation response, the opposite of your stress response. Visualizing our best possible selves promotes desired behavior change in our brain while breaking through limiting mindsets. The recommended dose is 5 minutes as part of any meditation session. The qualities that we visualize in our ideal selves, or our best possible selves, are fluid and can change depending on what feels right for us for this given moment of our lives. Find a comfortable and safe place to sit, and if you have earphones, that's always extra nice. Let us begin by remembering the value of eliciting the relaxation response on a regular basis. This is a time for us to sit and allow our brains to enter a state of quiet so it can guide our minds towards a more deliberate way of feeling and acting in our everyday lives, while at the same time healing our minds and bodies down to the cellular level. So let's start by sitting comfortably, letting your hands rest comfortably in your lap, and either lowering your eyes or closing your eyes altogether. Remember, if there's any interruption at all during this meditation, it's just a reminder to come right back into the meditation. So take a few breaths, inhaling and noticing the temperature of your breath at your nostril. And exhaling and noticing if there's any change in temperature. Do that for a few breaths. Now start to notice your breath rising and falling in your abdomen. Now, using your imagination, inhale your breath through the bottom of your feet all the way up to the top of your head. Then as you exhale, pretend you're scanning your body from head to toe. Releasing any muscle tension that you notice as you scan from the top of your head down your face, the back of your head, your neck, shoulders, arms, hands, even your fingers, your chest and back, abdomen, upper legs and knees and calves. And your feet. And on the next inhale, again breathe in using your imagination through the bottom of your feet to the top of your head. And on the exhale, release, scanning your body from the top of your head all the way down to your feet. Do this one more time on your own. The qualities that we visualize and our ideal selves are fluid and can change depending on what feels right for us in this moment and what gives us the kind of support we need at any particular given time. So begin to see yourself as if you are already engaged in the behavior or possessing the character strength that you desire more for yourself. For example, imagine yourself sticking to a schedule for social media use and all the images that come up with it. Or imagine yourself comfortable in a social or performance situation. Or see yourself sleeping like a baby, or exercising with zest, or being compassionate toward people in your life, including yourself. Let the images come up for you as if you are already engaged, or possess these character strengths. Now say silently to yourself, I am, with whatever strength you would like for yourself. I am calm. I am brave. I am comfortable. Being uncomfortable, whatever quality that you would like more for yourself. And so with each in-breath, focus silently saying the phrase as if you already have this quality: I am. On each out-breath, see hear, feel this quality happening within you in real life situations. So for the next inhale and exhale, continue with I am for each inhale And then see, hear, and feel this quality on each exhale. Allow these images to rise gently and again to be fluid. Whatever comes up for you that feels supportive. Now pay attention to what it feels like to embody this quality, this strength. Now gently release all of the imagery and phrase and start to pay attention to the sensations around you. Begin to notice the temperature of the room, the sounds around you, and start to gently stretch whatever feels good for you, moving slowly and paying attention gently to the movements that come naturally for you right now. Now slowly open your eyes if you haven't already done so, gently transitioning back to the environment around you.