Visualization, also called imaging, is a simple process where you conjure up a mental image of something that conveys happiness, warmth, or peaceful feelings for you. For example, you might remember a meadow or farm from your childhood, a waterfall, a picnic site, a scene from a movie, a favorite cousin, or a lover. By focusing on the image for even as little as a minute or two, you can achieve a drop in pulse, heart rate, and even blood pressure.

If you only have a few minutes alone at home or at work, visualization could be just your cup of tea.You already engage in visualization all the time. Visualizing aspects of your life helps to put you in a better disposition and increase your probability of successfully solving problems. The examples and suggestions mentioned below are designed to get you to focus on the positive, pleasant, stress reducing scenes. The supreme benefit of visualization is the minimal time investment required to get a good return.

Some people suggest closing your eyes and placing your hand on your chest, cheek, or forehead while visualizing a pleasant scene because this helps to connect your body with the image that you have conjured up.

Visualization works well because your brain can recall anything, particularly pleasurable things, that it has ever experienced.

Visualizing the Future

Visualization can help you sail more easily through things that have not yet happened. For example, basketball players attempting to get better at foul shooting found that by visualizing themselves stepping up to the line and having the shot go in, over and over, the actual foul shot percentage rose in game situations.

Likewise, many Olympic performers on all levels visualize themselves going through their routines, be it speed skating, gymnastics, or throwing the javelin, and actually improve performance once they step into the competitive arena.

If you fear making presentations, or confronting your boss about an issue, if you will first visualize yourself successfully handling the situation, you will increase the probability of success. You can even write a short statement about your visualization, or a whole article about what you did and how it worked. In this respect, you “live into your visualization.”

Chicken Soup for Success

My friend, Mark Victor Hanson, had written several books since the mid 1980s, none best sellers. When he and his pal, Jack Canfield, thought about the idea for what eventually become “Chicken Soup for the Soul”, before they ever came up with the title, they envisioned coming up with what Mark called a “million dollar title.” After many weeks, the title “Chicken Soup for the Soul” emerged.

When the book was first published, however, there was little fanfare. So Mark took a copy of the New York Times bestseller list and using the same font and point size, he pasted over “Chicken Soup for the Soul” by Mark Victor Hanson and Jack Canfield, in the #1 position for non-fiction books. He put the list on his wall, where he could see it everyday, to draw energy.

After the book’s success, I wrote to Mark and told him, “you are the best example of someone who clearly envisioned himself to spectacular success.”

Guided Imagery

Guided imagery is much like visualization except that you employ the services of another person, who takes you through a series of steps designed to bring you to a more relaxed state. The instructor or group leader may first ask you to close your eyes, sit erectly but comfortably, and perhaps concentrate on some part of your body or your breathing.

Depending on the purpose of the session, it may help you to achieve progressive relaxation–a stress reduction technique. This involves tensing each muscle of the body, for example, your shoulders, and then letting go. Then tensing them again, and then letting go. If you’ll try this right now, you’ll see that after the third time that you ease up, your shoulders feel more relaxed, perhaps even warm.

A guided imagery session may start with your forehead and work down to your feet, or vice versa. Guided imagery works well because you simply respond to the voice instructions. This helps you to diminish any internal mental chatter that could otherwise impede your quest to achieve relaxation.

In nearly every city, you can enroll in adult education programs taught by instructors skilled in guided imagery, progressive relaxation, visualization, and virtually every technique possible to reduce stress.