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By Andrea Lanier, Group Facilitator previous page
For some people, imaging can channel these painful or frightening feelings - or at least a portion of the feelings - away from them instead of always holding them in so tightly. Imaging, when pain or fear become too much, can work like a valve that releases steam to prevent an explosion and the damage that occurs with explosions. To illustrate how imaging might be used, I have written an example that can be tried to relieve emotional pain; the words worry or fear may be substituted in the text as needed.
When you feel yourself hurting, locate an object with which you feel comfortable, and with your mind, channel the pain that you are feeling into this object. "Feel and see" the pain, as a vapor perhaps, evaporating from your pores and flowing away from you like smoke from a chimney in a cold night (allow yourself to smell the smoke with your mind's nose), and flowing into this object. Imagine that this object will hold your pain for you, so you don't have to be quite so filled with it.
Don't give up easily in your effort to channel your pain away from you in this way. Don't fight too hard to accomplish this either. Don't cling to expectations of outcome and how you should feel. Use the power of your mind with a gentle and patient insistence, and gently, patiently repeat the process over and over.
There are different ways to practice imaging. A ten-minute relaxation period should precede an imaging process when the imaging is aimed at accomplishing long-term goals. For larger, long-term goals, practice your imaging in the same manner that you would take your medications for an illness: regularly and daily. Imaging can also be used on an as-needed basis. You can obtain prefabricated imaging scripts on audio-tapes, or you may produce your own tape-recording from a book addressing imaging, such as Rituals of Healing. A third alternative would be to write your own script. If it is not possible to locate a suitable tape-recording or to produce your own tapes, you can take your own script and read it back to yourself until you remember it's contents well. Repeatedly using imaging can give your mind and your body the map to feeling better. Regular imaging practice can make your imaging become as natural as breathing and it can help your mind's and your body's responses to your imaging become a well-beaten path to wellness, on which it will become easier to travel.
Achterberg, J., Ph.D., & Dossey, B., R.N., M.S., FAAN, & Kolkmeier, L., R.N., Med. (1994). Rituals of Healing. New York, NY: Bantam
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