Hello again, welcome back. I'm excited to talk to you today about the power of visualization. This does not get enough attention. It can in certain worlds, but a lot of people think of it as this just kind of like woo woo manifestation type of, tool that people dismiss very often. But I want to share actually the science and the studies behind why visualization is actually really important in our healing journey.
It's a powerful practice that involves creating mental images or scenarios to evoke a desired outcome. It's about harnessing the power of the mind to influence your body's response and promote healing. So studies show actually that your brain does not know the difference between something that is visualized versus something that is right in front of you.
So why not use this to our advantage, right? chronic conditions actually can often take a toll on both our physical and emotional wellbeing, right? If you're sitting here listening and you're working on healing mind, body symptoms, you definitely know it's taken a toll on your whole entire life, mostly most likely.
And so we can use visualization. As a pathway to tap into the body's innate healing and shift your perception of pain because pain and symptoms originate and the mind and the body. So we're talking about chronic, right? Like chronic symptoms like pain, fibromyalgia, fatigue, even things like gut issues, food sensitivities.
A lot of the root cause of these are actually a stressed out, dysregulated brain and body. And so when we can actually visualize our brain shifting and changing out of that stress response and calming and soothing our bodies. Our brain doesn't know the difference between what's right in front of us versus what's visualized.
So you can actually create a sanctuary within your mind, a place of safety and tranquility where your body can relax and essentially repair itself. So By picturing yourself in a state of health and vitality, and we'll talk more about this, how to detail orient this, like how to get really specific because specificity is actually important in visualization.
But by picturing yourself in a state of health and vitality, you can send powerful signals to your nervous system, triggering the release of healing hormones and neurotransmitters. You can remind your brain that you're actually healthy and safe, that you're not broken, that there's nothing wrong with you.
And remember, this is not, you know, this is not magic. If you will, this is not, just think better or just think differently and you'll be better, right? It's not toxic positivity. We're definitely not talking about that. It's actually been shown that the same part of our brains light up when we visualize a scenario as well as when it's actually happening.
So why not utilize it. I'm going to share a couple of different studies to help get some validity behind this. So one study was on visualization for pain management. A study in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine in 2006 actually examined the effects of guided imagery on pain perception and functional status in patients with fibromyalgia.
And the results showed that participants who practice guided imagery experience significant reductions in pain intensity and improvements in functional status compared to those in the control group. Another one on visualization and stress reduction. Was a research published in the journal of psychosomatic research in 2000, investigated the effects of guided imagery on stress reduction in pregnant women.
The study found that participants who practice guided imagery experienced lower levels of stress and anxiety. Compared to those who did not receive the intervention. So again, why is this so important? It's because visualizing a certain scenario can help our brains practice the idea that it's different, that it's safe, that we can visualize a different reality or a different feeling in our body than what we're actually experiencing now, which can actually help us get into situations that we're just too fearful to get into.
So there's many ways to use visualization. I mean, we can imagine our bodies in a healthy and vibrant state. We can use visualization to help decrease fear before going into a certain situation. So for example, if you can start to visualize a certain anxiety producing scenario as going well, Like feeling the actual feel good emotions that would happen when whatever you're fearful about going well and letting your brain bring you into that place.
And you do this over and over and over again, then it actually can help calm the parts of your brain that light up with fear. So, so I'll give a couple of examples here. If you're in the midst of deep chronic fatigue, and it takes all effort to even get out of the bed, or it takes a lot of effort to do your daily routines, like take care of yourself, daily hygiene routines, or maybe you're a little bit more functioning, higher functioning with fatigue, but going out to dinner with friends.
Brings you into a state of just total, you just drained, right? You're just completely exhausted after dinner or even after a work day. It doesn't really matter where you are, but if there are certain things that you feel like you can't do because of your fatigue, then we want to help your brain get into a place and your body get into a place where it doesn't fear those situations, because remember the pain, the symptom cycle, pain, fear cycle.
Is when we fear something. And then we experienced that thing, completing the fear cycle. So for instance, we're fearful about going to dinner because we know it's going to drain us. And we're really scared that we might just have some kind of reaction or episode, and we're going to feel trapped and we're never going to be able to get out of it.
Or you might have a migraine come on, and you're not sure where, how you're going to get out of the situation that you're in. It increases that fear, right? And so when we have fear before the event, and then you go into the event and that thing you're fearful of actually happens. It just reinforces to your brain and to your body.
Oh yeah, you can't do those things, but we want to do is stop that cycle and say, you know what, actually I can do these things because when we're healing our brain and our body, we're reminding it that actually it is safe. It is okay. I'm not broken. There's nothing wrong with me. It's really just my brain and my body firing off danger signals.
So we want to stop those danger signals. So one way we utilize visualization is before the event is even occurring, we want to imagine and visualize in our brain it going well at the same time, calming the parts of our brain that light up. And I'm going to take you through a practice of that right now, but basically before you can do again, go into the event, you visualize everything going well, anywhere from you getting dressed and getting ready.
You're feeling energized. You're feeling calm, cool, and collected. You love what you're wearing. You're excited to go to the event because you're really excited to actually eat this yummy food and be connected and talk to people in person that you connect with. And throughout the whole time, you're feeling your body is so connected and okay.
And safe that it's not wearing you out. It's kind of like pacing ourselves, right? So like you can't, if you are not a runner, you can't just get up one day and run a marathon. You'll have to work for it. You have to pace yourself. You have to work towards it. Right? So this is kind of what visualization helps us with first.
We visualize, then we start to incrementally work towards the event that we want to complete and get through without overstressing our bodies. So that part of the brain that I mentioned that holds this fear response, part of that, or one part of the brain is called the amygdala and your amygdala is a small part of your brain, but it has a big job.
It's major processing center of emotions, and it also links your emotions to many other brain abilities, like memories learning and. Sensing, and when it doesn't work as it should, it can cause or contribute to disruptive feelings and symptoms. So it can cause that fear based place when the amygdala is.
I like to think of it like when it's on fire, when it's really in a fear based stressed out place, it's sending all kinds of dangerous signals to your brain and your body. So one practice that I really love, and it's worked well for me. And a lot of my clients say that they love this one as well is calming and soothing the amygdala, visualizing it soothing.
And so I'm going to guide you through a little mini session of that right now. but if you're able to, or if you pause this or come back to it, Or anytime you want to practice this again, I actually encourage you to look up an image of your brain and look up an image of the amygdala just as it is healthy and relaxed.
So every time you do this calming amygdala practice, you're actually seeing it in your brain as calming and soothing and signaling signals to your body of relaxation. You can also do this with anything else you're experiencing. So if you're experiencing hip pain, back pain, shoulder pain, headaches, migraines, gut issues, food sensitivities, fatigue.
You can use this with anything. Look up a very simple, simplistic picture of that part of your body. Simple, healthy, nothing too extreme. But just, I would encourage you to look it up so you can imagine what that looks like in your body. Imagine it healthy and soothing and operating exactly as it's supposed to.
Operating for you. So again, you can look at this, you can use this in any kind of situation, any kind of part of your body or something that you're wanting to work on and heal.but for right now, we're going to imagine the amygdala. So if you are somewhere that you can take a pause, sit down, lie down, close your eyes, I encourage you to do so.
And even if you're not, if you're walking or driving or something like that, you can imagine this as well. It's Sometimes it is helpful to close your eyes. So outside distractions are, are not getting in the way of you truly focusing and visualizing. But again, you can do this anytime, anywhere. So if you can take a moment to pause and to come into your body,
start to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, lengthen the exhales.
Maybe releasing your shoulders away from your ears, releasing the root of your spine, maybe move your body if you, to see if you can get just 10 percent more comfortable
and continue with your breath here. And then I want you to start to just pay attention to your internal awareness.
What's going on right now in your mind, in your body, and see if you can come at this from a place of neutrality, meaning that you're not attaching any type of meaning or negative critical judgmental thought around what you feel or what you experience, but you're just simply noticing.
And when you do this. Start to imagine that amygdala in your brain. So it's a small little place right at the top of your brainstem. And when you're in the stress response, that amygdala is kind of on fire. I like to think of it as this kind of like beating red. So what we're going to do is send it signals of safety.
We're going to imagine that amygdala soothing and calming with every breath that we take. Inhale, sending signals of safety, exhale, maybe you imagine a cool blue color or water washing down over your brain, over the amygdala
and continue doing this over and over as you breathe, inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
Imagine that amygdala soothing and calming as you tell yourself, I don't really need these signals of danger. I'm okay. Just as I am. I'm safe in my body and in my mind, continue to imagine the amygdala soothing, calming that red color color. Maybe you imagine a dial turning down the intensity of your sensations.
If you're feeling any kind of pain or discomfort, maybe you notice. Your brain sending signals of safety, calm, and cool to the rest of your body.
And you can continue here as long as you'd like. I encourage you actually to use this and be with your amygdala, your body for a while here, and remember that you can always come back to this. And if you're ready to come back, you can slowly start to open your eyes if they were closed and just notice how you feel,
notice what it feels like now in your body, in your brain, in your breath, and remind yourself, you can use this at any time.
So another example of when people can use this is when they're rewiring food sensitivities. Every time you eat something, you do a visualization before you do breath practice, and you really truly come at this with the idea that it's not the food that's dangerous. It's just your brain categorizing it as danger.
So we rewire how your brain categorizes and intakes food. Every time you eat something that you're afraid of eating, or you're actually just not really sure if it's going to, how it's going to impact you. Maybe you've been told to eat this. Don't eat that. This increases inflammation. This doesn't, there's so many food rules out there.
So the more that your unconscious mind believes these rules, and then you start to eat the food, it literally changes how you digest that food. Your body on a physical level does not digest it. Well, when you think you're not supposed to have it, or you think that it's dangerous, if you will, it's not, it's not going to be good for your body.
So one way to start. Healing food sensitivities is to truly understand that it's not the food, it's your brain, it's your body categorizing it as bad. So you continue to tell yourself that these foods are safe and you do a visualization and you do a breath practice to help your body really find that soothing, relaxed place.
So that your body's actually happy to intake whatever you want to eat within reason, right? Obviously disclaimer, if you're allergic to something, please, you know, talk to your provider about this. I'm definitely not a medical doctor. This is coming from, you know, if you've never really had an issue with certain foods and all of a sudden you're sensitive to them.
Now, a lot of times this comes with stress. So this could be a whole other episode for another time, but it's a great example to use visualization, really understanding and visualizing how your body digests food and being happy and loving how that food is nourishing your body, visualizing it, going down, visualizing your gut as healthy and healthy as possible.
Pink and supple and just really loving your body, loving your gut, loving your digestive system, and knowing that every time you eat something, your body is so grateful that you're giving it nourishment. This is what we want to put in your body. These feelings, these sensations, these beliefs that you're okay, that you're safe, that you're healthy.
And rewiring that so anytime you can incorporate visualization into your daily routine as a tool for self empowerment and resilience, you can close your eyes, breathe deeply and envision yourself healing free from sensations like pain and. Sensitivities and suffering and picturing your body vibrant and strong filled with boundless energy and vitality.
So just remember, this is a gift you can carry with you at all times, nurture it and allow it to guide you and the ways that your body's actually meant to be. Your body is so amazing, has so much wisdom and self healing properties and principles. So let's let it do its thing and visualization can help you get there.
Okay. If you have any questions, please let me know. I'm here and happy to answer, and I will talk to you next time.
