•  Meditation: Health Benefits •  Stress

Guided imagery (also called guided visualization) is a method of using your imagination to help you cope better with illness and stress. The term "imagery" refers to the symbols and pictures that make up your thoughts, memories, and dreams. The rationale behind guided imagery is that your thoughts give rise to your emotions, which in turn greatly affect your well-being. Visualizing positive images regarding your health and your life can improve your ability to handle stress and even make you feel better physically. Just as thinking about a hot fudge sundae can cause you to salivate and feel hungry, imagining yourself in a safe place can slow down your breathing and heart rate and make you feel calmer. The richer the details of your images are -- colors, textures, sounds, smells, tastes -- the more powerfully they work. The technique is most useful for treating conditions that are caused or aggravated by stress, such as headaches, chronic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, allergies, depression, and anxiety. It can also help relieve nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy in cancer patients. Athletes and actors frequently use guided visualization to improve their performance.

You can find guided-imagery tapes at bookstores and New Age shops, but for your first few sessions you may want to visit a practitioner -- usually a psychotherapist, nurse, or doctor who has been trained in the technique. After taking your medical history, he or she will talk with you about any emotional concerns or physical symptoms that you've been having. You may start with some relaxation exercises, such as breathing deeply or closing your eyes and envisioning yourself in a safe, comfortable place like a beach or meadow. Then, if you have a chronic problem such as back pain, you may describe the images that occur to you as you focus on the pain. Your practitioner can help you interpret these images and understand how your thoughts or emotions may be affecting your physical state and what you can do about them. If you're facing surgery, for instance, your practitioner may walk you through the experience, asking you how you feel at each stage, trying to identify your worries and fears. Afterward you'll repeat the exercise, this time putting yourself in control of the events and imagining yourself calmly experiencing them and returning to health after a successful operation. Once you're adept at the technique, you can practice it at home. The more you practice, the likelier you are to feel results, although some people will find the method easier to master than others. Guided imagery is often used in conjunction with other treatments, such as psychotherapy.

When you're worried about something like upcoming surgery, your mind is full of thoughts of danger, and your nervous system prepares you to meet that danger by initiating the fight-or-flight response. Your levels of stress hormones shoot up, your breathing and heart rate accelerate, your muscles tense, and you end up tired and nervous as your surgery approaches, rather than calm and rested. Studies show that envisioning positive images can help you disarm this stress response before it gets going. It can help you feel in fuller control of your health and better able to cope with pain and fear. One trial at the Cleveland Clinic found that surgical patients who use guided imagery before and after their operations experienced considerably less anxiety and pain, in some cases needing only half as much pain medication as other patients. In another study at University College in London, migraine sufferers reported a decrease in the intensity of their headaches after being trained in guided imagery, even though electronic monitoring devices showed no change in migraine activity. Smoking induces a bodily reaction similar to other kinds of stress: increased blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension. A 2005 study found that guided imagery helped smokers stop smoking and remain abstinent over a 24-month period.

The Academy for Guided Imagery has trained thousands of psychotherapists, nurses, and doctors. To find one in your area, visit their Web site at http://www.academyforguidedimagery.com/ .

References

First published March 5, 1999
Last updated January 23, 2008
Copyright © 1999 Consumer Health Interactive

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