The Power of Visualization

Your mind is your most powerful tool for healing. When you picture something in your mind, it is perceived as possible and the nervous system responds accordingly. If you are still in quarantine, this can be a useful technique to add that will help support the process of finding inner balance, inner calm and inner peace.

Visualization is a technique that is used to improve wellbeing, performance, follow through and outcomes. When you rehearse something in your mind, visualize yourself doing it, you are more likely to make it happen. Visualizing helps bring what you can imagine in your mind come into fruition.

When you visualize something in your mind’s eye you can cultivate any inner experience. When you are dealing with stress, anxiety, uncertainty and any immobilizing feelings such as helplessness, hopelessness or fear, you are essentially imagining negative outcomes. If you shift this to positivity, hopefulness, and empowerment, you can create a whole different outcome and a far more peaceful state of being.

When managing stress there are some very helpful visualization techniques you can use to release the discomfort of stress and bring on a feeling of inner peace. Releasing negative, uncomfortable, untrue and non-useful thoughts can be a helpful visualization to practice to support the process of letting these thoughts go.

Visualization to Release Thoughts and Calm Your Mind

Here a few visualizations you can use to imagine your thoughts releasing from your mind:

• –  Picture yourself sitting under a tree. Imagine that your thoughts (worries, stressors…) are on the leaves floating down from the tree, releasing the thoughts and letting them go.

• –  Picture yourself lying down in your favorite space in nature, imagine releasing your thoughts to the clouds and watch them floating away, letting the thoughts go.

• –  Picture a hallway with doors, imagine that your thoughts are coming in through one door and leaving through another, letting the thoughts go.

• –  Imagine a revolving door, picture your thoughts coming in and then leaving through the door.

• –  Picture yourself seated on the banks of a river, imagine a basket of leaves beside you, anytime you are distracted by a thought, take a leaf out of the basket, write the word thought onto the leaf, place the leaf into the river and watch it float away.

You can set a timer for any amount of time, even 1-5 minutes can make a big difference. Practice the visualization related to releasing your thoughts to help let them go. Notice the impact.

Visualization for Productivity

If you are struggling to get the things done in your day that you’d like to do, you can use visualization to improve your chances to get stuff done. First, write out your plan for your day. Then, spend 3-5 full, deep breaths holding the image of getting each item on your list completed.

Notice any resistance or struggle. If there is a strong resistance, be curious about why it is there. Keep practicing until you can picture yourself completing the item on your list without resistance or make any adjustments to your schedule as necessary. Reflect on this process and notice the impact on your productivity, motivation and ability to follow through.

Visualization for Healing

The final visualization technique I will include here supports healing stress and anxiety in mind and body. This visualization offers an ability to feel supported, calm, safe and content.

Begin by resting comfortably. Imagine a small sphere of light resting at the center of your chest. This can be a soft, golden light, or it can take on any color that is soothing, comforting or healing to you. With each inhale, imaging that the light is expanding throughout your body, with each exhale allow the light to return to your heart center. Continue with this deep breathing until you can visualize the light expanding all the way around your whole physical body. Once you can visualize that you are resting in this sphere of light, continue to breathe slowly and deeply, leaving the light in this expanded state all around you.

Picture yourself resting in this light space. Picture yourself breathing in the light, filling your body with soothing, calming and healing energy. Allow yourself to feel safe, calm and supported as you are resting within this light space.

After 5-20 minutes, begin to imagine the light slowly contracting with each exhale. Continue with this visualization until it returns to a single point at your heart center. Now imagine in your mind’s eye your light moving deep within your heart space. Allow all that remains of your light deep within your heart space and picture it as a sparkling gem. Know that you can repeat this visualization of your light any time you need to, for healing, to help you feel safe, calm, supported and full of vitality.

No matter how you begin to use visualization, know that you hold the power within to shift your mood state, your thoughts, your nervous system and your own daily outcomes. What visualization technique will you try today?

5 Morning Rituals to Set Up Your Quarantined Days For Success

For so many of us, this time of social distancing and living in quarantine has our normal routines all out of sorts. Whether you are now working from home, temporarily not working, have become a home-schooling parent or a combination of all these, any routine you once had has most likely been thrown far out the window.

I know the first week I was working solely from home I felt super out of sorts. I like the structure and routine of getting ready for work, my commute time and settling into my office for the day. Now that my commute is from one room to another and my schedule has become quite different, it’s been challenging to create a new normal. I also know that my motivation has been impacted by the uncertainty and anxiety of all that is going on and a resistance to getting used to a new routine that is hopefully just temporary.

Having a daily routine is one of the most effective ways to set yourself up for success. Typically, having a schedule and a plan creates more opportunities for feeling productive. Motivation can be different when you are away from your typical routine as well. Here are five morning rituals you can integrate right away to begin to set yourself up to ease into your day, to establish a mindset of positivity and way to embrace your “new normal.”

1.   START YOUR DAY WITH GRATITUDE

When you begin your day feeling grateful, you set yourself up for feeling positive, calm and with a mindset of abundance. When you are grateful for what you have, focus on what is going well and feel the impact of gratitude, you remain free from anxiety.

Start the day using a gratitude journal and write down two or more things you are grateful for in this moment. They can be super simple, like waking up in a warm bed, feeling grateful for someone you care about, or for your health. Anytime you find yourself anxious or feeling a sense of lack or desperation, reflect on past days from your journal and notice the impact.

If journaling is not your thing, you can wake up and start the day simply by saying “Thank You.” You can express gratitude for your food before you eat or just silently state to yourself what you are grateful for in this moment. Beginning the day with gratitude creates an attitude of receptivity, positivity and hope.

2.   USE A DAILY CENTERING PRACTICE

When you use a centering practice such a meditation, deep breathing, mindfulness, prayer or reading something inspiring, you create an opportunity to release yourself from any anxiety, stress or other mental and emotional discomfort. Whatever practice feels the most comfortable for you, dedicate 5-30 minutes to this. When you feel centered and grounded, you are more likely to feel resilient and focused throughout your day.

Simply connecting to your breath, meditating, praying or reading something inspiring creates a connection to the present moment where you are free from anxious thoughts about the future and feelings of regret about the past. When you can stay grounded, centered and focused in the present moment you create a feeling of true freedom and an opportunity for joy. Don’t we all need that at this time—and really all of the time! This is a powerful way to begin your day.

3.   MOVE YOUR BODY

Dedicating a period of time to move your body in a way that makes you feel good in the morning helps to create energy for the day. This could be something very simple, like a 10-minute full body stretch, or something more complex, like a 45-minute workout. It could also be something in-between, like a 20-minute brisk walk.

Whatever you choose, let it be something that you enjoy, that makes you feel energized and builds momentum to make it through the day. If you are used to exercising at a different time of day, still take a few minutes to stretch or get your blood flowing in the morning. When you are working from home you are less likely to get in the amount of movement you would if you were commuting to work or taking your kids to school. This extra movement first thing in the morning helps to build and grow your energy while burning off stress.

4.   CREATE YOUR ACTION PLAN

When you create a plan of action, you set yourself up for success. When you do not have a plan, you might feel more scattered and disorganized. If you have a plan you will most likely be more productive. More importantly, having a plan creates a feeling of control and mastery. During these uncertain times, many people are feeling out of control due to all of the unknowns. This anxiety is toxic and can cause stagnancy.

When you create an action plan, you provide yourself with structure. This structure allows you to feel in control as you are leading yourself to where you want to go. This plan also creates a focus and a feeling of mastery. It feels really good to check things off of your to-do list! Every time you check off an action that was completed you are sending yourself a feeling of being rewarded. This builds confidence and motivation to keep plugging away at your action plan.

5.   MINDSET VISUALIZATION 

The last ritual is mindset visualization. When you put your action plan onto paper, take a moment and visualize yourself completing each item. When you place something into your mindset you are 90% more likely to get it done. This visualization is like a pre-rehearsal; therefore, your mind will be less resistant to it once the time arrives to get it done.

As you go through each item on your action plan and really see yourself completing it, notice any resistance you experience in that moment. How will you push through and ensure that you get it done? When you tackle any possible resistance early in your day while setting your mindset, you will be astounded by how the resistance dissipates and allows you to get more done.

Try implementing these five morning rituals and see how they help impact your day. These simple tools will become a habit as you practice integrating them daily.

Examining Your Thoughts: A Powerful Tool to Calm Your Anxious Mind

If the stress of the current global crisis of COVID-19 has you feeling anxious, uncertain and overwhelmed, you are not alone. These are unprecedented times. I happen to be in the “epicenter” here in NYC and it is collectively causing stress and anxiety that can be felt in the air here…and I’d imagine everywhere.

I wanted to offer this practical, evidence-based technique that you can implement immediately to help release some of the mental and emotional stress you are experiencing. This technique will help you calm your anxious mind. When you are overwhelmed, it may feel like your thoughts are racing, like there is impending doom, like there is no hope. When you use this thought examination technique, you create space to understand how your thoughts are impacting you, practice releasing them and offer yourself opportunities to get into a solution-focused mindset. 

Thought Examination Technique

This technique allows you to examine your thoughts and the impact they have on you closely. This technique changes your relationship with your thoughts and creates empowerment. Often thoughts and faulty beliefs are happening on a subconscious level, they are running in the background of your mind, however your physical body through the stress response, responds accordingly.

If you are having catastrophe based thoughts, then most likely your body will enter into a sympathetic nervous system response, or fight-or-flight mode. This is not a helpful place to be unless there is truly an immediate emergency. While this circumstance is an emergency for many, it is not helpful, and actually is damaging, to remain in this heightened state of stress and anxiety continually.

To begin practicing the technique, get out a piece of paper and practice going through the following questions based on any fears and anxieties you are experiencing and use it regularly to manage and change your relationship to any stressful thoughts.

1. Choose a fear-based thought that has been on your mind or troubling you recently.

2. Ask yourself what emotions are driving that thought.

3. Where do you feel these emotions in your physical body?

4. Ask yourself, is this thought true? Unless it is a present fact, the answer is no!

5. Ask yourself, is this thought useful? Unless you are trying to problem-solve, most likely the thought is not useful.

6. Ask yourself, what is it doing to me to have and believe this thought? This is important to evaluate how detrimental this one thought can be.

7. Ask yourself, how would I feel without this thought? This is important because it allows you to recognize how this thought is limiting your present moment experience and essentially causing unnecessary suffering.

8. Ask yourself, what is the opposite of this thought?

9. Notice how it feels in both mind and body to sit with the opposite thought. The purpose of this is not to lie to yourself or move into positive-thinking mode. The purpose of this part of the exercise is to be aware that if you are believing the first thought in this moment, then the opposite could just as well be true.

10. Mindfully reframe the thought, transform the thought into what is true right now, this process creates a reality-based thought.

11. If this thought does come true, what are three things you can do to cope with that occurrence?

Example:

1. What is the thought? If I lose my job during this health crisis, I will lose my home.

2. What are the emotions connected to having this thought? Fear, sadness, anxiety, helplessness, hopelessness.

3. Where do you feel these emotions in your body? Increased heart rate, nausea, tightness in my chest, tight jaw, neck and shoulders.

4. Is this a true thought? It could become true, but in this moment, no it is not true.

5. Is this a useful thought? Definitely not, it is causing me to suffer.

6. What is the impact of this thought on the present moment: Not be able to sleep well, pain in my body, no energy, can’t think clearly, feel sick.

7. How would I feel without this thought? Rested, peaceful, relaxed in mind and body. 

8. What is the opposite of this thought? I won’t lose my job or my house during this health crisis.

9. How does it feel to sit with the opposite thought? Better, but I still feel so uncertain.

10. What is a way to reframe this thought? Although I am afraid of losing my job, in this moment I am still employed and for that I am grateful. If I do lose my job, I will deal with that circumstance at that time.

11. What three things can I do now to prepare for if the thought comes true? If I do lose my job due to current unstable economy three things I can do now to prepare are: 1. look up how to file for unemployment, 2. update my resume, 3. look at my budget and see where I can immediate reduce expenses and create savings to prepare.

Notice how much different it is to be with the thought in a mindful way and engage with creative problem-solving? This process allows you to engage with the thought in a proactive responsive way rather than remaining in reactive-mode, which is emotional, stifling and illogical. 

When you practice this technique regularly, it will help to bring you into a more grounded, present-moment focused mind frame. This technique is helpful to practice anytime you are experiencing fear-based, anxiety provoking, catastrophizing thoughts. 

When you go into problem-solving mode you create more hope and experience less fear. The next time that you find you are stuck in a negative thought cycle, use this technique and end with finding solutions. Notice how this allows you to put your mind at ease and feel more in control and empowered.