Besides meditation, visualization is another powerful and flexible tool that can help you to access your deeper self.

It can be used on its own or combined with meditation or other healing arts, like sound healing and aromatherapy, to boost the body’s self-healing power.

Visualization is also very effective for relaxation, stress reduction, and to enhance learning. Athletes, for instance, have been known to use visualization to help them focus on their games, rehearse their moves and reduce performance stress.

The benefits of visualization are surprisingly wide ranging. Here are just some of them:

• Calm yourself down from a state of anxiety.
• Overcome shyness when meeting new people.
• Increase self-esteem and become more confident.
• Replace depressing, self-limiting thoughts with positive affirmations.
• Get over insomnia and improve sleep quality.
• Increase pain threshold and reduce physical pain.
• Forgive yourself and others and get over past regrets.
• Develop greater insights about yourself and discover your true self.
• Tap on the unconscious potential and awaken your hidden talents.

Let’s take a closer look at visualization and see how modern technology has made it an even more powerful tool for you and me.

What is Visualization

Despite its name, visualization is not restricted to using your mental eyes to ‘see’ only. You can also use, and in fact encouraged to engage, as many of your senses as you can during the process. By recruiting more of your available senses, you will see faster and better results. The best way to understand visualization is by doing it. Let’s do a simple exercise:

Imagine you are holding a cup of steaming hot coffee. Lifting the cup close to your nose, take a moment to smell the fragrance of the freshly brewed coffee. Inhale the fragrance deeply into your lungs. Now take a sip. Feel the taste of coffee spreading from your tongue to the rest of your mouth. Savor it before letting it slip down your throat.

Did you just ‘see’ yourself having a cup of coffee? In this simple visualization exercise, you’ve just conjured up a mental picture of yourself enjoying a steaming hot coffee, and depending on how sensitive are your senses, you may even smelled, tasted or feel a hot cup of Java even though you’re not actually drinking one now.

That’s the power of visualization. By using your imagination and recruiting your senses, you create vivid moving pictures in your mind as though they are happening right in front of you.

Realities of visualization

As you can see, you do not need any special skill or prior training to use visualization. Anyone with a clear, lucid mind already has the required ‘hardware’ to start visualizing. In fact, you’re already using it unconsciously on a regular basis. When you fantasize about that latest gadget, or thinking about your favorite Italian food, you’re actually visualizing without even trying.

However, if you’re like most people who can’t wait for more than thirty seconds for a web page to load, or have difficulty concentrating on one thing for more than a minute or two, then you may find it challenging to sustain a visualization exercise for more than two minutes.

The fact is, in order for visualization to be effective, you need to engage as many of your senses as possible, while keeping the story going in the direction that you want for at least five minutes. So even though visualization is simple to use, it does require some levels of concentration and skill for it to be beneficial.

In addition, if you like to use visualization to achieve some goals, or to change long-standing habits or addiction, you’ll definitely require more than one sitting. You need to constantly expose yourself to the same imagery before your mind accepts it as reality. The time it takes to achieve your desired results depends a lot on how committed you are to your goals and how much efforts you are willing to put into the visualization exercises.

Guided visualization

If you are already having second thoughts before giving visualization a try, don’t let me scare you away. You can consider using guided visualization which is becoming popular nowadays. They either come in the form of a live teacher who usually combines visualization with meditation, or in digital forms such as CDs, DVDs and downloaded media files which you can play on computers and other mobile devices.

Having an experienced and accomplished teacher to guide you in visualization is the best choice, because he or she can give you the appropriate training based on your needs and learning progress, and clarify any doubts you may have. But it may not always be easy to find a good teacher. Even if you do find one, the cost or distance may be prohibitive. That’s where the digital form of guided visualization comes in to fill the gap.

Not only is there a wide range of titles available to address all sorts of needs, the digital forms of guided visualization are also convenient to carry around. As and when you need a booster, just play a title that suits your need in your mobile device no matter where you are.

The qualities of digital guided visualization have also improved by leaps and bounds. They provide a rich, multi-sensory experience that includes high quality images or videos, professional vocal instructions and relaxing background music. No more poorly recorded voice, or music that sounds like an afterthought.

To get the most out of your digital form of guided visualization, I suggest you use a good pair of headphone or earpiece (such as a pair of wireless headphone from Sennheiser), and remove any possible interruption so that you can fully immerse yourself in the experience.

If you’re one of those who are hesitant to try unfamiliar guided instructions for fear of getting brainwashed like some scenes out of wartime movies, I’m glad to inform you that your fear is unfounded. In guided visualization, you’re always in control of yourself. You’re not hypnotized or in any trance state of mind. Any time you wish to end the session, simply press stop.

What’s the Difference Between Guided Meditation, Guided Visualization & Guided Imagery?

You have probably come across the terms guided meditation, guided visualization and guided imagery. Considering the way they are being used most of the time, there is virtually little or no difference between them. All three involve having someone, be it a live person or a recording, making suggestions, directing, or leading your focus to achieve a specific aim, such as to induce relaxation, overcome a self-limiting thought and boost performance.

The Secret Garden

One of the digital guided visualizations that I have tried is The Secret Garden which is available free from Meditainment. When I played it for the first time, I was surprised to find a pleasant, clear and soothing female voice which helped to put me at ease instantly. I’m usually very particular about the voice in videos and audio books because the voice quality will either make or break the overall experience. So I was happy to find a voice that I liked in Meditainment’s download library.

In the free version of The Secret Garden which lasts for 13 minutes (the full version is 21-minute long), an English-speaking female voice will first asks you to close your eyes and focus on her instructions.

You are guided to do a simple breathing exercise to help you relax, clear your mind and prepare you for a slow, relaxing mental journey.

After the breathing exercise, the narrator will lead you into The Secret Garden where you will hear running water and birds chirping away happily. Although I have heard these sounds of nature countless times, I still find them no less calming and relaxing. I don’t think I will ever be bored with the calls of nature.

Vivid descriptions of The Secret Garden is painted like a piece of art, leaving you totally relaxed and calm. Don’t worry if you can’t see the garden as vividly as you wish to in your mind. Not everyone has a strong visual sense. Use whichever senses that come natural for you to experience your secret garden.

Personally, I find my auditory sense stronger than the rest, so the fact that I like the voice and the sounds of nature help me to create a clear picture during visualization.

As the journey comes to an end, the narrator will slowly lead you to a more awaken and relaxed state. I certainly felt more rested and refreshed after a short 10-minute of guided visualization because I was able to stay relaxed throughout the journey without worrying what to do next.

Give it a try, especially if you are new to guided visualization. You will be deeply relaxed if you follow the instructions closely. And the best part is The Secret Garden is free for you to try. You just need to register with your name and email address, and an email with hyperlinks to the streaming file will be sent to you.

It’s worthy to note that programs from Meditainment are also used on in-flight entertainment systems on some international airlines such as US Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Finnair, Air Canada, China Airlines, Philippine Airlines and Qantas. They are also used on hospital wards in the UK and USA as a form of supplementary emotional support for the treatment of patients.

Besides streaming audiovisual content, you can also find high quality guided relaxation, meditation and visualization CDs and DVDs from the Meditainment website. The varieties of guided instructions for deep relaxation and emotional wellness from Meditainment are mind-boggling. They address almost every need you may have, from helping you to quit smoking to overcoming your money worries. If you can’t find one that meet your needs, I’m sure Meditainment would be happy to fill that gap if you drop them a note and give them ample time to create one.

Try it out for yourself and experience deep relaxation in just 10 minutes.

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