The Healing Power of the Mind and Visualization

 

Visualization is a powerful practice that can be used to heal many emotional, spiritual, and physical disorders and improve performance. The belief that visualizing healing thoughts can result in improving a person’s well being was, and still is, considered silly and childish by many practitioners of western mainstream medicine. However, visualization, positive thinking, and mindfulness meditation practice (all part of the mind body medicine) have increasingly gained credibility as more and more scientific evidence of their effectiveness has been documented.

The practice of visualization is not new. It dates back thousands of years.  

 Positive thought is essential to producing positive results. Negative thoughts and emotions lower the immune system, while positive thought and emotions actually boost the immune system. To maximize success of visualization as a support to the healing process

 Our belief system is based upon the accumulation of verbal and non-verbal suggestions that have been gathered throughout our life experience. Through patterns of repetition and its associated rewards and punishment we learn to create our own perception of reality. In essence, we therefore become what we think. In healing, repetitive use of positive visualization allows access to the mind-body connection. This lets the mind and body work together to foster the healing process of the body on a physical level. What is the mind-body connection and how does it work? When we have an emotion it generates a feeling that turns into a physical sensation. For example: You are watching a horror movie, you feel frightened and then get a chill up your spine. In this case you were getting a negative suggestion through your sensory perception (sight and sound), that produced an emotion of fear which turned into the physical sensation of chills up your spine. Visualization uses positive images to produce positive emotions that manifest into positive physical sensations in the body.

Do Our Thoughts Have an Effect on Healing?

Sounds simple, but does it work? Can what we think actually have an effect on healing? Bodies do react to the thoughts you make. Our psychological/emotional state affects the endocrine system. For example, the emotion of fear is related to adrenaline. If no feeling of fear exists there is no adrenaline and the same applies in reverse- no adrenaline, no fear. They work in relationship to each other. Wherever a thought goes there is a body chemical reaction.

What is visualization?

The online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “the formation of mental visual images.” But more than that, it is our ability to see things with the mind and experience the content of the visual mental imagery that we see. It involves focusing our imagination on behaviors or events that we want to occur in our life. For instance, if we want to lose twenty pounds we might begin by visualizing ourselves looking and feeling lean, fit, and healthy. After, let’s say after 15 minutes of practice, twice a day for two weeks, we then shift our visualization to include seeing that our clothes are looser and stepping onto a scale that reads twenty pounds lighter. On a deeper level, our visualization will be reprogramming our attitudes and behaviors so that we can lose the weight. It also will be changing our brain chemistry for learning and memory so that we can integrate more incoming information (what else do I need to do to lose weight?) with the data that we already have stored (what have I already tried that’s worked or not worked?). 

Visualization is a big part of our evolutionary biology and human consciousness. In fact, Mike and Nancy Samuels, the authors of the book, Seeing With the Mind’s Eye: The history, techniques, and Uses of Visualization, say that “visualization is the way we think. Before words, images were. It is the heart of the bio-computer. The human brain programs and self-programs through its images. It is the ultimate consciousness tool.”

Visualization in the News

There are numerous stories of the healing power of visualization. On March 3, 2011, Elizabeth Cohen, CNN senior medical correspondent wrote a story entitled, “Can You Imagine Cancer Away?” The article shared David Seidler’s story of overcoming cancer using visualization. In 2011 Seidler, 73, won an Oscar for best original screenplay for the movie, "The King's Speech." Cohen says he suffered from cancer but survived because “he visualized his cancer away.” Seidler says he beat his bladder cancer by visualizing a "lovely, clean healthy bladder" for two weeks, and the cancer disappeared. He's been cancer-free for more than five years.

One of the most impressive stories about the power of visualization that I’ve read concerns Tibetan monks using a practice called Tummo, which is documented to produce extraordinary levels of body heat. In a 2002 article in the Harvard Gazette, staff writer William J. Cromie, wrote: “In a monastery in northern India, thinly clad Tibetan monks sat quietly in a room where the temperature was a chilly 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Using a yoga technique known as Tummo, they entered a state of deep meditation. Other monks soaked 3-by-6-foot sheets in cold water (49 degrees) and placed them over the meditators' shoulders.

          “For untrained people, such frigid wrappings would produce uncontrolled shivering. If body temperatures continue to drop under these conditions, death can result. But it was not long before steam began rising from the sheets. As a result of body heat produced by the monks during meditation, the sheets dried in about an hour. Attendants removed the sheets, then covered the meditators with a second chilled, wet wrapping. Each monk was required to dry three sheets over a period of several hours.” When asked how they are able to produce such extreme changes in their body temperature, “the monks describe relaxing, focusing on their breathing. They picture air coming in and out, as a kind of energy. They visualize it as a flame, a fire coming out their chest.” 

            Trying Practicing Visualization

If we want to experience the healing power of visualization it is important that we practice consistently and creatively. Below is a simple visualization that you can begin with. When you are ready you can find many more practices by searching the web, buying a CD or book, or joining a group that engaging in therapeutic visualization. 

Mountain Meditation Visualization

1.    Find a time when you can sit quietly for 10 minutes

2.   Sit in a comfortable position to be in that allows your spine and head to be straight. Make sure your head is straight, but relaxed and your chin is slightly tucked in towards the chest. Both feet should be flat on the floor and hands resting on your lap.

 

3.   Begin to progressively tense and release the muscles from your toes to your head until they become relaxed and peaceful. Notice where there is tension and smooth and calm those muscles in your imagination.

 

4.   Begin observing your breath and observe your breath as it enters and leaves your body. Remain in tune with feeling air pass in and out of your nostrils as you inhale and exhale.

5.    Visualize a mountain and then become that mountain. See yourself as being that majestic mountain with your summit in the clouds. Imagine how solid and strong and how connected to the earth you are. You have stood for thousands of years strong, peaceful, and stable. Now quietly say to yourself:

 

Breathing in, I see myself as a mountain
Breathing out, I feel solid and strong.

The weather has always been in a state of flux around you. The views change from blue sky with gentle breezes and showers to mighty banks of storm clouds, dispensing heavy downpours, to sleet and snow. Yet, you have stood firm and immovable, and the winds of change have whirled for centuries around you without any noticeable effects. Now say to yourself:

Breathing in makes me calm.
Breathing out helps me settle.

Just like changes in weather around the mountain that are whirling about outside of you, any troubling emotions, feelings, symptoms, or thoughts that whirl around you in your everyday life shall not disturb you when your visualize. You shall remain tall, solid, strong and connected. Now say to yourself:

Breathing in, I see and feel secure.
Breathing out, I feel grounded and well.

You shall remain upright, firmly grounded and connected to the earth, regardless of the weather and emotions whirling around you. So now just sit and continue to follow your breath as you sink deeply into a clear visual awareness of your majestic mountain base. Become one with the feelings of solidity, strength and connection. Say to yourself:

 

Breathing in, I feel still and connected.
Breathing out, I am grounded and healed.

End your visualization when you are ready.

The Mountain Visualization Meditation practice leads to a calm, strong, and grounded state of mind. You can use this exercise as often as you need to overcome the stress and uncertainty that arises in your life. Remember, you have limitless potential and visualization can transform you in amazing ways. But it will not happen until you make it a regular part your life. Begin today and tomorrow you may find yourself recovering from a serious illness or reaching a goal you thought was not possible. Visualize deep healing and radiant health within you; see it extending to everyone in the community. Can you see it? I can. 

Define Your Specific Intention

Visualization puts your intention of what you want to work. The more specific the intention, the more specific the results. Remember whatever you believe is what your body will do. So when you are thinking of your intention make sure it is:

• Clear
• Specific
• Achievable
• You feel, know, and trust it is being accomplished

Take Responsibility

Trying to do visualization without taking responsibility will prove to be futile experience. To accomplish what you want you must take action and responsibility. Visualization usually takes about 6 weeks to work. It is done once in the morning and before bedtime. Some people do see or feel results the very first time but remember everyoneís body and mind are different and so is the way they process information so have patience. Responsibility is:
             1)- Be accountable to and for yourself\

 2)- Make a commitment

 3)- Do visualization regularly

            4)- Be persistent and patient

            5)- Keep positive
            Get Mentally Relaxed
A relaxed state puts allows you direct access to your subconscious mind. Here are some steps to help you relax:

1)- Find a quiet place.

2)- Relax in a favorite chair or lie down.

3)- Get comfortable and loosen clothing.

4)- Uncross your arms and legs.

5)- Get centered by focusing on the breath and breathing (this activates the vagus nerve which is the major quieting nerve in the body).

6)- Totally relax your body and mind.
7)- Visualize

Visualization for healing is a simple process. Once you are relaxed the next step is to actualize your visualization.

Actualize
1)- Think of or speak your intention out loud.
2)- Close your eyes and imagine yourself in the healing process or as you want to be.
3)- Watch as your body heals you.
4)- Feel the healing taking place.
5)- Know the healing is being accomplished.
If you have difficulty you may want to try one or more of these methods:


Try creative imagery:
1)- Visualize the cells in your body healing you.
2)- Imagine your immune system fighting off invaders.
3)- Imagine your immune system fighting off invaders.
4)-Visualize your pain being taken away by healing mud.
5)- Imagine yourself in a very beautiful place whole, healthy and happy.
Try reading scripts from a visualization or self-hypnosis book
Try scripting your own guided meditation tape using your voice.
Visualization does work to help boost your body back to health. Don't just work on the body, add the mind to maximize your healing process with visualization.