Relaxation and Guided Imagery
Starting on Sunday 13th March, I will be running free monthly 30 minute relaxation sessions online. These will be largely sessions of guided imagery.
This means that I will describe some kind of scene encouraging you through the way I describe it to use all your senses to experience it in your imagination. It’s important to know that we all have a particular sense that is more easily accessible than the others. Some people will “see” the scene I am describing quite clearly, others will “hear” what I describe more easily whilst others will “feel” more readily. It doesn’t matter. The idea is to immerse yourself in the suggested scene as best you can.
Why is this kind of imagining useful when we talk about relaxation? Well think about your experiences of relaxation. Often these happen on holiday when you are in some place that is different from your usual haunts, out walking in the countryside, taking a bath and so on. When you think about one of these experiences, you may find that you easily access the memory of that experience and begin to feel differently, generally more relaxed and peaceful. In my practice, when I ask someone where they like to relax, they will often say a beach.
This kind of imagining takes you “out of yourself”. You switch your mind away from your current concerns at least for a short period of time as you immerse yourself even if only momentarily, in that memory. This is one of the benefits of using guided imagery. In a session of relaxation, we want you to take your mind and body away from how you might be currently feeling into a changed response.
This allows what is known as the parasympathetic nervous system to kick in. The parasympathetic strand of the nervous system is sometimes referred to colloquially as the “rest and digest” system or the “holiday” system. The nervous system as a whole therefore gets a break and can rebalance itself, to some extent at least, for a while after a session of guided imagination.
Dr. Martin Rossmann, author of the book “Guided Imagery for Self-Healing” describes the imagination as the interface between the conscious and the unconscious minds. Sometimes, we refer to the unconscious mind as the ‘deeper mind‘. Imagery goes deeper into our beings than thought does. For example, we might tell ourselves to relax, with minimal effect. But when we use guided imagery, the use of the senses to imagine affects us more deeply and the message of relaxation can be more readily taken on.
Apart from anything else, experiencing a session of guided relaxation imagery can be extremely pleasant and a welcome shift from the mind’s focus on our routine states of mind and activities.
These sessions are totally free and take place from 9.00 - 9.30 p.m. Do join us for a pleasant gift to yourself of luxurious relaxation.
Dr. Martin Rossmann: “Guided Imagery for Self-Healing”
My short e-book “Relaxation Magic” is available in my website shop.
I also offer a “Stress Free” package you may want to consider if stress is an issue in your life.