Guided Imagery: noun 1. a self-help or therapeutic intervention during which a person visualizes or imagines things suggested in order to create physiological and psychological healing. 2. the least expensive, safest, and often most effective way to resolve most illnesses.
Perhaps the best and quickest way to understand what deep relaxation is, is to take a few moments and experience a short meditation using guided imagery. Listen to this free sample guided imagery experience in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed for a few minutes. Your experience is the best teacher.
The Origin of Guided Imagery
Early in Dr. Miller’s career he discovered that if a patient is given a way to relax and direct their thoughts in certain positive, healing ways (Selective Awareness), they can produce deep relaxation and self-healing. Millions have discovered by using the tapes and CDs, as well as the DVDs, and meditation mp3 downloads he has created, you can learn how to enter a deeply relaxed state of awareness. After reaching this “Healing State,” Dr. Miller will guide you through a carefully selected sequence of imagery experiences – scenarios designed to create positive physical, mental, emotional, behavioral, and relational changes (healing). Practicing these guided imagery exercises on a daily basis gradually trains your mind, rewires your brain, and changes your body.
Guided imagery experiences are effective for reducing stress and tension, and have been clinically proven to:
- reduce stress and improve health,
- increase depth and speed of healing,
- enhance wellness,
- awaken self-awareness,
- improve self-respect, self-confidence, and self-esteem
- optimize creativity, and
- inspire peak performance for you and your family
Dr. Miller shows you how using Guided imagery exercises can lead to deeper healing through the wise choice of thoughts and mental images. Through a special process he developed called Selective Awareness, you will learn how to use your mind to heal your body.Discover how an enjoyable series of images and emotional experiences can lead your body, mind, and emotions to deep healing and peak performance. The power of imagery can help you tap into your inner spiritual resources and take your health and happiness to a higher level.
Benefits of Guided Imagery
- Deep relaxation of muscles and other organs
- Letting your body work with you – not against you
- Faster recovery from illness and injury
- Improved athletic and creative performance
- Stress reduction and anxiety relief
- Improved quantity and quality of sleep
- Richer spiritual connections
- Eliminating self-destructive behaviors, habits, and addictions
- Achieving optimal performance – physically, mentally, creatively
- Increased capacity for communication and authentic relationships
How Guided imagery Works – the Mind-Body Connection
The thoughts that pass through your mind create internal images that, to your body and nervous system, are indistinguishable from actual physical reality. Create a positive inner image (of your body, health, or performance), and the deeper levels of your mind (subconscious) make it come true!
Here is an example of how Guided Imagery can enable you to control normally involuntary processes. Say to yourself, “salivate!” You can’t – the act of salivation is not a conscious one. Now try this:
Imagine a lemon. Imagine you are holding the lemon in your hand. Visualize it clearly in your mind. You can see its color, feel its bumpy surface, and see the stem. Imagine that you drop it on a wooden table and hear the sound it makes. Imagine you have a very sharp knife and are cutting the lemon in two. See the cut surfaces glistening and notice that you have even cut one of the seeds in half. Now visualize a sparkling clean glass and squeeze the juice from one of those halves into the glass. See it run down the side of the glass.
Now imagine that you are lifting the glass towards your face so you can smell the lemony flavor of the juice. Place the rim of the glass in your mouth and as you tilt the glass up, let the lemon juice flow down the side of the glass into your mouth. Taste the lemony taste. Taste the sourness of the juice as it flows over and around the sides of your tongue. Savor the tart flavor and notice the flow of saliva.
Chances are you can feel the saliva flowing freely. In a similar manner, the thoughts and images you hold in your mind all day have impacts at subconscious levels of the mind and can cause changes in your body, your behavior, your feelings, and your thinking.
Your inner images affect all your behaviors – your thoughts, your emotions, and right down to the behavior of the cells of your body – as well as the behaviors of your body as a whole. The process of carefully controlling and guiding your thoughts has been the secret to most healing traditions, and is at the core of self-hypnosis, faith healing, and the performance visualization techniques used by most top athletes, performers and creative professionals, among others.
You can learn to wisely guide your awareness to harness the power of your mind and focus it to realize your full potential. Because different people learn in different ways, Drmiller.com offers you a variety of opportunities to tap into Dr. Miller’s wealth of experience. You can download guided imagery mp3 audio files or browse our online store for guided imagery CDs and guided imagery scripts. His quarterly eNewsletter, Healing Times, is where you can find fascinating articles, discussions, healing tips, and stories of personal success through guided imagery techniques. And the guests on his weekly internet radio show bring you even more ideas about how to use the power of your mind. Just take a listen to the leaders and healers on the shows in the Radio Show Archives.
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An experience is worth a thousand words; take a moment to enjoy this brief clip from Healing Journey, the program that awakened the world to the power of guided imagery to reduce stress and heal: A Trip to the Beach (coming soon).
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