Calm, Only Calm! (c) Visualization

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Before moving on to the description, I would like to outline the boundaries of the concepts of visualization, relaxation and meditation in the context of the article, since they are often confused with each other.

So, visualization is a technique and process of purposeful presentation of any information in a visual form. It can be either an independent method, when it is necessary to present something abstract or concretize, or a part of the same relaxation, meditation, modeling, etc. As a way of dealing with anxiety, visualization is used most often in order to concentrate on a moment and relaxation, less often to clarify the goal and the conditions for achieving it. Equally important in conscious visualization is that it allows you to limit the range of ideas about future events, and boundaries, as you know, are very conducive to peace of mind.

Relaxation - techniques and process of conscious relaxation. Often, the state of rest during relaxation is achieved through muscle relaxation, focusing on non-essential, and visualization.

Meditation is a technique and process of achieving a special mental state, in the sensation of which it becomes possible to concentrate on a request and various ways and resources that contribute to its resolution. Meditation can often include relaxation and visualization, but it is not limited to them and differs significantly from both one and the other.

The most important point that all three techniques have in common is to consciously provide yourself with a sense of security.

Visualization

It is important to know that visualization is of two types: dissociative and associative.

Dissociative allows you to present an image of the situation from the outside, moving away, eliminating the importance of emerging emotions and sensations. This method is ideal in situations where it is important to separate from the experience of anxiety and assess the situation rationally, slightly devaluing the upcoming or past event. For example, in anticipation of an upcoming interview, you can imagine it as if you were an observer, a spectator, and not a direct participant in the events. From this position, it is much easier to come to the understanding that not only you are looking for a job and want to get to it, but the company is also looking for an employee and is not at all interested in the valuable personnel going to competitors; it is also quite good that this position is aware of its own pros and cons, as well as the pros and cons of a potential employer.

Associative, on the contrary, involves the inclusion in the situation and the experience of the fullness of sensations and emotions. These are the very visualizations that offer to use a variety of courses, such as "Think and Grow Rich" or "Know the power of your desires." For friendship purposes with anxiety, they can also be great to use. For example, presenting the best scenarios for the development of events in color and detail, or imagining yourself in a cozy and safe place when faced with uncertainty and uncertainty.

Very often, both types are involved in the visualization process, combining and allowing one to move away from some emotions and "turn on" others. It is also great to visualize the combination of several image modalities at the same time (for example, presentation in auditory, visual and olfactory details at the same time).

Let's move on to the process. There is a great variety of visualization exercises, however, depending on the leveling of their own skills, imaginative travelers are divided into several conditional categories:

1. For newbies. Look straight ahead for a while and close your eyes. Try to remember what you saw a second ago. Continue to play more and more each time, opening and closing your eyes. By doing this exercise regularly, you will gradually learn to do it perfectly. This will mean that you can move on to the next one.

2. For users. Now you already know how to keep in memory the recently perceived image, taking into account its details. This is the time to learn how to change it. You presented the picture you just saw. For example, it was a table with a notebook and a pen, as well as a mug of coffee and a bitten cookie next to it. Your task now is to imagine that on the table between the notebook and the pen there is also a crisp new hundredth, recently issued by an ATM, which still retains its warmth and smell. Have you presented? Run your finger over a slightly rough surface? Class! So, let's move on.

3. For advanced users. Now you are already quite able to work with images. It's time to move on to visualizing yourself in them. Still remember about association and dissociation? This is where you can feel the difference. If your goal is consistent with the associative type of visualization (you want to actualize warm, vivid emotions), it's time to feel how you feel about what is happening around: what emotions does the honeycomb evoke, what would you like to do with it, where to send it, how you feel when it has already happened … Enjoy the picture. If your goal is dissociation, try to see yourself as an observer: see this person looking at the table, understand what you see in it, how you feel about it … Stay with it. If both types of visualization are already good for you, you can move forward.

4. For professionals. Many people can already envy your visualization technique. The time has come to combine association and dissociation into a single image. You do everything in exactly the same way as you did before, with the only difference that you apply dissociation to the image that you saw before you closed your eyes, and the association - to those changes in the image that you presented. Thus, over time, you will learn to imagine any paths of development of events that are pleasant for you and manage your own state with the help of them. And yes, remember about reality - it still exists:)