Guided Imagery – Harness the Power of Your Mind

Join me this Thursday May 22nd at 7:15 for “Guided Imagery for Stress Relief” at the Sand Hills Community Wellness Center at 57 Sand Hills Road, Kendall Park, NJ. Register here 

If you are like most people, you have about 10,000 thoughts per day, and half of these are negative.  

You worry about things- work, home, kids, parents, finances.  You feel stressed out.  Your head may throb; you feel exhausted and wonder what in the world is going on to make you feel so bad.  Studies have shown that 60-90 % of all doctor’s visits are due to stress. 

Why is this; how can our thoughts make us sick?   Our mind speaks to us in images.  If left unharnessed, this ongoing stream of negative images can actually alter your physiology and increase your chances of getting sick.  How?  Because your body cannot tell the difference between what you imagine in your mind or what is actually happening in the present.   I like to use the example of imagining a lemon.  Think of holding a fresh, juicy lemon in your hand.  Feel the texture of the peel and see the bright yellow skin.  When you slice it, see the juice as it squirts; smell the tartness.  Bite it, taste the sourness and let the lush juices roll over your tongue.

Did you start to salivate?  That is the power that imagery can have over your physiology.  

All you need is to think of something and your body has a physiological response.  It works the same way with worry and stress.  While you imagine all of the scenes of your day and experience over 5000 negative thoughts throughout your day- you are ‘turning on’ the stress response in your body whether you want to or not.. 

That ‘Fight or Flight” response, was very useful when we were all cavemen and needed to run away from wild beasty things, but that was about 2-3 million years ago….   This built in alarm system is meant for survival so it really does you no service while you are sitting at your desk, driving or lying in bed awake.  

What does this response do?  It makes your heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar and blood fats all rise and stay in an accelerated state- wearing you out and setting the groundwork for chronic inflammation, heart disease, stroke, diabetes,obesity  and even cancer.  Not good stuff.

So how do you take control of your thoughts and worry?  Using a technique like Guided Imagery can help.   Guided Imagery is used to help promote the “relaxation response”- an innate response that counteracts the ‘fight or flight” stress response.  According the leading Guided Imagery researcher and developer Belleruth Naparstek, a mere 10 minutes of imagery can:

•  Reduce blood pressure.
•  Lower cholesterol and glucose levels in the blood.
•  Heighten short- term immune cell activity
•  Considerably reduce blood loss during surgery and morphine use after it.
• Lessens headaches and pain
• Increase skill at skiing, skating, tennis, writing, acting and  singing      
•  Accelerates weight loss and reduces anxiety
• It has been shown to reduce the aversive effects of chemotherapy, especially nausea, depression and fatigue

Please join me Thursday night for a visual vacation.   Bring a yoga mat, blanket and yourself for one hour of peace and relaxation.

Guided Imagery for Stress Relief is being offered this Thursday night May 22nd   in a series of Relax & Renew classes at the Sand Hills Community Wellness Center, 57 Sand Hills Road, Kendall Park, NJ 08824.  $12.00 pre- register  (click here ) or $15.00 at door. 

Call Cindy at 732-735-3209 for more info.