Visualizations - Building on guided imagery, you can also imagine yourself achieving goals like becoming healthier and more relaxed, doing well at tasks and handling conflict in better ways. Also, visualizing yourself doing well on tasks you're trying to master actually functions like physical practice, so you can improve your performance through visualizations as well!

To begin visualization, sit or lie down in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Scan your body for any muscle tension and relax the areas that need it. Once you feel relaxed, begin to visualize a scene, object or place that is soothing and pleasing to you. Imagine every aspect of the scene, involving all of your senses. For example, if you like to visualize a waterfall on a mountain, imagine first what this looks like: the rushing water, the size of the trees all around, the sky above and the sun filtering through the branches, and so on. Then imagine how this place would smell: damp and musty or fragrant pine. Next listen for the sounds you would hear if you were there: the water rushing over rocks, the hush of the wind rising and then quieting down and the birds singing. How does the ground feel beneath your feet? Is it rocky and rough, or soft and smooth from pine needles or moss?

As you become more involved in your visual image, your body will relax and you will be able to let go of the problems or worries that you'd felt before. To encourage this relaxation to occur, you can punctuate the images with positive statements, such as "I am letting go of tension" or "I feel calm and relaxed."

Another type of visualization involves an image that you associate with tension which you can replace with an image for relaxation. For example, you might visualize tension as a taut rope, the sound of thunder, the color red or blinding white light. These images of tension can soften and fade into images of relaxation. For instance, the taut rope loosens, the thunder subsides and is replaced by a light rain, red turns to orchid, etc. You can see now how this works.

When you feel a muscle becoming tense, imagine that it is one of these tension images. Then let it transform into a relaxation image as you repeat to yourself, "I can relax . . . the tension is slipping away."