Visualizing Your Peaceful Place: A Mindfulness Meditation

Visualization is a powerful method that involves using your imagination to help you relax. Some people like to learn a little bit about a new relaxation technique, like visualization, before trying the exercise. Other people would rather get right to the technique that could bring them some stress relief. If you prefer to get right to it, then just scroll down a few paragraphs to find the guided peaceful place visualization video. Keep reading though if you would prefer to learn about visualization and how it can help with stress management before giving it a try.

The relaxation technique of visualization, sometimes called imagery, involves using our minds to picture better experiences or scenes. Visualization for stress relief can be thought of as intentional daydreaming for the purpose of tolerating an overwhelming situation or improving our feelings of well-being.

We can use our minds to picture better experiences from the past. For example, we can visualize a past event that made us happy, a place where we felt safe, or a person who helped us to feel confident. A key part of visualization is to go beyond simply remembering such times, places, or people. Rather, we want to try to visualize these helpful moments as if we were there again, reliving a time when we were not as burdened by stress.

Visualization can also involve imagining brand new peaceful scenes. When visualizing a new place, we want to go beyond just picturing the peaceful place in our minds, to literally imagining that we are in that place and experiencing everything about it that makes it relaxing. In some ways, the term visualization does not do the relaxation technique justice because we get the most out of this approach when we can imagine not just what we see, but what we hear, feel, smell, and even taste in a peaceful place.  

Are you ready to give visualization a try?

Visualizing Your Peaceful Place:

A Mindfulness Meditation

Transcript:

Visualization is a powerful method that allows you to use your imagination to help you relax. I’m Dr. Jennifer McManus, a licensed psychologist, who regularly incorporates visualization techniques into the therapeutic work I do with psychotherapy clients.

For safety reasons, please only join me in this guided meditation when you can find a quiet time to relax. For example, it’s not safe to do this if you’re driving.

Now that you have found a quiet time to relax, I invite you to locate a cozy spot, listen to my voice,

and follow my direction.

Take a moment to sit back and relax.

You are welcome to gently close your eyes, but you can also keep them open if you prefer.

Now, breathe deeply into your abdomen.

Feel yourself in your body, right now in this moment. As you breathe, allow your body to completely and fully relax.

Stress is flowing out of you with each breath. Your body is becoming limp and comfortable.

Let the tension in your brow go. Let the tension in your lips go.

Let the tension in your eyes go. Just relax in the comfort that surrounds you.

Once you feel completely relaxed and centered, start to bring your mind to one of your favorite, beautiful, and peaceful places.

This could be a place you’ve been before like a silent redwood grove with cool shade and towering ancient trees that protect you in their mammoth embrace,

or a white sand beach where the waves gently lap the shore and the smell of the ocean makes you feel at home.

It could be a place built entirely in your imagination, a lovely, slowly swaying bridge upon which you stand, watching a babbling brook flow away beneath it,

or an ancient oak in the autumn, something out of an old legend,

or golden leaves falling around you as you sit under the shade

and watch the orange sun pass over the horizon into twilight.

Wherever this peaceful place is for you, take some time to imagine it

as completely as you can all around you.

Once you have your peaceful place in mind, bring yourself into the picture.

Imagine that you are in this beautiful place. Put yourself there.

Take a walk and look at the lovely, peaceful, relaxing surroundings.

Before you were looking at this peaceful scene like a painting from a distance.

Now, you are in the scene. You’re living it.

Be there right now. What do you see around you?

Look around and see what you see.

What in this scene is most relaxing to you?

Take a walk in this peaceful place and see all that you can see.

Next, what do you smell in the air?

Can you smell the trees and the soil of the forest floor beneath you?

Do you smell the salty air of the ocean side?

Bring scent into your visualization.

Smell the air where you are.

Now, reach out and touch something that’s attractive and peaceful to you.

How does it feel?

Is it soft to your touch?

You’re living in the scene.

You can feel the ground beneath you and the air on your skin.

How does it feel?

Now, take a moment to listen.

What sounds do you hear

in this beautiful new surrounding?

Can you hear the birds chirping in the woods?

Do you hear the ocean waves in their perpetual booming rhythm?

Perhaps there is music from an ancient flute in the background,

or maybe you hear the voice of

an old friend that soothes and calms you.

Whatever you hear, take a moment now to enjoy listening to it.

You can stay in this scene as long as you want to,

enjoying this moment of relaxation that you’ve taken for yourself.

Feel free to walk around in this peaceful place as long as you want. It’s yours.

You can change the scene as you wish.

Remember that this peaceful place is always here for you.

You can come back to it whenever you wish.

You need not be afraid to lose it. It’s always with you.

The relaxation that you feel right now at this moment in your body is yours to call on any time you wish.

Now, when you’re ready, slowly let the scene before you dissolve back into your mind.

Allow yourself to slowly come back to the comfort that was there before you imagined your peaceful place.

When you’re ready, and in your own time, you can slowly open your eyes (if you had them shut).

And, come back to this moment, this time, and this reality.

Before you get up, take a moment to note how relaxed you feel right now,

and then slowly, attentively, and peacefully move on with your daily life.

Thank you.

Dr. Jennifer McManus is a licensed psychologist who helps people with stress reduction. She regularly integrates the practices of mindfulness and visualization into her therapeutic work with psychotherapy clients. If you think you may benefit from personalized and professional help with stress management, then please feel free to contact the psychotherapy practice of Dr. Jennifer McManus to learn more about available support. You can schedule a complimentary consultation, email, or call the office at 866-706-3665.