4 Quick Visualization Meditation Techniques to Melt Away Stress

Use these quick and easy visualization meditation techniques to speed up stress reduction! Visualization techniques enable you to picture what you really want and take control of stress.

So, visualization  means that you are taking a step back from your stress and focusing your attention on an image or visualized actions/ concepts.

The image can be real or imagined. If you choose a real image, it can be something you are looking at right now or something you've seen in the past.

Here are some more visualization techniques to add to your arsenal of stress relief tools.

Visualization Meditation:
Still Frames

By creating an image representing what you want, the goal of stress relief becomes more and more focused. Vision boards, happy places, and guided imagery are all great visualization tools.

Find a photograph, painting, or other artwork that you find attractive. Pay attention to the colors. Look at the shadows.

What textures do you notice? What would it feel like to be in this landscape or scene? What does the air around you smell like in this place?

Simply look at this picture and notice whatever detail you can. This practice of observation will help you become more aware, or mindful, of this moment and help you take a step back from stress.

Visualization Meditation:
Movie Technique

Rather than focusing on a stressful situation, as in the technique above, visualize the outcome you want. For instance, if you are feeling stressed out because of an upcoming public speaking engagement, imagine watching a movie about you, a confident person delivering a speech.

What do you look like in the movie? What words are you saying? Direct yourself in the movie so that you portray the person you want to be.

Visualization Meditation:
Give Your Stress a Shape or Color

Imagine that your stress is a giant red ball; maybe it's even fiery. Use visualization to imagine this giant red ball gradually transforming into a small green fluffy ball. The green ball represents how you feel when you're relaxed.

Feeling tension in your body? Visualize the tension as knots in a rope. Now, use visualization to imagine the tension gradually transforming. The knots slowly come undone and the rope is loose.

Visualization Meditation:
Go to Your Happy Place

The purpose of visualization techniques is to help make stress more manageable by giving stress relaxing images. You are in control of these images. When stress is less tangible, it can feel as if it were all encompassing with no possibility for relaxation. So, use visualization to create the reality you really want.

When you start to feel stressed, take a moment to visualize a place you associate with a sense of calm. For instance, imagine you are standing by a lake looking at the reflection of mountains.

Do you have a favorite vacation spot? Imagine you are there right now relaxing.

It can be helpful to have a picture of your happy place on hand to look at. Post it on a bulletin board where you work or keep it tucked away in a drawer or hand bag.

Take Control

Wishing and hoping for relaxation is not enough.

In order to accomplish anything, we must first be able to visualize or conceive it in our minds. Why work on anything if you can't even imagine it happening?

So, make sure to devote some time to visualizing yourself feeling relaxed (confident, successful, etc.)

How do you imagine yourself feeling when you are relaxed? How does your body feel? What do you look like? What thoughts do you have when you are relaxed? How do you talk to others when calm? What you can conceive, you can be.

Vision boards involve making a collage of inspiring images that represent your visualized goal. The process of collecting images from magazines/photos and placing them on a board (of any size) helps to motivate us. Having a physical image that represents what we envision in our minds helps us transform dreams into reality.

Again, visualization relaxation is a process of using your imagination to heighten your present awareness and help you perceive images that are positive and motivating.

Free Guided Visualization Meditation

Oh, Me! Oh, My! So Many Relaxation Techniques to Try!