Last updated July 15, 2024
Meditation and visualization are two forms of mindfulness activities that offer various benefits. Why do some people choose to combine both in practice?
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There are some positive outcomes that meditation or visualization alone can’t achieve — marrying the two provides more merits. Find out ways for effective self-exploration below!
Benefits of Meditation Visualization
Before getting to the meat of the topic, here are the upsides when you couple visualization techniques with meditation:
- Boost focus and concentration: Visualization anchors your mind on a specific thing during meditation. By giving the mind a scenario or image to zero in, you can train it to be present and ignore distractions.
- Promotes better mental health: Visualizing a favorable outcome or scenario promotes positive emotions and relaxation, which can magnify the effect of meditation. Both are mindfulness-based interventions that can reduce stress, anxiety and depression and are as effective as therapy and medications in inducing calmness.
- Strengthens mind-body connection: Sports coaches use visualization to direct athletes’ thoughts on a particular goal, such as winning the Olympics. Focusing on an image of receiving that gold medal invokes bodily sensations and emotions that reinforce the mind-body link, orienting the practitioner of what it feels like once the goal is achieved. This fuels their determination to achieve their goals.
Meditation visualization is helpful, like other types of mindfulness activities. If you have a goal you want to achieve, this technique may be more effective.
Strategies to Practice Meditation Visualization
How do you practice meditation visualization that gives results? Here are five of the best ways to do it.
1. Goal Visualization
Brain scan studies have consistently shown that made-up scenarios and reality evoke similar patterns of neural activity. It means the brain can take some imagined situations as truth if it passes a certain “reality threshold.”
This is why sports coaches use goal visualization on athletes to alter their brain’s pathways through neuroplasticity. A screenplay of crossing the finish line brings up positive feelings and increases your confidence to turn it into a reality.
During meditation, imagine yourself succeeding at your goal — your loved ones wearing big smiles congratulating you and the coach hugging you. Include specific details in the thought to make it more vivid. The goal is for the brain to successfully label it as reality.
2. Guided Imagery
While similar to the first strategy, guided imagery is not goal-oriented. Instead, it centers on your ideal place — real or imagined — that makes you feel calm and peaceful, like a quiet white sand beach or a stunning Japanese zen garden with a koi pond.
Whatever it is you call a happy place is the best mental subject. During practice, engage your five senses with your eyes closed. Feel what it’s like to be in your happy place. What do you hear? How does the air feel on your skin? What’s the weather like?
As you go deep into the meditation, feel the calmness and peace in your being. Each time you exhale, imagine the stress, worries, anxiety and fatigue leaving your body. You’ll feel invigorated after the practice.
3. Compassion Meditation
Clear from the name itself, this form of meditation promotes feelings of compassion for yourself and others. Practicing it can help if you lack self-confidence or are dealing with negative emotions toward someone because they hurt you.
How do you do it? On your mat and in a comfortable seated pose, imagine yourself or the person you don’t like. Hold their image in your mind while thinking of the painful experiences they might be going through. Then, focus on sending them peace, joy, healing and happiness through a golden light coming from your heart.
Imagine this beautiful hue enveloping them as you recite mantras like “May you find peace and happiness.” You’ll notice feelings of compassion and kindness engulf your being after the practice.
4. Progressive Muscle Relaxation
This technique is useful if you’re stressed, had a bad day at work or feel too drained by your daily obligations. It soothes tight muscles and relieves tensions to recharge your physical and mental batteries.
To start, lie on your back on a comfortable surface, like a bed or a yoga mat. It would help to recognize tight muscles because they’re your visual targets.
Do this exercise first — tense and then relax unproblematic muscles to differentiate between tight and OK areas. Next, pick a group of muscles, such as your neck and shoulders. Apply pressure as if straining them as you inhale, hold for a few seconds, then release and ease as you exhale.
As you do this, imagine the tightness leaving your body as you gradually surrender to the ground. Repeat and continue slowly with other muscle groups. Expect to feel more relaxed at the end of the practice.
5. Color Breathing
This technique is useful if you want to embody a positive emotion and increase your vibration level. What makes this engaging and creative is the integration of color.
Sit in a comfortable position with your eyes closed. Think of an optimistic feeling you want to fill your being with — like gratitude or kindness — and assign a color to it. You can select whatever you want, but choosing bright colors is best. Bright hues like blue and purple are often associated with positive emotions, while black and brown are perceived as negative.
As you breathe in, imagine the color washing over your entire body as if pouring a can of paint from head to toe as you hold the representation of this shade in your mind. While doing this, visualize the unwanted emotions leaving your body with each exhale as your desired color replaces them in every inhale. Continue until the imagined emotion feels real.
Practice Meditation Visualization to Ease Stress
The brain is the powerful processing center of the body. If controlled and used properly, it can help manage your stresses, change your reality and attract the things you want to happen in your life.
Meditation visualization is a great tool to tame the mind and increase focus. Try these five strategies to soothe stress, sustain optimism and increase self-love.
About the author:
Mia Barnes is a freelance writer and researcher with a passion for healthy travel and wellness. Mia is the founder and editor-in-chief of Body+Mind magazine. Follow Mia and Body+Mind on X and Instagram @bodymindmag!
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