Visualisation: The Blue Canvas of the Sky - Healthy Life Essex

Below is an example of a visualisation to exercise your imagination and help you to relax mentally. It is best to read this when you are somewhere comfortable with nothing of importance to do for the next 10 minutes. Make the images as vivid as you can and at the same time, allow your body to relax by taking slow, deep breaths.

Concentrate on your breathing

Begin by concentrating on your breathing, the rise and fall of your stomach. Breathe in calmness and relaxation; breathe out any tension or anxieties, so that with each breath you breathe, you find yourself becoming more and more relaxed and comfortable, at peace with yourself. Just drifting into a very pleasant state of mind, enjoying the stillness within you.

Image a beautiful beach landscape

Now use your imagination as powerfully as you can to see before you a magnificent beachside landscape, more beautiful than anything you can ever remember seeing. It’s a perfectly sunny day with just a few white clouds drifting slowly across a brilliant blue sky. The sky seems larger than ever before as you realise you can see the natural horizon all around you. Ahead of you, beyond the beach that you’re standing on, you gaze at a glittering sea of turquoise blue and behind you is a backdrop of gently rolling hills, grassy slopes highlighted with dainty flowers of all colours. Looking down at your feet, you become aware of the soft, warm sand and the texture is soothing to your skin, like a gentle massage as you stroll along the beach.

Breathe, listen, gaze

Breathing in the fresh sea air and listening to the rhythmic sound of the waves lapping on the beach relaxes you further as you gently lower yourself down into a comfortable position and lie back, your face and body warmed by the welcoming sunshine. Shading your eyes, you gaze at the vastness of the sky with those tiny wisps of white cloud that travel so slowly they seem painted on the blue canvas. Occasionally you spot something high up in the air that might be a small bird, so free and alive, enjoying the generous space that nature gave it in which to play. You watch with interest as the tiny speck of colour glides higher up, further and further away until it seems to disappear altogether. Briefly, you ponder on where it may have travelled to and why, and then that thought just fades away without you realising you had stopped thinking it.

Time stands still

After a while, time begins to stand still so that you’re unsure exactly how long you have been relaxing here – it could have been just a moment but it feels more like days… and in that moment, you start to question what miracles you could make happen, using that powerful mind of yours, to see and do things in an entirely new and different way. You begin to ask yourself what the possibilities are, when you open your mind to them.

And now you can gently bring your thoughts back to the here and now. Let your mind and body return to full alertness by taking a couple of deep breaths and counting up to five.

Catherine Blackwood
Bsc(Hons) DHP DPsT MAPHP(ACC)
Essex Hypnotherapy