When you visualise illness to wellness

When You Visualise Illness to Wellness

This week’s Better You, Backed by Science email is about using visualisation for health and wellbeing. I share some science and offer a few practical suggestions.

There’s no question that there is such a thing as the mind-body connection. Not so long ago it was a subject of scepticism, but now multiple labs around the world are probing the effects that mental states have on the body – and the results are fascinating.

You may already be familiar with some obvious examples:

• Imagine biting into a lemon, you’ll probably salivate.
• Think of something you feel embarrassed by, your face flushes.
• Conjure a sexual fantasy in your mind, your body physically responds.

But we also know that:

• Imagining lifting weights makes you stronger.
• Imagining stretching makes you more flexible.

And that:

• Thinking of someone you love triggers release of hormones that dilate your arteries and increase blood flow.
• Thinking of something that annoys you increases your heart rate.

In each case, the body responds as if what we imagine is real.

Why does the brain process imagination as real?

The answer lies in our distant past. If our ancient ancestors thought they heard rustling in the bushes, the brain needed to prompt the body into action – to run away regardless of whether there was, say, a tiger in the bush or they just imagined that their might be a tiger in the bush.

So the brain learned to process imagined danger as if it was real because it could save their life.

A few million years later and it still works this way. Only not just for imagined danger, but for imagination in general.

Imagination, in general, activates many of the same neural circuits as reality.

Can we use the mind to assist healing?

Several studies show that we can. A few examples include:

• Studies have shown that stroke patients recover faster when they combine physiotherapy with visualisation.
• Women receiving treatment for breast cancer had a greater immune response when they visualised their immune systems destroying cancer.
• People with osteoarthritis had significantly reduced pain when they imagined receiving treatment.

Is there a specific technique?

In general, people simply visualise turning illness into wellness.

-It might be imagining their immune system like piranha or PacMen, gobbling up cancer cells, bacteria, or viruses.

-Or imagining caring for sick-looking cells and bringing them back to full health.

-Or they might imagine turning down a pain dial.

-Or sweeping disease out of the body, reducing the size of something, or immersing something in healing light.

-It can be picturing calming nerves, rebuilding something, or putting ourselves back together again (e.g., a man suffering from depression imagined himself as a broken mirror – he swept up the pieces, melted them in a cauldron, and pouring the liquid mirror into the original frame. When it cooled, he had ‘put himself back together again).

People sometimes get creative.

But consistent in each version is that there is an end state – and it is wellness.

And they visualise it repetitively.

Are there limits?

I must point out that, while the brain doesn’t necessarily distinguish real from imaginary on macroscopic scales (i.e., in terms of what we generally see and measure), there are differences on finer scales. 

Given this, visualisation isn’t something we should use instead of medical advice, but in addition to medical advice and treatment.

For example, stroke recovery was fastest when visualisation was combined with physiotherapy – it was never used instead of physiotherapy. 

The women going through treatment for breast cancer (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone treatment) used visualisation in addition to treatment – not instead of it.

Visualisation is a technique we use as an additive to whatever else we are doing, not instead of medical advice or treatment.

Try This

1) Stretch test: See how far you can do a stretch. Now visualise yourself effortlessly doing the stretch, except that imagine surpassing what you were able to do a moment earlier, and with ease. Imagine the feeling of your muscles being flexible. Now try the stretch again. Did you stretch further?

2) Notice: Pay attention to how your body responds to your mind and emotions as you go through the next few days. Does it feel lighter and move easier when you feel lighter in your mind?

3) Wellness: If you are dealing with an injury, illness, or pain, imagine yourself as healthy and well or as becoming healthy and well. Try it every day for a week – even just for 5 minutes a day.

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Want to explore more?

🎥 Watch my YouTube video where I further explore the power of compliments.

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References (if you’re curious)

Studies on stroke patients using visualisation

Using visualisation in addition to treatment for breast cancer

Visualisation for pain in osteoarthritis patients

My book (science and practices): How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body

More

Want to read more like this? Subscribe to my free Better You, Backed by Science weekly email (sends every Wednesday).

Explore more science of the mind-body connection and how to tap into it, how to use visualisation, and strategies used by people around the world: See my book, ‘How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body‘