Below gives the basic mechanics of imaging:
Imagery succeeds in direct proportion to your turning your senses away from the outside world and toward your inner realm. Once you are turned inward, you can discover a mental image that can stimulate your physical body. The image will come to you on its own, as long as you direct your will and attention inward.
Posture of Breathing
Sit in a comfortable straight-backed chair that has arm rests. Your back is straight, your arms are resting comfortably on the armrests, and your hands are open, palms down. Your feet should be flat on the floor. If your chair has no arms, place your arms on your thighs, palms down. This posture is called the pharaoh’s posture, named after the Egyptian kings.
Do not cross your arms or legs, as this may prevent the circulation from flowing. This posture helps keep your sensory awareness focused inward. Likewise, sitting with your back straight allows your lungs to expand fully and promotes greater alertness.
Close your eyes.
Doing so blocks out unwanted stimuli and distractions.
Breathe out and in slowly three times.
That is, breathe, rhythmically, in through the nose and out through the mouth. The exhalations through the mouth should be longer than the inhalations, which are normal and easy — neither laboured nor exaggerated. This out-in breathing stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which quiets the body down and helps turn our attention inward.
When you are comfortable with your breathing and feel ready to begin your imagery work, breathe out three times. This may sound odd, but it is quite simple. You breathe out, then in; out, and then in; then out again — for a total of three out-breaths and two in-breaths. After this, you begin your imagery exercise, breathing any way you wish.
During your imagery work, your attention will be focused on the images, and your breathing will take care of itself. When you finish the exercise, breathe out once before you open your eyes. It will take you only a few seconds to establish this reverse breathing pattern.
Exhaling first and inhaling second will become second nature once you have learned to image.
You can record the exercises you want to do on a tape recorder. Speak in your regular daily voice, leaving appropriate spaces between images. Alternatively, you can have a friend read the exercises to you. You can even read each exercise silently to yourself and then do it with your eyes closed. Writing and drawing the images you obtain in a diary will help you follow your growth. Eventually you will not need any external aid as imaging becomes second nature.
If you find it difficult to visualize with your mind’s eye, use any of your other senses that are particularly strong. For example, try to hear, touch, smell, or taste. Also, you may sense kinaesthetically (your position in space) or proprioceptively (through the musculature) if not seeing.
Length of Exercises:
The rule of thumb for imagery work is that less is more: The shorter the imagery, the greater its power. Therefore, do each exercise quickly. There can be great variation from person to person, so for each exercise it may take from 10 seconds to 10 minutes! If you have a naturally slower rhythm, or are not experienced with imaging and have difficulty imaging, you may need a longer time to perceive an image. Try not to take too long! By doing the imagery quickly, you bypass the logical, rational, habitual mind and enter the “no-time zone.”
Imagery is actually the language of “no time.”
Imaging is directly and dramatically connected to intention, the mental action that directs our attention and our actions. Simply put, it is what we aim to achieve. When we clearly tell ourselves what we intend to achieve, our success in using imagery mounts. Simply stated, intention is will, given direction. Intention depends on will, which is simply the life force impulse that enables us to make choices. We each have will, and it is reflected in the choices we make every day, all day, from the time we get up to the time we go to sleep. All actions are acts of will.
When we give our will a direction, then we have an intention. Intention is directed will, and it is essential to all self-healing work generated through the imagination. By using the imagination, we direct the will inward to reconnect to our source, to find new pathways for ourselves, to take us to healthier and richer lives.
In the daily routine of life, we mostly use our will to focus on external events:
Either we strive to get something from the world, or we strive to shape the outer world to our own needs (or to what we think are our needs). We forget that we can turn the same will, the same force of directed intention, toward ourselves to change and take charge of our lives. The alert will, the conscious intention, is at the centre of imaginal healing.
In Every Imagery Exercise the Intention Must be to - Turn Illness Into Wellness - So This Must be Stated Before Starting Each Exercise Along With the Specific Intention of the Exercise!
The Time for Imaging
To create a rhythm to heal, imagery exercises are best done at the same times each day. Imagery is best done at the transition points of the day: upon awakening, at sundown, and before going to bed. Remember to do the exercises when you first awaken, before your habitual daily life begins. (The only exception is the need to urinate, which needs to be done first.) Likewise, always do imagery sitting up in the chair, not lying in bed. Finally, do imagery exercises before you eat, when you are more alert.
Cycle of Imaging
Imagery exercises are generally done for cycles of 21 days, followed by 7 days of rest. This cycle parallels the biological rhythm that is present in all of us. This is most evident in a woman’s menstrual cycle, which mirrors the 28-day lunar cycle. However, if you accomplish your aim prior to 21 days, you can stop imaging.
Your work is done.
Remember, for each of these imagery exercises, you want to sit in the pharaoh’s posture and do the breathing as described. When you are ready to move on with your imagery, state your intention for the imagery (which will be - "I am Turning Illness into Wellness" followed by the Specific Intention of That Exercise!), and then begin the imagery exercise.
Remember, there is no one right specific intention, whatever comes to you as the one that serves you, that comes to you spontaneously. At the end of the exercise you’ll be instructed to breathe out. You end each imagery exercise with an out breath to bring you back into this waking life state in a calm, relaxed condition. Within the imagery itself, there’s been a little excitement, a little activity, some movement, and you know that what’s happening inwardly is having physiological effects. Afterward, you want to come back in a state of calm physiology.
Net Worth Imagery Exercise
See yourself hurling a fine golden net into the cosmos, catching for yourself the sustenance the universe has to offer you. Breathe out one time and bring the net back down to you. Open it, remove, and keep what you have brought to you.
Breathe out and open your eyes
Illusion to Illumination Exercise
See yourself swimming out of the sea of illusion to a new shore. After reaching a new shore, take a new direction. Come up onto the shore and follow a new way, a new direction. What do you discover and what do you sense and feel?
And breathe out and open your eyes.
Out of the Shadows Exercise
The intention of the Out of the Shadows Exercise is to know love. See yourself hidden in the shadows, engulfed by the shadows. Breathe out one time slowly, and see yourself now emerging from the shadows into the light. Note your experience and what you sense and feel there and possibly whom you may now meet there. See how you feel toward the being you meet, if you do meet someone.
And then breathe out and open your eyes. Note what happens.
Making Your Own Imagery Exercise
-- Using the information your body is giving you (symptoms, body areas and emotions) take stock of both the physical and emotional aspects of the current health challenge you want to treat.
-- Ask yourself, “How would I best describe this condition in a short video clip format or an image format?”
-- Then ask yourself, “What changes can I make now to that video or image to eradicate the health challenge I am currently experiencing?” For example if you had a chronic inflammatory condition you could see your body in perfect form on the outside but with a raging inferno internally within the margins of your body. The ‘changes’ you could make to the video or image could be the appearance of many magnified white blood cells that morph into the shape of little fireman with high pressure water hoses that dowse the flames with a powerful stream of water that completely puts out the flames leaving an energetic and joyous you! As the flames are being put out you are feeling lighter and brighter and eventually, when there are absolutely no signs of flames anymore, you are bathed in a golden healing light which completes that feeling of deep, profound, vitality and well-being. The critical factor here isn’t so much the image or video itself but rather the intrinsic emotional meaning and understanding the transformation holds for you!
-- Give that imaging process a name – purely to deepen the meaning that exercise has for you.
-- Take 3 relaxing breaths making sure to focus on an elongated exhalation and a normal inhalation. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. The 3 breaths should start with and elongated exhalation!
-- State the name of the imagery exercise.
-- Then state the intention of your imaging exercise – what outcome you intend - starting with "My Intention is to Turn Illness into Wellness - and My Intention is to......." . This must be stated in the present tense!
-- Then state the intended duration of the imagery exercise. (You can record it on your phone, when you are happy with the recording, you can use that as your narrative if you wish – it’s recorded in your voice which adds to the efficacy of the process). Alternatively you can state an approximate time as your body will intuitively understand and proceed with congruence.
-- For example – “I am doing the ‘Fireman’s Hose Exercise’ to Turn Illness into Wellness by completely extinguishing all inflammation in my body, and it’s taking me 25 seconds!”