How visualization supports healing chronic illness

Harness your brain's healing power

This post is updated from its original.

Physical patterning can be altered through visualization

In my twenties and thirties, I was a professional modern dancer. My dance experience is the foundation of my career now, as a teacher and bodyworker.

One of the coolest things I learned from dancing was "Armchair Rehearsal". This practice is grounded in principles of neuroscience. If a sequence of movements was particularly difficult, my teachers taught me to lie down (or sit down), eyes closed, and imagine dancing the sequence exactly how I wanted to: easily, smoothly, with style. This technique sometimes worked even better than practicing the movements in reality.

Competitive athletes have used the power of imagination to improve performance for a long time. MRI imaging shows that if you imagine a movement, the same centers in the brain light up as when you’re actually moving. You can use your imagination to find feelings of speed, lightness, or accuracy. Your brain will find the pathways to move with greater skill, and the next time you practice physically you may surprise yourself.

This same principle can apply to healing chronic illness

The principles that make Armchair Rehearsal successful can also apply to healing chronic illness. As we visualize healing pathways, we help the brain self-organize.

This is such a powerful concept. We have enormous control over our health, right inside our own thoughts and feelings. We can make our treatments more effective by visualizing them working. We can improve our detoxification pathways by imagining them cleansing our bodies. We can harmonize our immune system by visualizing its power.

In my work with private clients, I am continually amazed by how immediately their thoughts affect their physical bodies. If I’m hoping to feel a client’s lymph move more freely, I suggest they imagine it. I give them suggestions as to how this might feel: a cleansing rain, a warming ray of sunlight. As soon as an image begins to work, I feel a change in their lymphatic flow, and usually they do too. 

Interrupt a focus on symptoms by visualizing health 

There is a certain gravity and inertia to ill health. Whenever my symptoms of Lyme disease act up, my attention is drawn there immediately. I’ll sometimes catch myself describing my symptoms to myself in words, as though feeling them weren't bad enough already. This is normal - just the brain at work defending us, bringing our attention to whatever it perceives as a threat. 

Unfortunately, this normal brain pattern of focusing on symptoms doesn’t serve those of us with chronic illness. It would be useful if we had a splinter. But with chronic illness, a focus on symptoms can just reinforce feeling ill.

We can fight back, busting through this inertia by imagining feelings of health and wellbeing. It takes effort, I won't lie! It takes a push. But shifting our focus toward health is a free (!!) tool that we all possess.

Three things to improve the power of your visualizations

Set aside a half-hour a day for visualization. (Even ten minutes!) Give yourself a quiet, focused space with no interruptions. A meditative state improves focus, and deepens the power of your visualizations. 

Use emotion. The more powerful positive feelings are, the stronger their effect will be on shaping neurology. Encourage feelings of pleasure, joy, relaxation, and bliss. If you can get to euphoria, go there. Pay attention to the feelings, welcoming them in.

Use words, sensory feelings, and visual imagery. Play with all, in order to involve as much of your brain as possible. If you are imagining a spring rain cleansing your brain, what does it smell like? What is the feeling of the rain on your skin? What are the colors?

Guided visualizations give you a roadmap

Sometimes I can find my way to a great visualization on my own, and sometimes I want a little help. You can use guided visualizations to support your practice. 

I wrote The Cell's Breath to help myself and others find feelings of health and wellbeing when practicing visualization alone is just too difficult. Each track focuses on a different physiological system crucial to healing. The imagery is poetic, but based in concrete physiology. Listening will help you feel your lymphatic fluid cleansing your tissues, feel your liver burning through toxicity. Focus on the words and music, and give your body space to relax and let go. Your brain will begin to wire itself toward healing, creating new patterns that support your full recovery.

Thank you so much for reading! Wishing you quiet focus and powerful healing.

Shona