Agoraphobia Self-Help: Positive Visualization

When you have agoraphobia, the creative powers of the imagination are a force to be reckoned with. Their current will either flow in a positive direction and contribute to peace of mind, or, as in the case of agoraphobia, flow in a negative direction and contribute to anxiety and neurosis.

Harnessing this flow of creative energy and using it to work in your favor instead of against you is positive visualization is all about. When your flow of mental creativity goes in a positive direction, you no longer feed your mind with negative imagery and the visual part of agoraphobia slowly begins to starve.

I turned a major corner in my recovery from agoraphobia when I could visualize situations that evoked pleasant emotions as clearly as I could visualize situations that evoked fear. Through practicing the technique I call picturing a new reality at least twice per day, I put my creative powers to work for me.

I used the power of my imagination to help me recover from agoraphobia in two ways. First, I used it to create a place of tranquility in my mind. I could always retreat to this place when I started to feel anxious or visualize something negative. Second, I used it to picture myself being calm while sitting in class among other students, going to the shopping mall, playing in school sports, or attending church again. These visualizations let me practice feeling calm in anxiety-producing situations without going anywhere.

Using my imagination in my favor, I was able to experience and feel as if I had recovered from the anxiety disorder in my mind before I actually did. Once I was able to feel and see recovery in my mind’s eye, my reality was soon transformed.

To help recover from agoraphobia, I used my imagination to create a secret place in my mind where only I would go. I carefully imagined what it might look like, and what sounds and smells I might experience there. Once I imagined this secret place in minute detail, I wrote out a script that described it. I recorded this script on tape so that I could either listen to it myself read it or have my mom read it to me. My script went something like this:
"Lie back, close your eyes and imagine you are entering a place of ultimate relaxation that no one knows about but you. You are walking along a dirt path in a forest beside a stream of cool running water. The water is clear and you can see the forms of rocks below the stream’s currents. Tall trees are all around you providing shade from the sunlight that peeks through their branches. You can hear birds chirping and see butterflies fluttering through the air.

After you walk for a while you stop to lie down in some grass by the stream. As you lie back in the grass you close your eyes and focus on the sound of water gently flowing by. The gurgling of the stream and the chirping of the birds brings you a deep sense of peace as you relax alone, surrounded by nature.

You don’t have to do anything or be anything here. No one will ask you to do anything or expect anything of you. In fact, no one will ever find you here. You are completely free to lie down and relax for as long as you want to stay here. You feel your body go limp as you lie on your back in the grass without a care in the world."

My script was actually longer than this but you get the idea. I shared this much to encourage you to write your own.

Your imaginary retreat doesn’t have to be in nature. It can be a palace on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It can be a monastery in the middle of the desert. It can be a warm, sunny day at the beach. It can be anything or any place you want it to be.

The important thing is that you create a place in your mind that you can visit anytime just by closing your eyes. Then when you are in an anxiety-producing situation, you can close your eyes and take a trip to your personal place of tranquility.

This technique works for people with anxiety disorders like agoraphobia because our subconscious mind doesn’t always distinguish between the real and the imagined. Our thoughts and what we see in our minds has great influence on our emotional state, even if it is pure fantasy. Creating an inner life gives your mind a break from thinking about all of the stresses that may be bombarding you.

If you have agoraphobia, then you probably have a powerful imagination that will make it easy to imagine a secret place. Creating a private retreat in your mind will be the first step toward harnessing the power of your imagination and making it work for you. The second step will be less about fantasy and more about picturing a new reality.

Besides dreaming up a secret place, I used my imagination to create positive visualizations of myself being free from agoraphobia in real life. I pictured myself sitting calmly in a classroom at school surrounded by other students. I saw myself coming up to bat in a baseball game and getting a game-winning hit. In the same way, I pictured myself shopping in the mall, sitting in church, or having fun with friends. In each of these visualizations, I was careful to create added sensory details with my mind. I would not only see each image, but also hear it, smell it, and touch it.

For example, when I pictured myself sitting in the classroom, I saw the faces of the students around me and words written on the chalkboard. I heard the sound of my teacher’s voice as she gave the lecture. I felt the texture of the surface of the desk I sat in, and of the pages in my notebook. I felt the pen in my hand as I took notes. I spent time picturing each scene and let my mind fill in every detail I could think of.

Most importantly, I pictured myself sitting there in my desk calmly breathing, slowly and deeply, totally free of any worry or panic. In this way, I was able to experience the success of recovery and leading a normal, anxiety-free life before I actually recovered. The more I was able to see it in my mind, over and over, the closer I came to recovering from agoraphobia, and the more these images of success became a reality.

Article Source: http://www.agoraphobia.net

Stephen Price is a recovered agoraphobic with a master’s degree in psychology. To discover more self-help techniques and to learn more about his recovery from agoraphobia, check out his new e-book at: www.agoraphobia.ws/goodbyeanxiety.htm

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