Visualisation Through Recovery – Katie’s Experience
I first experienced a guided visualisation session when I was in therapy for my eating disorder.
I was asked to close my eyes and connect with my future hopes and dreams, but my mind went completely blank. All I could think about were the negatives in my life—the limiting beliefs around my ability to recover. And I quickly re-opened my eyes, asking for guidance from my recovery coach.
After speaking about what was stopping me from embracing the experience, I decided to have another go. My therapist gently guided me, and surprisingly, I was able to connect to a powerful version of a brighter future for myself.
Seeing this instantly made me know why we persevered with this exercise. I saw something I had never seen before. And I was able to connect with an alternative future visually, which I had never done before. Instead of only seeing the idea of failing through recovery, I had created a new reality.
For the first time, I felt hopeful.
I know that this tool may not feel possible for everyone right away. I felt so sceptical when I first gave this a try. But if I had known back then the benefits it would have on me, I’d have been a lot more excited and open-minded on my first try.
I write this post for anyone feeling a bit curious or unsure if visualisation might be a helpful tool for them. So I would love to share just a few of the benefits I found when using visualisation throughout my recovery.
Benefits Of Practicing Visualisation:
1. Relieves Anxiety And Stress
I found visualisation to be one of the best ways to get my mind back on track when I felt out of balance. Taking a minute to visualise my day or an overwhelming task helped me organise my thoughts, mentally prepare myself and helped me to feel calm.
2. Supports Sleep
Alongside traditional meditation, I found visualisations super helpful when my mind ran wild and stopped me from falling asleep. One of my favourite techniques was a body check, which I learned from my recovery coach. This is where I would lie on my back and imagine all the tension being relieved from the top of my head all the way down to my toes. I would feel instant relief from each part of my body.
Focusing on transitioning into a relaxed state allowed me to fall asleep.
3. Increases Motivation For Recovery
Motivational visualisation involved dreaming of my ideal future and imagining myself achieving my goals. I would picture how I would want to live in one year’s time. Taking in every aspect of the vision I created and embracing the feelings that came with it.
This was something I learned to be able to do myself in time after working with my therapist. And it became a recovery tool I leaned on throughout my journey. When I felt lost or stuck, I’d spend time picturing where I wanted to be—visualising where I could get to if I kept pushing. And each time, it helped me reconnect and find the motivation I needed.
Visualisation helped me to believe in the reality I was working towards. Rather than it being something that felt far away or unlikely– something that eating disorders tend to make a person feel.
4. Improves Relationship With Self
As I became comfortable with positively visualising my future self and feeling all the emotions that came with that, I started to see my relationship with myself improve. Seeing what I want my future self to feel like, I naturally found compassion for my present self.
I also found it helpful to connect with my younger self through visualisation work. My therapist guided me to explore what my younger self might have needed to hear or have back then. In time I realised that I needed to take the advice I have for my younger self right now. Because I don’t want to look back in 10 years and feel the same way about myself now.
Instead, I want my future self to be filled with joy and proud of where I am today.
5. Supports Creativity
Given that the whole point of visualisations is to let your imagination run wild, it makes sense that it helped to get my creative juices flowing. After learning that I could concentrate and connect with images I had created in my mind, I became so much more open to using my imagination in other creative ways.
Personally, I had lost touch with my creative side whilst in the depth of my eating disorder as it was so hard to focus on anything that wasn’t related to food or exercise. However, visualisations helped me get back in touch with my creative side, which had been lost for so long.
In fact, through recovery, I rekindled my love for writing and art!
I genuinely believe that visualisation has been one of the most helpful tools during my recovery. It improved my relationship with myself today and has also helped me see that my goals are not too far out of reach.
6. Provides An Escape
Through my recovery programme, I was taught a specific type of visualisation that allowed me to step away from how I was feeling. When I felt strong emotions that made me feel unsafe, I would use this tool, and it would quite literally feel like an escape.
And sometimes, in recovery, it can be helpful to have an escape. Just for a moment, to quieten the eating disorder voice or allow yourself to feel calm from a situation.
During this visualisation, I would be able to get away from all the negative emotions I felt and shift my attention to something that allowed me to feel calm, safe and able to move forward.
Final Words: Visualisations
Thank you to this recovery warrior for sharing her personal experience with this incredible recovery tool.
At Natural Food Therapy, our coaches use the power of guided visualisation to support you through recovery. Just one of the many tools that make up your recovery toolkit.
You can learn more about our recovery programme here.
