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Can Day Dreaming & Creative Visualisation be an Effective Stress Reliever?

Your life is a journey from womb to tomb. You cannot just imagine a life free of any stress be it small or big. It all depends how you visualise them or encounter them. Stress is nothing but the reaction or response to any change.

If you carefully analyse a situation, which caused stress in you, you would have probably applied your ‘what is to be’ on ‘what is’. In other words, you would have expected a situation the way you wanted than merely accepting the situation as it is. The technique of Creative Visualisation or daydreaming can be used to create things that you want in your life. You may be aware that our mind and body are connected and changes in mind create changes in body and vice versa. Through conscious visualisation of positive images you can bring about changes in the way you feel or think.

You can test the effect of visualisation by doing a small exercise. Choose a calm place and sit down comfortably. You think of a lemon in your hand. Now you try to smell it. Is there any smell? There will not be any. Now imagine as if you are biting the lemon and let the juice spread in your mouth. Feel the taste. What happened? You will begin to salivate. Such is the power of your mind.Just your imagination is enough to create a bodily response and you need not have a real thing. You can even try out the relaxation technique through visualisation as narrated below:

Choose a calm place. Lie down or sit comfortably. You should be totally comfortable. Close your eyes. Imagine the day to be a very beautiful day. You imagine that you feel like taking a walk. Leave your room, home mentally. You find yourself in vast place with a green stretch of grass. Imagine that you are walking along the stretch of the green grass. You also see a vast forest on the other side of the field. You walk into the forest. As you enter into the forest you can hear birds’ chirping...you can hear the rivulet flowing...you can feel the cool shade...you also see a well-maintained garden with a road dotted with avenue tress.

You walk into the garden...you can see the bees buzzing around coloured flowers...green coloured flowers...red coloured flowers...variety of colours...you can see the butterflies sucking the sweet nectar form the flowers...as you walk you can even hear the rustlings of leaves...you can hear the sound of leaves getting crushed under your feet. Imagine as and when you are nearing the end of garden the feeble sounds of waves reach your ears...now you can see a beautiful long beech virtually without any people...you are alone in this beautiful beach...you feel the scintillating feel of the sand beneath your feet...hear the unending roars of waves.

Now you are back in your room. Are you not feeling refreshed and bubbling with energy? You will be feeling completely relaxed and calm.Learning conscious visualisation will take time and initially the visaulised images may not cooperate. Practice regularly. Things will improve and soon you will be able to handle the stress in a breeze.

Visit What is Stress for more details on stress management