Athletes use it to improve their sports game. Chances are, you are using it on a regular basis as well. But are you using it correctly? Visualization is a helpful tool in fighting anxiety. If you aren’t using it to combat your fears, your mind is probably using visualization against you to feed your anxiety and worsen it. Learning to control visualization is one of the most important things you can do to fight anxiety.

The first thing you must realize is that you have to be relaxed when you are using visualization. If you feel anxious during visualizing, stop immediately. Say you have a fear of public speaking. The night before the speech you are thinking about it and your mind is visualizing what is going to happen. Perhaps you start thinking about all the things that can go wrong. When you do this, your anxiety increases. Dwelling anxiously on an anxiety-filled situation makes the anxiety worse.

So before you start visualizing, learn important relaxation techniques. Practice breathing deeply from the abdomen, exercise beforehand, or spend some time meditating.

When you are visualizing, you have two choices. You can use visualization as another relaxation technique, or you can visualize the situation in small increments to practice imagery desensitization.

Guided relaxation visualization is good for general states of anxiety. You can purchase a guided mediation CD or record your own. Write out a script for you to record. In the script, picture yourself in a calm and relaxing place. Speak the script in a slow and relaxed manner. An example of a script would be: “You are in a mountain valley on a warm, breezy day. In the valley there is a clear and bubbling brook…”

Describe the most peaceful scene that you can imagine. This should last for about 10 to 20 minutes. After the visualization, you may count yourself up from your peaceful and relaxed state. One–gradually begin to come back to an alert and wakeful state. Two–become more aware of your surroundings. Three–more and more awake. Four–almost fully alert. Five–open your eyes and be refreshed and fully awake.

The other type of visualization is used to help you overcome specific fearful circumstances. Think of a situation that causes anxiety. Maybe it is public speaking. Make a list of public speaking situations. Start with the ones that cause you little to no anxiety, such as watching a friend give a speech, or preparing a speech that you do not have to give. Then list situations that cause slightly more anxiety. For example, practicing your speech in front of a few friends. Next on your list would be giving the speech in front of a larger group. Your finished list should consist of 8-12 steps in the order of least anxiety causing to the greatest.

As with guided relaxation, the first step to imagery desensitization is to relax. Once you have, visualize yourself in your least phobic situation. Spend about one minute imagining the scene and say to yourself “I am calm.” Picture yourself successfully dealing with the situation. If you feel little to no anxiety, move on to the next level. When you get to a level where you feel a moderate amount of anxiety, spend a minute dealing with the visualization, then take a minute break to picture yourself in a peaceful scene. Alternate between the peaceful scene and the anxiety scene until it causes little to no anxiety.
You do not need to get through your list in one sitting. Instead, spend about fifteen minutes a day with imagery desensitization. When you start out each day, start with the last scene that you successfully completed instead of a new step.

These two visualization techniques can reduce both general anxiety and anxiety caused by specific phobias. With practice, you can be using the mind’s power of visualization to your advantage instead of letting it cause you more anxiety.