Guided Imagery
This guided imagery works well before beginning an art
therapy project or preparing a group to journal on a topic. Often when individuals come
into the group they bring previous stressful, emotional baggage with them from their busy
lives, or feel a need to be outwardly jovial and friendly to the group members. Once you
decide to officially begin the session however, this exercise gives the participants
'permission' to go within, relax and find a meditative space and peace of mind. Feel free
to change it to suit your specific needs or goals. Please speak slowly and clearly.
Peaceful music playing in the background adds to the meditative mood. Or you may prefer
to record it beforehand.
See if you can position yourself as comfortably as you can...shifting your weight
so you're allowing your body to be fully supported...Try to arrange it so your head, neck,
and spine are straight. (pause)
And taking a deep, cleansing breath...inhaling fully...breathing deep into the
belly... and breathing all the way out. (pause long enough for a deep breath)
And again...breathing in...seeing if you can send the warm energy of the breath to
any part of your body that's tense or sore or tight...(pause) and releasing the tension
with the exhale...(pause)
So you can feel your breath going to all the tight, tense places, loosening and
warming and softening them...and then, gathering up all the tension and breathing it
out...so that more and more you can feel safe and comfortable, relaxed and easy; feeling
the cleansing action of the breath....(pause)
And gently now, allowing yourself to turn your attention inward...to the still,
deep, dark realm of the unformed...letting come up into your awareness a physical or
emotional issue that you would like to transform...just taking whatever time is
needed...to allow it to surface...to emerge...(pause)
clearing away a space in your mind...so that something that needs changing...or
wants attention...can appear...some issue...or way of being...whatever wants to present
itself... (longer pause)
And allowing yourself to be curious to see where this issue sits in the
body....where it is felt...so taking a moment to let the body show you where this is
held...(pause)...and acknowledging its presence, with neither praise nor blame...just a
neutral, honest nod of recognition to it...and letting yourself feel its
presence...noticing where it perhaps has always been...or where it has moved to now...
So just letting it appear to you in any form it wants to...allowing it to be
there, as you sense its nature...becoming more and more clear and defined as you focus
your attention on it...whether it seems hard or soft...slippery...or spongy...dense and
heavy...or light and airy...if it feels like there are edges to it and how much space it
occupies...checking it out with the neutral eye of a camera...neither denying it, nor
exaggerating it...but just seeing what is there...not with your mind, but with your
senses... And checking to see if it has color or colors...(pause)
Letting yourself experience this issue...with your senses...in a state of friendly
but detached awareness...watching it...feeling it...neither pushing it away nor pulling it
close...but just letting it be...observing it freshly, with genuine curiosity...
And now...watching as it starts to shift and change...very naturally and of its
own accord...if it wants to ...and maybe it doesn't and if it doesn't that's all right
too...that's a good thing to know; if it doesn't...but if it does...and it
might...allowing it to begin to transform into whatever form it's inclined to...letting it
happen in its own way...in its own time.
Just allowing it to begin to change whether this means a change in color...or
shape...or density...whether it's something expanding...or shrinking...softening or
hardening whatever wants to happen. It needn't make sense to you...and it needn't go to
completion...
And feeling the shift in your body...however subtle and delicate...or bold and
dramatic it may be...just letting yourself feel the changes on the inside...as something
starts to transform...still feeling detached but curious... So just letting yourself watch
the shift...noticing whatever happens...(longer pause)
And so setting this aside for now...with appreciation for whatever it may be
about... however clear or vague...giving it the respect it deserves...for all its
complexity...and giving yourself respect and appreciation as well...for your natural
ability to change and grow and transform...acknowledging your depth and the many colorful,
changing aspects of yourself, which move towards awareness with a powerful and natural
ease...breaking out of an old mold or pattern and feeling now lighter and freer...
And so feeling peaceful and easy...although perhaps the colors around you will
seem brighter and the air more crisp and alive...
You might feel that something powerful has happened...that a major change has
occurred and will continue to occur...with or without your conscious working on it...
And so feeling yourself breathing in and out, very rhythmically and
effortlessly...gently and with soft eyes...coming back into the room whenever you are
ready...knowing in a deep place that you have done important, healing work...the
transformation has begun and that you are better for this...and so you are...