Imagery and Visualization

Using Your Mind's Eye to Heal

You can't take a laser gun and zap away cancer cells. And you can't sweep endometriosis out of your pelvic cavity with a broom. But setting aside time each day to think about doing those things could be the first step in getting better.

In a world of high-tech medical gadgetry and space-age technology, the best software in the world is still that gray matter between your ears, notes James S. Gordon, M.D., director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C., and author of Manifesto for a New Medicine.

Using thoughts to deal with pain, control illness or reach goals is known as imagery or visualization. Strictly speaking, visualization uses the mind to concentrate on visual images, while imagery borrows from all the senses--mainly touch, sound, sight and smell. To use visualization to relax, for example, you might visualize a restful beach scene. Imagery, however, is more of a self-guided, multimedia event; you imagine hearing the waves, feeling the breeze and smelling the salt air.

MAKE THE PIZZA CONNECTION

To get an idea of how strong the mind-body connection is, try this exercise: Picture a big, gooey pizza. The smell of garlic, tomato and basil tickles your nostrils. The cheese is all bubbly and the crust is golden brown. Imagine that you pick up a slice and take a bite. Taste the tangy sauce, the chewy cheese stretching like a mozzarella rubber band from your mouth to the slice.

If your mouth waters just thinking of that tantalizing pizza, then you get an idea of how your thoughts can trigger physical reactions in your body. And it's no surprise that mental images can be used to treat everything from headaches to menstrual cramps, says Judith Green, Ph.D., professor of psychology and biofeedback in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Aims Community College in Greeley, Colorado, and author of The Dynamics of Health and Wellness.

"With arthritis you might envision someone coming along with an oil can, and the rough edges of the joint smoothing out," says Dr. Gordon. "Or with headaches, I encourage people to imagine the size, shape and color of their pain and to see it disappearing."

Guided imagery occurs when someone else--most often a psychotherapist--shapes the images or kinds of images that you have, based on what kinds of images seem to have the strongest healing potential for certain conditions.

To help give reality to the image, therapists often show you medical text pictures or x-rays of what your disorder looks like in the body or even of what the body part looks like. That makes visualization much easier, says Dr. Green.

"Then you could see an arthritic joint as a beautiful ball bearing that's smooth and perfect, or a person with asthma can see all the little bronchial tubes open while breathing perfectly," she notes.

"It's the difference between telling someone with cancer to find her own image that helps strengthen her body and taking someone through her body, telling her to see the white cells move the cancer cells out," says Dr. Gordon.

TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION

To be sure, it's annoying to be told that a health complaint is "all in your head." That's an oversimplification. But how you feel really is largely dictated by mental outlook, says Dr. Green.

"Imagery is the primary language of the body," she notes. "The body understands English and you can talk to it directly, but it truly loves images."

The mind-body connection centers in the hypothalamus, the section of your brain that regulates the autonomic nervous system, which controls automatic processes such as blood pressure. The hypothalamus regulates two branches of the autonomic nervous system--the sympathetic, which responds to stress and gets the heart pumping, and the parasympathetic, which calms the body's responses, explains Dr. Green.

"These parts of the brain are set up so that they'll respond to our thinking and feelings," notes Dr. Green. So, if your brain regulates your body and your thoughts regulate your brain, it only makes sense that you can affect many of your physical responses, including illness.

The relaxation response that visualization and imagery create has a positive effect on the body, notes Howard Hall, Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University and psychologist at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, both in Cleveland. "Stress causes hormones like adrenaline to flush through the body, which may cause physical symptoms," says Dr. Hall. "Imagery helps counterbalance stress."

After burning himself on a hot pan, Dr. Hall used the technique himself. "Thinking 'cool' and 'comfortable' actually helped ease the pain," he says. "That and applying ice, of course."

Another way that the technique works is by changing the rate of blood flow in the body. "If you or your child gets cut, a calming suggestion in a crisis will help stop the blood from gushing," he notes. In other cases, such as Raynaud's phenomenon, you can increase blood flow by achieving a relaxed state. Imagery specifically dealing with warming the hands, such as holding a cup of warm hot chocolate, or less specific images, such as picturing oneself on a beach, facilitate warming. Images should be tailor-made to suit each person's preference.

Doctors who employ imagery and visualization often combine them with other mind-body techniques, such as biofeedback, hypnosis and relaxation, notes Dr. Hall.

Many of the psychologists, psychiatrists and medical doctors who use visualization, for example, do so either in tandem with alternative treatments or with conventional therapy, notes Patricia Norris, Ph.D., clinical director at the Life Sciences Institute of Mind-Body Health in Topeka, Kansas. "I don't think of it as a stand-alone treatment," she says.

A MODERN USE FOR AN ANCIENT SKILL

Imagery was used by the ancient Egyptians, in East Indian Ayurvedic medicine and yoga as well as by the shamans (or healers) in American Indian tribes thousands of years ago, notes Archana Lal-Tabak, M.D., clinical psychoneuroimmunologist (who studies the mind-body connection) at the American Holistic Centers in Chicago. "So really, historically, we've been looking at a mind-body connection throughout time," she says.

It wasn't until the 1960s, however, that Western medicine stood up and took notice. Oncologist Carl Simonton, M.D., and psychologist Stephanie Simonton, Ph.D., developed a program for cancer patients using conventional treatment and visualization after Dr. Carl Simonton noticed that patients with spontaneous remission of cancer were usually the ones who said, "I always imagined myself as well."

The visualization involved four pictures: seeing the treatment destroy cancer cells that are too weak to repair the damage, seeing the white cells of the immune system swarm all over the cancer, seeing the cancer shrink and seeing a return to health.

In the early 1970s, the Simontons tested this procedure on 159 cancer patients who'd been given one year to live. Of these, 63 patients were alive two years after their diagnosis. Of those 63, 22 percent showed no evidence of cancer, while 19 percent saw their tumors get smaller and 27 percent had stabilized.

Later studies have shown visualization and imagery to be effective with less serious ailments as well. In a study of 15 women who suffered from menstrual or premenstrual problems such as pain, water retention and mood changes, for example, troublesome symptoms were cut roughly in half through the use of guided imagery.

Western medicine hasn't always considered the value of mind power in treatment of ailments, says Dr. Green. But that's slowly changing. Over a two-year period, for example, researchers have done at least 30 studies involving the use of imagery and visualization. These techniques are most commonly used for headaches, cancer, pain, colds, asthma, allergies, arthritis, gynecological problems (like heavy or painful menstrual periods), menopausal symptoms (such as hot flashes), infertility, ovarian cysts, lupus (an autoimmune illness in which the body attacks healthy tissue), fibromyalgia (painful "trigger points" in the muscles) and chronic fatigue, notes Dr. Lal-Tabak.

That doesn't mean that imagery or visualization is a panacea for every problem or that conventional medicine isn't also a good idea, notes Dr. Norris. "It's not necessarily a cure. It helps the immune system and eases pain," she says. "If you can get over a cold in three days instead of ten, then you're helping your body."

BELIEF CAN BRING RELIEF

An open mind is key to using imagery and visualization successfully, says Dr. Green. That's why children are especially good at it; they truly believe that it will work, she notes. "Children are successful because they have no preconceived notions that imagery will not work," she notes. "They are more 'tuned in' to using their minds than adults are."

Once grown, however, it's women who have the real edge when it comes to using the old noggin for healing, notes Dr. Gordon. "I think that women are much more open to anything that has to do with psychological aspects of illness and, in general, are more open to self-help," he notes. "Men are more oriented to a technological fix and to letting someone else do it for them."

In fact, being easily hypnotized, which indicates that you're open to suggestion, is another sign that visualization and imagery could come easily to you, says Dr. Hall. Hypnotizable people can focus and concentrate better, so they could also probably create images better as well.

But Dr. Hall stresses that, with practice, anyone can make visualization and imagery work for them. "The most important thing is that you just have to be motivated. It's constant practice that makes the headaches go away," he notes. "And other things, like exercise, diet and state of mind, can all have an effect on how well it works for you."

PICTURE YOURSELF WELL

Getting started with visualization and imagery is as simple as closing your eyes. In fact, a brain (as well as an open mind) is all the "equipment" that you'll ever need when using visualization to help the body heal. Say you have asthma. Picture your bronchial tubes opening and then cleaning them out with a vacuum cleaner. Do this for about ten minutes, twice a day.

This visualization guides the body toward healing, says Dr. Green. (But don't stop using your asthma medications without close supervision by your health care provider.) Visualization can also be used as a preventive measure, she notes.

In general, though, it's probably best to learn how from a psychologist or psychotherapist who is trained in using imagery or visualization and can help you find images that best work for you, notes Dr. Norris.

If you want to try imagery or visualization for yourself, these guidelines can help get you started.

Sit quietly and comfortably. Then start deep breathing--that is, breathe in and out with your eyes closed and your stomach 'soft,' says Dr. Gordon. Let that softness spread from your belly into your legs and upper body, breathing deeply.

"At this point, I take people using guided imagery on a little trip--walking down a road, going off the road, crossing a meadow, stepping into a clearing," he says. "Or I ask them to mentally visit a place where they feel completely comfortable."

Imagine a bright white light. To utilize imagery for general good health, says Dr. Lal-Tabak, picture a bright light going through your body, surrounding and protecting you, keeping out negative energy. Do it for about 15 minutes twice a day--once in the morning and once at night--she says.

Do it daily. Whether you select a healing image from your mind's image gallery, follow imagery suggested by a professional or practice "maintenance" bright light imagery, experts say that you should practice regularly. "It's a skill that you really can sharpen," says Dr. Green.

Daydream at your leisure. Aside from doing visualization and imagery, you can daydream whenever you have a moment, says Dr. Green.

"Daydreaming is a way to learn how to get into the quiet state and let the images come to your mind," she notes. "So learn to be more creative by turning on your mental eye, relaxing and getting into a state of reverie." Then add the images that come to your "databank" of healing visions.