Before you embark on your creative visualization journey, let’s talk a bit about relaxation and why it’s so important to the process.
Stress is our mind and body’s number one enemy. It causes many diseases – both mental and physical. In order to get the most out of your visualization practice, it’s vital to learn first how to relax completely.
The best way to begin relaxing is a technique called diaphragmatic breathing.
Take a deep breath. Do your shoulders automatically move up? Or does your belly extend? If your belly extends, you are already breathing diaphramatically. But most people breath into their chest, and that is stress breathing. Your body learns stress breathing in times of fight-or-flight, and the longer you are stressed, the more your body relies on this type of breathing. The good news is that it’s very easy to learn diaphragmatic breathing and the more you concentrate on doing this, the faster your body will re-learn that this is the type of breathing that is best for it.
To begin, lie down comfortably on your back. Put a pillow under your knees if your lower back bothers you in a flat position. Now, place one palm on your chest, and one palm on your belly, just above your belly button. Take a deep breath while trying to keep your chest still, and only moving the hand that is on your belly. This can take some practice, as it will not feel normal (and may even be a bit uncomfortable) if you are normally a stress-breather.
Breathing into your belly is diaphragmatic breathing, and will result in your belly extending as you take in oxygen, and relaxing as you exhale.
As you breathe, concentrate on keeping the hand on your chest still by keeping your chest still as you breath. If that hand moves, that means you’re breathing into your chest instead of your diaphragm.
Ideally, do this a couple times a day, until you automatically breathe moving only the hand on your belly. Performing diaphragmatic breathing at night before bed will help your brain remember to breathe this way all night. You will wake up feeling more rested and you’ll have more consistent energy during your day.
Utilizing this specific type of breathing before performing your creative visualization will enable you to quiet both your body and mind, and will help you focus better on your visualizations. Combining breathing with conscious relaxation of each of your major muscle groups will help set up both your mind and your body for greater success in your creative visualization practice.
Eva Gregory is a Law of Attraction expert, speaker, author and mentor to spiritual entrepreneurs – coaches, healers and holistic practitioners. Her passion is helping spiritual entrepreneurs go from chaos to clarity, and from clarity to cash flow by learning how to tap into their own inner guidance and merge it with proven practical business strategies to create enlightened businesses of purpose, passion and prosperity. She is author of “The Feel Good Guide to Prosperity” and “Life Lessons For Mastering the Law of Attraction” co-authored with Jack Canfield. Get your FREE REPORT, “Massive Success For Spiritual Entrepreneurs” here. Learn more about how Eva can help you at www.EvaGregory.com
