So you have decided to give creative visualization a go, yay … good for you.  I promise that with time and practice you will come to love it as much as I do.

I can almost guarantee that you will find yourself teaching other Creative Visualization Virgins this fantastic mind/body/spirit relaxation breathing technique as well.

Here is an introductory exercise to help you get started by teaching you the absolute basics of creative relaxation and visualization.

First of all as with the majority of similar-type relaxation exercises you need to be wearing loose-fitting clothing and be either comfortably sitting up or lying down.

Ensure that the room you find yourself in is warm/cool enough without you over-heating or feeling chilled to the bone.  Make sure you are as comfortable as possible so grab a blanket if you think you will be needing one.

Dim the lights and/or close the curtains and do not forget to switch off any other electronic distractions.  You have permission to even hang a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door.

When everything has been done and you are in a comfortable position then it is time to close your eyes and take 3 or 4 slow, deep breaths in, holding the breath for at least 5 seconds before exhaling out.

After a couple of minutes of breathing in and breathing out it is time to focus your attention down towards your feet and legs.

You are wanting to progressively relax your whole body by starting with your toes and working your way up by slowly allowing the relaxation process to drift upwards until you feel completely relaxed and without a care in the world.

Relaxation is the first part of this exercise and it is only when you are fully relaxed that you commence the creative visualization process.  As you gain confidence of this technique through consistent practice you will take less time to get yourself into a fully relaxed state of being.

As mentioned the second part of this exercise is to visualize.  It does not matter what you choose to think about but it is important that you first set a positive intention.

You may choose to visualize a Colour, an Object or even a Person.

Lets focus on you imagining a person shall we.  Think about someone you know (or would like to know).  Picture an image of this person in your mind and try to hold on to that image.

If you see a clear, sharp image of this person virtually straight away it means that you are naturally a ‘visual person’ and you will have no problems with creative visualization.  For those that do not, it simply means that it will take you a little longer to master this technique and like most things in life the more times that you practice something the better you will become at doing it.

For this particular exercise, all that is important is that you can ‘imagine’ the person in your mind.  There is no right or wrong way of doing this.

Now that you have a visual  image or picture of this person in your mind think about something that ‘stands out’ about this person or think about an ‘incident’ that involved him or her.  It might be something exciting or mundane, just experiment with your ‘imagining process’ until you can see this incident in your mind.

Finally imagine you and this person doing something together, again it makes no difference what it is that you decide to do, but what is important is the process of you imagining this event.

Once you have imagined this clearly, take a few slow deep breaths in and out, have a stretch and open up your eyes.  You have successfully undertaken a creative visualization exercise and with time and practice you will be able to do this no matter where you are, etc just by closing your eyes and shutting out any distractions.

Practice this exercise as often as you can, choose a different person, object or colour to visualize each time you do so.

You can improve your ability to ‘see your visualizations’ by looking at a painting or photograph for a few minutes and studying it intensely before closing your eyes to see if you can recall it in your mind’s eye.  With practice you will be able to recall the item that you were looking at in detail.

You are now on the way to using creative visualization to make powerful and lasting changes in your own life and you will no longer considered to be a Creative Visualization Virgin!