Practice mental imagery—creating detailed sensory experiences in your mind to achieve goals, reduce anxiety, improve performance, and promote healing.
Visualization techniques: Guided imagery (following narrated scenarios—beach, forest, healing light), goal visualization (seeing yourself succeeding—athletes use extensively), exposure therapy (gradually imagining feared situations), body healing (imagining immune cells attacking illness).
Process: relax deeply, engage all senses (what you see, hear, feel, smell, taste), make images vivid and positive, practice regularly. Applications: sports performance (mental rehearsal improves actual performance), stress reduction, pain management, exam anxiety, public speaking fear, manifestation practices.
Evidence: strong for anxiety reduction, pain management, performance enhancement; mixed for healing claims. Brain doesn't fully distinguish imagined from real—activates similar neural pathways. Free, portable, empowering mental tool.