The Secret Power of Your Imagination ☽˚｡⋆
I have something fun, empowering, and super interesting to share with you today. A tool to add to your toolkit, and perhaps a lens on visualization that may be new to you! Keep reading for more ↓↓
Did you know that your imagination is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal?
In Somatic Experiencing (SE), we often talk about the power of completing previously incomplete responses in the image channel (visualization).
What does that even mean?
Well, since SE is a trauma resolution modality, a big part of the framework we use is focused on completing nervous system responses that were thwarted during the time of the event. For example, let’s say you were in a situation were there was a deep impulse to flee (flight response) but you couldn’t at the time, you were stuck, unable to leave... that incomplete flight energy doesn’t just go away. It remains stuck at the level of the nervous system. A big part of SE is liberating that thwarted response, moving it through the system, giving it a chance to complete. This allows the nervous system to discharge the stuck activation energy so it’s not longer consuming resources in the background.
This is part of why SE is life changing for so many. When we’re finally able to complete cycles of activation that have been trapped in our nervous systems for years, we liberate more space for our true Self to shine through, instead of acting and operating from the Self that’s stuck in old survival responses.
It’s a method of both Becoming and Unbecoming, simultaneously.
How beautiful eh? There’s something poetic about that for sure.
Well anyway, back to the topic at hand: visualization as a tool to heal.
One of the ways we can complete previously incomplete nervous system responses (a.k.a. something we wanted to do in the moment but couldn’t), is to use our imagination to visualize ourselves completing what our bodies wanted to take action on. This could look like imagining yourself running away from the situation/event, even though you didn’t at the time. Or imagining yourself saying the words you wanted to say, but couldn’t at the time. Or imagining yourself pushing the person or thing away from you.
The possibilities are truly endless.
The science shows that the body doesn’t always distinguish between imagination and action. When we vividly picture ourselves moving or doing something, many of the same neural pathways activate as when we’re actually moving. Visualization can deeply influence us.
Using visualization in this way is especially powerful when we combine the mental image with tracking the body’s felt sense sensations… if possible keeping both the mental image and current physical sensations present in your awareness at the same time. This creates the most potent shifts in your nervous system blueprint.
We can also get really creative with this concept! Outside the box. For example, completing responses or renegotiating trauma with visualization can also look like imagining things that are outside of the realm of “humanly possible”… such as imagining an animal protector in between you and the person who was harming you. Or imagining an angel, guardian spirit, or trusted person protecting you during a past event when you desperately needed a safe person present. Or imagining yourself teleporting from that situation to your happy place, a real or made up location where you feel safe.
Isn’t this wildly cool and empowering to know? That you have the power to rewire and resolve old wounds and stories by visualizing a different outcome or response?
What’s also interesting to note is that this tool isn’t exclusive to trauma renegotiation.
You can imagine what you want to create for yourself today, this weekend, next year.
Imagine the person you want to grow into, the qualities you desire to embody more of, and hold a strong image in your mind while tracking your body’s sensations.
For example, one I use often is confidence. I hold the image in my mind of my most confident self, what she looks like, her posture, her radiance… then I merge that self with my now self and track the sensations in my body, in real time, of what confidence feels like. Still holding the image as I track.
So this is my invitation for you today: what qualities do you most wish to embody or embody more of? Can you see yourself embodying this in your mind’s eye? What are the real time sensations arising as you hold this image, how does your body respond?