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Author Topic: Health: Insomnia how to use visualization  (Read 4699 times)

NorthernangelNimya

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Insomnia how to use visualization
« on: December 11, 2012, 11:32:12 pm »
So I have had problems sleeping lately and I was wondering if anyone has tips on visualization? I have a hard time focusing because of anxiety and it helps when someone reads it to me. How can I use visualization by myself to enhance sleep?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!:confused:
« Last Edit: May 07, 2019, 02:42:06 pm by RandallS »

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Re: Insomnia how to use visualization
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2012, 12:08:21 am »
Quote from: NorthernangelNimya;84359
So I have had problems sleeping lately and I was wondering if anyone has tips on visualization? I have a hard time focusing because of anxiety and it helps when someone reads it to me. How can I use visualization by myself to enhance sleep?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!:confused:

 
What's helped me in the past is imagining myself in a safe, comfortable place, curled up and sleeping. I imagine the world around me as quiet, still.

Then, I let my attention drift to my fan (which is a sort of white noise machine for me). I let myself feel the bed around me, and I try to associate the comfort of the bed with the comfort of the visualization and vice versa.
Leave your darkness with me, and I will make you shine.

NorthernangelNimya

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Re: Insomnia how to use visualization
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2012, 12:17:34 am »
Quote from: Shine;84364
What's helped me in the past is imagining myself in a safe, comfortable place, curled up and sleeping. I imagine the world around me as quiet, still.

Then, I let my attention drift to my fan (which is a sort of white noise machine for me). I let myself feel the bed around me, and I try to associate the comfort of the bed with the comfort of the visualization and vice versa.

 
What if you don't have a fan? I try and use non-lyrical music sometimes which tends to work but not a whole lot. It's just dead noise and its hard to concentrate.

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Re: Insomnia how to use visualization
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2012, 12:21:43 am »
Quote from: NorthernangelNimya;84365
What if you don't have a fan? I try and use non-lyrical music sometimes which tends to work but not a whole lot. It's just dead noise and its hard to concentrate.

 
If you need sound to sleep, you may have to train yourself to get used to the non-lyrical stuff. Sleeping with only a fan was hard at first. It took about a week to get used to it.

Personally, I find that music tends to keep me up, so the fan is great.

The point is not to concentrate so hard you keep yourself awake. ;)
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NorthernangelNimya

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Re: Insomnia how to use visualization
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2012, 12:41:34 am »
Quote from: Shine;84366
If you need sound to sleep, you may have to train yourself to get used to the non-lyrical stuff. Sleeping with only a fan was hard at first. It took about a week to get used to it.

Personally, I find that music tends to keep me up, so the fan is great.

The point is not to concentrate so hard you keep yourself awake. ;)

 
Ah I see, I tend to concentrate to hard on things. I will definitely try that.

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Re: Insomnia how to use visualization
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2012, 12:55:54 am »
Quote from: NorthernangelNimya;84359
So I have had problems sleeping lately and I was wondering if anyone has tips on visualization? I have a hard time focusing because of anxiety and it helps when someone reads it to me. How can I use visualization by myself to enhance sleep? Any help would be greatly appreciated!:confused:


If you have Garage Band or Audacity (and some sort of voice recorder) on your computer, you can record your own thing to transport to a music player and listen to. The track can have soothing music in the background, or not, as you prefer it. And, you can read out whatever you should be imagining, and put it on loop on your player. I'd suggest reading out the guide words much more slowly than you think you need it to be.

By yourself, without a guided meditation audio track... I suggest:

First, if you're not lactose intolerant or allergic or pregnant and want to stay pregnant: Warm milk. Lavender. Vanilla extract. Then, physically tense and relax different parts of your body. If you can reach them, massage them. Breathe in the relaxation, breathe out the tension-- mentally scan your body for knots, and think relaxation at them. Settle into a position and conditions that you won't mind sticking with for a long time.

Second, pick a visualization that's soothing. I personally like an open grassy hill on a starry moonlit night. I'd be sitting on a wooden fence, watching sheep nudge and push their way under the fence's crossed bars.

Third: Even though it's your imagination, pay attention to every detail. Notice color, let it be. Notice texture, let it be. Notice taste, sound, smell, whatever. Appreciate it all. Engage all the senses of your body in the imagination. Then the mental concentration will follow, it doesn't always have to lead.

In the example I gave to visualize, let yourself smell the dung and the torn grass, and hear the bleating complaints of the sheep, and let the skin on your face sting with the cold, and appreciate the way the silver moonlight highlights their wool. Forget whatever you're anxious about, because this is the world that you want to be in right now (unless it's not, in which case make another one-- this sheep in the hills thing is just an example) and there's no other place you need to be. Whatever you are anxious about, will still be there when you come back, so no need to worry about leaving the anxiety alone and losing it-- it'll be there. :) And count the sheep, of course, if you're staying with the sheep-- I mean, I've heard that cures insomnia. If you're still having anxious thoughts, imagine that you're wearing a hat with anxiety inside it. Take it off and put it on a passing sheep. Another hat will be on your head and replace the one you gave away. No problem, just repeat the process.

If you get bored or anxious, you could visualize hopping off the fence and taking a walk around until it becomes a dream. Whatever keeps you engaged in the visualization.

Your anxiety might muscle into your vision in some unexpected manifestation: a dragon starts to worry the sheep, for instance. It's your imagination, so deal with it as you will... but, one thing I wouldn't do is jolt out of it and go, "grumble grumble, visualization was going so well except for that stinkin' dragon..." The dragon was part of the visualization, and if you want to visualize, then the dragon must be accepted as part of that world as well. If you don't like it, then I'd still advise dealing with it there instead of hopping right back here.

If you do hop right back here, say your nose itches or something, then do it slowly and deliberately. Let the visualization fade out, let your room fade in, appreciate the itch on your nose, appreciate the relief from the itch on your nose, and then go back to the first or second step without regret. Treat the nose-scratching as part of the whole process, with the same mentality that you dealt with everything else in the visualization, and then just loop on back to the actual visualization.

I hope that helps!
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NorthernangelNimya

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Re: Insomnia how to use visualization
« Reply #6 on: December 12, 2012, 11:57:23 pm »
Quote from: triple_entendre;84371
If you have Garage Band or Audacity (and some sort of voice recorder) on your computer, you can record your own thing to transport to a music player and listen to. The track can have soothing music in the background, or not, as you prefer it. And, you can read out whatever you should be imagining, and put it on loop on your player. I'd suggest reading out the guide words much more slowly than you think you need it to be.

By yourself, without a guided meditation audio track... I suggest:

First, if you're not lactose intolerant or allergic or pregnant and want to stay pregnant: Warm milk. Lavender. Vanilla extract. Then, physically tense and relax different parts of your body. If you can reach them, massage them. Breathe in the relaxation, breathe out the tension-- mentally scan your body for knots, and think relaxation at them. Settle into a position and conditions that you won't mind sticking with for a long time.

Second, pick a visualization that's soothing. I personally like an open grassy hill on a starry moonlit night. I'd be sitting on a wooden fence, watching sheep nudge and push their way under the fence's crossed bars.

Third: Even though it's your imagination, pay attention to every detail. Notice color, let it be. Notice texture, let it be. Notice taste, sound, smell, whatever. Appreciate it all. Engage all the senses of your body in the imagination. Then the mental concentration will follow, it doesn't always have to lead.

In the example I gave to visualize, let yourself smell the dung and the torn grass, and hear the bleating complaints of the sheep, and let the skin on your face sting with the cold, and appreciate the way the silver moonlight highlights their wool. Forget whatever you're anxious about, because this is the world that you want to be in right now (unless it's not, in which case make another one-- this sheep in the hills thing is just an example) and there's no other place you need to be. Whatever you are anxious about, will still be there when you come back, so no need to worry about leaving the anxiety alone and losing it-- it'll be there. :) And count the sheep, of course, if you're staying with the sheep-- I mean, I've heard that cures insomnia. If you're still having anxious thoughts, imagine that you're wearing a hat with anxiety inside it. Take it off and put it on a passing sheep. Another hat will be on your head and replace the one you gave away. No problem, just repeat the process.

If you get bored or anxious, you could visualize hopping off the fence and taking a walk around until it becomes a dream. Whatever keeps you engaged in the visualization.

Your anxiety might muscle into your vision in some unexpected manifestation: a dragon starts to worry the sheep, for instance. It's your imagination, so deal with it as you will... but, one thing I wouldn't do is jolt out of it and go, "grumble grumble, visualization was going so well except for that stinkin' dragon..." The dragon was part of the visualization, and if you want to visualize, then the dragon must be accepted as part of that world as well. If you don't like it, then I'd still advise dealing with it there instead of hopping right back here.

If you do hop right back here, say your nose itches or something, then do it slowly and deliberately. Let the visualization fade out, let your room fade in, appreciate the itch on your nose, appreciate the relief from the itch on your nose, and then go back to the first or second step without regret. Treat the nose-scratching as part of the whole process, with the same mentality that you dealt with everything else in the visualization, and then just loop on back to the actual visualization.

I hope that helps!

 
Thankyou this does help me, I tried a visualization last night and was dancing somewhere in the desert around a bonfire and I was dancing with Bast and other dancers.

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Re: Insomnia how to use visualization
« Reply #7 on: January 03, 2013, 02:10:19 am »
Quote from: NorthernangelNimya;84359
So I have had problems sleeping lately and I was wondering if anyone has tips on visualization? I have a hard time focusing because of anxiety and it helps when someone reads it to me. How can I use visualization by myself to enhance sleep?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!:confused:


I know you are asking for visualization help to sleep.

However, the best thing I've found to help me fall asleep quickly and sleep soundly is 7 Blossoms Tea.

It contains: Orange (Citrus aurantium), roses (rosas spp.), Linden Flowers (Tila spp.), Mexican elder (sambucus Mexicana), Chamomile (Matricaria Chamomilla), Rosemary(Rosemarinus officinalis), lemon balm (Melissa officinalis).
 
It has a nice soothing taste. I drink it hot with a little honey.
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Faemon

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Re: Insomnia how to use visualization
« Reply #8 on: January 03, 2013, 02:32:32 am »
Quote from: Forest Lady;88796
The best thing I've found to help me fall asleep quickly and sleep soundly is 7 Blossoms Tea.

It contains: Orange (Citrus aurantium), roses (rosas spp.), Linden Flowers (Tila spp.), Mexican elder (sambucus Mexicana), Chamomile (Matricaria Chamomilla), Rosemary(Rosemarinus officinalis), lemon balm (Melissa officinalis).
 
It has a nice soothing taste. I drink it hot with a little honey.

 

Mmm! :-9 Yes, a cup of warm, uncaffeinated herbal tea can be very soothing and relaxing. Personally though I would think the citrus would perk a person up too much. It sounds like that would make for a delicious weekend morning breakfast tea.

Of course, if you always have it before bed and you don't get insomnia, then the tea can become associated with sleep. I'm not at all saying that 7 Blossoms is a fake sleeping potion: routine is very important. I heard that if you have insomnia, it doesn't always work to lie in bed and try to sleep anyway. You could be training yourself to lie in bed while being wide awake (that is, the bed itself stops meaning "sleeping place" and starts to mean "insomnia place".)
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Juniper

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Re: Insomnia how to use visualization
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2013, 09:37:54 pm »
Quote from: NorthernangelNimya;84359
So I have had problems sleeping lately and I was wondering if anyone has tips on visualization? I have a hard time focusing because of anxiety and it helps when someone reads it to me. How can I use visualization by myself to enhance sleep?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!:confused:

 
I know I'm coming a little late to this thread, but there is a technique that I have been using to help me fall asleep ever since I was a child. My mother taught it to me.

Make sure you are completely comfortable, the temperature in the room is right etc. etc. Lay on your back and breathe deeply. Imagine you are breathing out black smoke, and breathing in white light.

It works a whole lot better than the counting sheep thing that's for sure ;)
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Re: Insomnia how to use visualization
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2013, 12:54:33 pm »
Quote from: NorthernangelNimya;84359
So I have had problems sleeping lately and I was wondering if anyone has tips on visualization? I have a hard time focusing because of anxiety and it helps when someone reads it to me. How can I use visualization by myself to enhance sleep?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

No visualization tips except that earplugs really help me sleep.  I found that my primary sleep issue was extraneous noise (I live out in the country where it's very quiet, so any noise at night is magnified), and that white noise just wasn't enough to mask it.  Earplugs allow me to focus on sleep and only sleep (which includes visualization).

There was a bit of a learning curve getting used to them, plus I'm so addicted now I don't know that I'll ever be able to stop wearing them, plus I had to buy an extra-loud alarm clock to penetrate their wonderful fog, plus I hope the smoke detector is loud enough to wake me if the house is burning down...what was I talking about?  ;)

Brina
« Last Edit: January 04, 2013, 12:55:23 pm by yewberry »

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Re: Insomnia how to use visualization
« Reply #11 on: August 01, 2016, 03:43:47 pm »
Quote from: Faemon;84371
Your anxiety might muscle into your vision in some unexpected manifestation

When I tried counting sheep they would always misbehave, refusing to jump over the fence etc!

Quote from: yewberry;89054
earplugs really help me

I, too, am addicted to the use of earplugs and generally can't sleep without them.  Still have insomnia, anyway, though.
« Last Edit: August 01, 2016, 03:45:59 pm by Pickle »
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Re: Insomnia how to use visualization
« Reply #12 on: August 03, 2016, 12:17:33 pm »
Quote from: NorthernangelNimya;84359
So I have had problems sleeping lately and I was wondering if anyone has tips on visualization? I have a hard time focusing because of anxiety and it helps when someone reads it to me. How can I use visualization by myself to enhance sleep?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!:confused:

There are lots of things you can try. Here are just 3:

~Make your own recording of a guided imagery with your own voice guiding you.
~Imagine you are floating in a cloud or actually BEING the cloud.. rising into the sky.
~Turn on the Cooking Channel and bore yourself to sleep! lol

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