Guided Imagery
The goal of guided imagery is to shift your mood. Using a series of cues on your own or with a guide who helps you, you imagine sensations or visualize images that remind you of good feelings, happiness or calm.
How Guided Imagery Might Help
How Guided Imagery Works
A guide may ask you to close your eyes and think of a place that makes you feel safe and calm. You’ll be asked to focus on every part of that place with all five senses, including its sights, sounds, scents, the feel of objects within it, and its tastes (for example, the salty ocean air on your lips). Your guide may use elements of music therapy
as well. When you are deeply focused, you’ll feel like you’re there and that what you’re imagining is real.
What Guided Imagery Costs
Practicing guided therapy on your own when you begin to worry is a good way to stop yourself in the moment, calm down and redirect your thoughts. Staff at your cancer or community center may offer formal sessions. Talk with your healthcare team about what options are available.