This morning on Your Caregiving Journey, Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo, our happiness expert, joined us to talk about the power of visualizations. (You can listen to our show via the podcast at the bottom of this post.)
About half-way through our show, Elizabeth led us through a seven-minute visualization. It’s a keeper! When you are struggling to sleep, simply listen to Elizabeth. I’m still relaxed!
Visualizations work, Elizabeth says, because our brain responds to our message. When we tell our brain what to think by creating a visualization, we can create a new reality. More importantly, visualizations change your stress level. When you visualize yourself as being calm and at peace, you are just that—calm and peaceful.
A few tips about visualization:
- Picture yourself within your desired results or outcomes. For instance, picture yourself after a difficult conversation with a family member as being relaxed, confident and grateful for a good discussion. Be specific in the picture you form: What you’re wearing, who you are with, where you are, what you can see, smell and touch. Or, envision that, after returning home after a break from caregiving, your caree smiles and expresses happiness to see you. You can create a visualization (which becomes your solution) for any situation, relationship or problem currently present in your life.
- Schedule time in your day for your visualizations. Create visualizations while you shower—a great time-saver. Elizabeth suggests starting your day with a visualization of the day’s successes in front of you.
- Let go of what’s possible or probable. Simply imagine yourself just as you want to be.
Related Articles
- Finding the Lost Happiness (caregiving.com)
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You are a disruptor. The delivery of health care starts with you, continues because of you, and ends with you. Let's disrupt together to make the world better for family caregivers. 
Donna Ryan
Im so angry at myself…I thought this show was thursday or friday when I looked at the schedule…ok…i will put it on my to do list either one of those days to listen..
Bette
This show was wonderful. The song by Carrie Underwood (that I have referred to before) from the movie Enchanted, has a part that says: “Sometimes you reach what’s realest by making believe”. Everytime I listen to this song (which is most everyday because I really like it!), I am perplexed by this phrase. For me, what Dr. Lombardo is talking about here, applies to the song. If we lose our dreams in caregiving because it can seem mundane at times, how sad that is for us and for those around us. I love what Denise said about visualization being “A Kin to a Dream”. I will probably never be able to conduct the Boston Symphony, but I still can dream about it! (: And the positive energy that comes from dreaming can certainly be shared with our carees. (: I hope I can begin to visualize, as I continue to talk with family members about my mother…