How To Use Visualizations for Anxiety

Struggling with anxiety? Let’s be honest: a lot of us do!

The Anxiety & Depression Association of America estimates that 3.1% of U.S. adults have Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Another 2.7% have Panic Disorder, and 7.1% live with Social Anxiety Disorder. Millions more experience chronic stress at levels that can trigger or worsen anxiety.

Trying to get through your day can feel like an insurmountable task. Luckily, we’ve got a secret weapon for you to live anxiety-free: you can use visualizations to help manage and reduce your anxiety levels!

In this post, we’re going to share with you some highly effective visualizations you can use to control and limit your anxiety, along with tips that will help you incorporate them into your day.

Put the advice below into practice and you’ll find it much easier to get through even the most stressful day far less affected by your anxiety.

Why Using Visualization to Manage Anxiety 

Meditation has been proven one of the most effective anxiety management tools you can use. Experts agree that these techniques can "allow us to become more aware of the stream of thoughts and feelings that we experience, and to see how we can become entangled in that stream in ways that are not helpful."[1]

As many studies have discovered, using meditation techniques can help to combat anxiety, worry, stress, and depression. In one study [2], researchers found that meditation and mindfulness practice led to not only significant stress reduction, but also lower anxiety levels and less distress post-treatment.

Visualization is just one of the meditation techniques you can try when you’re feeling anxious, but for visual people, it can be a way to engage more or even all your senses to calm your mind and relax your body.

Visualization Techniques for Managing Anxiety

Below, we’ve collected a few of our favorite visualization techniques to help you get your anxiety under control. These six anxiety visualization techniques can do wonders to help calm your mind and banish anxious thoughts during both the day at night.

Try for as much detail as you visualize the peaceful scene or beautiful place, breathe, focus, and let your imagination take you away to a relaxing place of peace.

Technique #1: Birds Flying Away

Imagine that you’re sitting outside on a beautiful sunny day. The sunshine is bright, there are no clouds overhead, the sky is a gorgeous crystal blue.

Take a moment to feel the warmth of the sun on your skin. Feel the light radiating over your body, and feel your spirits lift in the brightness and warmth of the beautiful day.

Now it’s time to bring in one of your common anxiety-inducing thoughts.

Whatever causes you stress or triggers your worry, bring that to the forefront of your mind and focus on it for a moment. Then transform that thought visually into a bird. Take all of the anxiety-inducing thoughts plaguing you and one by one mentally transform them into a flock of birds.

Then send those birds flying away. Watch their progress as they take off through the beautiful sky, flying up, up, up toward the sun until they disappear, and you feel calmer and more relaxed now that your problems have flown away.

Technique #2: The Perfect Beach 

Close your eyes and try visualizing yourself on a perfect beach. The sand is white, the sun is warm, and there’s a cool island breeze wafting past. You can even smell that fresh salty ocean scent, and hear the waves washing up onto shore.

Picture yourself lying on your back in the sand. Feel the softness of the sandy ground beneath you, and picture yourself sinking into that sand.

Breathe deeply and let the tension drain from your body as you listen to the sound of the waves, feel the calming breeze and warmth, and relax into the soft, soothing comfort of a quiet beach.

Technique #3: Double-Paned Window 

This is an excellent one to use when your head is spinning with a lot of negative thoughts.

Take all of those thoughts and make a conscious effort to stop hearing them in your own voice, but someone else’s voice, maybe lots of someones. Try imagining that you’re at a dinner party, and all of those anxious thoughts are the conversations taking place around you.

Now, step outside the house until you’re alone, with all of your anxious thoughts as the "guests" inside. Reach for the window and visualize yourself closing it. The window is a thick, double-paned window that blocks out all of the sound. You will be able to see the guests talking and know the anxious thoughts are still there, but you can no longer hear them.

You’ll find yourself much calmer without those anxious thoughts rattling around in your head.

Technique #4: Floating Leaves 

Picture yourself sitting next to a gentle stream in the middle of a forest. Around you, there are tall trees that block out everything else in the world, leaving just you and that stream right in front of you. Hear the stream gently trickling, feel the coolness of the water, and bask in the silence of the isolated forest stream.

Now, bring forward one of the negative or anxious thoughts that have been bothering you. Take a moment to focus on that thought, then visualize it being transformed into a leaf.

Drop that leaf onto the stream, and watch it being carried away downstream on the current until it’s gone from your sight. The leaf will move at its own pace, but eventually, it will vanish, leaving you with one less thing to worry about.

Repeat this with the rest of your anxious thoughts, until all of the leaves have disappeared downstream.

Technique #5: Ball of Yarn 

When you’ve had a particularly stressful day, picture yourself sitting on your favorite chair or couch, somewhere you feel relaxed. Imagine that you’re holding a ball of yarn in your lap. That ball represents all of the tension and anxiety that’s winding you up.

Now, picture yourself finding the end of the ball of yarn, that one loose thread that you can begin to pull. Slowly, begin unwinding the ball of yarn, pulling on the string until it becomes longer and longer, and the ball begins to loosen up and unwind.

As the yarn unwinds, you’ll feel the tension in your body relaxing, too, and you’ll find yourself far less wound up once you’re done.

Technique #6: Smoke on the Wind 

Bring all of your anxious thoughts to the front of your mind, and imagine them like a big, dark, grey, stinking cloud of smoke. Make it into the thickest, heaviest cloud of smoke you can imagine, the kind that you would never want to be around.

Now, let that smoke drift up into the air, where it’s caught on a breeze and carried away. Picture the dark grey cloud turning into light grey as the wind dissipates it, then turning into tiny wisps, and finally vanishing altogether.

As the smoke leaves you, so too your anxiety will vanish on the wind.

Tips for Effective Visualization 

Meditation is not a skill that comes naturally to many people. Honestly, most people will find it challenging at first. Quieting our minds and wandering through our imagination is not easy to do initially.

Here are a few tips that will help you effectively develop this anxiety-fighting skill:

Carve out time

Time is crucial for calming your mind and banishing anxiety.

You can’t relax and focus on the imagery if you’re worrying about what you have to do next or that you’ll run out of time. In order to really get into it, you need to make time for meditation.

It doesn’t have to be a long period—you can meditate for 5 minutes, 15 minutes, or 50 minutes. What matters is that you set aside the time and make it the only thing you have to do.

You can set an alarm to go off to alert you when time is up, freeing you up to focus on the visualization exercises.

Find a quiet space

Quiet plays a significant role in calm. It’s hard to shut down your mind and drift through mental imagery if there is noise and chaos all around you.

To make it work, you have to find a quiet, relaxing space where you can get away from the hustle and bustle of the world.

Close your office doors and windows. Close your bedroom doors and windows. Go to a park or forest. Find a field that is far enough from a road or highway you can’t hear cars passing. Go to your backyard, attic, basement, even closet or pantry.

Wherever you can find quiet, go there and use that for your visualization exercise.

Get comfortable

Comfort is also crucial for meditation. When you’re trying to relax, the sense of pain or discomfort your body feels can prove distracting—maybe even to the point it pulls you out of your visualization technique.

Find a comfortable chair to sit in. Get into your hammock or lie in bed. Lie on the grass or sit on a park bench or with your back against a tree.

You’ll find it much easier to practice visualization if you’re in a comfortable position.

Pair with breathing techniques

It’s always good to start your meditation with a few deep breaths. But to really be effective, you may need to take it a step farther and pair your guided imagery with relaxation breathing techniques.

For example, try box breathing, 4-7-8 breathing, belly breathing, alternate nostril breathing, or whatever deep breathing techniques work best to help you clear your mind and focus on your creative visualization.

Bonus: You can also use progressive muscle relaxation to slow your heart rate and put your body into a relaxed state.

Be patient and practice regularly for best results 

You’re not going to be good at it right off the bat. It’s completely normal to get distracted from your guided visualization or mental imagery. Practice self-compassion and give yourself a break. Give yourself time to grow more accustomed to meditation as it will be a precious self-care act in the long run.

Ultimately, practice is what will make you proficient at any meditation or visualization techniques. Set yourself a small amount of time per day—even just a few minutes to start—and repeat the practice EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Within a few weeks or months, you’ll find you become far more adept at pushing aside distractions and focusing on guided imagery or practiced visualization techniques.

Conclusion

Visualization—and all meditation, really—is an incredibly useful tool for managing stress, restoring positive emotions, and calming your nervous system. No matter how busy or chaotic your everyday life may feel, you can regulate your anxiety symptoms and reduce stress through mindfulness practice.

Use the techniques and tips above to get started with your visualizations for anxiety today. Though it will take time to get accustomed to the meditation practice, it will help you feel calm and reduce feelings of worry or stress pretty much right away.

Pair these techniques with the help of a mental health professional, and it may just be the key to a healthier, happier, less anxiety-plagued day!

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best exercise for anxiety?

There is no single "best" exercise for anxiety—all forms of exercise can curb stress, regulate anxiety-inducing brain neurochemicals, and calm the mind and body. However, research shows that Yoga, running, swimming, dancing, and cycling can all be excellent for managing anxiety.

Which food is good for anxiety?

Foods rich in antioxidants (such as dark chocolate or blueberries), tryptophan (such as almonds or bananas), and Omega-3 fatty acids (such as flax seeds) are highly effective at reducing anxiety. Chamomile tea is also an excellent calming beverage that can help you to manage anxiety and stress.

What are anxiety rituals? 

Anxiety rituals are mental acts or behaviors that you create and feel you have to perform in order to cope with or control anxiety or obsessive thoughts (such as repeating a motion or phrase, common with OCD). Often they are repeated to an excessive degree.

Resources

Anxiety Disorders – Facts & Statistics

[1] https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/mindfulness/

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3772979/