This article is in our series featuring pain management techniques to help you decrease and cope with pain. It’s your at-home pain management class!
Guided imagery helps reduce pain even more directly than relaxation exercises through the use of suggestion. An image is paired with your pain, and by imagining decreasing or changing the picture in some way, your pain may also decrease. This exercise uses the image of special water.
There are several ways to use this exercise:
- listen to the audio on our website
- read through the exercise and then do it from memory (it doesn’t have to be done exactly as I’ve written it)
- tape record the exercise yourself, then play it back and listen (record it in your cellphone!)
- have someone else read or record the exercise for you
As you try guided imagery, notice if you benefit even more than from using relaxation exercises.
Your assignment: Do a guided imagery exercise at least once a day