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 reduces pain through suggestion and images. An image is paired with your pain, and by decreasing or changing the image in some way, your pain may also decrease. Today’s guided imagery uses a sunset as the image.

Guided imagery with a sunset image

There are several ways to use this exercise:

• listen to the exercise in the audio on the 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 for yourself to do (you can even record it into your cellphone)
• have someone else read or record the exercise for you

As you try this guided imagery, see if you begin to benefit even more than with a plain relaxation exercises.

Your assignment: Do a guided imagery exercise at least once a day.