Happy Place: Visualization Techniques

[00:00:00] Mindfulness techniques are really just a set of tools to help you learn more about yourself and manage your emotions more effectively. However, sometimes you find them difficult to prioritize, maybe they take too long, or while you might experience some benefit in the moment, they don't feel that beneficial because the true effectiveness often doesn't come in until you really need them. However, when you really need something, that's the time you're probably the [00:00:27] least likely to just come up with something that's going to help calm you down least likely to just come up with something that's going to help calm you down because usually your body and your brain are stressed out in fight, flight or freeze mode. As my friend Steve Linda used to say, "When emotions run high, intellect runs low, meaning when we're in a heightened state of emotion, when we're stressed and anxious and panicked, our brain actually stops communicating it with itself effectively because it's going into survival mode. [00:00:52] Run and run or stay in fight." And stopping and thinking about things too much, logically, could mean the difference between life and death we feel threatened. difference between life and death we feel threatened. So you're often limited to the resources that you've already practiced in those moments. We don't sit down at a piano for the first time and expect to be a player concerto. [00:01:10] We can't jump into the car for the first time and expect to know how to drive it expertly. And we won't come up with a way to calm ourselves down if we don't already have the tools. But after a while of practice, you can probably start to do these things quite unconsciously to the point where you don't need to practice it anymore and it's just part of everyday life. Hey, I'm Bella Hilton from Studio Fertility. I'm an advanced life coach and NLP [00:01:34] practitioner and hypnotherapist. So today I'm going to give you a technique that's short, quick and easy and can be practiced every day in various ways. And so many of my clients and myself find so useful. In fact, I still semi-use this technique today. I've created it formally today for you as a guided visualization, but as you get better at practicing it, you won't need to do it as a guided visualization when you need it. [00:01:59] In that way it is short, quick and easy to apply and I'll give you an example In that way it is short, quick and easy to apply and I'll give you an example of how to use it shortly. The visualization is called "Happy Place" or "Safe Place" because I know many of you struggle to find that happy place right now, just substitute "safe" for happy. So I created this visualization to help my clients in many situations. Number one, on a daily basis to help them calm down their nervous system [00:02:25] quickly, to find peace and come back to a feeling that's more content, peaceful , happy or even just feel safe. , happy or even just feel safe. Two, to help them in difficult situations, blood tests, scans, difficult conversations. And three, to help their brain to know that they can still find moments of safe ness and happiness was just important. So before we do it here, I just want you to note a couple of things. [00:02:51] Number one, your brain works best in pictures, images and symbols. Much like a dream that you can't explain fully, our brains create a lot of Much like a dream that you can't explain fully, our brains create a lot of meaning and healing a lot faster in images. Two, if you think you're not a good visualizer, that's totally okay. I used to think that I had to see something as clear as my hand in front of me to be a good visualizer, but we're actually all very different. Even if you just kind of get a sense of something, you can't really see it, but [00:03:22] you get a sense of it, you're likely doing it just fine for you. Sometimes when I ask someone, "Okay, you can't visualize, we'll close your eyes Sometimes when I ask someone, "Okay, you can't visualize, we'll close your eyes , walk into a really fancy kitchen, can you describe it to your mission?" And you describe it to me. Even if you can't see it as clear as you and me, describe it to me. I've not had one person who could not describe that kitchen in full. Three, just as the visualization suggests, you will be coming up with imagery [00:03:52] for a place that makes you feel happy or safe, although the guided visualization is a bit more than that. Your happy or safe place can be literally anything and it can change. Your happy or safe place can be literally anything and it can change. For example, blood tests have never been high on my list of enjoyable activities. So when I'm having a blood test, I'm usually actually relaxing my mind by visualizing a nice hot summer day in a park with a light breeze and green grass [00:04:19] , and there's a street vendor selling amazing, delicious ice cream, and I'm sitting on a park bench, and I must have bought one from a Mertz on the stage, and I'm sitting on this park bench eating this ice cream. At other times, I've been sitting on a star looking down on the world, or even in another one I was in Bali, in an infinity pool, looking out over a forest, and though no one is actually there with me, I know [00:04:43] I could call for someone to wait on me hand and foot, because why not it is my visualization? So don't limit yourself. So that brings me into how to use this visualization. Obviously, the guided visualization will help you to calm down your nervous system, but to also start creating new neural pathways in your brain of a happy