Guided Imagery and Mind Games

WHY TO USE MIND GAMES

The Sponge is a good metaphor of using guided imagery to relax and stretch deeper
into oneself. These little games might seem silly at first, but give it a try and find one
that you like. You will realize that these games will absorb your thoughts and calm
your active mind. With practice, your brain will find it easier and easier to relax and to
go into sleep modus.

Below are some more examples of exercises you can do to mindlessly “think” your
way to sleep; some entail your imagination, other get you to think a certain way. The
goal is to let sleep sneak up on you and take over without you paying much attention
because you’re thinking about something boring, imaginary, or performing a
monotonous task in your brain. Visualization can be a handy tool for detaching the
mind from the day and falling asleep quickly. Playing mind games won’t rev up or
stimulate your brain and will help with a busy mind that doesn’t seem to shut down.

LIST OF EXERCISES

These are Dr. Breus favorite exercises within the field of guided imagery and mind
games. Choose one of these to try tonight after one or two stretches. Keep trying out
different exercises to find the one that fits best to your needs.

1) Imagine being an astronaut on a space walk. You’re floating around the world,
watching the earth rotate as you weightlessly move around it. Or, imagine floating
on a cloud or out at sea on a wave.

2) Imagine that your thoughts are bubbles and let them float up through your mind
to the surface of you head and then…poof!...they disappear out of your head.

3) Picture your favorite, most relaxing place to be. The place may be on a sunny
beach with the warm ocean breezes caressing you, swinging in a hammock in the
mountains or on a desert island. Visualize yourself in that peaceful setting. See
and feel your surroundings, hear the peaceful sounds, smell the flowers or the
salty air.

4) Imagine falling deep into a vortex and the deeper you go, the closer you are to
sleep. You may find it helpful to think about riding down an elevator, or sinking
 deeper and deeper into the bed to the point where you can’t tell where your body
ends and the bed begins. As you go farther and farther into this vortex, your
breathing becomes deeper, your body becomes weightless, and your mind loses
focus. You are approaching sleep.

5) If your thoughts won’t let your mind stop, picture yourself standing in front of a
chalk board. See yourself writing down all those thoughts onto the board. Now
step up to the board and erase them all. Now admire the clean, blank board.
Continue to stare at it and try to keep your mind totally blank while doing so.

6) Describe your home village, town or city in the greatest possible detail, as though
to a complete stranger.

7) Think back to a special or eventful day in your life. Describe that day in your mind,
listing out the colors, moods, objects, and people that were in it.

8) Work your way through the alphabet from A to Z and come up with four- or five-
letter words to each letter.

9) Count backwards from 1,000 in groups of seven (i.e., count every seventh number
from 1,000).

10) Spell long words.

11) Recite a song, poem or anthem, such as the Pledge of Allegiance, and then try to
do it backwards.

12) After trying different exercises, you can start to combine them with each other and
even come up with your own exercise. All brains, minds, and lives are different, so
make sure you find a technique you feel comfortable with that calms your mind in
an easy and efficient way.