Thinking and meditating on pleasant images can help you to relax and decrease tension. It also can be an effective coping strategy to use when needing to distract yourself from distressing situations such as experiencing cravings to use drugs/drink or engage in self-harm. Using pleasant imagery until the distress has passed can help to prevent you from doing something you might regret later on.

To start, think of a place that is calming, relaxing, or brings you joy. This place can be real or fictional. Then begin to think of the five senses: when you are in this place, what do you see, taste, smell, touch, and hear? What is the temperature like? What positive feelings come up for you when you imagine being in this place?

Simply imagining such a place can be helpful in itself, and there are other ways to enhance these positive feelings. Drawing, coloring or painting the place may help to visualize the situation better and keep you grounded in a relaxing activity. Other ways to enhance the feeling is to try to bring different sensations to where you are. For example, if your calm place is the beach, listening to beach sounds, touching sand and water, or smelling a beach scented candle may make the experience more vivid and relaxing.

If you are interested in learning more coping skills for managing stress or distressing experiences, there are therapists at Charmed Counseling who can help. Call 509-768-6852 to schedule an appointment or consultation.