Guided imagery or visualization is the act of forming images in your mind to calm yourself or to solve life's problems. With guided imagery you can open a wonderful new communication between your conscious and unconscious minds and solve many problems.

People with a cheerful, optimistic outlook on life often experience better health than those who are gloomy and pessimistic. Our state of the mind and our perception of the future affects our quality of life substantially. In visualization, it is recognized that the pictures created by the mind (as well as thoughts), can have powerful positive or negative effects on the health of the body. It helps people suffering from stress and psychological and emotional problems, as well as those with physical illnesses and symptoms.

In guided imagery, the patient is first taught the technique of creating a mental image. A person suffering from an emotional or psychological problem is asked to create a picture that is connected with his or her difficulty. The feelings created by the image are explored and discussed with the therapist and changes are made to the picture that, with time, help to resolve the problem

For people with physical illnesses, the image created is often aimed at helping to relieve and ease pain by creating an image of the diseased or painful area and make adjustments to it with the aim of reducing the impact of the symptoms.

Advocates of imagery contend that the imagination is a potent healer that has long been overlooked by practitioners of Western medicine. Imagery can relieve pain, speed healing and help the body subdue hundreds of ailments, including depression, impotence, allergies and asthma.

The power of the mind to influence the body is quite remarkable. Although it isn't always curative, imagery can be helpful in 90 percent of the problems that people bring to the attention of their primary care physicians.

Affirmations are a way of tricking the subconscious into giving us what we want. This kind of mental trickery keeps many people stuck in the very states they are trying to escape. If it is true that what we resist persists, then affirmations can perpetuate the very things we are trying to eliminate.

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