71. 5 Visualizations to Find Calm When You’re Feeling Stressed or Anxious

Do you ever struggle to find calm when you’re feeling stressed or anxious? We’re sharing our favourite visualizations to reduce stress and anxiety.

Our brain is a powerful thing!

When we think about things that worry us, when we imagine all the things we have to complete on our to-do list and when we picture the situations that stress us out, our body thinks that we are actually in those anxiety inducing settings in this moment.

Wherever we go with our mind, our body follows.

We created a whole podcast episode about how our thoughts create our emotions. Click here to check it out.

Luckily, we can use this mind-body connection to our advantage!

We can choose to visualize images, scenes and situations that make us feel calm and joyful and our body will begin to lower its stress response and start producing feel-good emotions.

Visualization is a great strategy to use when we’re feeling stressed or anxious to help us feel good and calm again.

Here are our 5 favourite visualizations to help us feel our best again when we’ve got thoughts flying left, right and center and we’re struggling to shut em’ down:

Scuba diving visualization:

Imagine yourself at the surface of the ocean, where things are currently feeling a little chaotic. As you dive beneath the surface, it becomes more calm and serene. The deeper you dive, the calmer it gets. If your thoughts go a little crazy, dive a little deeper. Notice how you feel.

Light bath visualization:

Imagine your body slowly filling up with a bright liquid light, from the toes, up the legs, filling the body, the arms, the tips of the fingers, all the way up to the top of your head. Bask in your light bath for a minute and notice how you feel.

Flashlight visualization:

Imagine there’s a flashlight in your mind, your flashlight of attention. Point your flashlight at your feet, notice how they feel. Now your legs, observe the sensations. Continue pointing and noticing how each part of your body feels using your flashlight of attention. How do you feel?

This visualization is a great one to use with your kiddos too, and surprise! We’ve got a flashlight guided mindfulness practice in our free Introduction to Mindfulness program.

Grab your flashlight visualization now!

Bones outward visualization:

Imagine your body from the bones outward. Focus on the inside of your bones, then the tissues surrounding your bones, then the feelings on your skin, then the space that surrounds your body. Do this for each part of your body. Notice the sensations.

Growing roots visualization:

As you sit on the floor, imagine growing roots below you, roots that are helping you nurture your body and give you life. Feel the calming and grounding sensations.

Pick one of these visualization strategies, try it out and let us know how it went below!

With calm and appreciation,

Kailey and Josianne

Dive deeper into this topic by listening to the following episode of The Balanced Educator Podcast: