Guided Imagery, Visualization, and Hypnosis May Speed Injury Healing

Is it possible to speed up the process of injury healing utilizing the mind? These mind techniques including visualization, self-Hypnosis or guided imagery are proved to be really effective in the healing process by many researchers. As per these researches, these techniques manipulate the mind to divert towards the positive energy and in turn assist the immune system to heal quicker. 

This idea has been popularised recently, but this doesn’t mean that it is new as using mind techniques for healing is really old phenomena. Now there are certain experiments that prove their effectiveness like in one study, the researchers study two injured athletes where one of them healed quicker than the other and the key differences between the two individuals were that the one who healed faster had these qualities while the other did not:

• Positive Attitude all the time
• Kept an expectation of complete recovery 
• Used various visualization techniques including imagery
• Was socially backed
• High Motivation, determination, and desire

What is Imagery?

For many people, the term imagery is new and for them, we will explain what the term means. Imagery also known as Self-hypnosis, mental rehearsal or guided imagery is a process used by many athletes and is part of sports psychology.

As part of the process, the person uses his mental imagination or senses to imagine an outcome in the form of sensations, feelings or mental imagers where the outcome is exactly what is desired.

As mentioned earlier, there have been numerous researches that support the fact that practicing imagery assists in faster recovery. It can be used by anyone but most commonly it is used by cancer patients, injured athletes or others going through physical rehabilitation. The positive results of these techniques are as follows:

• Reduction in pain
• Reduction in Hospital time
• Less anxiety
• Less post-operative pain
• Better mood and quality of life
• Improved motivation
• Self-care feelings
• Therapeutic Advantages
• Faster speed of injury healing
• Higher level of control 

Time of Using Imagery Techniques

As earlier mentioned, there are many types of Imagery Techniques in sports psychology. They are recommended to be used for stress management, sports performance enhancement, pain reduction, and injury recovery.

Use for Reduction in Pain

The more stress the muscles are holding, the more pain will be felt, so as a result of using these imagery or self-hypnosis techniques the person and his body relaxes that in turn reduces the pain. The amount of pain that a person feels is directly connected to the brain. When we use these methods, we are training our minds to relax and take it easy that calms the body’s pain sensation and results in reduced pain.

Imagery for Healing

Just like we use self-hypnosis for the reduction in pain, people use these techniques for enhancement of their healing process and recovery as well. The people combine these methods with other ways that may sound absurd but have been proved as legit like reading the favorite comic or warm colors.