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Using Guided Imagery to Get Lighter

By Jill Place, MA, RD

Method Acting helped me get lighter. You see, when I was younger, I had a lot of emotional problems. I also had an eating disorder. At the same time, I was studying acting with Lee Strasberg, one of the most famous acting coaches in the world and the creator of Method Acting. Method Acting was like therapy. We were encouraged to explore things that happened to us by using all our senses. Lee always told us that the senses remembered everything. When I trained, I relived all the joy AND all the trauma of my life through what I saw, what I touched, what I tasted, what I smelled, what I heard . . . what I experienced with my senses. It was great for my acting. But training that way also opened up an emotional Pandora's box for me. I began to act out not only on the stage, but also in real life.

Fortunately, a fellow actress introduced me to a therapist who was instrumental in saving my life. This therapist used guided imagery, a kind of directed daydreaming similar to some types of acting techniques. To me, guided imagery was like an extension of my acting training. I was able to use my well-trained senses to re-experience traumatic events in my life in a positive way. I was able to heal. And today I consider myself one of the most well-adjusted, happy people I know

Guided Imagery CAN Heal

You don't have to take acting lessons if you want to be happy and well-adjusted. But guided imagery CAN help you in any type of healing process. Maybe it's because the body doesn't know whether the sensory images you experience in your mind are real or not. I understood that firsthand when I trained to be an actor. If my acting exercise was remembering what it felt like to be cold, my body would be trembling just as much as when I built a snowman in the deep of winter in my native New York. If my hand remembered the texture of a silver medallion given to me long ago by a boyfriend, I would burst into tears.

Images obviously affect the body in profound ways! This is because, as guided imagery pioneer Belleruth Naparstek says, "images in the mind are real events to the body." These images can change you physically and mentally. [See The Power of Images and Symbols.] For example, numerous guided imagery studies with cancer patients showed that patients had less pain, felt more positive, and lived longer with regular guided imagery practice. If people with life-threatening illness can have better outcomes with guided imagery, getting lighter should be a snap. [See Why Imagery Techniques Work and Evidence of a Mind-Body Connection.]

You can also learn to focus better and reduce stress with guided imagery. The act of sitting quietly and breathing deeply is a form of meditation. And the more you imagine yourself in a safe place, or hear a tinkling fountain, or picture yourself relaxing every part of your body, the more your body learns how to focus and let go. And when you focus and let go you can experience change more rapidly and feel more in control of your life.

Healing Overeating with Guided Imagery

I can't stop raving about the benefits of guided imagery for people who want to heal from eating disorders or compulsive overeating. With guided you can change the images you have in your mind that that make you overeat.

Picture this. You jump out of bed one day and think, "Today I'll start a diet!". You eat a high-fiber, low-fat breakfast of oatmeal and fruit and think you've got it licked. By lunch, you're craving chocolate cake but manage to eat a salad instead. By evening, you break down and binge on chocolate cake. Than you hate yourself and eat some more. What dieting behaviors do you do on a regular basis? I'll bet they're similar to this one.

Now imagine different possibilities. For example, imagine that you're repeating the day I've described above and, instead of binging on chocolate cake, you can see yourself not only eating low-fat, healthy meals all day but relishing them and having them totally satisfy you. Swapping that deprivation—binge chocolate cake image in your mind with with a more moderate eating picture can help you weigh less. You can do this with guided imagery.

Meeting your Overeating Selves

Another way that guided imagery may help you get lighter is by meeting the part or parts of you that overeat. I think clients will call me crazy when I tell them there's a part of them that wants to eat healthy and a part that wants to overeat. Instead, they instantly agree with me. They know instinctively that a part of them is trying to sabotage their efforts to eat well.

With guided imagery, you can meet these parts of you. And once you recognize them, you can begin to nurture them in other ways so that they don't need food as a coping mechanism anymore. Once you recognize them, you can also begin to get in touch with a healthier self that can take over the burden that your overeating self has borne for so many years. And, as a result, you can develop a better relationship with food and with yourself. To learn more about overeating selves, read "The Tale of Three who Got Lighter."

Guided imagery is a great tool to help you change your food behaviors. It's also a great tool to help you change your life. If you haven't done guided imagery before, I recommend you begin with Suggestions for Getting Lighter With Guided Imagery. You might even want to take the free online classes on guided imagery offered by Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT. If you are already familiar with this technique, you can go directly to the script called Eating: An Experience in Five Acts.

© Copyright 2002, Jill Place, MA, RD