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Getting Relaxed — Imagery Script

By Jill Place, MA, RD

Getting Started

This script is a way to begin your guided imagery session. Even if you're a pro at guided imagery, doing this short script before you go to a safe place or meet your overeating self will deepen your relaxation and make the experience more vivid.

To begin, find a place where you can relax. Some people like to sit in a chair with their feet flat on the floor or their feet propped up on an ottoman. Others like to lie on a bed or the floor. Wherever you choose to relax before your guided imagery practice, make sure that your legs and arms are uncrossed and your body is in a comfortable, open position.

Then turn on your tape prerecorded with the script below or have a friend read it. You can also turn on some music or environmental sounds or dim the lights if you'd like.

For more ideas about making your environment imagery-friendly, please read the article, Suggestions for Getting Lighter with Guided Imagery.

Getting Relaxed Script

As you begin to relax, you easily breathe in and out . . . and as you are breathing in and breathing out, you notice that your breaths are getting longer and longer and your breathing gets deeper and deeper with every breath you take . . . and now, beginning to relax a little more . . . you breathe slowly and deeply in, filling your lungs and inflating your abdomen as though you were blowing up a large balloon deep in your belly and then you breathe out, as if you were slowly letting the air out of the balloon that you filled just a moment ago . . . and once again breathing slowly, deeply, and fully in without stress or strain . . . and breathing out slowly and fully, easily and effortlessly . . . you relax even more . . .

And now returning to your normal rythym of breathing in and out . . . in and out . . . relaxing more and more . . . finding your eyelids closing slowly . . . ever so slowly . . . becoming heavier and heavier . . . until your eyes are gently closed . . .

And now as you breathe in, thinking the word "relax" . . . and as you breathe out thinking the word "release" . . . releasing anything that the day may have brought that stands in the way of your total relaxation . . .

And now sending those relaxing breaths into those places in your body where you are still holding any tension in your muscles . . . and now allowing the releasing breaths to clear away anything from your mind or body that might keep you from being calm and quiet and peaceful . . . relaxing . . . relaxing . . . releasing . . . and noticing how you feel right here and right now . . . noticing your thoughts and letting them pass in and out of your consciousness like a tranquil sailboat that glides in and out of view as you continue to relax deeper and deeper . . .

© Copyright 2002 Jill Place, MA, RD