I'm so glad you liked the site! I love it and it has inspired me to put an MP3 player on my Christmas wish list! Never did I think I'd be asking for something I bought for my son last year! Lol

Guided Imagery IS wonderful. I have done several exercises with my therapist. One for relaxation and one that was therapeuitc. The therapeutic exercise was so amazing to me! Before we began, she asked me what I wanted to focus on. It could be general or specific. I chose anxiety in general.

It started with some relaxation, focusing on my breathing... then she asked me to recall what it feels like to be anxious and to bring the symptoms on. Then I was to imagine an anxiety-provoking scenario without having to tell her what it was. She asked me to describe how I was feeling... to give her an image that would describe the feeling(s). (a closed door for me). Going back to the scenario, she tells me that in the room there are bottles from floor... to ceiling... labelled with all different characteristics one might have and to pick 3 that would help me in my scenario. (I chose assertiveness, self-confidence, contentedness).... Next I was to imagine .. silly!... that I had a funnel on my head and was pouring the ingredients from the bottle into my body through my head... feeling it flow down my head, my arms, my torse, my legs... to my toes and back up. (this is all slow... and the whole process took most of the hour). There was a part in there where she asked me to tell her something I enjoy doing (being online!) and she said that I would begin in the next few months to have thoughts of "I feel good" when at the computer. I think she was just planting that there.. .lol.. anyway. after fhe funnel/pouring part she says there is a billboard in front of me with those 3 characteristics written on it and tell her what color it is (red background/white letters). She tells me to reach out and touch it and tell her what it feels like. (too timid to really reach out, but imagined I did.. it 'felt' rough but not unpleasant, like a canvas). I opened my eyes and we talked a minute.. then she had me go back to the anxiety-provoking scenario and tell her what it was like. THIS is the amazing part! It was exactly the same, except.. where there was fear, dread, panic, terror... there was nothing! I told her the scene was exactly the same otherwise, just no terror! She just smiled and said that is exactly the way it is supposed to work! And she said "you wouldn't have believed me if I had told you before we began". I am still in awe.

I chose a flashback scenario and since this guided imagery, it has lost it's punch. It comes less freqently and without the intensity. So amazing!

ECHOES