10 Days of Simple Visualizations to Curb Stress and Anxiety So You Can Build the Life You Want

Day 1: Put a Stop to It

What do you do when you’re always plagued by thoughts you don’t want? The smartest visualization is actually the easiest. Try this:

Imagine you’re standing on a country road. Picture the setting, serene and quiet. The sky is the bluest you’ve ever seen. The fields around you are green, lush, and growing. Let the peacefulness of the surroundings fill you.

In front of you, there is a simple red stop sign on the corner. Stare at the sign. Tell yourself to stop. Do so as many times as you need to.

Now step back and continue in your day. Pull out the stop sign as you need to in order to maintain your peace.

Day 2: Give a Little Love

Needing a moment of peace? This visualization is one of the kindest and most fulfilling you’ll find, with the added benefit of being easy to do with a friend.

Start by getting comfortable, somewhere quiet so you can tune out distractions. Next, picture someone you care about (or the friend you’re with). Think about a person you know loves you in return. Now imagine them giving you this love in the form of a soft light, which surrounds you and fills you completely. Bask in the warmth of this light, knowing how much you are loved.

Next, concentrate on sending an energy cloud of love to this person. Imagine wrapping them in it as if you’re wrapping them in a soft blanket.

Day 3: Let it Snow!

Stress has a funny way of making us feel all agitated inside. We find our thoughts racing, and even our insides churning. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could find a way to make everything just…settle?

Visualization has a straightforward answer. All you need is to picture one of everyone’s favorite Christmas decorations: a snow globe.

Snow globes are wonderful because the more you shake them, the harder you can make the pretend snow swirl around whatever scene is contained within the globe until you have a perfect blizzard. In visualization, you’re picturing things from the moment this blizzard begins. Try this:

Picture a snow globe in your mind. Shake it hard until it’s storming with snow swirling everywhere. Now watch as the snow settles. As it does, picture yourself settling at the same time. Every chaotic thought, all those churning feelings should grow heavy and still. Embrace the stillness.

Day 4: Stop the Ride I want to Get Off!

There is nothing worse than feeling like you’re hurtling out of control. Sometimes life has a way of doing this, particularly when you’re exceptionally busy, and you have more deadlines than time.

To take back control, start with this visualization.

You’re at a theme park, and somehow, someone has placed you in the seat of a monster roller coaster. Even if you love roller coasters, you don’t want to ride this one. In fact, you want nothing more than to get off.

The problem with roller coasters is you become stuck the moment the bars come down. Locked in place, you have no choice but to see the ride through to the end.

Not at this park.

Picture the ride, picture yourself locked I, and then picture these magic words: “No. I want to get off.”

Truly, this is a magical theme park. The moment you say the words, the arms come up, and you’re allowed to get off. You’re done. End of story.

Day 5: You're Not a Smoothie

Churned up feelings can lead to anxiety and a vague feeling of uneasiness. Worse, they can even translate to physical upset. It all feels a little like being in a blender, which is why this visualization is the perfect way to take back control.

Start with the image of the blender on your kitchen counter. But instead of loading it with various fruits and vegetables with the intent of making a smoothie, you’re going to load it full of all those troubling thoughts and feelings.

Now turn on the blender. Listen to the high-pitched whine as everything churns around at lightning speed. Look familiar?

Here’s the best part. Next, you’re going to simply reach out and push the button to make it all stop. There.

With no power to make the blender go, everything will come to a halt and settle within the blender. No more noise. No more chaos. Welcome to the calm you have found inside.

Day 6: Life is Always Better at the Beach

We all need a break sometimes, especially when we’re living such busy and even stressful lives. The hard part is being able to get away. Is it hard to find the time and especially the money to pay for enough vacation to take the edge off…right?

What if you could get away anytime you liked at no cost whatsoever?

Using visualization can give you precisely the break you need. You start by making yourself comfortable. Close your eyes and picture the perfect beach in as much detail as possible. Don’t forget the way the sunlight sparkles on the water, the smell of salt in the air, or the way the sand feels between your toes. Take a deep breath, then take another, trying to time each with the rhythm of the waves.

Now you’re there. Feel the tension slide away. Your vacation has come to you.

Day 7: It's Time for a Blue Light Special

Have you ever felt like you had a black cloud hanging over you, complete with dire rumblings of thunder accompanied by bright flashes of lightning-quick anger? Maybe it’s time to use a little light to dissipate the darkness.

Using light as a visualization method has long been thought to do amazing things to revitalize energy. Why? For one thing, light is so simple. Let’s face it, some visualizations can seem complicated as you need to manufacture so much detail in your mind. This, though, is simple. Light. Even a colored light is something so easy that even a child can manage it without a lot of effort, which is why this particular visualization is perfect for those times when you’re too stressed to concentrate correctly.

All you need to do to change your day is to imagine being surrounded entirely by a soft blue light. Now, try to pull that light inside your body with each inhaled breath. At the same time, exhale out all the dreck, the yucky blackness you’ve been carrying around inside of you. Do this until only light remains, and there’s no more darkness.

Day 8: Dive Deep

 Have you ever been swimming at a noisy pool and put your head underwater? The noises around you grew faint and distant, didn’t they? The sound was muffled, almost entirely deadened by the water itself.

When you’re feeling too many voices coming at you, especially those from within which all need something now, one of the best visualizations you can do to quiet the noise involves thinking about being underwater.

Imagine if you will, water flowing down over you, filling you. You are the water itself held only within the confines of your body. This liquid you cannot be touched or torn apart by the cares of the world. After all, who can tear water? Let the voices fade, muffled by the water until they become mere whispers, so distant they cannot possibly touch you.

Stay here and relax into the visualization until your mind becomes calm and serene.

Day 9: It isn't Just Cats That Play with Yarn

Some days it’s impossible to come home from school or work and not feel all coiled up inside. All day you’ve been carrying pain, resentment, frustration, anger, and a whole slew of unexpressed things. You hold expectations and deadlines, and a world of thought all twined around inside of you in horrifying knots. It’s no wonder it’s so hard to relax!

When this happens, try this visualization. Sit down and image you’re holding a ball of yarn in your hands. Picture this yarn made up of strands of expectations and words. Take everything inside, every unexpressed emotion, over phrase frustrating you and wind it all together into your yarn ball. Now, holding onto the end of the yarn with your fingers, release the ball so it rolls away across the room. Watch the whole thing unravel until the ball is completely gone, and only the string remains.

Now let go of the string and watch it dissolve, all of it, until not a trace remains.

Day 10: Shut the Window!

Day 10: Shut the Window!

It can get so noisy in our own heads sometimes, with all the thoughts clamoring at us for attention. It’s like having noisy neighbors, who are insisting on throwing a barbecue just outside your window. And trust me, this isn’t a party you want to be invited to!

The beautiful thing about a situation like this? It can be managed so easily with a single visualization. Picture being in a room with an open window. Listen for a moment to all those voices, to make sure they’re all outside your window. Once you have all thoughts secured where you want them to be, walk over to the window and shut it. This is a nice double-paned glass window, so when you shut it, everything is locked outside. The voices fade, muffled, and indistinct, out of reach.

There, doesn’t that feel better?