The Power of Imagery

Can we imagine ourselves well?
by Alison Bonds Shapiro, M.B.A. in Healing Into Possibility
Originally published online by Psychology Today

Imagination is a wonderful thing. I love dreaming of trips I’ll make or people I’ll meet. Most of us use imagination in one way or another every day. We imagine what our future might be. We imagine the taste of the new flavor of ice cream that we are about to try. We imagine how we will play with our children. We imagine ourselves thinner or more fit or wiser or kinder. As children we often spend time in imaginary worlds, dreaming that we are riding on spaceships or living in castles or showing off to our friends. Images flood our minds all the time and we get caught up in them.We also can and often do imagine disasters and get caught up in those images. We see images that are not so pleasant or positive. What will happen if I lose my keys? What will happen if the pipe bursts and everything gets wet? What will happen if I back the car up and hit a post?


Whatever images we see and however much we get caught up in our imaginations, we generally believe that images are simply images, just pictures in our minds. We don’t think that images can make a physical difference to our bodies. But they can.

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