Guided imagery: how to do it, health benefits, and more

Are you feeling stressed? Take some deep breaths, close your eyes, and transport yourself to a peaceful place in your mind. Imagine how that place looks, feels, tastes, sounds, or smells. Relax there for a few minutes.

Now, open your eyes and notice how you feel. Do you feel more relaxed? If you do, that’s guided imagery in action. 

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Guided imagery is a stress management and relaxation technique that people can use to relieve stress and calm their bodies and minds. It is a type of mind-body exercise, like progressive muscle relaxation, mindfulness meditation, breathing exercises, and visualization. 

With guided imagery, you visualize a calm, pleasant setting in your imagination and focus on it while breathing deeply, pushing out negative or stressful thoughts (Felix, 2018). It is similar to visualization meditation but different in that you’re not purely focusing on the visuals and rather focus on all five of your senses (sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch) to bring the scene to life in your mind.

Guided imagery can help people calm their bodies and minds during stressful situations and provide an effective technique for improving mental well-being (Nguyen, 2018).

Compared with a control group, studies show these techniques help people reduce their stress and achieve a state of relaxation (Toussaint, 2021). 

Guided imagery techniques may be beneficial as a complementary therapy to people coping with certain conditions, such as stress, anxiety and depression, pain, and trouble sleeping.

Reduces stress and anxiety

Among people undergoing surgery, studies have shown that guided imagery meditation can reduce both subjective and objective measures of anxiety. 

In a small clinical trial of people having gastric bypass surgery, those who practiced guided imagery self-reported less anxiety and tested for lower levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) in their blood (Felix, 2018). 

And in a group of children undergoing anesthesia, those who listened to guided imagery beforehand felt less anxiety going into their surgery and experienced less pain after surgery (Vagnoli, 2019).

Guided imagery works outside of a healthcare setting as well. When a group of nursing students listened to a 10-minute guided imagery exercise before taking an exam, most said it lowered their test anxiety (Grammatica, 2018).

Helps with certain mood disorders 

Living with a serious health condition can contribute to depression. For people in this situation, guided imagery may help improve their mental health. 

For example, some people receiving dialysis—a procedure to remove waste products from the blood when the kidneys stop working—experience anxiety and depression. According to one study, practicing guided imagery may reduce the amount of anxiety and depression they feel (Beizaee, 2018).

Cancer treatment can also cause significant anxiety and depression. In one study, a group of people undergoing chemotherapy was split into two groups. One group listened to a 20-minute audio recording of guided imagery every day for a week, and one did not (Mahdizadeh, 2019). 

Those who practiced guided imagery reported reduced anxiety and depression, while the control group’s participants had no difference in their symptoms. The guided imagery group also experienced more pain relief, better appetite, and less nausea and insomnia (Mahdizadeh, 2019).

Decreases pain

Pain is not just a physiological experience; we also experience pain on a mental and emotional level. And when we feel stressed, we may experience pain more intensely (Ahmad, 2015). Given its influence on the mind-body connection, guided imagery may alleviate your perception of pain (Carpenter, 2017). 

In a study of people with terminal cancer, combining guided imagery with progressive muscle relaxation—a relaxation technique that involves tensing and relaxing each of your muscles—significantly reduced the intensity of pain they felt and the overall distress their symptoms caused them (De Paolis, 2019). 

Guided imagery has also been shown to be effective in helping COVID-19 patients manage their muscle pain and anxiety (Parizad, 2021). 

Improves sleep

Several studies have demonstrated that mind-body interventions, like meditation and relaxation, can benefit people with sleep issues (Neuendorf, 2015). 

More research into the effects of guided imagery specifically on sleep is needed. However, some studies have reported positive results. 

For example, people with insomnia who practiced guided imagery reported improved sleep quality (Neuendorf, 2015). And in a study of people in postoperative care, those who practiced guided imagery also reported better sleep quality (Acar, 2019). 

Finally, in a study of people waiting to be discharged from the hospital, participants were offered either a complimentary massage or a guided imagery recording. Both groups reported less pain and anxiety, but only those who practiced guided imagery reported less insomnia (Patricolo, 2017). 

One of the best things about guided imagery is you can start instantly. All you need is a quiet place and a few minutes to yourself. Here’s what to do (Felix, 2018; Nguyen, 2018):

• Find a quiet place where you can sit or lie down comfortably. 

• Start by closing your eyes. Take several deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling deeply.

• Imagine a place. Lean into all five of your senses to make it feel immersive. For example, if you’re envisioning a beach, ask yourself:

  • What do you see? Waves, palm trees, seagulls, sand, seashells. 

  • What do you hear? Crashing waves, a bird squawking in the distance. 

  • What do you feel? The sand beneath your feet, the beach towel in your hand. 

  • What do you smell? The ocean breeze, the scent of barbecue from a place nearby. 

  • What do you taste? Maybe just your mouth, perhaps some water or a cool tropical drink.

• You can imagine yourself sitting in the scene or walking through it. Relax and enjoy the landscape.

• Visualize for as long as you like. You can start with five minutes and then extend the time as you continue your practice. 

• Open your eyes when you are done.

Ready to experience the benefits of guided imagery? Try these tips:

• Make yourself comfortable. Wear loose clothing. Prop yourself up with pillows. Set your phone to silent, so you’re not disturbed.

• Start with a recording. It can be helpful to use an audio recording to guide you your first few times. Download a meditation app or search for “guided imagery” on YouTube. 

• Get in the zone. External cues may help immerse you in the mental imagery. If you envision a beach scene, play ambient sounds of rolling waves, or turn on a diffuser with a coconut scent.

• Rely on your memory. Choose a happy or serene memory rather than starting from scratch. You may find it’s easier to build on something you know rather than invent something new.

• Explore nature. Choose a peaceful scene based in nature instead of an urban environment, like a shopping mall. Studies showed that nature-based guided imagery reduces anxiety to a larger extent than urban-based scenes (Nguyen, 2018).

• Combine it with another relaxation method. When guided imagery was combined with massage, it lowered heart rate and blood pressure in a group of people about to undergo a heart operation (Armstrong, 2014). Combining progressive muscle relaxation and guided imagery also relieved stress and anxiety for people with breast cancer (Sinha, 2021).

• Adopt a no-judgment attitude. Like anything, guided imagery gets easier with time. There is no “perfect” way of doing it. Just enjoy and let your stress melt away.

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How we reviewed this article

Every article on Health Guide goes through rigorous fact-checking by our team of medical reviewers. Our reviewers are trained medical professionals who ensure each article contains the most up-to-date information, and that medical details have been correctly interpreted by the writer.

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Current version

April 06, 2022

Written by

Amelia Willson

Fact checked by

Felix Gussone, MD

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About the medical reviewer

Felix Gussone, MD, Ro

Felix Gussone is a physician, health journalist and a Manager, Medical Content & Education at Ro.