Rehearsing Your Healing Adventure
BY ARLENE HARDER, MA, MFT
This article is based on Experiencing Medical Procedures as Healing Adventures and is somewhat like an imagery script in that it asks you to use your imagination. However, it doesn't require you to close your eyes. Just read it through once and then as you re-read it, pause after each section and take as much time as you need to imagine yourself going through that part of the medical procedure or diagnostic test you have chosen.
Awakening on the Day of the Healing Adventure
Imagine that it is the morning of the day you will enter the clinic, doctor's office, or hospital. You awaken with a sense that this day is a very special day. A wonderful healing adventure awaits you. As you take some deep breaths to welcome the day, allow your body to be relaxed, notice how good it feels to realize that you have chosen to participate in the process that lies before you.
Creating Calm and Confidence
Imagine now that before breakfast, if you are allowed to eat and want to eat, or perhaps a little later, you set the tone for the day by playing a relaxation tape, meditating, or in some other way deliberately creating an atmosphere of relaxation and comfort. Your job today is simply to create a gentle sense of calm anticipation for the healing adventure that lies ahead. Therefore, take a moment to experience doing some of the things you will need to do before you leave home that day, letting yourself feel relaxed and at peace as you do them.
Feeling the Support of Others
Later, if a friend or family member accompanies to the hospital or doctor's office, imagine that you share with them how much you appreciate their love. Tell them you can approach this day with greater calm because you know they'll be thinking of you during the procedure. And if you go alone, imagine while you drive, or perhaps take a taxi, that your family and friends are with you in spirit, and let the warmth of that support wash over you with love and joy.
Entering the Clinic, Doctor's Office, or Hospital With Confidence
Imagine entering the building where you will participate in your medical test or treatment. As you open the door, you take a deep breath and let it out v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y, as though you are gently blowing on a candle. With this exhalation, say to yourself the sentence that affirms your decision to have treatment or a diagnostic test. As you do so, allow yourself to be confident that everything will go smoothly. Then, as you imagine signing in and listening to any last minute instructions you might need, sense what it will be like to enter willingly, and even with enthusiasm, into a healing adventure.
Waiting Calmly to Participant in Your Treatment or Diagnostic Test
Imagine you are in the reception area of the clinic or doctor's office, or in your hospital room, waiting for someone to tell you that it is time for the medical procedure to be performed. Now you look at the symbolic object (or listen to the tape) you brought with you. Notice how this helps you feel hopeful that everything will go well. Also, as you did earlier, take a deep breath and let it out slowly, again reminding yourself that you have chosen to experience this procedure as a willing participant, not as someone whose body is being acted upon.
Entering the Treatment Room With Calm Assurance
The next important step in your healing adventure happens at the moment you are called into the room for the treatment or test, or as you are being taken to surgery. You again take a deep breath, relaxing as fully as possible, and telling the person who is going to help you that you appreciate his or her skill. With a smile, you say that you expect the procedure to go smoothly.
Trusting Your Body and the Procedure
When the main event of the healing adventure is just about to begin, you take another deep breath and this time, when you exhale, you give yourself a statement slightly different from the one that affirms your reason to have this procedure. This sentence states your willingness to cooperate with the staff when they do the job you've asked them to do. So you say to yourself something like, "I trust my body to cooperate with this procedure," perhaps shortening the words to simply "trust." And because you know that your body is able to cooperate with the procedure, if you have to have a needle prick, it goes in easily and quickly. Take a moment now to experience what it will be like when you are relaxed as you go through the procedure, seeing it as a wonderful opportunity for your body to achieve health.
Receiving Relief for Discomfort or Pain
Because you cooperate with the treatment or test and aren't fighting it, you will be surprised at how little discomfort you feel. Even if you don't like shots, the prick of a needle doesn't seem so bad. However, if at some point you need medication for pain or other discomfort, you're not afraid to ask for it. You know your body will make wise use of that medication and you will only require a small amount. So now imagine being given medication, if you need it, and feeling your discomfort lessen, replaced with a sense of comfort and peace.
Feeling Gratitude for a Job Well Done
Imagine now that the procedure is completed and your body begins the process of healing as quickly as possible. It's finally time to leave for home. So you say good-bye to the staff, thanking those people on your medical team you can see, such as the doctors, radiologists, technicians, and nurses. But there are others you do not see to whom you would say thanks if you could - the scientists who work in laboratories to find a cure, the janitors who clean the building, the orderlies who run errands, and the secretaries who take care of your paperwork. So take a moment now to experience gratitude for the skill and effort of all these people and for their attention to your needs, knowing that the talents of each one of them are important to your healing process.
Creating a Blueprint for Health and Healing
The last thing to rehearse is to imagine you are sitting or lying comfortably in the quiet and peace of your own home, looking forward to the coming weeks and months with anticipation of renewed energy, vitality and health. Taking a deep breath, allow yourself to experience a sense of health and well-being in every cell of your body. Use that image as a blueprint your body can follow as it grows ever more strong and whole. Therefore, as you end this rehearsal of a healing adventure, let yourself experience a sense of vitality and wholeness throughout your body, feeling confident that your body's natural healing mechanism, together with any medicine you might need, can counteract any side effects of the treatment you have just completed.
Accepting Yourself
When your medical procedure actually happens, you may discover that you weren't able to do every step of the procedure with as much serenity and confidence as you would have liked. Rather than criticize yourself (as some of us tend to do) for not being perfect, congratulate yourself for doing so much better than you would have done had you not practiced. And remember, the more times you go over an upcoming medical procedure in this way, the more you will reinforce your intention to experience that procedure as a healing adventure.
© Copyright 1998, Revised 2002, Arlene Harder, MA, MFT |
