Review the steps of the exercise before beginning. Find a quiet and comfortable place to practice. After completing the relaxation activity, reflect on what imagery seems to help you relax the most.

• Step 1: Sitting or lying quietly, allow yourself to imagine a place that is relaxing to you. This can be any scenario that you associate with feelings of warmth and serenity. Allow the concerns of the day to fade away as you focus on placing yourself in your desired relaxing imagery.
• Step 2: Imagining yourself in your chosen scene, notice different elements of the scene. Some people hear sounds such as birds chirping or waves breaking on shore, or they feel the warmth of a fire. Allow yourself a few moments to adjust to the mental imagery.
• Step 3: Keeping your image in mind, begin your slow and controlled breathing, then continue for a few minutes, allowing 10-second pauses before starting a new breath.
• Step 4: Now add the self-statement "I am calm and confident" with every exhalation of breath.
• Step 5: Continue in your imagined place while breathing and using the self-statement for about 2 minutes.
• Step 6: Stop and experience the calmness in both your body and mind. You will notice that the image, controlled breathing, and the use of self-statements enhances your feelings of wellness and tranquility.

If you continue to practice this exercise, you can also employ it when you are under stress or before an encounter that you anticipate will be stressful. By simply taking a moment to call the relaxing imagery to mind and breathing deeply with your self-statement, you will be able to call forth a more relaxed state.

Here are some other resources on breathing and mindfulness practices: https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/integrative-complementary-medicine/mindfulness-practices. 

More resources on guided imagery are here: https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/integrative-complementary-medicine/guided-imagery.