Visualization Difficulties

I started my spiritual journey after leaving Christianity by looking at Paganism. I continued to read and study more about spirituality and energetic/metaphysical healing as I was/am dealing with chronic illness. Virtually every book I read emphasized visualization. So of course I tried it. I experienced flares of physical symtoms and crashes virtually every time I tried doing the visualizations, even ones that were supposed to be healing. It was so frustrating. These things were supposed to be helping me. Yet every time I just felt worse.

Besides divination, one of the first practices I worked with was shamanic journeying. I connected with a shamanic journeying group and we met twice a month. I LOVED it! I loved the people in the group, doing the journeying, meeting with my guides and gaining insight. I found that after journeying I would crash physically. While it’s supposed to be healing, I would have significant flares of my chronic illness symptoms afterwards. I would rest for a few days and recover. I continued on because I loved the people and the experience so much. But each time the crash would happen.

I was so frustrated and confused. Visualization and journeying are supposed to help me and be healing. I found them to be quite the opposite. I just couldn’t understand. Was I experiencing some sort of blockage? Was I subconsciously keeping myself sick?

I started looking into this more. An article I was reading about chronic illness and pacing helped me finally understand. For people with chronic illness, any type of exertion can be draining to us. Exertion isn’t just physical. It can be mental, emotional, etc. So mental exertion can be just as tiring as physical exertion.

BINGO! Visualization IS exertion, mental exertion. Apparently, with my chronic illness issues, the mental exertion of visualization is just too much for me. It leaves me feeling drained and brain foggy. So I’ve gone against the “conventional” recommendations and I don’t work with visualization. It just leaves me feeling worse, rather than better.

I bring this up because I decided to try a shamanic journey not too long ago. It’s been nearly a year since I last tried. I used a 10 minute shamanic drumming track from Spotify, rather than actually drumming for myself. I got some interesting information. Unfortunately I experienced a significant flare/crash afterwards. I had to go lay down for a nap pretty much right after. I didn’t feel great after I woke up. The rest of the evening I felt weak, sore, and brain foggy. I didn’t start feeling improved until I did a personal crystal healing session before I went to bed. Even with that, it took me a while to figure out which crystals to use that didn’t make me feel worse and actually helped. That’s not usual for me.

So shamanic journeying is still out for me, along with visualization. I’ll keep on with Tarot/Oracles and working with my crystals and stones. I’ve also had some nice experiences lately with mindfulness and some concepts of Buddhism that I read in Toni Bernhard’s book “How to Wake Up, A Buddhist-Inspired Guide to Navigating Joy and Sorrow.” I’m finding these concepts particularly helpful and comforting lately.

So don’t feel bad if certain techniques don’t work for you. Find what does work for your individual needs.

Have you found any healing techniques to be difficult for you? Please feel free to share in the comments.



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