Having trouble visualizing?
I’ll be honest. As soon as someone says “Antheia, think of a bright light between your hands,” I’m out. While visualization works very well for me when I’m grounding, meditating, or shielding, I find it hinders rather than helps when I get to actual spellcraft and more complicated energy work. While visualization is a skill that is very useful and good to practice, here’s a few solutions.
- Do something physical. When you’re putting up your shields, lift your hands with your shield. When you’re cleansing yourself or something, rub it down as though you were washing mud and grime off of yourself/the object. Imagine the heat of your skin is the energy that you’re putting into something. While you might feel a little silly at first, I’ve found that doing something along with your energy work can be really helpful in putting you into the right mindset. In terms of spell craft, sometimes making something that you can hold physically will help, as well.
- Command it. You will do as you please. Saying it out loud can also be helpful if you’re having trouble visualizing. “I’m raising my shields/My shields are up.” “The energy will…” “My intent is…” Simple commands can be very effective, just don’t get too caught up in having good grammar or anything. Sometimes one word works. Sometimes you might want to dictate what you feel or what you want to happen.
- Do some breathing exercises. These are not for everybody, but again, something physical for you to do. A very simple exercise is to imagine your shields swelling big big bigger when you inhale, and then coming in tight around you, right against your skin, when you exhale. Works with energy, works with some spells, helps with meditation and grounding.
- Close your eyes. Sometimes, especially when you’re a beginner and can’t see what you’re doing, just closing your eyes can make a difference. By taking away that sense, you sharpen your other senses a little more, and it gets a lot easier to practice. When I’m in a very high or low part of my mood disorder, I have a lot of trouble concentrating on magic and on energy. I find that closing my eyes can help me by disconnecting me a little from what I’m seeing and I can pay more attention to what I’m actually doing.
Again, these are things that I do when I’m having issues with visualization. If they don’t work for you, try something else! These aren’t the only ways, and you can combine them however you’d like. I’d also love to know the practices that other people use in energy work, be it visualization, one of these techniques, a combination, or something else entirely!
