The Hindu Business Line : Imagine you are ...

HOW do you help overworked and stressed minds relax and get ready for some creative thinking? How do you help people understand the power of their minds and imagination?

Seasoned facilitators use some very interesting visualisation exercises to do this. Look at this exercise for instance.

Participants stretch and rest their heads on the backs of their chairs. The body is relaxed and their hands are hanging loose. Those wearing spectacles have removed them. Some have removed their ties and loosened the collars too.

The room is almost dark because of the dim lights and the participants listen to these instructions with eyes closed.

"Imagine you are sitting on the banks of a river. It is a beautiful day. It is mid-morning and you can feel the breeze on your face.

"You observe a huge tree in front of you. One of the tree branches extends over the stream. As you watch, one small little leaf detaches itself and slowly falls on the river stream.

"Then you do something very interesting. You say to the leaf, `you are my friend, do not go' and with the power of your mind make it stay. To your surprise the leaf stays!

"A little while later the leaf tries to leave, but you make it stay. This goes on for a while and finally the leaf pleads with you. `Please let me go. I must go and join all my friends who left earlier.'

"Then with a lot of compassion in your heart and a smile on your face you say to the leaf: `OK. Go if you must. But wherever you go, promise me you will have fun.

The leaf flows with the stream and gradually vanishes out of your sight."

This exercise is a revelation for many people. Participants vividly recall what they were able to see and how they felt. They `see, hear and experience' things beyond what is described. In several cases, people are able to recognise the particular spot from Kulu Manali or Grand Canyon or some place in Japan.

It surprises participants that they could travel several thousand kilometres and `see, hear and experience' things so vividly. They are happy to discover the power of their own imagination.

Visualisation is a useful technique to help people unwind, reduce stress, relax and most importantly trigger imagination.

You can choose different times of the day to use visualisation exercises. Participants quite like a simple visualisation exercise soon after lunch. It is useful when you want participants to forget the past and the present and get ready to imagine the future.

You can initiate people into a visualisation exercise by giving them gentle instructions. You can use interesting music. One facilitator I know uses an interesting device. He keeps a single candle in the middle of the room. He switches off all lights and darkens the room completely. He posts someone near the door so that no one can enter the room during the exercise.

Participants close their eyes and the facilitator gently gives them this instruction. "Imagine ... you are dead." He goes on to say that, they have the option to be born again and so on. This exercise is very powerful and truly helps people detach themselves from the present and the past.

Another interesting way to trigger people's imagination is to use story stems. Try this one, for instance.

"It is early in the morning. It is still dark. A train steams into Central Station. A man gets out of the train and walks with his bag towards the taxi stand. Just before he reaches the taxi, he has a massive heart attack and passes away. Someone who is watching him quickly relieves him of his bag, wallet and all valuables. He is now lying there without any identity."

The facilitator asks the participants to complete the story. This is a good exercise to start the day and sets the mood when their stories are read aloud.

Sometimes, it is useful to get people to imagine the future and live there for a while. They specifically answer questions about how life is different. What they are able to do more of and less of. What new things they were able to attempt and so on. This helps people create a road to the future.

We must recognise that in today's high-pressure, high-speed world most people do not know how to create time and space for themselves to relax. The two-minute visualisation exercises are powerful devices that help them unleash their own creativity.

Managers who have to run meetings and manage groups will find it useful to get themselves a copy of the book Guided Imagery for Groups by Andrew E. Schwartz. He describes fifty visualisations that promote relaxation, problem-solving and creativity.

Next time you plan to run a meeting see if you can test how visualisation works for you.

(The writer is a creativity consultant and Partner, IDEAS-RS.)

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