Visualization exercises
If you were in a good mood and suddenly found yourself feeling agitated, upset, or off after interacting with someone who was in a bad mood, then you might have picked up their emotions. Or maybe you were feeling compassion fatigue after interacting with disgruntled or hurting people all day.
Just as a smile can spark another smile, all emotions are highly contagious. With awareness and intention, you can maintain your good mood or protect yourself from compassion fatigue.
First, check in with yourself:
- Does it make sense for me to feel this way?
- Is this mine? Or am I picking up what they are feeling?
Second, imagine their emotions and energy as separate from you with these visualization exercises.
Rooting
- Standing or sitting, feel the floor or chair supporting you
- Imagine roots emerging from your feet or legs, grounding you.
- Like a tree, the energy from the roots travels from your feet to the top of your head. You may feel your spine straighten.
- Imagine all of the emotions that you picked up flowing out of you, down through your feet, and disappearing into the ground.
Boundary Bubble
- Imagine a bubble or force field boundary around you at arm’s length, protecting you.
- It can be made of anything: rubber that bounces off other people’s energy, metal to forcefully keep it out, a neon light, etc.
- Imagine that the other person and their emotions are outside of your boundary.
- Feel a sense of calm or relief come over your body.
- Repeat as many times as needed.
Guided audio:
Boundary Bubble audio (7.5 minutes)
Example of how to use a visualization exercise:
Nurse Adrienne is struggling with compassion fatigue, feeling drained from caring for Emergency Room patients all day. She does a rooting exercise and feels her energy perk up a bit.
Then she checks on a patient, who is quietly moaning in pain. Adrienne pauses, visualizes a bubble around her and the patient’s pain outside of the bubble. Feeling calm and present, she goes to help the patient.