Try free for 7 days.

00:00

00:00

Confidence & Visualization

Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:

Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to talk about how to use positive imagery in anticipation of a potentially stressful event. One of the most common questions that I get from people is, Cory, how do I calm down before this stressful event? My mind is all over the place. There's a lot of energy in my body. I tried to focus on the breath, but it's not working.

Help! My response to that is instead of trying to calm down, imagine the event going amazingly well. Usually in anticipation of something stressful, if we're feeling stress it's because we're imagining all the ways the event could go poorly. We have different imagery in our mind. That's negative and different thoughts in our mind that are negative. One of the quickest ways to shift that is to create more positive imagery.

Why is this so important? Well, the physiological experience of anxiety is nearly identical to the physiological experience of excitement. The main difference there is the meaning we place on the experience. So if you're feeling your heart racing, your palms sweating, and a lot of energy going on in your body, but you're imagining a potential negative event happening, you're going to interpret that as fear and anxiety. But if you're feeling those same physiological experiences, but imagining the event going well, you're going to interpret it as excitement. So in anticipation of your next potentially stressful event, if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, instead of trying to calm down, see if you can instead, imagine the event going amazingly well and see how that impacts your experience.

Thank you for your practice. I'll talk to you in the meditation and take care.

Cory Muscara

4.6

Confidence & Visualization

Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:

Duration

Your default time is based on your progress and is changed automatically as you practice.

Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to talk about how to use positive imagery in anticipation of a potentially stressful event. One of the most common questions that I get from people is, Cory, how do I calm down before this stressful event? My mind is all over the place. There's a lot of energy in my body. I tried to focus on the breath, but it's not working.

Help! My response to that is instead of trying to calm down, imagine the event going amazingly well. Usually in anticipation of something stressful, if we're feeling stress it's because we're imagining all the ways the event could go poorly. We have different imagery in our mind. That's negative and different thoughts in our mind that are negative. One of the quickest ways to shift that is to create more positive imagery.

Why is this so important? Well, the physiological experience of anxiety is nearly identical to the physiological experience of excitement. The main difference there is the meaning we place on the experience. So if you're feeling your heart racing, your palms sweating, and a lot of energy going on in your body, but you're imagining a potential negative event happening, you're going to interpret that as fear and anxiety. But if you're feeling those same physiological experiences, but imagining the event going well, you're going to interpret it as excitement. So in anticipation of your next potentially stressful event, if you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, instead of trying to calm down, see if you can instead, imagine the event going amazingly well and see how that impacts your experience.

Thank you for your practice. I'll talk to you in the meditation and take care.

Cory Muscara

Cory Muscara

4.6

Duration

Cory Muscara

Play in-app

Scan the following QR code with your camera app to open it on our mobile app

Get Unlimited Access

Start your mindfulness journey today.

A Mindfulness Plus+ subscription gives you unlimited access to a world of premium mindfulness content.

Over 1,800 meditations, sleep, calm music, naturescapes and more
Daily mindfulness video meditations 365 days a year
100s of courses and tools to help manage anxiety, sleep and stress

Available on

Join our free newsletter

Discover exclusive events, first access to new features, community stories, and a monthly curation of our best mindfulness insights.

Email Missing

We couldn’t detect your email with the SSO provider you have selected.

Mindfulness Guarantee

We are here to make a positive impact on the world. We never want to sell you something that hasn’t helped you live a better life. That’s why if you’re unhappy with any purchase from us, you have 30 days to get a full refund and your money back.

If you subscribed to Mindfulness Plus+ and are unhappy with your purchase, please get in contact with us within the 30-day period and we’ll refund your purchase.

Learn more about our Mindfulness Guarantee.

Mindfulness

Bring balance into your everyday life.

We believe in a world where everybody has access to the life-changing skills of mindfulness.

2,000+ Guided Meditations
Daily Coaching
Sleep Content
Mindful Exercises
Mindful Radio
10+ Courses from world-class teachers

Private Browsing

Added to your cart!

Thank you for joining us

Dive into the full library and enjoy all it has to offer!

Claim your free access

Create a mindfulness account and we’ll unlock this premium session in your account forever.

Start a free trial to play this session

7-Days free trial, cancel anytime.

Finish personalizing your account

Complete a few quick questions to make your own personalized mindfulness plan.

Mindfulness

One membership to gain access to a world of premium mindfulness content created to help you live happier and stress less.

2000+ Guided Meditations
Courses from world-class teachers
Resources for Stress + Anxiety
Breathing exercises, gratitude practices, relaxation techniques
Sleep meditations, playlists, stories
Mindful talks, podcasts, music, nature sounds