VISUALIZATION

VISUALIZE THE RLS
The bizarre thing about RLS is that it's so hard to describe. The feeling is abstract, ghostly, and intangible. Some say it's like ants crawling inside, others relate to a feeling of crawling worms or something pulling on them. As long as we can't describe it, we can't possibly know what we are mentally fighting.

Find an image you can visualize. . . . . .something that gives shape and form to your RLS sensations.

MY RLS feels as though my legs and arms are hollow, and there is a bottle brush being dragged up and down the inside, irritating the under side of my skin. Many other RLS sufferers identified with this description when I shared it with the RLS email support group. But many others said it didn't describe THEIR sensations at all.


Click here for a description of the three types of RLS I tend to experience, and how that effects the type of responses I use.


VISUALIZE THE TREATMENT
Once you can imagine or visualize the sensation, you can begin experimenting with a "treatment visualization." For instance, if you feel like there are ants crawling in your legs, you might visualize a little Taz Devil running around scarfing up all the ants. Mmmmmm...YUM!

The important thing, is to keep experimenting until you visualize something soothing. You might want to do this by staring at something soothing. Or you might do better if you close your eyes. When I was in labor with my first child, I was told to focus on something in the hospital room. The sign on the bathroom door said, "For Patients Only." If I stared at the "F", the labor pains felt sharp, like the edges of the "F". But if I stared at the "O", everything seemed rounded, soothing, and smooth. The slightest variable can make a difference.

I haven't found a really good and reliable visualization for my own RLS. I've tried visualizing heat warming things up, water flooding and washing away the feelings, and I've even pictured the bristles on "the brush" being filed away until it was smooth. I CAN tell I'm getting closer.

It makes sense, that if you spend so much time thinking about how strange and irritating the feelings are, you need to spend equal time imagining them subsiding.

Go to "CONCENTRATION"