This Monday, my friend, Eric Sze, and I presented a beneficial health trend called guided imagery to our class. We chose this topic because our teacher had recently introduced a concept called “mindfulness” to us. Mindfulness is the phenomenon in which a person is aware of their every move and breath, essentially a form of meditation. Furthermore, at the start of class every day, the entire class participates in a short form of meditation by listening to a bell ring, closing their eyes, and breathing deeply until the ring can no longer be heard. The most interesting things that I learned while preparing for this presentation were that it actually increased certain white blood cell counts and is very commonly used in hospitals and therapy centers all over the world. When I was researching the physical benefits of guided imagery, I discovered that guided imagery increased levels of T-cells and natural killer cells, both types of white blood cells, for breast cancer patients. I also learned that many hospitals and therapy centers use guided imagery to help their patients cope with pain and treatment that they are receiving. My topic is important for health and wellness because it can be used so widely by anyone at anytime. The way someone experience guided imagery can be changed depending on how the person prefers it, which means that it can be altered depending on the person’s problem/condition. Because of that, it can be used to help cancer patients deal with pain and treatment, but can also be used on a daily basis to reduce stress and pressures of daily life. It can also be used to improve performance, whether it be mental or physical; it can improve memory and mental agility, but it can also improve sports performances. For example, famous Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps is known for thinking of a calm and relaxing place and taking deep breaths before competing in a big race. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give myself a 9 because I think I contributed a fair amount of work into the powerpoint presentation and tried to involve the class in the activity. However, I feel as if I could have contributed more to the powerpoint in terms of content; I contributed mainly to the content of the activity and the anatomy of guided imagery, but my partner contributed the transition slides and technological aspects of the presentation, such as the insertion of video links and sources. I think that guided imagery is a very important form of meditation that should be weaved into a person’s daily schedule due to its effectiveness. Guided imagery can take as long as one wants, whether it be one minute or two hours. However, although guided imagery can be made short, reducing duration does not reduce the effectiveness of guided imagery. In the documentary about mindfulness that we watched during class, I learned that even big corporations like Google use meditation and variations of guided imagery every morning before everyone starts their work; the Google executives truly believe that these few minutes of meditation improve their performance throughout the day. Overall, guided imagery is a great technique that everyone should try to experience at least once in their lifetime!
Powerpoint: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JMyUBnP6vkWn9Sko1xTnXCH3X8GZRDSxJ-ZAYUEkQeA/edit?usp=sharing
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