Visualization Exercises

Hold one of your hands out in front of you and close your eyes..
Breathe slowly and evenly, breathing from your diaphragm.. Relax your
mind, and don't worry if this doesn't work perfectly the first time..
Now, in your outstretched hand, feel yourself holding a fruit.. Let it
be any sort of fruit you like.. Hold the fruit there.. feel it in your
hand, feel the weight, feel the texture..  Is it smooth and heavy, or
light and rough, or something else? Imagine yourself peeling the fruit
if it needs it, and taking a very small bite.. Taste the fruit, feel
it in your mouth.. feel yourself eating the fruit.. Note the taste,
note the consistancy.. swallow the piece you bit off and feel it slide
down your throat.. Bring the rest of the fruit up to your nose.. Smell
the fruit, notice every little detail about the fruit.. Now, slowly
open your eyes, and see the fruit there in your hand.. See it as real,
and take another bite..  Taste this bite as you tasted the last one..
Finish eating the fruit, bite by bite, and when it's done, let the
image vanish.. close your eyes, and then open them again.
 

Exercising Your Inner Eye
(taken from Experiences in Visual Thinking by Robert McKim)

   Taking your time, translate each of the following descriptions into a mental image. Go back and do it again in a few weeks and then a few weeks later, and notice the difference. Notice the difference, also in the way you see things--inner as well as outer-- after you've done these exercises.

   Now sense(see, touch, hear, taste, smell) with your minds eye:

a familiar face
a galloping horse
a rosebud
your bedroom
a changing stoplight
a newspaper headline
the sound of rain on the roof
    the voice of a friend
    children laughing at play
the feel of soft fur
    an itch
    a gentle breeze on your face
the muscular feeling of running
    of kicking a can
    of drawing a circle on paper
the taste of a lemon
    of toothpaste
    of a potato chip
the smell of bacon frying
    of a gardenia
    of perspiration
the feeling of hunger
    of a cough
    of coming awake

a stone dropped into a quiet pond with concentric ripples
    forming and expanding outward

these words flying away, high into the blue sky, finally
    disappearing.

your shoe coming apart in slow motion and each piece drifting
     away into space

an orange being cut into five equal pieces and the pieces
     being arranged into equal patterns
 

Apple Visualization

Visualize an apple.  Hold it in your hands; turn it around; feel it.  Feel the shape, the size, the weight, the texture, the temperature of the fruit..  Notice the color; the reflection of light on its skin.  Bring it up to your nose and smell it.  Bite into it; taste it; hear the crunch as your teeth sink in.  Eat the apple; feel it slide down your throat.  See it grow smaller.  When you have eaten it down to the core, let it disappear..

Repeat this exercise with other foods until you can do it very well ... ice cream cones are really fun to do!