Controlling Adrenaline Stress: Mental Imaging, 5

(Continued from "Controlling Adrenaline Stress: Mental Imaging, 4")

In my last post ("Tactical Lesson at Wal-Mart"), I linked to a story and suggested it had a connection to controlling adrenaline stress. If you read it, and if you put yourself in the place of the writer, you may have experienced an adrenaline rush. One of my sons-in-law said he felt his own adrenaline rise when he read about my being stopped by a police officer (Adrenaline Stress).

Both of these serve as examples of the power of imagination. And if your imagination has the power to create an adrenaline dump, then your imagination can create the conditions necessary for you to learn to control it. It's a matter of creative visualization.

Students of applied psychology learn that, in order to get maximum training benefit from visualization techniques, you should meet the following conditions:

1. Imagine vivid details which include not only visual particulars, but sounds, smells and tactile sensations, as well (makes the experience more real in your mind);
2. Attach strong emotion to the experience (anchors the experience in your memory).

Since your aim is to visualize a situation that stimulates a powerful and emotional hormonal response, the second point will follow if you succeed with the first.

In "Controlling Adrenaline Stress: Mental Imaging, 6", I want to help you begin to construct a vivid mental image for adrenaline stress training.