Orchestra auditions form a critical career challenge for many aspiring classical musicians. Hence, emerging professional musicians--defined as promising musicians entering the professional circuit without having yet established full-time employment--require effective practice and performance strategies to manage the demands of auditions. The…

Guided imagery is a valuable intervention strategy that can benefit children who are at risk for social, academic, and mental health problems. Guided imagery is a technique that employs imagination, emotions, and a spectrum of bodily senses (Naparstek, 1994). This particular technique can be applied in community and academic settings to help…

This paper presents a concept for designing low-cost therapeutic training with biofeedback and virtual reality. We completed the first evaluation of a prototype--a mobile learning application for relaxation training, primarily for adolescents suffering from tension-type headaches. The system delivers visual experience on a head-mounted display. A…

In a previous article (2014), this author outlined the practical use of visualisation as a way of starting lessons. The purpose of this is to create interest, hold attention, and provide some mental experience of the conceptual learning to follow. In this way, links can be created between the teaching activity in the first few minutes of the…

Objective: Lack of sleep among college students negatively impacts health and academic outcomes. Building on research that implied motion imagery increases brain activity, this project tested visual design strategies to increase viewers' engagement with a health communication campaign promoting napping to improve sleep habits. Participants:…

This school-based study analyzed the impact of RGI on lung functioning (forced expiratory volume in 1 s [FEV[subscript 1]] and forced expiratory flow 25-75 [FEF[subscript 25-75]]) and by employing a multiple baseline design across 3 high school students with asthma and clinically diagnosed anxiety disorders. The RGI intervention took place for a…

Compared four relaxation treatments for sleep onset insomnia with a waiting-list control. Treatments varied in presence or absence of muscular tension-release instructions and in foci of attention. Results showed all treatment conditions reduced latency of sleep onset and fatigue; visual focusing best reduced the number of nocturnal awakenings.…

The capacity to produce imagery has been regarded as a powerful agent in the healing process and the use of mental imagery as a healing technique is well established. Freud developed the technique of free association and Jung developed several innovative imagery techniques designed to explore the unconscious. Others have used imagery and…

While some stress in life is normal and may even be useful, too much stress can cause a number of difficulties. This guide is designed to assist early childhood teachers in understanding the role of stress in the lives of young children and in helping children cope with that stress. The guide discusses the definition of stress and the causes of…

Many students in public speaking classes have trouble finding topics and material that will support their ideas effectively. Too often students have a conceptual emphasis, substituting lengthy explanations about their ideas, in place of images, metaphors, and specific details of carefully observed events that make ideas vivid and meaningful. A…

Enhanced self-attitudes following a psychotherapeutic encounter almost always serve as an indicator of therapy success. In an attempt to enhance self-attitudes through the use of positive mental imagery, undergraduate students (N=72), divided into 4 groups, participated in 4 experimental sessions. The experimental groups imagined themselves…

The quality of changes in creative functioning resulting from training in ZEN meditation (Zazen) and relaxation training were compared. Pre-posttest changes in the two groups, as revealed by the General Linear Models Procedure, revealed that the meditation group experienced greater perceived change resulting from new conditions, expression of…

Definite increases toward internal control were shown in an experimental group which experienced relaxation, suggestion, and imagery (RSI) procedures and a control group which discussed ways of modifying locus of control in a study of Rotter's concept. The experimental group's posttreatment scores on Rotter's internal-external scale were…

Presents a series of relaxation exercises designed to calm a fidgety class: body and muscle awareness, contraction and relaxation, and visualization. (SJL)

A within-subjects, three condition design was employed to examine the effects of three relaxation techniques on blood pressures, pulse rates, and self-report measures of relaxation for 12 college students. Respiratory Manipulation Training incorporated instructions to exhale and not to inhale for as long as possible. When breathing could no longer…