A new deck of self-help cards is bringing a fresh wave of attention to visualization, the act of closing your eyes and imagining scenarios for healing and personal growth. The deck, Creative Visualization , is from visualization visionary Shakti Gawain, whose best-selling book of the same name brought the practice of using imagery to the fore. That original book began with an invitation: “Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request and every thing your heart truly desires must come to you.” Gawain promoted the idea that we manifest our own destiny, that thoughts have power, and that we have more control than we realize.

I haven’t seen a copy of the 50-card deck (it comes out on February 9), but I hope it contains her classic techniques like the “Pink Bubble” in which readers are encouraged to block negative energy by imagining themselves in an orb of glowing, pink-tinged light.

Another shot of visualization inspiration is a new book, Creative Visualization for Beginners by Richard Webster. It will cover visualizing good outcomes in “business, health, self-improvement, relationships, and nurturing and restoring the soul,” according to the publisher's description.

My favorite visualization book isn’t new, it’s a classic: “Healing Visualizations; Creating Health Through Imagery ” by Gerald Epstein, M.D. It teaches you to start any imagery session by placing both feet on the ground, hands resting palm up on your knees. He prescribes poetically named images in specific doses for everything from conjunctivitis to anxiety. For example, in Blowing Away the Dark Clouds to ease “a general feeling of blueness” (perfect for these short winter days), the frequency is “as needed for up to one minute.” And what you do is this: “Close your eyes and see dark clouds above you. As you stand under these clouds, see yourself blowing them away to the left by blowing out three breaths (in imagery, not physically). Then look up in the sky to the upper right and watch the sun enter the sky above you. When finished, know that the blues have gone and open your eyes.”

Deceptively simple and deceptively effective. Studies have found that about 90 percent of the brain regions used for imagining images are the same ones we use when we actually see.