Power of Visualization
Picture this….hold out your hand and imagine being handed half of a lemon. Bring the lemon half close to you and really study it. See the bright yellow outside of the fruit…observe how vibrant and ripe it is with a white ring on the inside and a yellow juicy core. Feel a little of the lemon juice running down your hand as you hold it. Now imagine bringing the lemon up to your nose and smell it. Really take a good whiff. Sense the strong ripe citrus scent. Now bring the lemon half up to your mouth, open wide, and take a big bite into that juicy lemon. Really sink your teeth into it! Taste the poignant bitter flavor of the lemon as the zest hits your tongue.…feel your eyes squint as you bite into it and the tangy juice fills your mouth…
Ok, now stop…as you were picturing that, you could probably feel your mouth start to water and salivate a bit, couldn’t you? Were you making a sour face & wincing as well? If you were to really close your eyes and go through that activity, most of you would experience those physical reactions to that visualization.
By visualizing that activity, all of your senses were triggered causing you to have a physical reaction to a stimulus. Isn’t that interesting? A completely non-existent activity that was all in your mind made you actually have a physical reaction to it! By just merely thinking about a thought, your body reacted the same way it would have AS IF you actually experienced that situation in real life.
Hmmm, what does that tell us? Well, for one, it has been determined that the brain doesn’t differentiate what it observes in real life and what it visualizes in the mind (watch the movie “What The Bleep Do We Know” to learn more about this). When you visualize something, you stimulate the brain the same way it would be stimulated as if you actually observed or participated in that event…it then sends signals to your body, both emotionally and physically, to react as if it REALLY happened!
Have you ever found yourself picturing the worst-case scenario in a situation? For example lets say your kids or spouse are not home at the time they said they would be and they haven’t called yet. Did you wind up picturing all the horrible things that could have happened to them…imaging the worst? I bet it made you feel bad and brought on a ton of worry, didn’t it? As you visualized those bad things, your body physically started reacting to them and you started to get fearful.
That’s powerful stuff! So how can we use this to our advantage?
Both NASA and the US Olympic Team use a technique called Visual Motor Rehearsal to help them enhance their performances on the job and in their events. It is the practice of performing events in your mind prior to the actual performance. This has been shown to raise standards tremendously, both physical and mental. It’s raising your game in a ‘no risk’ environment. If you can visualize it, you can materialize it.
By visualizing things that we want to have or situations we want to experience (as opposed to focusing on things or circumstances we don’t want), we put ourselves in control of having a more positive emotional and mental state. By being in a positive emotional and mental state, we bring about good feelings. When we feel good, we set ourselves up to attract situations, circumstances, people, and events that can help us move in the direction of what we want…essentially we create better opportunities to act on.
A good way to tap into your power of visualization is to spend a few minutes each day focusing on the end result of what you want. Take 5 minutes, sit quickly somewhere by yourself without any distractions (this could be inside or outside), then let your mind construct something you want or a desirable circumstance. Really visualize what it feels like to have already attained this thing (don’t worry about HOW you’re going to get it, just focus on already having it). Use all your senses when picturing this… what does it look like, feel like, taste like, smell like etc. As you are going through this exercise, pay attention to how you feel. If you feel good, then you are on the right track. The more consistently you do this, the better. Make it a habit. Then notice how your life will begin to shift!
“If you’ve been there in the mind you’ll go there in the body.’
~ Dr. Dennis Waitley – “The Secret”
Written By:
Michele S. Brown, MBA
Success Life Coach
Michele@CoachingByCoral.com
www.CoachingByCoral.com