We humans have a very unique ability — we have imagination, we can visualise. Every single person has access to this ability. Just like any other skill, our imagination can be developed and improved.
Visualisation techniques are well used by athletes who often describe how they visualised themselves running the race, jumping, hitting or kicking the ball before they physically do it in order be successful.
There has been a lot of scientific research into this phenomenon, examples such as the one I am just about to describe can be found in abundance if looked for on the Web.
In 2007, The North American Journal of Psychology posted a study where athletes who mentally practised a hip-flexor exercise had strength gains that were almost as significant as those in people who actually did the exercise (five times a week for 15 minutes) on a weight machine.
Brain scans have shown that when you repeatedly imagine performing a task, you also condition your neural pathways so that the action feels familiar when you go to perform it; it’s as if you’re carving a groove in your nervous system.
So that demonstrates that you don’t necessarily have to practice doing an activity, it is enough to practice imagining doing it.
On a purely psychological level, envisioning success can improve motivation and confidence, as well as your general well-being.
What we think about and imagine has the power to affect the state of our body. If you think about a scary situation that you have been in, or even a movie, you can recreate that tense, tight knot that develops in your stomach. Likewise, if you think about a funny incident or film, you may start smiling or giggling.
Our imagination is one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal. Therefore it would seem prevalent to use this tool more consciously than maybe we sometimes do.
What do I mean by this?
Stress is caused by our fight or flight system being activated unnecessarily when we use our imagination to consider things that could go wrong in our lives. Worrying and fretting about what other people think about us, about how we are not good enough, about how so many other people are better than us.
All this stuff is going on in the mind and causing the body to react accordingly. How much more joyful, peaceful and calm life would be if we could train ourselves to focus our attention on what we do want. We could imagine that people are thinking great things about us, that we do have all the tools and skills we need to do a fantastic job, that we are more than good enough and everything will work out perfectly.
At the end of the day, we don’t know what is in store for us around the next corner, but it is possible to control how we show up there. And we can do that by using our imagination to focus on what we want and how we want to be.
Those of you who understand about the Law of Attraction will recognise the real power of this.
Stressing and worrying about the possible horrors of life are likely to bring into your experience those horrors, whereas visioning and imagining the great things in life will bring those into your experience.
I invite you to start practising visualising what you would like in life, where you want to go, who with, how you would like to be, what you would like to experience, where you want to live etc.
If you really want to move this to a higher level, actually ‘feel’ yourself doing whatever it is. For example, if you would like to eat healthier food, imagine yourself selecting fruit rather than cookies, imagine the colours, smells, taste. Imagine touching the food with your fingers and how it feels when you bite into it. Then imagine the goodness working through your body.
Another fantastic way to help you focus on what you want in life is to create a Vision Board. A Vision Board is a large sheet of paper or board that you cover with pictures that represent the things you want in life. It is worth taking the time to consider what your dreams and desires are and why you want them. By using our creativity, we move our thoughts from our head to our heart through our hands.
It is a fun exercise which makes you feel good.
You then place your board in a prominent position in your world. This then acts as a daily reminder of you goals, dreams and aspirations which makes achieving them all that more probable.
If you are interested in creating your own Vision Board — I will be running a Vision Board Challenge in my Facebook group — Unconditional Living — starting later this week (w/c 22nd July 2019) — http://bit.ly/UnconditionalLiving.
Here I will share some awesome exercises to allow you to dig deep and discover what you really want in life and then explain how you take those thoughts into pictures.
This is the first massive step into creating a life you really want!