The Missing Ingredient in Your Visualization Practice

Visualization is quickly becoming one of the most practical spiritual tools out there, with high performing leaders such as Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods and Jim Carrey singing the praises of the technique. It has even been shown in multiple studies that mental practice (including visualization) can be just as effective as physical practice for athletes and other high achievers.

Many people have dabbled with visualization but have not seen the success they long for. They pictures they dream up in their head simply don’t come to fruition. Why? What can you implement into your visualization practice to make it as effective as possible?

The problem may stem simply from the name of the practice. The world “visualize” literally translates to mean “to make visual or visible/to form a mental image of.” Therefore most of us interpret the work “visualization” to mean the act of creating pictures or images in our minds.

That’s correct – but it’s not complete. Creating mental images during visualization is extremely important for calling it into your life. To create the most effective and compelling visualizations, however, you need to add one key ingredient.

You need to feel what you see.

The brain can’t distinguish between real and imaginary memories, as has been proven in many studies of the brain and explained in the Netflix series “The Mind: Explained,” Episode 1, “Memory.” This phenomenon can really mess with the accuracy of our memories of the past, but it can also be used for positive growth in the present and future. The more emotion is involved with encoding information, the “stickier” it is - that is to say that high level of emotion helps more deeply entrench a belief or a memory. This is why it’s much easier for a person to remember where they were when the Twin Towers were hit on 9/11 than, say, what their 4th grade teacher had to say about dust mites.

Using the chemistry of the brain, you can exponentially increase the effectiveness of your visualizations by simply adding emotion to the mix.

Here’s how it works.

Say you want to become an influential public speaker. In your visualization practice, you may picture yourself on stage at TEDx. You may picture the exact outfit you are wearing, the screen behind you and the color of the stage floor beneath your feet. To take it to the next level, add in some emotion. What are you feeling? Do you feel empowered, exhilarated, nervous, competent or fulfilled? What sensations are going through your body? Are there butterflies in your stomach? Are your cheeks flushed? When have you felt these same feelings before? What else do you feel?

The beauty of visualization is that you are creating the life of your dreams out of thin air, and the sky is the limit with your creation. The more detail you can add, and the more you can truly feel yourself in the scenario you imagine, the more deeply embedded the visualization will become in your brain – and the more likely it will come true in your real life.

#radiantsoul #visualization #intention