Why you Should Use Creative Visualization (With Examples)
Creative visualization is the ability to form pictures or movies in your mind’s eye. We can all do this, it is not a talent reserved for those with psychic ability or any form of special gift. To illustrate this an easy beginner’s visualization task is to simply try to picture the face of a close friend or family member, simply close your eyes and picture that person as best as you can . A slightly more advanced task would be to visualize your room at home in as much detail as possible but this time change a few things, add an extra piece of furniture and slot that into the picture.
Some people will find it easy to produce a life like visualization in vivid colour full of details whereas others will initially struggle to do so. They may only be able to produce images in black and white or minus detailed features but most people can visualize the target, at least in part. The further good news is that visualization is a skill, which means it can be learned with practice.
Who uses Visualisation
A series of great sportsmen are the most easily identifiable group of people that use visualisation. Of particular note is the great golfer Jack Nicklaus who is quoted as saying:
And he is far from the only sportsmen to use this sort of visualisation, if you pick up any autobiography of a famous athlete it is highly likely that you will find some reference to visualisation in there somewhere. To read more about sportsmen using visualisation have a look at these two great articles on sport and visualisation, one from the BBC and the other from an independent science web-site.
Of course not all of us want to excel in sport, how about in business. Well, here is an interesting article about one of the wealthiest gentleman in the world Donald Trump and how he visualized his way to success.
What Should I Visualise?
You should visualise yourself the way you want to be or achieving the outcome that you most desire. This could mean visualising yourself giving a wonderful sales presentation and then closing the deal afterwards or it could be visualising yourself climbing mount Everest.
Anything you desire you can visualise as being, doing or having. These could be events that you want to come to pass in the short, mid or long term, it doesn’t matter, visualising can still help regardless of the length of time ahead the future event is going to be. If your job interview is tomorrow you can visualise a successful outcome for that if you have a ten year goal of playing professional football you can visualise that also.
Why Should I Visualise?
Visualising the successful outcome of a future event sends powerful messages to the sub-conscious mind as to exactly what you actually want to achieve giving it very precise instructions as to what you want it to bring about. It provides:
- Increased confidence that you can achieve your goal as you can actually see yourself doing it.
- Heightened focus on your goal, as if built into your routine it can serve as a daily reminder and prevent you from giving up or becoming distracted from it.
- Exact instruction to the body’s muscle fibres as to what it needs to do. This is the reason why professional athletes can use it to practise certain movements even whilst injured.
- A strong belief that you will achieve your goal which can carry you through problems which may otherwise have ended your attempts prematurely.
Visualisation And The Law Of Attraction
Visualisation is considered by many proponents of the law of attraction to play an integral part in activating it’s use, the movie ‘The Secret’ spent quite a bit of time describing how to visualise. The main visualisation scene was of a gentleman sitting in his armchair with a blindfold on imagining that he was driving his dream car.
The book that launched a million millionaires ‘Think and Grow’ rich also talks about visualisation and the important role it plays and whilst not directly mentioning the law of attraction the meaning is fairly clear. The author Napoleon Hill recommends:
“…see, feel and believe yourself already in the possession of the money”
Hill’s recommendations remember come on the back of studying the success strategies of over 500 millionaire business people.
How To Make Your Visualization REALLY Work
You need to be playing the movie in your mind of what it is you want to achieve daily. The movie needs to be as real as possible in every way. That therefore includes visualising with your other senses too. Imagine what sounds you would be hearing, would there be any particular smells, what emotions would you be experiencing. All of this sensory information can be added to your visualisation to make it as real as possible. The closer to reality your visualisation is the more impact it will have.
Daily visualization sessions are ideal and before you start your visualization it is often helpful to spend 5-10 minutes in quiet meditation to relax and calm the mind and body so that it can focus completely on the visualization session to come. Avoid thoughts of how daft you may feel and ignore comments of others who may show a negative attitude towards it and keep reminding yourself that if it can help all those people mentioned at the beginning of this article then it can certainly help you too!
Next Steps
Form a concrete idea in your mind of exactly what it is you desire and create a miniature movie of yourself being, doing or having whatever it is that you desire. Memorise and run this movie through your mind as often as possible remembering to add as much sensory detail as possible to bring it to life. Stick at it, don’t sit abut waiting for results just get on with your life and go with the flow, the results will be forthcoming sooner or later but don’t sit around agonising about them.gh your mind as often as possible remembering to add as much sensory detail as possible to bring it to life. Stick at it, don’t sit abut waiting for results just get on with your life and go with the flow, the results will be forthcoming sooner or later but don’t sit around agonising about them.
