is over the quota Copyright © Carl Harvey of Personal Development Planet
Creative Visualization means using your imagination to change the deepest beliefs that you hold about yourself, by vividly seeing - and feeling - yourself achieving your goals. Visualization makes you more confident, happy and assured of success - and a 20 minute session a couple times a week is ample practice.
It's startling (it almost beggars rational explanation) but life really does follow the path of your visualizations. You actually get what you think about most. I've done this too many times for it to be a cosmic fluke.
I guess that's why some of the world's top business people and sports stars use these very same techniques in creative visualization...
My experience has been that if you take the time to imagine what you want, the universe conspires in your favor - and success begins to fall in your lap!
I first came across the idea of creative visualization in Dr Maxwell Maltz's classic personal development book, Psycho Cybernetics. In it, Dr Maltz puts forward a case for visualization, based on the following principle:
The human nervous system cannot tell the difference between real and synthetic (vividly imagined) experiencesSo to your brain, real memories and vividly imagined events are the same thing!
As such, if you spend your time thinking rich and fulfilling thoughts about your future, it follows that your brain will begin to believe that you have already experienced these things - and arm you with the capabilities to succeed in real life.
Given that you can train yourself to think whatever thoughts you like, this simple statement holds the key to achieving true success with your life.
You can use the power of creative visualization for almost anything. You are limited only by your imagination. Some of the best things to visualize are:
The more time you spend visualizing what you want in life, the more achievable your dreams will feel. You'll be fueled with a renewed sense of focus and purpose, and your confidence will sky-rocket.
Many people feel that they can't visualize, but in fact everybody can - it just sometimes takes a little bit of practice.
To prove this, humor me for a quick second and answer the following questions:
What color is your front door?
What side is the keyhole on?
Aha... got ya! To answer this question, you had to visualize a picture of your front door. And if you can visualize something as boring as your front door, I'm pretty confident that soon you'll be able to visualize having the life of your dreams...!
Hopefully I've sold you on the benefits of creative visualization by now, and you're raring to give it a go yourself. Here are some simple step-by-step instructions you can use to visualize your dreams right now!
This is perhaps the most important aspect of visualizing - and something that a lot of people overlook. If you take the time to note down what you want to visualize, you give your session structure. And if you get distracted, you can open your eyes, refocus, and start again.
If you like, you can break up your visualization into sections, for example, work, play, relationships and finances. Simply make a few bullet points of what you are going to creatively visualize. It doesn't have to be too detailed - just jot down a few of your goals so you have them in front of you.
Crucially, make a note of what you would feel if your visualizations were real. The more you can generate feelings of success, the more effective your visualizing will be... and the more your brain will accept these experiences as reality.
When you visualize, you need to be as relaxed as possible. It's a lot easier to imagine the things you really want when you're in a state of deep relaxation.
Focus on lowering your heart rate and taking slow, deep breaths. This will make your brain activity drop a bit too. Keep your body still, either sitting or lying down, and push away your busy mind chatter. Give yourself a few minutes to do this.
I recommend using a meditation machine or binaural beats to fast-track this process, but you can do it without - it just takes a little more practice. Using binaural beats will get you in a ready-to-visualize state in a little less than five minutes, so if you're strapped for time it's a worthwhile investment.
When you're feeling relaxed, open your eyes and take a quick look at your notes... Now you are ready to visualize!
The key is to make the pictures in your mind as bright and vivid as you can. Really see yourself acting the way you want to be. Look around and take in your surroundings. Where are you? Who else is there? Are they happy and in control like you? Take the time to meet these people and have a chat with them.
Notice what you are doing - and how you are doing it. Pay attention to every little detail of your visualization. What are you doing differently here that is different to how you act in real life? Go further into the details and uncover every last one.
Try to see, hear, smell and touch everything in your imagined world. Make the vision as sensory-rich as possible. Remember, the more detailed this image is, the better. Have some fun making the pictures of your success as lifelike as possible - and always remember to make the feelings as intense as you can.
Please remember that today, in your imagination, you are acting ideally. It doesn't really matter if your life isn't much like this yet.
The first hurdle to overcome when visualizing is facing the uncomfortable feelings of doing things that you do not yet know how to do - but the safest place to do this is inside your head. Even in your head it takes bravery and courage to address these issues - but you feel a million times better for doing so.
When visualizing, you don't even have to have faith that this is how you will act tomorrow, or the day after, or next month. If you continue to practice, this will take care of itself.
Just enjoy the feeling of watching yourself act in an ideal way for you. It's pretty fun to see yourself doing this - and it helps you realize the simple truth that if you can act this way in your head, it's likely you can act like this for real.
Finally, I've mentioned this a couple of times already, but it really is the most important aspect of creative visualization: aim to generate the same feelings of success as if you had already achieved your goals.
Play around with this. I promise you it will be worth it in the long run!
With this information you are ready to give creative visualization a go. You can find more instructions on visualizing - including some advanced techniques - at my website, Personal Development Planet. There, you'll also learn how to take charge of your life with techniques from NLP, generate an abundance mindset, get swagger and learn day-to-day tips like how to get a pay rise.
Creative visualization made a big difference in my life. By taking the time to imagine what I truly wanted, I began to get it. I'm sure it will work for you too!
