Visualise Your Dream Life
Here at LLLY, we have been delving into the practice of visualisation. Visualisation is where you take a few moments to imagine anything and everything that will make you happy or bring you success in life. It highlights the power of your mind and shows that it could be possible for us to program our mind and body to act in certain ways just by imagining it!
Athletes and visualisation
When you’re watching the rugby, have you noticed how the kicker will look from the ball to the posts multiple times? What he’s doing at that precise moment is visualising the ball going through the posts. He’s making his brain live the process of kicking the ball and watching it fly expertly through those goals posts before it’s even happened.
This is the same for track athletes. They have known about the power of visualisation for a long time. These athletes will imagine running the race they are about to run in as much detail as possible. They hear the noises of the crowd, they can feel their feet hitting the track and they can see how their body is moving at each moment. And then they run the race exactly as they pictured it. Cool, right?
Hypnosis and visualisation
A study of some male gymnasts at the University of Stanford in the USA showed that visualisations under hypnosis enabled the gymnasts to perform several complex tricks for the first time, even though they had been working on executing those tricks for over a year. From the visualisation alone, the gymnasts managed to get rid of timing errors in the tricks, increased their flexibility and even, so the study suggests, to concentrate their strength. All by being guided in the visualisation under hypnosis!
Your brain and visualisation
It is now agreed in the scientific world that, when you visualise an action, you actually stimulate the same brain regions that kick into gear when you perform that action. For example, if you imagine lifting up your right arm or kicking your left leg, that visualisation stimulates the same part of the brain that is activated when you actually move those body parts.
As Steve often says in his sessions, there are two parts of the brain – the conscious and the subconscious. The conscious brain is that part which we are aware of. But the subconscious brain is aware of everything – it sees a complete picture of everything happening at once. The subconscious brain is the key to the success of visualisation.
In visualisation, you use your conscious brain to imagine the actions and life you want to see. But your conscious brain cannot carry these actions out. Although it sets the goals, it is your subconscious brain that can attain those goals.
Harness the power of visualisation
Have you ever heard the phrase “Seeing is believing”? Well, many people who use visualisation now say that this phrase should be “Believing is seeing”. Anything that you can see and feel in your mind, as if you already have it, encourages amazing results in your life.
Even if this sounds a bit hippy-dippy for you, we really think you should give it a go. Just for fun. It’s one of the easiest practices out there and you never know what incredible changes you might see in your life as a result. Start with an open-mind and follow these 5 tips to help you on your way:
- Look to the future
Start off by relaxing. It helps to close your eyes to increase the images in the visualisations. Start with the question of where you would like to see your life in the next 1, 2 or 3 years. Create an image of where you are on this day in the future. What can you see? What can you hear? Who is with you? Envisage your whole day in the future in as much detail as possible. Picturing how you want your life is the first step towards creating it.
- Let your imagination run wild
Don’t hold back when you’re visualising this future life. Allow everything that you want to be there come forward. Feel no guilt when you envisage it! Just feel the things around you in your visualisation as if they are already there. But err away from creating a “fantasy land” – this mocks the visualisation and takes you away from the honesty of the life you intend to create. This could actually take this dream life further away from you…
- Listen to your champions
If you know that people are going to make fun of you if you tell them that you’re using visualisation, then don’t tell them! A great way for us to keep stuck in the same moment is to listen to what others think. Instead, talk to people who will understand and will champion you. These people want you to achieve that dream life you are visualising.
- Concentrate on the positive
Instead of visualising a world where “X doesn’t happen” or “Y isn’t acting like this”, flip this around to say what is happening and how people are acting. Live everything positively and you’ll have a much more vivid visualisation.
- Write it all down
If it’s too much to sit there and visualise in silence, get out a notebook and write about this day in the future in as much detail as possible. Where have you woken up? What can you smell? What are you hearing? What are you doing in the day? Write it down as if you are living that day in this very moment. And, above all, have fun with it! This is a really fun practice and can honestly harness incredible results.
If you want any help with visualisation practices, get in touch with Steve for a session!
