Visualization: Eyes Wide Shut!

Let me start out by saying visualization may be different for each and every person. I know people that think they cannot visualize. I think that is usually due the fact that it is called visualization, which makes it seem like you can only do it if you are a visual thinker. Not everyone is. But you can still visualize.

Only about 10% of people have Eidetic vision (think Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory and can see images in their minds like a movie). For the rest of us that have non-eidetic visualization. Well…

Do you have an imagination? How do you imagine? How do you dream? How do you think?

The answers to these questions will tell you how you can visualize. Are you a conceptual thinker? Can you hold a concept in your mind and concentrate on it? Well, there you go. That is how you visualize.

Can you think of how something feels, smells, tastes, etc.? They are the ways you can visualize. The idea is you can concentrate and hold an idea (whether it is an image as you would see it with your eyes or now) in your mind and be able to concentrate on it as if it were REAL! That in a nutshell is visualization.

Ok I guess that is it for this post! Just kidding!

There is way more.

Why should you learn and practice visualization? How does it really work? Does it even work? What is the science behind it?

First of all, if you are a spiritual practitioner or practice Wicca or Witchcraft. Visualization it the foundation of spell work. All spell work or manifestation involves visualization. The better you can visualize something and put emotion behind that visualization the better the outcomes will be to your spell work or manifestation.

Many very successful people credit their ability to visualize as a key to their success.

Visualization is training your mind to experience something. Remember when we talked about affirmations. Visualization in this way is like affirmations, and the more real it feels to you the more your subconscious mind will believe it is real. Then it will take steps to make it real. You don’t have to know how at the start. You just have to take action on the opportunities as they present themselves.

It also helps you build self-efficacy. If you can see yourself doing something or having something, you can believe that you can do it. It will help you have the motivation to get off your butt in make it happen, and more importantly believe that you actually can!

It can improve your performance. In sports athletes both practice and visualize to improve their skills. Practice builds the muscle memory to complete the skills. Visualization builds the neural pathways to deliver better results. You don’t have to be an athlete for this to improve your results and productivity. It also teaches us to focus. Which is harder and harder to do in today’s multi-everything world.

It can help you overcome anxiety. By rehearsing it in your mind and picturing a good outcome helps you be calm and take control of the situation. If I am really nervous about something (like a difficult conversation) I will also visualize the worst-case scenario as well. What is the worst that can happen? How will I deal with that? If you have true anxiety issues that may not be the best path for you. For me it helps me see that no matter what the worst thing my over thinking mind can come up with I can overcome, helps me get past that fear.

Sometimes visualization may help you discover what you don’t want. You may think something is what you want and as you begin to visualize it the whole way through you may find that it isn’t as appealing as you first thought. This can save you loads of time and energy, and sometimes money as well.

Visualization can be supported by Neuroscience.

Here is the key, your brain cannot distinguish between you visualizing or imagining doing something and actually doing it. So the more you do something and the more you think about it the stronger an imprint is made on the brain. The stronger the imprint the easier it is to recall and remember it.

According to the International Coaching Academy’s Neuroscience and Visualization Research Paper, “If you exercise an idea over and over [in your mind], your brain will begin to respond as though the idea was a real object in the world.”

The paper continues:

"The thalamus [the part of the reality-making process of the brain] makes no distinction between inner and outer realities, and thus, any idea, if contemplated long enough, will take on a semblance of reality … The concept begins to feel more attainable and real, and this is the first step in motivating other parts of the brain to take deliberate action in the world."

In other words, when the same parts of our brain are stimulated when we visualize something as are when we physically do something. They both activate the motor cortex of our brains directly. Visualizing changes our how brain networks are organized, creating more neuro pathways and connections between different regions.