Visualization

Visualization is any technique for creating images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a  message. Visualization through visual imagery has been an effective way to communicate both  abstract and concrete ideas since the dawn of humanity.

Many people aren't aware of how powerful visualizing can be in their lives. In fact many of us are  doing plenty of visualizations every day. The problem is that most of us are doing visualizations  to create the life we don’t want; we are often using it to imagine the worst outcomes of things or  worrying about the future. If you can remember the time when you worried so much about  something that it actually happened, is probably a good example of using visualization to create  the life you don’t want.

Visualization isn’t something fluffy used by people who aren’t living in reality. It's quite the  opposite; it's used by a whole array of people who know how to use it to bring about positive  outcomes in their life. Many athletes including Olympians use it to excel in their sports. The  benefits of visualizing is also there for children; research from Beijing Institute of Physical  Education and University of Ottawa found that child table tennis players between the ages of 7 to  10 performed better when they used visualizations (mental imagery).

Interestingly, research has also found that people who imagine themselves performing a task,  improve their performance in that task without physically doing anything.

In order to visualize and manifest the kind of life you want, it's very important to have a clear idea  of what you want and why. This can be achieved by understanding what you value and what brings  you the most joy in life. Have you ever had that moment when you were doing something and felt  joyful doing it? If yes, then that is a good sign of something you might want to have in your life.

This is one of the most important steps. When you want to manifest the life you want, you have to  create a clear vision of what it should look like. You can write this down in detail or you could  create a vision board. This will help you to create a clear and full picture of what your life would  look like.

Once you are ready, you can take a moment to start envisioning the actual outcome. Start to  imagine the sights, the sounds, the smells and even the taste of achieving what you want. As you  go along, don't forget to feel the emotions you would feel, as if this "life" was your reality now.  There's a saying that “Rome was not built in a day.” Similarly, the life you want to create won’t  happen in one day but will eventuate in a series of days and actions of working towards your goal.  Don’t get too caught up with how far you are, instead focus on the present and set yourself daily  or weekly actions to get to where you want.

When creating the life you want there, you will be faced with challenges. In fact one important tip  when you are doing your visualizations is to imagine yourself facing these challenges and most  importantly overcoming them.

As you visualize the life you want and utilize the five steps above, you will start to find your life  reflecting your visualizations. Remember many people including celebrities, who started without  much in their lives.

The more details you have in a visualization the more real it will seem, and the more it will increase  performance as the brain starts to develop neural connections that result from the repeated visual  image along with enhancing motivation that increases the likelihood of taking an action toward  your goal. For example, if you think about wanting a piece of chocolate cake but immediately  dismiss the thought, you quickly forget about it. However, if you think about a piece of chocolate  cake, close your eyes and spend a few minutes really imagining the details, the creamy frosting,  the warm moist cake, how wonderful it would taste, savoring the image until your mouth starts to  water, your drive to get a piece of cake would increase dramatically.

At this point, your brain's natural problem-solving process will go to work helping you develop a  plan for how to obtain what you want. You might start to think about stopping at your favorite  bakery on the way home from work. The best way to create detail and enhance the quality of your  simulation is to picture and describe it using all of your senses. Keep adding in more detail until  the process starts to feel as real as if you were actually experiencing it.

