Visualization Will Change Your Life

I am an unashamed day dreamer. It has been an integral part of how I define myself since I was really little. I mean, I remember being three or four and having one of my parents call me a "day dreamer" and it kinda stuck.

Sometime in high school I realized that I could visualize things before I went to bed and some of them would happen the next day... that's when it got cool. Once, I just wanted a candy bar during one of my classes. I spent that class dwelling on the taste candy and chocolate. Not any specific candy bar, but something sweet. Sometime that day, someone randomly had a candy bar for me. I was flabbergasted and quite humbled that I had received something I wanted so badly.

When I was a sophomore, I went to a graduation and cracked open a program-obviously to see how much longer I had to sit there. But the program had the names of all the graduates. After a while of studying the interesting names and thinking about the people I knew, I noticed that several names had symbols next to them. There was one representing an honors student, one for kids in the top twenty, one for a service seal and one for kids who had pursued a scholastic diploma. I think there were other symbols that represented the youngest graduate in the family or the fifth generation or something like that.

Many graduates had multiple symbols by their name. A handful had as many as four. I wanted that.  I couldn't control how many of my generations went to my high school, so I focused on the four I could control. I had picked a visual. And I envisioned it throughout my high school years. Eventually, I achieved it.

Final example: I was on a trip to Disneyland when I was eighteen years old, and I started imaging what it would be like to live at Disneyland. I bought myself a Mickey Mouse ring with a ruby in it (my birthstone) and determined not to take it off until I had lived at Disneyland. Plans changed slightly when I learned of a college program and I wanted to go and work at Disney World instead. Just for the record, they still offer college programs and they do for both Disney World and Disneyland and you do get credit for it. I wore that ring while living there :)

It's Worked For Other People You Might Know--

So, the technique of visualizing what it is you want to become is not new. Countless numbers of people have used this. Especially the successful ones. Here are a few examples I got from other blogs and books:

“It’s all in the mind,” says Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is five-time winner of the Mr. Universe title, a successful real estate tycoon, movie star, and at one time: governor of California. Arnold has it made, but it wasn’t always so. Arnold can remember when he had nothing except a belief that his mind was the key to getting where he wanted to go.

“The mind is really so incredible. Before I won my first Mr. Universe title, I walked around the tournament like I owned it. I had won it so many times in my mind, the title was already mine. Then when I moved on to the movies I used the same technique. I visualized daily being a successful actor and earning big money.”

Michael Jordan used to visualize his game. Taking his last shot in his mind before taking his first shot on the court.

Jim Carey used to envision himself as the world's greatest actor.

Tiger Woods used this technique since before he was a teenager. (Or so they tell me).

The boxing legend, Mohammad Ali stressed the importance of seeing himself victorious before the fight.

I watched this technique unfold on an Amazing Race season. I was struck by the winners. Throughout the season, they had visualized winning every morning. And they won. They verbally attested to the power of positive thought as they were accepting the money.

A Little Bit of Science

While I don't feel that all things need to be proven scientifically,  I LOVE studies and observations and experiments. ESPECIALLY when they seem to describe something that I have experienced personally.

A blog by AJ LeVan MAPP on psychologytoday.com cites several incidents and also a study that would connect the power of the mind to the realization of situations in the physical world:

"A study looking at brain patterns in weightlifters found that the patterns activated when a weightlifter lifted hundreds of pounds were similarly activated when they only imagined lifting.  In some cases, research has revealed that mental practices are almost effective as true physical practice, and that doing both is more effective than either alone. For instance, in his study on everyday people, Guang Yue, an exercise psychologist from Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio, compared “people who went to the gym with people who carried out virtual workouts in their heads”. He found that a 30% muscle increase in the group who went to the gym. However, the group of participants who conducted mental exercises of the weight training increased muscle strength by almost half as much (13.5%). This average remained for 3 months following the mental training." Blog link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/flourish/200912/seeing-is-believing-the-power-visualization

She also goes on to say:

Brain studies now reveal that thoughts produce the same mental instructions as actions. Mental imagery impacts many cognitive processes in the brain: motor control, attention, perception, planning, and memory. So the brain is getting trained for actual performance during visualization. It’s been found that mental practices can enhance motivation, increase confidence and self-efficacy, improve motor performance, prime your brain for success, and increase states of flow – all relevant to achieving your best life!

Theories on Why It Works

Many people (me included) imagine that you attract what you dwell on.  Your subconscious mind begins to accept what you constantly think about. As we accept these desires, we begin to change our habits and behavior. People are put in our path. Opportunities open up.

Our thoughts have the power to mold us into who we want to be and what we are surrounded by. And they do that by influencing our actions and habits.

This is also true of fears. If we dwell on them, they happen.  SO-don't live in fear.

Back to dreaming and hope and love and all that.

Ideas For Immediate Application:

This is all exciting stuff, huh? Here are a couple suggestions as to how you can incorporate visualization in your life.

1. Build your goal. Decide what it is, specifically. How does it feel? What does it smell like? What other senses are associated? Where are you? What does it look like? Is it warm? Hot?

An example: If you want to be a farmer, what does your farm look like? Where do you live in relation to is? Can you smell freshly turned soil? Do you feel the clay in your hands? Where are you going to buy seed? What size of farmer are you? Are you large-scale? Organic? WHEN do you want it to be true?

2. Write it down. (Preferably by hand). In high school, one of my friends said something about the written word that really resonated with me. She explained to me how the written word was a miracle because it was a way to transform something intangible and unseen to a physical medium that people could see and understand.

Writing down your goal will help you build specifics. It will be a good memory tool and there is power in the action of it. I was told at one time (and am too lazy to find any scientific study right now) that writing notes by hand committed the information to memory significantly better than typing them or just listening to the material. Whatever principle makes that true, I am sure plays into your power to make the goal happen. So, strengthen you goal by writing it down. By hand.

You could try writing it as if it has already happened. (Date it in the future.) Describe you state of being. Describe the goal and how it was completed in detail.

Hypothetical Example:

February next year

The seats in my new care are smooth leather. The smell of the new car fills my senses as I grab onto the stick shift. I can see the red reflection shining off the glass windows as I drive down main street.

I bought the car with less than 100,000 miles on it, cash. After saving money from my new job.

I am so grateful for it and I ride it everywhere. I go out to the movies with friends, we blast the sound system and open the sunroof.

3. Dreamboard. Visually print out images of actual or symbolic representations of your dream. For those of you artistically inclined, you can draw it. I go online and print out specific pictures. You can cut them out of magazines too. Some people have a physical board in their room that they tack pictures to.

I know people who make a collage on their computer before printing it out.

Pick a house you want to live in. Or the people you want to meet. Show the places you want to go. If you want to work for a specific company, find a picture of its building. If you want to write a book, find a picture of a book You might even draw the cover or write the title of your concept. I will admit to having a specific castle on my board.

4. Remember it. Think of it often. Put meditation in your morning routine or think of it in the shower or in the car. Put a dreamboard where you see it every day. I like to buy rings to remind me. I consciously think about my goals when I see these rings. My goals are always with me. When I get really anxious or am having a bad day, I have a playlist of songs that help me visualize where I want to go. I play it in the background of mothering. Which is great because being a good mother is one of my biggest goals.

If you've ever been part of a network marketing company, they know the power of this visualization tool. They often have you think of how rich you're gonna be and then provide you a way to do that-selling for them. I have nothing against network marketing. I'm part of two.  But I want to point out that there is more than one way to achieve what you want. Just because people show you one path to your destination doesn't mean its the only path.

The Courage to Believe it

It takes courage to believe enough in a dream to begin to build it. Sometimes writing it down seems silly. Visualizing it seems stranger. Even if no one else knows. The biggest critic is usually our own voice. And oddly enough, we become our biggest threat to our potential and joy and success.

Build it anyway. Write it down anyway. Dream it anyway. Dream from the heart up. Not the head down. Don't logic it to death because miracles happen. DREAMS HAPPEN!

If you can't find it within yourself to write or dream because you don't feel capable,  I understand. I've been there. Here are somethings that have helped me.

1.Write down 100 things you're grateful for.
2. Write down ten things you value about myself. (Eye color, determination, dream capacity, imagination, love, hope..., etc) Repeat these things and you begin to heal.
3. Once, I wrote a single positive phrase about myself fifty times. I forgot the phrase, but it was something like " I can write."
4. Pray. I believe in God and I lean on him. I pray all the time.
5. Fasting. I do this in conjunction with praying. I don't drink or eat for 24 hours and focus on my relationship to my Heavenly Father and my worth as his daughter.
6. Naps.
7. Fast from the screens. TV, computer, phone, tablets. Spending time hiking and in nature promotes healing also.


Conclusion:
The technique of visualizing your dreams--aka day dreaming-- is a powerful tool. You attract what you dwell on and more impressively: you shape who you are by your thoughts. Taking time to build and experience your dreams will lead you to change your habits and actions. Opportunities will open up and you'll meet people who will help you reach your goals.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Questions for the Reader:
1. Do you have any experience with this visualization technique?
2. What are some ways you remember your goals?
3. Do you have a dreamboard already? What's on it?
4. If finances and commitments weren't an issue, where would you be in this very moment?
5. Did anyone get why I put the Kermit picture up there?