Visualization – a lot of self-help books and teachers ask you to do it. It is a way of turning your dreams into reality. However, you need to know how to visualize effectively for it to really work.
But first, how does visualization change your life?
How Can Visualization Change Your Life?
Most people in this world are on the beaten path, simply drifting along in life. You might notice that your friends (and maybe you too) remain very much the same after many years.
You may be one of the few who has decided to stop drifting and start living the life that you really want. And that you will not have any regrets at the end of your life. If so… Congratulations. You have taken the first step in living the life of your dreams.
If you have invested lots of money and time into various personal development programs, or tried to do it yourself without much in the way of results – perhaps it is time to give visualization a try?
Someone I know practiced visualization in the days before a very important public presentation. It was on a topic in which she does not have much experience. Furthermore, she has never presented to such a large audience before. Needless to say she did not have the confidence for the task. Finally the anxious day came and she did the presentation. Well, guess what? She wasn’t very nervous and the delivery went smoothly – a few people even came up to her after the presentation to say she did terrific. Now what makes that possible?
I do not know WHY it works. Perhaps visualizing your goal inspires you to consistently take actions that lead you towards that goal. Perhaps it’s just the way the universe works – you know, like gravity. All I know is that it does work.
Visualization will not feel like a huge effort or hard work because (if you do it right) you will feel real joy and all the other great feelings that come when you achieve your dreams. In other words, you’ll enjoy the process so much that it hardly feels like an effort to you. And once you master the art of visualization, and visualizing effectively becomes second nature to you, manifesting your dreams into reality would be incredibly easy and lightning quick!!
“I am so happy and grateful now that…”
Before you can start visualizing, you need to know what it is that you really want. If you’re not very sure what your dreams are, sit down immediately – don’t put it off, don’t look for something else to do – and really think about what kind of life would give you the most joy.
Write down your goals. I can’t explain why writing them down works so well, but it does. So my advice is to go with what works🙂. Don’t swim against the current.
Write it in the format above – I am so happy and grateful now that *what is your desire*. For instance, “I am so happy and grateful now that I am financially able to quit my job, have a hundred thousand dollars in the bank, and have found a fun way to earn a passive income of $….. per month. Be specific with what you want. “I am so happy and grateful now that I am rich and successful” is probably too general. Look at your goals often.
You can also maintain a vision board. Say your dream is to own a triple-storey house. Obtain a photo or picture of the house you want to own, cut it out and paste it on a cardboard or wall. By looking at the pictures frequently you speed up the manifestation process.
Prepare a Visualization Script
A visualization script is like a script of the movie you are going to produce – in your mind. It simplifies the visualization process considerably.
Below your goal, simply note down a few elaborations to give your imagination a little nudge in the right direction. For example,
“Dad has just recovered from his illness and now we are in Bali – having a buffet breakfast at the Pullman Hotel. I am sitting with Mom and Dad at a round table. We are talking and laughing. I feel so much joy.
Suddenly, I see *a dear friend* with her mom and sister. I smile and raise my hand, pleasantly surprised, and go over to say hi. I am happy and grateful. Life couldn’t be any better.”
Here’s another one:
“We are in the café near my workplace. It is 7.45 in the morning. She is keeping me company before I leave for work. Her adoring eyes are looking at me, and she is caressing my arm.
Every moment is precious for her as I have to leave for work soon. She said that she misses me already. I feel happy and content.”
The Visualization Process
Read your dream that you have written down, look at your vision board and visualization script. We are ready to begin.
Find a quiet place where you wouldn’t be disturbed. Dim or off the lights. You can have some soft music in the background. However, it is advised that you do not visualize lying down on the bed. Not only will you fall asleep, you will not be able to act out the scene lying down on the bed as sitting up.
Close your eyes – and breathe deeply for a few minutes to get your mind and body relaxed. Try to focus on your breathing so that you would clear your mind from all random thoughts. Actually, this is what you call meditation (and here’s a simple meditation technique that you can do). It’s important to be as relaxed as possible – physically and mentally – when you visualize.
Now ease yourself into the vision of your goal. Imagine yourself as already in the possession of your goal.
If your goal is to have a certain amount of money, visualize going to an ATM and check your account balance – and watch as the first number followed by all those zeros shows up on the screen. See yourself living where you want to live, buying things you want to buy, and having a private jet or yacht. Visualize the life you would live if you have that much money.
Look around you and take in your surroundings. Where are you? Who else is there? Wander over and have a chat with them🙂. Act it out. Look for more details to make the picture clearer. What’s the weather like? What are you wearing? Take the time to notice and feel the texture of your clothes, the temperature of the room, and any other details you see when you look around.
Make the pictures in your mind as tangible and real and vivid as you can.
If done correctly your eyes should be closed, your face expressive such as breaking into a smile and your hands move like in real conversation.
You are effectively planting new memories into your subconscious – so if you make this memory even more vivid than a real one you will inevitably see strong results.
The Key to Manifestation
To succeed with visualization, you must generate the same feelings and emotions that you would have if you had already accomplished your goals.
You absolutely must induce feelings into your vision – otherwise your goal remains only an imagined one. Your subconscious mind ‘speaks’ in emotions. It doesn’t understand much of anything else. So the more often you create powerful feelings, the more often you are speaking to your subconscious mind. Feeling gives life to your vision and starts the growth of your dream into material form. So whenever you visualize, feel happy, enthusiastic, optimistic, grateful. Think about what it means to have finally won and become all that you ever wanted to be – and the feelings will come to you.
The more details of your vision you see, the easier it will be for you to produce that feeling. Also, the more real the image of your dream in your mind, the easier you will be able to introduce positive feelings into your vision.
By the way, you should visualize in the 1st person perspective – see that you have achieved your dream through your own eyes. Visualizing in the 3rd person would be seeing from outside your body. You are the observer, watching yourself.
You could, of course, experiment with both types of visualization. However, you would find that being in the 1st person to be more real and generates strong, intense emotions. Being the observer may move you away from experiencing your feelings.
Again, the stronger the feelings you generate, the better and faster the manifestation of your dream.
Visualize one goal at a time if you have more than one.
How often and how long should you visualize?
Each day, set aside at least 30 minutes to an hour to visualize. You’ll need to allow yourself some time to relax and let go. As mentioned above, it’s important to be as relaxed as possible – physically and mentally – when you visualize.
If you have learnt how to visualize effectively, you will begin to see small improvements within a week or so. If you continue to work at it, within a month you will experience some really significant changes in your life.
To see quicker results, visualize as often as you like – do what feels right for you.
By the way, Hypnosis Live has a hypnosis audio session called “Visualization Success”. While you listen, powerful hypnotic commands and NLP exercises will work with your subconscious mind, enabling you to see your goals clearly and distinctly, and project your deepest desires and strongest urges into crystal-clear visualizations. If you would like to know more, then follow this link here. Else…
That would be all from me today. If you have enjoyed or found this post to be useful you can share it with others, and if you have any questions or comments in regards to visualization just let me know in the comment box below and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks so much for reading!
One of the common comments from people who listen to hypnosis audios – they seem to fall asleep while doing so. They drift into a deep state of relaxation and lose track of time. Suddenly, they wake up as the session is ending. So, will they still benefit from the session?
What is hypnosis, anyway?
As mentioned above, Colette is an internationally acclaimed intuition (not nutrition!) expert and host of the TV show Messages from Spirit
