Visualization is known to be a crucial step in improving your current status or accomplishing goals:
‘You must visualize the outcome.’
At some point you’ve used visualization for some major things in your life. You may have turned down a job realizing you just couldn’t picture yourself there. Maybe you chose the wrong college major or partner because you didn’t spend the time visualizing your life with those aspects in it.
Visualization is important when manifesting your desires too! When you can see something in your mind’s eye, it reflects onto your senses, your emotional state, and subsequently your subconscious, which all means it can become a reality or can save you from an undesirable reality too.
How important is it to be able to visualize something?
I have a hard time visualizing, how can I learn to visualize better?
Why do guided meditations use visualization?
I’ve heard these questions and more. Mostly, people are concerned with how well they are able to visualize and how that relates to the outcome.
Manifestation, Guided meditations, guided imagery, and guided visualizations all require you to visualize. But what if it’s a struggle and you draw a blank like that time when a teacher called on you for an answer…and nothing!!
You’ll be happy to know, “most of us are oriented toward the visual because 40% of the most advanced part of our brain, the cerebral cortex, is involved with visual processing.” (The Listening Cure, Chris Gilbert, MD). We visualize all the time, but we re often unaware of it when it happens on a subconscious level.
THE SUBCONSCIOUS
The “block” is when you are consciously processing with the logical and judgmental aspect of your mind rather than the subconscious. To the subconscious, there is no time and space, and reality is relative. This is why visualization works well when you are activating your subconscious.
Time and space: A heart-wrenching breakup years ago can resurface at any time when you hear a song that reminds you of that person.
Reality: When fear grabs a hold of you and your mind fabricates a threatening reality, causing anxiety/physiological symptoms even though it’s not an actual threat.
Your brain is constantly using visualization in the process of simulating experiences, but this process happens so naturally that you generally aren’t even aware of it.
As you may have guessed, the subconscious is necessary in order to effectively visualize and the better we can harness this, the more control we have over manifesting our destiny.
If you have a difficult time visualizing, the answer lies in how you are accessing your subconscious.
RELAXATION
Relaxation is important to access your subconscious and visualize.
We are very busy human doings and having the ability to relax is a luxury worth indulging in, both for your health and wellbeing, but also stepping into your personal power (connection to spirit/divine/God, intuition, and manifestation of your goals/dreams, raising your awareness, your vibration) and leveling up your life circumstances as well as releasing old trauma.
Are you catching my drift with all the fantastic possibilities?!
If a guided/visualization meditation doesn’t relax you enough before asking you to visualize then you may need to do a separate relaxation meditation before attempting to visualize.
(I create guided meditations and hypnosis downloads and realize how important the initial relaxation process is!)
Too many meditation gurus try to rush the process, hoping a 5 minute meditation will lure more people in. On the one hand, many gurus now try to condense meditation to a 5 minute session knowing people are short on time. That may attract busy people to meditation, but not allow for them to experience the big benefits, especially a decent visualization.
I DON’T WANT MEDITATION TO FIT INTO YOUR BUSY LIFESTYLE, I WANT IT TO POSITIVELY DISRUPT YOUR BUSY LIFE.
The issue with many meditations today is their length. You are not going to access your subconscious in 5 minutes or even 10 minutes for some people.
When you sit down to relax at the end of the day, how long does it take before you actually feel relaxed?
People who have insomnia or experience sleep disturbances or anxiety? It could take the entire night. That’s why meditation and guided meditation is so helpful, but only when it’s done right!
If you are a busy person, 5 minutes may seem like an ideal number! It can build a meditation habit, but you aren’t going to stick around to follow through with it if you don’t see results. Results come when you access your subconscious.
A guided meditation that begins with 10 minutes of relaxing “conversation” and/or guided relaxation techniques is best.
Remember, in order to access the subconscious we have to “switch off” the conscious mind. We have to let it get “bored” and succumb to relaxation, similar to the “deepening” and “induction” process of hypnosis.
This is where visualization begins!
Sometimes stepping into your personal power though requires stepping outside of yourself. I’ve explained how relaxation techniques can help you let go of your conscious mind-chatter, judgments, etc. and reach your subconscious, but there are other ways you can reach your subconscious without meditation.
MIND-BODY CONNECTION
Your mind and body are connected so you can shift your definition of “I” to your body; detach from your mind.
Essentially you become your body and move beyond the conscious mind that you are accustomed to believing is YOU. This is a way to access your subconscious too.
To improve your visualization skills, practice taking your mind out of its element. You can’t will yourself to visualize- you’ve probably already tried. Conscious mind heavy-lifting doesn’t work well.
Try this:
- Pretend you are your body and give it a voice.
- Use a pillow. That is your body.
- Now sit on that pillow and speak as your body.
- Begin speaking, saying what first comes to mind.
Speaking as your body helps you detach from the idea of relying on your mind to direct everything.
Bonus: Speaking as your body can give you subconscious answers to your health and wellbeing.
COMMON SENSE
Guided visualizations/meditations should incorporate smell, touch, maybe taste, sounds, sights, etc. that appeal to one of your dominant senses.
Everybody has a dominant sense. To know what yours is, identify words/phrases you say often like “sounds good”/ “Sounds familiar” (auditory) or “I see”/“I’ll wait and see”(visual) or “I’ll touch bases with you soon” (touch).
During a visualization, lead with that sense. Focus and expand on it for a bit.
REAL LIFE
Improve your visualization skills in a real life setting!
Try this:
- Visit a park or scenic area and focus on the first thing that interests you.
- Close your eyes
- Describe it (or visualize) in your head.
You can also create your own ideal scene by describing it on paper or drawing it.
Daydream: Conversely, you could set aside time (in nature) to daydream.
VIRTUAL VISION BOARD
Create an online vision board:
- Choose a few pictures on the Internet that represent what you want. (You could do this on Pinterest.)
- Then Choose (or create your own) affirmations (there are many on Pinterest) that coincide with the pictures.
YOUR WHY
People choose a guided meditation to help them improve something in their life. The ‘why’ is important. Suppose you chose to start meditating. Why? How do you hope it will make you feel? Are you flat-out tired of being pulled in all directions? Are you out of focus? Are you focusing on better health? Know your WHY!
If visualization is difficult, you are not sold on the dream yet…and that takes incorporating your senses (discussed above) and your emotions.
You may believe you want something, but a mental block occurs when visualizing it, or you uncover a reason that part of you is scared or resistant to it.
If you choose a specific guided meditation or something in particular you want to manifest, why did you choose that? What are you hoping the outcome will be? Can you visualize the outcome? What will your life be like once you have this specific outcome you desire?
Associated with your why, is your emotions. I happen to believe in the “mind-body-spirit-EMOTIONS” connection. When you feel something deeply, you have achieved a level of belief associated with it. People bury emotions. With visualization, you must uncover emotions.
Emotions settle in the subconscious. Effective guided meditations, hypnosis, and visualization use visual imagery quite successfully as they access your deeper awareness. Planting positive messages and visualizations in your subconscious leads to feeling it, and once you begin to feel it, you have crossed the threshold into action…and making what you desire a reality!
Practice your visualization skills with:
“Mindful Meadow” visualization.
Enhance your visualization and mindfulness skills with this relaxing and vibrantly painted meadow journey. On sale through the end of this month.
Don’t tell anyone, but as an adult I enjoy the children’s meditations. If you could use a trip on the wings of a butterfly, try this one with your kids or just yourself (I won’t tell):
“Guided Meditation: Butterfly Adventure”
Peace and Be Well,
Laura
Let me start by saying, you won’t find me dressed in monk-garb meditating on a mountaintop in Tibet, but you will find me practicing mindfulness and meditation effectively and successfully in my life!