We are finishing the course with yet another powerful tool. Use it wisely, use it regularly, take control of your thoughts and you will be unstoppable!

WEEK 12: VISUALISATION

As I mentioned earlier your brain cannot tell the difference between something that is real or something you have vividly imagined. Believing you can achieve your goal will get you there faster as our actions, feelings and behaviour are the result of our own images and beliefs. By visualising your success in making that change you will create your new self-image. This will make your nervous system and brain support you in making that change instead of sabotaging you.

To take better actions, that will lead you to your expected results, you must start practising in your mind how you will behave in different situations. What will you do if there is a cake during the party? What food will you be excited to pick up in the supermarket or how exercise will make you feel? What can you do to feel better when things get harder? What would you replace emotional eating with?

Use the same method to imagine yourself after you achieve your goals, how will you look, feel, think, behave. See yourself achieving these goals but start behaving as your new you now. Use this tool for anything you would like to change in your life. I use it all the time.

Practical Exercise [1]

Your present self-image was built on your own imagination. Pictures of yourself in the past, which grew out of interpretations and evaluations that you placed on experience. Now you are to use the same method to build an adequate self-image that you previously used to build and inadequate one.

Set aside a period of 30 minutes each day when you can be alone and undisturbed. Relax and make yourself as comfortable as possible. Now close your eyes and exercise your imagination.

Most people find that they get better results if they imagine that they are sitting before a large motion picture screen – and imagine that they are seeing a motion picture as vivid and as detailed as possible. You want your mental pictures to approximate actual experiences as much as possible. The way to do this is to pay attention to small details, sights, sounds, objects in your imagined environment. One of DR Matz patients was using this exercise to overcome the fear of the dentist. She was unsuccessful until she began to notice small details in her imagined picture – the smell of antiseptic in the office, the feel of the leather on the chair arms, the sight of the dentist’s well-manicured nails as his hands approached her mouth, etc. Details of the imagined environment are all -important in this exercise, because for all practical purposes, you are creating a practice experience. And the imagination is vivid enough and detailed enough, your imagination practice is equivalent to an actual experience insofar as your nervous system is concerned.

The next important thing to remember is that during these 30 minutes you see yourself acting and reacting appropriately, successfully, ideally. It doesn’t matter how you acted yesterday. You do not need to try to have faith you will act in the ideal way tomorrow. Your nervous system will take care of that in time – if you continue to practice. See yourself acting, feeling, “being”, as you want to be. Do not say to yourself “I am going to act like that tomorrow”. Just say to yourself: “I am going to imagine myself acting this way now, for thirty minutes today”. Imagine how you would feel if you were already the sort of personality you want to be. If you have been shy and timid, see yourself moving among people with ease and poise and feeling good because of it. If you have been fearful and anxious in certain situations, see yourself acting calmly and deliberately, acting with confidence and courage – and feeling expansive and confident because you are.

This exercise builds new “memories” or stored data into your mid-brain and central nervous system. It builds a new image of self. After practicing it for a time, you will be surprised to find yourself “acting differently”, more or less automatically and spontaneously – without trying. This is as it should be. You do not need to try or make an effort now in order to feel ineffective and act inadequately. Your present inadequate feeling and doing is automatic and spontaneous because of the memories, real and imagined, you have built into your automatic mechanism. You will find it work just as automatically on positive thoughts and experiences as on negative ones.

Some people begin with doubts that they could spend 30 min a day picturing who they want to be. They also had difficulty visualizing a goal clearly. Finally, when they did form mental pictures, they found that their minds would wander, and they judged themselves hard for that.

Essentially, like anything else, getting good at picturing who you want to be requires practice. As Olympic champion and coach Dan Gable said, “the only place you start at the top is digging a hole.” Just because the mental imagery isn’t clear when you begin, does not mean it won’t get clearer, more vivid, more detailed, and more powerful each time you practice.

When you begin, it’s good to scan your body for tension and begin to consciously relax your head, torso, waist, legs and so on. And, as strange as it may sound, allow yourself to “smile” into your brain and body, which greatly helps you relax. As you begin to relax, concentrate on breathing deeply. Follow your inhale and your exhale. Allow positive energy to enter as you exhale the negative.

After you’ve done this, you can go back into your past and find a “successful” memory, an occasion when you did something well. Again, this could be as simple as trying your shoes for the first time or writing your name in school. When it happened is irrelevant. How “big” the success was doesn’t matter either. All that matters is that the memory triggers a positive, happy, feel-good experience in your right now. Replay and relive the positive memory, then go into the future and picture how you want to be with the same feeling you felt in the past. Add emotion to what you’re seeing in your mind’s eye. If you find your mind wandering, don’t get upset or harsh on yourself. Relax and picture again. Each time your mind wanders bring yourself back. No worries.

As for the 30-minute time? You can begin experiencing positive results in five to ten minutes per day. Visualisations that last no longer than 10-15 minutes can result in extraordinary changes.

The biggest key is to practice EVERY DAY. Once you’ve established this habit and you’re seeing and feeling the results, it’s easy to find more time.

[1] Maxwell Maltz, MD, FICS, “Psycho-Cybernetics”

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VISUALISATION