Visualisation
Visualisation is a powerful
tool that you can use in everyday life. It can be used to practice behaviours
and scenarios in the future, for letting go of emotions that are attached to
past events, and can also be helpful to use in meditation and relaxation.
Visualisation works because
your brain can’t tell the difference between real experience and imagined
experience – it’s all in your head when it comes down to it.
Studies have shown that
visualising helps athletes improve their performance. For example a swimmer
might imagine that his or her body is covered in oil and so might swim faster.
Practising in your mind is almost as good as doing it in real life.
You might have an important
event coming up such as an interview, or you might want to have an important
discussion with a loved one, or you might like to put a new behaviour into
place in your life. All these things will be easier using visualisation to
practice before the actual real life moment.
When you are visualising it
is important to involve all your senses, so that you have in your mind the
things you will see, the colours that would be there, what you and others would
be doing, what you would be hearing, what you would be feeling, as well as any
touching or tasting if appropriate.
If you find it difficult to
actually see the images with your eyes closed, then tell yourself what you
would be seeing if you could see it. Words work too.
Visualising can also be
helpful to process past events. You can reduce the emotion that is attached to
an event by giving your brain the message to let it go. You can use any imagery
that works for you. For instance, you might like to put your embarrassment,
guilt or other negative emotion into the basket of a hot air balloon and then
watch it as it floats up into the sky and out of sight. Perhaps you would like
to dump your negative emotions into a rubbish bin that is outside your front
door, ready to be collected. This particular visualisation is good to use after
you come home from work or at the end of the day. Leave the day’s thoughts and
emotions outside in the bin so that you don’t let it affect your home life
Visualisation can also help
you to meditate and relax. Imagine that you are sitting on the bank of a creek
or river. There is a tree a little bit upstream that every now and then drops a
leaf and that leaf comes into your view and you watch it as it is carried
downstream by the water. Treat your thoughts like those leaves. When a thought
comes into your mind, just say ‘There’s that thought again’ and let it go out
of your mind just like the leaf disappears out of sight. Keep in your mind the
image of you sitting quietly on the riverbank watching the water, the leaves,
feeling the warmth of the sun, perhaps hearing some birds. And time will pass.
