Visualizations: how to use the imagination in our favor

There is an ancient tool, used forever, whose effectiveness in helping us make our goals and desires come true seems to have been evident in recent research: the display.

With this psychological technique, the mental management of an action precedes its own realization. It is about using the imagination to generate positive changes in ourselves and in our lives. Through visualization we can influence our ways of proceeding, causing more satisfactory actions and healthier reactions.

Visualization: what is it

Visualization is a psychological technique that consists of imagining the development of a situation that can be problematic in a positive way.The mental and emotional approach to a situation generates confidence in the face of difficulties because it allows us to prepare solvent responses.

When we create a subjective reality in our mind, the brain generates a pattern of consistent behavior and that enables us to reach results. If we visualize positive things, such as health, prosperity, energy or well-being, that is what we are generating in us. The same thing happens when we daydream, when, for example, we project ourselves into a place where we want to be.

We therapists know thatThe action generates, by itself, a positive stimulus which, sooner or later, will revert to shaping our character, thoughts and interior disposition.

For exampleImagine, for a moment, that you have a meeting in which you must make a presentation to a client who could bring you the sale that would save your business. The idea of ​​losing this client causes you a state of nerves and great discomfort. Visualization, however, would make you gain confidence because it would allow you to prepare reliable responses to potential adversities.

There is clear evidence of the use of imagination for therapeutic purposes since the time of Aristotle. The alchemists of the time discovered that visualization was a useful tool to modify the physical state of the body. These ancient discoveries have been corroborated by recent medical research, which supports the idea that visualization can have effects on our bodies.

Does the visualization work?

Used since ancient times, the effectiveness of visualization techniques has been scientifically proven

The most curious thing is that current science corroborates it, and shows that – as far as behavior modification, habit change and personal transformation is concerned – it is much more effective to start with action. It is this that molds character and shapes attitudes.

Indeed, we first project into the mind everything that is around us and, later, we make it correspond with the external realities that we know. However, when it comes to attitudes and behaviors, the process occurs in reverse. For this reason, when I ask the people who come to my office to carry out any of the tasks that I give them, they tend to underestimate the value and effectiveness of such a practice, considering that it does not come naturally to them.

How visualization works

Viewing stressful or relaxing content it translates into an increase or decrease in heart rate and muscle tension, impacts on the resistance of the skin and alters the size of the pupil; the visualization of sexual contents causes physiological changes in the genital apparatus; and visualization, in general, can cause measurable changes in blood glucose and gastrointestinal activity and modify the efficiency of our immune system.

scientists explain how the human brain works as a “central computer”, controlling all the functions of our organism; both the conscious functions –walking, eating, talking…–, as well as the unconscious tasks –the beating of the heart, digestion or breathing–.

Viewing relaxing content translates into a decrease in muscle tension, heart rate…

When something happens, the brain gives the order for our body to respond. If we are, for example, in the face of danger, the brain transmits the order to secrete adrenaline, the hormone that enables us to flee.

The key is that the event can be both real and imagined.. Finding myself facing a thief who threatens me with a knife has such an impact on the secretion of adrenaline, as does the thought that, at night, I am going to find thieves in the street. Parallel to the physical responses, the brain tends to prepare psychological responses through which it generates behavior patterns.

How to trick the brain with visualization

Visualizing, in a way, is tricking the brain into creating new neural links. In states of relaxation, the so-called “z state”, our frontal lobe does not distinguish between reality and fantasy. People who regularly practice visualization often say that when they have a goal, this tool helps them achieve their purpose in less time and with less effort.

I remember a patient who came to me after experiencing tragic adversity that plunged her into a sea of ​​suffering. She questioned herself over and over again about the hazards of her life that had treated her with such bad luck. But if chance is a thought that is the result of superstition, rather than reality, my patient’s continued tribulation was surely the result of the negativity generated by the pain that he was carrying and that took away his energy to face new events with a renewed attitude. .

In conclusionthe optimistic look at present and future events, as well as the relaxed and confident attitude with which we face them, is an essential condition to forge a healthy, positive and satisfactory trajectory.

how to make a visualization: step by step

Ten minutes is enough. Over time, visualizing the positive stops being an exercise and becomes a habit and an attitude towards life. However, to work on concrete ideas, scientists say that continuous practice is necessary for 21 days, the time we need for the mind to rearrange its data and prepare to create.

Relaxation. Find a calm and quiet place, and find a comfortable position in which you can feel totally relaxed. The posture can be sitting or lying down with a straight back. For beginners, the sitting posture is better because, when the habit of self-relaxing has not yet been developed, there is a risk of falling asleep.reverie Close your eyes. She tries to reach the “z state”, the one we all know just before falling asleep or just after waking up. It is that moment between sleep and wakefulness, similar to dreaming.Breathing. To relax, focus on your breath. Feel how you inhale and expel the air as if you were throwing out the tensions and discomfort from within. Imagine the number ten and start counting backwards by visualizing the number.mind trip. Imagine that you are in a place full of peace and tranquility. Mentally travel to an environment where you can feel calm, still. It can be some place in nature, like on the shore of a lake or under a tree. It can be some corner of your home. Get familiar with the scene, the colors, the freshness of the air, the sounds around you. Live your scene; sit there.Projection. When you’re ready, project a goal in your mind’s eye. Try to stay in the present and visualize as if it were already happening, as if you were already living in a moment when that goal was reached. And try to visualize it with great detail. The most powerful tool that allows visualization to work is emotion.

Imagination helps us experience the emotions we would feel if we were actually living the situation.

Visualizations for rest

During sleep the body rests and recovers from daily activity. The mindfor his part, also take advantage of the hours of night rest to “clean” and reorganize so that you can face a new day with serenity.

However, Throughout their lives, more than half of the Spanish population has been affected by a sleep disordereither for emotional or physical reasons.

It is evident that recognizing the causes that cause insomnia is the first step to overcome it, but you can also resort to some practices that will favor the long-awaited rest.

One of them is the displaya simple and very useful technique that allows you to park repetitive and disturbing thoughts that make it difficult to fall asleep through the mental recreation of pleasant images that suggest rest and general well-being.

choose display

Create a place that is pleasant and relaxing Quieting thoughts is a very intimate relaxation exercise.

Different images provide calm to each person, some can remember scenarios already seenothers desired places or just a placid scene created by imagination.

You can create as many images as you want in order to relax and you can return to them whenever you want to find a bit of calm.

Once we focused our attention on one of them the fusion between us and the image will be sought.

A good example is imagine a baby sleeping and observe its deep, rhythmic breathing. We then think that we too are going to sleep like this and let the body and mind slowly abandon each other in order to fall asleep peacefully,

To favor that step you can visualize an environment with relaxing colorssuch as blue or green.

quiet the mind

Worries or negative thoughts can make it difficult to restbut these can be dissipated.

You can imagine that thoughts are bubbles in a glass of sparkling water. Watch how they rise from the bottom to the surface and how they disappear in contact with the air.

Yes there are a problem concrete identify it with an object and keep this one in a box, which you will open again the next morning or when you’re ready to deal with the problem.