Visualization

Can you think yourself thinner, stronger, better? More and more lately I’ve been reading articles that suggest just that.

Used to thinking negatively about yourself? Picking on every flaw, self sabotaging yourself? Then we have something in common! (well, I don’t do that anymore, but I sure used to!) Do you eat right, exercise and still not have the body you desire? Do you put yourself down all the time? That could be the only thing stopping you from succeeding.

But good news! Supposedly you can completely change your thinking pattern in just 20-some days. It takes practice and patience, however. Repetition and the ability to block out negative thoughts, or at least redirect your thoughts towards a more positive outlook, are required.

The mind is a powerful tool at our disposal. Of course there are limits, but these limits are within us, not in the power itself. The key is to be vivid and detailed. See your surroundings, hear sounds, smell smells, feel your movements as if it were actually happening. This isn’t always easy and for some people, it can be downright hard. A common mistake is focusing on what you want to avoid or correcting problems. Instead, you should think of the goal, what you want as if it has already happened. Keep the negative thoughts away so as not to reinforce those undesirable results.

Set aside 15 or 20 minutes of undisturbed downtime that you can spend focusing and visualizing what you want to achieve. You can condition your mind to push your body to get what you want. Change your mental focus to develop neurological patterns that will lead to your success.

There are interesting documented studies regarding visualization and performance in sports. To give you an example: Between a group that practiced free-throws versus another that practiced visualizing free-throws only, which group do you think increased performance levels? They both increased their free-throw percentages BUT the group that physically practiced only had a 1% lead over the visualization only group - 24% to 23%. Oh, and by the way, there was a third group that didn’t practice mentally or physically, they didn’t improve their averages at all.

By changing our thoughts and mental images we change our reality. Don’t believe that all you have to do is visualize what you want and it will magically happen. You can’t lay on the couch eating snickers all day, wanting to lose weight, and think as long as you are imagining yourself at 110 pounds and eating salad, it'll happen. You need to use the mind/body connection - that’s where it’s at.

Try it, what do you have to lose? At the very least you’ll get 20 minutes a day to de-stress and relax!