“Man can only receive what he sees himself receiving.”
-Florence Scovel Shinn
In this post, we will discuss visualization (the third technique in the Ten Techniques for Fast Relaxation series) and how you can do it skillfully as quickly as possible.
Though you might already play with visualization all the time… I assure you the skill can always be improved.
And though you might not even realize that you already know How to Visualize Something… I assure you that you do, and you can learn to take conscious control of the process.
Essentially, visualization is putting on your own personal performance in the theater of your mind.
You will determine the outcomes in your inner theater… they will either play out according to programming you picked up as a child… or you can consciously take control of visualization, and direct it as you see fit.
So how do you take control of visualization… and how does this help with relaxation?
Visualization is an incredibly powerful skill to apply in virtually every area in your life… and it has an effect (sometimes immediate) on the body, so it is very useful to develop other ‘global’ skills of the mind-body… such as relaxation.
To ‘take control’ of your visualization… it first helps to recognize what you are visualizing now.
It is important to note… we all visualize. You are likely doing it right now… you may not be fully aware of the ongoing images inside your mind… but they are there.
As far as learning better skills of visualization is concerned, there are two types of people:
- People who are consciously aware (at least some of the time) that they visualize and what they visualize.
- People who are not consciously aware of what they visualize, and might even think they can’t visualize.
If you don’t yet recognize how you already use the skill of visualization, then play with the following two games:
Visualization Game 1 - Recognize How You Already Visualize…
- Remember what color your car is (without looking at it).
- Remember what color the front door to your house/apartment/etc. is.
- Play with remembering colors of other common objects in your life.
- How do you know what color it is if you aren’t looking at it right now? (The more you pay attention to this, the more the deeper aspects of your mind will reveal the specifics of the process to you.)
- Now that you recognize that you have some ability to visualize color… start to play with shapes and other visual attributes (This game has two additional benefits… it tends to really improve memory and creativity).
Visualization Game 2 – How to Visualize Something Consciously…
- Select a relatively simple object (a ball or a box works very well).
- Sit in front of it, or hold it in front of you, and inspect it visually.
- Once you feel like you have a good idea of how it looks, close your eyes
- Imagine the object in your mind’s eye (it might seem to appear on the back of your eyelids… or it might seem to appear on an imaginary screen that floats somewhere between 6 and 24 inches in front of your forehead)
- Do your best to visualize it in as much detail to it as possible (if it helps, you can open your eyes to look at the object again, and then close your eyes to further refine your visualization)
- Play with changing the color and shape of the object in your mind’s eye
If you have never really played with visualization before, those two games will give you a good start.
And if you have practiced visualization, working with these games will sharpen your skills.
And now… the main event…
Visualization Game 3 – How to Visualize for Deep Relaxation
- Take a few deep breaths and close your eyes.
- Picture your ideal space of relaxation (a beech, a mountain top, a massage, or whatever else works for you… an image you associate with deep relaxation)
- Associate into the picture… see it through your eyes, feel what you felt, hear what you heard
- Play with the brightness of the visualization, the loudness of the sounds, and anything else that seems to increase the intensity/strength of the feelings of relaxation in your mind-body
- Continue to relax… you might even lose yourself in the image of ideal relaxation.
One final benefit I’ll mention about learning the skill of visualization: The ability to ‘get clear’ on something is largely a function of how clearly you can see it in your mind’s eye.
For the purposes of achieving goals in life, it is very important that you develop clear and specific goals.
How do you do this?
You create a clear image in your mind’s eye.
- It might be a single image (this is usually the best place to start).
- It might be several images.
- It might play like a movie.
Make the image as detailed as possible while still remaining true to the goal.
When the deeper parts of you have a clear expectation to work with, they are much more skillful at manifesting your dreams.
Ultimately, Visualization is a portal to new worlds.
Worlds of perception and experience…
How you choose to perceive your life and your world are up to you… and I encourage you to find useful attitudes and perceptions, as well as visualizations that affirm them.
keep smiling,
Ben
