Improving Your Visualization Skills

Your power of imagination or visualization (whether it is visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory or kinesthetic) is closely linked to everything that you experience in the physical realm.

Thought is the crystalline predecessor to reality.

The expression "seeing is believing" is applicable to visualization.

To truly see the thing you want to do, become or accomplish is part of the process of believing it.

If you can't really see it happen in your life, how can you believe it can happen?

Thought and desire normally precede action and accomplishment, but oftentimes, people say and think about doing one thing, only to NOT follow through with it or wind up doing something else.

Mental confusion often results; truth and fiction get muddled; and absurd excuses are made for any conflicting behavior that follows.

Researchers at the University of Texas, San Antonio monitored the brain activity of various subjects as they performed various body motions and also as they visualized doing those same body movements.

They discovered that imagining a body movement involved the same areas of the brain as doing the actual movement -- with the exception of the motor cortex, which actually directs the muscles that produce the movement.

In other words, mentally visualizing an action ahead of time gives your brain almost the same neural workout as doing the real thing.

Whatever you want to accomplish as a skill or activity, visualize each step of it first, and this will prepare you for peak performance as you mentally walk through the successful strategies and potential pitfalls.

As an exercise to make the connection between thought & action stronger, proceed through a normal day, and visualize your daily actions a split second before doing them -- brushing your teeth, unlocking doors, reading, walking or whatever.

After getting good at this, visualize each action simultaneously while DOING the action! Then finally, visualize your actions a split second after doing them for better recall later.

Practice this exercise often, and it will bring amplitude, conscious control and clarity to your daily actions and any new skills you are learning.

Many times we subconsciously play in the background of our conscious mind unfavorable events or emotions that subtly cause us stress or unnecessary anger and fear throughout our normal day.

Continually replaying these thoughts, even on a subconscious level, can contribute greatly toward our outward manifestations and daily actions.

As an exercise, create a preplanned visualization of positive events and outcomes to practice in your mind.

Then begin to consciously monitor the incidental thoughts throughout your day.

When you catch yourself replaying a negative, inner movie, interject your positive visualization and play it instead.

You get good at what you practice, and you can consciously choose to practice thinking whatever thoughts you want, whether they are negative or positive.

There is a life energy flowing and ebbing in each one of us, and our immune system is directly linked to this life energy stream.

Your strength does not solely rely on the size of your muscles.

There are many environmental factors that can vitalize or devitalize your body on subtle levels.

With certain people, some factors carry more weight than others in their effect, hence the variability from individual to individual.

An accumulation of negative influences weakens your immune system, leaving you more susceptible to disease and overall emotional upset.

But there is no need for you to go through life lacking energy and in a negative, mental slump.

By being cognizant of what environmental factors de-energize you, you can avoid or at least mentally override such factors when they're recognized.

If you are caught in an environment beset with de-energizing factors (fluorescent lighting, improper foods, raucous sounds, etc.

), just visualize an energizing thought (picture, sound or feeling) to re-energize & strengthen yourself again.

Your real essence inside your physical body is fully integrated within every one of your bodily cells, whether they are diseased or healthy.

This knowledge gives you complete dominion over how those cells operate, so that consciously directed health can always be yours.

If you choose to shield yourself from the debilitating effects of negative input, you can create a protective word or visual image to act as your anchor to do so.

For instance, you might reiterate to yourself the word, "strong," while stepping into a visual image of yourself BEING strong.

The higher your life energy, the more protection you will have from negative factors.

By raising your own life energy, you correspondingly help to raise the energy of those around you as well.