Developing The Magic Of Visualization
Want to experience something magical - for free? Find a piece of string and hold it in your fingers lightly, letting it dangle. Wait for the string to stop moving. Now, keeping your muscles still and imagine you are spinning the string around.
What happens? Most likely, you'll find the string began to move too - just a little. Magic? Not really. Sorry I lied! But it displays the effectiveness of visualization. Even if your muscles are not doing anything, your brain and neural pathways fire up in the same way, but to a lesser extent.
What is Visualization?
Also called mental imagery, visualization is a powerful tool for many areas of personal growth. As the little trick showed, it trains your mind and body. However, it's not as easy as many think, and there isn't much proper information available. Even if we can do it, the question is - how do we best apply it?
Let's begin with the basics, some exercises to build your mental muscles. Again, the tendency would be to just stick these exercises on the shelf and not try them, but please give it a shot.
Benefits of Mental Rehearsal
Experienced personal developers will be familiar with the uses of visualization. But there are many applications that you might not have heard of, such as:
* Enhancing sports and other physical performances;
* Improving skills and correcting errors in skills;
* Reducing anxiety and fears;
* Enhancing human interaction - from business meetings to meditation;
* Increasing motivation;
* Boosting creativity and design skills;
* Setting and achieving goals.
Mental rehearsal is often recommended for athletes. I first learned about visualization in my sporting days, and that's why I recommend it so much. It improves performance tremendously when combined with standard physical training. Why? There are many reasons. For example, athletes can safely expand their comfort zones in mental rehearsal, where there is no penalty for failure. They can also rehearse scenarios that are hard to re-create physically - for a lack of a training partner or facilities, perhaps.
