Visualisation...

Visualisation is a technique used by successful athletes, and an effective tool for anyone. 

Ashanti Johnson is a fitness instructor and the Owner of a fitness brand 360.  Mind, Body & Soul, combining physical fitness with mental fitness.  Ashanti would stand on her balcony drinking coffee and instead of looking at the view she would look down at the parking lot and visualise that as the parking lot of her own gym.  This daily ritual of being in a safe place and quietening her mind made her vision become more and more real. 

Her work has led her to share the same practise with others.  Often clients arrive with vision of losing weight and when asked how much weight they wish to loose, they let doubt and negativity come in.  Ashanti says we have to route out the negativity and make sure we have the right energy around us.  She will steer the client back to an image of when they felt a good weight and get them to really focus on their intention on the vision.  We are all creators and we can all create our own vision.  She says that normally it falls into three areas:-

1. Some visualisation about our bodies
2. Some conflict or relationship we would like repaired
3. Accomplishing a goal

The visualisation is the manifestation of it happening.

Marisa Peer is a world renowned speaker, therapist, and best-selling author with nearly three decades of experience, she uses her experiences treating patients including rock stars, CEOs, Olympic athletes, and Oscar winning actors to inform her life-changing speeches and lectures.

One of her talks she explains how we need to collaborate with our mind. Her four tips on how to do this are as follows:-

1. Your mind does what you want it to do?
2. It is hard wired to move you towards pleasure and away from pain
3. You need to use pictures and words so it knows what you want it to do?
4. You need to move it from familiar to unfamiliar so that unfamiliar becomes familiar

Telling your mind what you want it to do, eg. if you hate exams and you tell yourself it is going to be hard it will be hard as the mind will make it hard.  The mind listens to the messages you give to it, and is very specific to your words.  If you are dreading a presentation, and you say you can't do it, the mind will give you a headache and will give you the excuse to get out of the presentation as that it was you asked it to do.

The solution is to change your language "I have chosen to make this presentation, as I want to do this" - in addition "I have chosen to feel great about doing it" Your mind needs to collaborate with how you behave.

Be very clear that you want this, and then link it to step two moving towards pleasure and away from pain. If are running and linking music eg. running with AirPods you may well be experiencing pleasure and ignoring pain.  Sometime it may have to be experiencing  pain to get to something you want,  having to have physio to get to the pleasure of running again. 

The brain responds to pictures you create in your head and the words you say to yourself, so you need to feed it with the right pictures and words.  Visualising the pictures you want to see with the right words to accompany will set you up for success. 

If it is familiar to procrastinate and you don't change the familiar to unfamiliar it will stay as a behavioural pattern. Positive examples are believing in yourself:- Muhammad ali told told himself he was the greatest before he was the greatest.  Train your mind that you are there, believe in yourself other people will. Potential expands as you move towards it - I want it to happen and it will happen.

In summary:-

• Tell your mind exactly what you want - powerful words - rewire it for success
• Link massive pleasure to it
• Change pictures Change the words
• Familiar to unfamiliar - self belief becomes so normal to you

Please do get in touch to explore visualisation more with one to coaching bev@nuggetsoflearning.co.uk