If you want that promotion, to drop 20 pounds, or simply to sleep better at night, you might just be a few positive thoughts from achieving your goal. No, really. While it might sound like some fortune cookie hocus pocus, the practice of visualization – using your imagination to vividly picture yourself achieving a goal or succeeding – is a powerful tool in getting what you want out of life.
Countless athletes, like Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and Carli Lloyd have opened up about how pre-game visualization has helped them dominate on the court or field. Oprah has said repeatedly that “visualization works.” And more and more therapists and clinical psychologists, like Cathryne Maciolek, Psy.D, are using use it in their practices with patients.
“Visualization is a mental rehearsal of what you hope to have happened either on a physical, emotional, psychological, or even social level,” said Maciolek, who is also the founder of the Mandala Center in Baltimore. “What I teach people is it’s a form of meditation where you are taking hope or ambition and putting it into a mental picture in mind.”
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By tapping into the laws of attraction and energy, visualization helps you focus on the positive so that you exude it, boomeranging positive effects back to you.
If you want to complete that marathon or want to have the best vacation of your life, visualization can help you. The real world applications are basically endless, Maciolek said. In her practice, she has used this tool to help patients overcome anxiety and depression or hit their fitness and weight loss targets. In one particularly rewarding case, Maciolek used visualization (along with diet and exercise) to help a patient lose more than 200 pounds.
In other cases, she has used the tool of visualization to help men overcome sexual intimacy issues with their spouses.
“When a man is having problems sexually performing, we used visualization to help them feel a bit more confident,” she said.
Tempted to use your imagination for your own benefit? It’s easy to try on your own.
To get started, Maciolek said to try it first thing in the morning and/or before bed, for 5 to 10 minutes, checking in with yourself and feeling grounded. Close your eyes, breathe diaphragmatically, and then picture exactly what you want to happen in as much detail as you can.
“It’s almost like you are a movie director and you want to bring in as many senses as possible to make it a reality,” she said. “Picture it in your head- what you would see, hear, touch, taste, and feel.“
If it were someone who was nervous before a big meeting, he would visualize himself walking through the whole presentation successfully, with everything he hopes to achieve, what it would look like, and what it would feel like.
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If getting back in shape is your goal, imagine yourself and your life after you’ve hit your ideal numbers.
“Picture what life would look like with those healthier lifestyle choices,” she said.
“You can look at your end goal or take it step by step.”
