If you want to lose 40 pounds, for example, you can imagine yourself after you reached that target number, or just take it 10 pounds at a time. If you want to run a marathon, you can picture yourself after the race, or take your visualizations mile by mile, gradually building up to that final marathon visualization.
Like anything else in life, practice makes perfect and Maciolek suggests that you take time to visualize every day. It can be difficult to get started especially if you have had a history of negative thinking and self-sabotage. Just like that little voice in your head can set you up for awesomeness, it can also doom you. Within visualization, those negatively self-fulfilling prophecies are very real. If you put out negative intentions or look for a negative outcome, “absolutely the same thing could happen,” she said.
“The more you mentally rehearse the more likely it is to happen,” she said, using the metaphor of a jogger running down the same path every day and gradually wearing it down. Someone who chronically thinks negatively will, in essence, hardwire the brain to automatically use that type of thinking, just like muscle memory.
“You have to unlearn that process through visualization,” she said.
And while visualization can help you get what you want, you still have to be realistic. You cannot achieve something that is unachievable for you.
“You really have to have the skill or ability,” Maciolek said. “I could say I really want to become president of the United States, but that’s most likely not going to happen.”
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Visualization also cannot be used to control others. In Shakti Gawain’s nearly 40-year bestselling book Creative Visualization, she writes that its use is to remove our own personal barriers, not to make other people do or not do something.
Maciolek said she practiced visualization as a college athlete, before even knowing what she was doing.
“I tried to imagine what it would be like for me to score a goal or whatever it was I wanted to achieve,” she said. “When I practiced it in my head, I performed better that way.”
She started actively visualizing during a grad school class, after which she and her classmates were able to go from 10 minutes of visualization to 45 minutes. Practice is key!
Tips for successful visualization:
-Have a clear goal in mind. “Is your goal to get through a presentation? “Play basketball better” Define what the goal is,” Maciolek said.
-Get musical. For people who have trouble meditating and concentrating in the quiet, she suggests using calming and peaceful music to help them ease into the mindset.
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– Visualize every day. Practice makes perfect, so spend time on visualization every day.
-Use all five senses so you can get the most realistic picture in your mind. If it’s a presentation you want to nail, think about what it looks like. How many people are there? What does the room smell like? What’s the temperature? The lighting?
-Don’t ignore the negative. If you find your mind wandering to discouraging thoughts, acknowledge them and return to your positive thinking. Gawain writes that trying to repress bad thoughts only gives them more power.
-Say it out loud. “This is going to be the best night ever,” spoken aloud really does have power, as long as you believe it.
