The Power of Visualisation
I have been always telling you, ‘You are the creator of you’. In this blog, I shall get down to the techniques on how this can be made possible.
In a day we battle with numerous thoughts – good, bad and ugly and most of which are unconsciously emerging in our minds. But when you consciously think of thoughts, about things you love or want and believe that it has already happened or that it
only has the possibility of happening, then those thoughts will come to life.
It’s just like day dreaming. For example, your are planning for a vacation, when all the resources are ready the next step that you do is plan your itinerary even months ahead, virtually think of situations and prepare yourself. Apply the same principle for all events of your life, use the power of imagination to get things done.
The power of imagination is often used by great sports personalities, who mentally play their game several thousand times before they actually step into the field. They practice their moves, think of opponents actions and reactions; they think of grabbing the trophy and even pose for a picture with an imaginary trophy. That is the level of confidence one should have in one’s thoughts. Not all thoughts, only the ones that are focused, defined and often repeated become reality.
Thoughts just come without any intention or purpose, how to focus or change them? Our thoughts create feelings, feelings create behaviour, behaviour creates habits and habits create actions. I consciously put efforts on two areas – Feelings and Habits. I create and correct my habits through journaling (as mentioned in the previous blog). Basically setting a goal and working every minute to achieve it, by logging and thus refining my activities each day.
So how do I focus on choosing the right feelings? I utilise the power of vision boards to stay focused. Vision boards are a collection of pictures which translate/portray your goal, dream or just anything you want in your life. It can either be cuttings from a magazine or pictures from the internet, whichever best portrays your dream.
The science behind using a vision board is, the brain creates the same impulse while dreaming as like when it happens in reality. The subconscious mind accepts the thoughts that you often repeat. When it accepts them, it changes your mindset accordingly, as well as your situations, habits and actions. I put myself in the situation portrayed in the picture and imagine my life after achieving the desired. Basically I day dream of my life if I were the person in the picture in the same situation.
I was 77 kgs in January 2015. I am a person who hates monotony thus gym, walking and exercise is not my cup of tea. I wasn’t too worried abo my weight because I had the confidence it would naturally wean as my days become busier. I created this collage in July 2015. Initially, I would just stand to stare at the pictures thinking I would one day be like this. Consciously spend a few mins a day in front of the pictures but to tell you the truth as days passed, I would just walk pass, glancing these pictures thinking it’s me who is in the photo. My subconscious mind accepted the thoughts that I often repeated. When it accepted them, it changed my mindset accordingly, as well as my situation, habits and actions. Thus came Paleo diet, Suryanamaskaram and Priyanka ( My good friend who hates a roof on top of her head. She loves travelling so am I) into my life. My diet changed and days got busier and thus I become 62 kgs in September 2016. It might seem as if it took a long time but for me it’s a great achievement because I hardly did anything; I did not starve or sweat, neither did I hate my body for being bulky. It happened only because of my thoughts.
Feelings are often triggered by our environment. I keep my surrounding clutter free and very inspiring by owning lesser things, organising space and placing inspiring pictures and quotes throughout the house. This helps me channelize my feelings and thoughts consciously to a good mood. When some negativity creeps in, I spend some time in front of my vision boards.
Vision board portraying the goals for the year 2015. I picked up pictures from the internet and printed each on a postcard size photo paper. I choose to keep my boards private, inside a cupboard or behind a door.
There is a striking contrast what I dreamt while making this collage and my thoughts now on my dream home. 1. I don’t want to get hooked on to one place which might restrict our movement in pursuing our dreams. 2. Now I am dreaming of a minimal and sustainable home to settle in. But the output of the board is that my place is more minimal and organised now.
Printing each image on a post card was too expensive and occupied a lot of space, so made a collage using photoshop. For 2017 I made two boards, one for year goals and another for long term goals. Stuck them, right on top of my desk.
When I created this DREAM ME collage, I never even had a rarest of dreams that I would ever blog or even take a picture like this. I bought this saree 7 years before; I put up Kareena’s and Nayan’s picture liking their minimalist and elegant styling. Could you spot the similarity in the dress and hairstyle? This is the power of visualisation – clear, defined and repetitive thoughts, happen.
The biggest mistake we all do is that we simply don’t dare to think beyond a circle or the life we know. We restrict ourselves to the situations we face now and forget to believe that it’s all in our thoughts. Anything can be changed. Are you are the person who is waiting for others to change in order for things to happen? You are losing your time. It’s you who has to change. It’s your opinion on them which has to be changed. Busy life, impatience, fear and negative social pressures are some of the usual culprits stopping yourself from looking beyond the present. The more open-minded we can be, and the bigger we dare to think, the greater are our situations, opportunities and possibilities.
Tip: If you are not familiar with photoshop, there are a number of free online collage applicationwebsites.