First of all, what is visualization? It is a type of meditation that involves using your imagination to produce a mental image and scenario in your mind’s eye. Commonly it is used to imagine a relaxing scenario or watch a long-desired situation coming to fruition like a movie.
It is used to feel as if you are experiencing it in real life while visualizing it within your mind. You can involve all of the senses within your mental experience. Tasting and smelling as if you are fully living this experience.
Athletes commonly use visualization techniques, which have been proven to improve their performance, endurance, and motivation. You can see this prominently in tennis tournaments and runners before they begin a race.
How Does Visualization Affect The Brain?
Scientific studies have proven the effect visualizations have on the body. The neurons within our brain interpret visualizations the same as real-life events, stimulating the same hormone production as if this were actually happening.
These visualizations alter our brain waves and biochemistry. Much success has been made with cancer patients and those with chronic pain conditions using visualization techniques to ease their pain. They are able to bring the feelings of ease created within their visualizations into their body’s cellular system.
Benefits Of Visualization
Visualizations work directly with the law of attraction. It does so not only by bringing you into the mental state of this scenario but also by having the same physical responses as if you were living this reality.
The hormones you would be producing if you were living this visualization in real life are produced even when it is still within the realm of mental images. This brings you to be a vibrational match to what you are visualizing.
A study conducted by an exercise psychologist, Guang Yue and his colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio found an increase of 13.5% in muscle strength after volunteers simply practiced mentally flexing their biceps. During the study, they monitored the electrical impulses of the volunteer’s arm muscles to make sure they weren’t accidentally flexing.
Many similar studies have been conducted similar to this one, proving the potent effects of visualizations.
Visualization Meditations
Visualization meditations engage the emotional and sensory perceptions to fully immerse you into the experience. You can witness the profound results from guided imagery meditations by following this video below.
Visualizations can stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, also known as the rest and digest response. This part of the nervous system is what allows us to fully digest our food and tap out of the flight or fight response within the sympathetic nervous system.
Further Reading
How much of a blessing is it that we have the knowledge of how to work with our senses and mental body to manifest the life we desire. To learn more about visualizations you can make a vision board, read about Abraham Hicks law of attraction card for visualization, or follow these three visualization techniques.
