Have you ever wondered about visualisation, what it is and how – or if – it works?
Yesterday I saw a fantastic use of visualisation used by the Oxford crew in the annual University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge.
It was undoubtedly a bit of both. Each element on its own would have been good but the effect is doubled or even tripled when used in harmony with each other. Without the months of training and the honing of their rowing skills there may not have been a race, but, without the powerful effect of the visualisation technique it would have been doubly hard to win.
So, how does it work?
In essence it is creating a vision of your ultimate outcome and making it so real and lifelike that your brain believes it to be true. The human brain is unable to tell the difference between a real and an imagined event. So the more you tell yourself that something is true or going to be true then the more likely it is to happen.
Most athletes use this technique and have been doing so for a very long time. Two examples are: Sir Roger Bannister when he broke the 4 minute mile back in 1954, and Sally Gunnell when she won the 400m hurdles at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992. They both created a picture of themselves achieving their goals – Sir Roger by beating the 4 minute barrier and Sally by crossing the line first.
So if you have a particular goal in mind, imagine achieving it. Create a powerful image in your mind’s eye and make the picture as big, bright and bold as you can and then make it even Bigger, even Brighter and even Bolder. To further enhance this process, use a physical movement as a connection to this image so that whenever you do the physical movement (referred to as an anchor point in NLP – Neuro Linguistic Programming) you can recreate the image instantly. The physical movement can be as simple as pinching your thumb and index or middle finger together or holding your left thumb with the index finger and thumb of your right hand. You can make the movement as big or as small as you wish – whatever feels right for you.
So, whenever you feel you want to reinforce you goal you can do the physical movement and bring back the image of you achieving it into your mind automatically.
The more you repeat this exercise, the easier it becomes and in the end you don’t need to do the physical movement.
So, no matter what you want to achieve try harnessing the power of you mind and incorporate some visualisation.
Here’s to your success!
Until next time, think positive and keep breathing!
Maureen
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