I’ve been seriously focusing on meditation and creative visualization exercises lately. Positive outcome visualization is a fantastic discipline for achieving goals and one from which I’d grown apart, until recently.
Back in my martial arts days, I took it much more seriously. Rehearsing moves and throws over and over in my mind proved almost as effective for training as mat time, without the deep bruising. Judo involves a lot of delicate mechanics. I found that “seeing” the motions in my head elimated the need to concentrate on tiny details. I would see the throw in my head and just let it fly.
My father has been a competitive shooter most of his life. We shot together for a number of years in skeet tournaments, and I watched him compete and consistently place and win dozens of pistol competitions. My Dad’s inner visualization rehearsal was so powerful, you could almost follow the movements he was making in his head. He would rehearse the course mentally each time before he signaled ready or fired a single shot. “Draw-shoot two, turn-move and shoot, two here and move while loading, keep your head down…”. When the action started, it was like he was following a pre-traced pattern running down a well worn path.
There’s been so much research and testimony on the positive effects of creative visualization, it’s sort of amazing how overlooked this sort of training is. Elite athletes use it. World Class musicians espouse it. Top achievers like Tony Robbins, Joe Vitale, Jack Nicklaus, Bruce Jenner, and Michael Jordan have all testified that it is a primary reason for their success. Why aren’t you using the same techniques to help achieve YOUR goals?
In one of the most well-known studies on Creative Visualization in sports, Russian scientists compared four groups of Olympic athletes in terms of their training schedules:
- Group 1 = 100% physical training;
- Group 2 – 75% physical training with 25% mental training;
- Group 3 – 50% physical training with 50% mental training;
- Group 4 – 25% physical training with 75% mental training.
Group 4, with 75% of their time devoted to mental training, performed the best. “The Soviets had discovered that mental images can act as a prelude to muscular impulses.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_visualization#cite_note-9)
So…Lately I’ve been doing a lot of guided meditation and visualization exercises in an attempt to change my inner reality. In spite of good role models and positive experiences, I’ve struggled because I’m somewhat tightly wound. I have a great imagination, but throughout life I’ve had trouble silencing the inner sceptic.
That critical internal voice ruins the fun. It’s one thing to imagine success in great detail. It’s quite another to BELIEVE in that glorious mental image. You have to BELIEVE that the success is happening as you imagine it in order for your passive right brain to accept and commit to achieving it.
Belief creates Potential. Potential creates Action. Action creates Results.
Here’s what I learned. The key to effective outcome visualization is TOTAL relaxation. It’s the only way to make the positive message being sent to your right brain stick.
I finally “got the joke” when I read an article about a boy with hemophilia who was able to stop his bleeding by “going all mushy” and “seeing” his wounds heal themselves. “Going all mushy” is something I understand, and it works.
Leverage a “mushy” state. Totally relax yourself. Don’t try to force the critical inner voice to shut up. Try instead to achieve a waking dream state, where you accept the images your imagination presents as if they are real. Rehearse success in your head. Hit the target perfectly on every shot. Use as many senses as possible. This makes the scene as real to your right brain as if it were actually happening. This creates belief, and increases your potential for success. Like my Dad, when the guns start blazing you’ll execute calmly toward making that success scene happen.
It will feel like running down a familiar path.
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