How To Use Visualization To Stay Focused
Wouldn’t it be great if we could simply picture something and it would come true? If we wanted something enough that we could simply manifest it out of thin air? The truth is, anything we want, we do have to think about first; but, just thinking about it is not enough. We need to actively visualize what we want and this means making a commitment to taking the time to do it.
So, if I told you that picturing something would be enough to make it appear in your life, would you be motivated to spend time coming up with a clear visualization? Of course you would. Creative visualization is an important and vital part in following our dreams. The truth is, the more time we picture what we want and actually get excited about the picture, the greater we are in a position to attract it.
In my work as a Life Coach and Energy Healer, I spend a lot of time helping people to clarify what they want. Often, I find that people do not want to dream about their future for a variety of reasons. Sometimes when we try to picture what we want we start to imagine all of the things that can go wrong. Sometimes, when we imagine the things that we want we find we become more dissatisfied with our current situation. We don’t want to dream because it makes us want things that we feel we might never have. Sometimes we do not want to dream about our future because we get nervous that if we go for what we really want we might not get it. We do not want to exchange a mediocre present with the possibility of failure. For whatever the reason, sometimes we just stay where we are and close our minds to other possibilities. Yet, if we are ever going to make changes in our lives, we must think about them first. We need to put ourselves in the position of deliberately creating our future. If we just allow life to come to us we are basically living our lives by default. We might get what we want, but there is a good chance we won’t.
Imagine you were planning a trip with your family. Do you just show up at the airport on the day you want to leave without a plan of where you are going and what you are doing? You could do that and it might work out, but it is highly likely it will not. You usually plan the trip, looking for the best deals going to the best places with the most fun things to do. You might consider each day of your trip and what you might do, or you might leave it open-ended with the plan to relax. Regardless, chances are you are going to think about what you want and you are going to plan a trip based on your desires. Life should get at least that much consideration.
There is a “law” of energy that relates to creative visualization. Simply put, “everything that ever has been created was thought about first.” This sounds so simple, but if you think of energy as something that flows forward, and thought as a starting point, creative visualization allows you to cement thought in reality. Thoughts lead to feelings and feelings are attractive. The way you feel becomes your “energy broadcast.” When you picture something and feel good about it, you are broadcasting “yes” to the universe about it. You basically become a magnet of your visualization.
When you are trying to attract something specific visualization works in many ways. It helps you marry details to a dream. By trying to picture something, you can actually clarify your plans and better consider your course of action. For example, if you are trying to lose weight, you can picture what losing that weight would mean to you. You could see yourself playing tennis or running and picture it as easy and rewarding. You could also picture yourself at the doctor’s office with a smile on your face after hearing how great your vital stats were. These pictures are your “destination.” They help you get on the train of energy and simply follow it forward. If you were going to teach a class and you wanted a successful outcome, you could picture yourself teaching. You can change the picture until you had a picture that makes you feel good: you can clarify what you are wearing, how you are moving, how confident you appear. If you find yourself having a hard time picturing something, the chances are greater that you will have a hard time creating that thing. Visualizations like these help you see the details that you are hoping to include in your creation so that they make sense in practice.
The most important piece to remember when you are trying to come up with a picture is that when you think about it, it should make you feel happy. If your picture makes you feel overwhelmed or makes you notice the lack in your current life, remind yourself that all creations were thought about first and you are in your current situation by default. If you did work hard to get where you are but your plans did not work out, find a thought that reminds you that you can always begin again, you can always work again and eventually things will work out. You can change the picture as often as you need in order to feel good about it.
Sometimes I help people come up with a visualization by designing a sentence of what they want to create and asking them to come up with a picture to match. I have many clients that say they are not “visual.” I usually say to them, “Do me a favor, imagine a Christmas tree (or any other current holiday suggestion). Could you picture a Christmas tree?” I have been told yes 100 percent of the time. I then say, “if you can picture the tree, you can picture what you want to create.” So, even though it seems silly, talking yourself into a picture makes creative visualization easier. Say you are trying to design a website for your business or some other passion, simply say out loud, “I am going to imagine an image of me creating a successful website. I am going to see myself sitting at my desk and feeling proud of my work.” Keep giving yourself descriptive sentences that match what you want. When you have a picture that makes you happy, allow yourself time to enjoy it.
The great thing about creative visualization is that you can do it anywhere at any time. It doesn’t cost any money and no one even has to know you are doing it. Yet, it can change your attitude and help you become clear about what you want. When you are clear about what you want and feel good about it, you become a magnet to it. Your thought becomes your visualization and your visualization becomes your reality.
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The HOW TO with Kim Mazzella is a weekly column featuring Kim's expert life coaching tips for the modern woman navigating entrepreneurship, motherhood, work-life balance, and more!
ABOUT KIM MAZZELLA:
Kim Mazzella, founder of the Life Guidance Center, is a Healer, Teacher, Spiritual Coach and Writer. Her work is based in the belief that our natural state is health and wholeness. Her job is to help those she works with remove the blocks that they have placed in the way of the free flow of energy and healing. She integrates the knowledge from her study of A Course in Miracles and universal laws with her study of massage and understanding of the body’s energy system to create a holistic approach to healing and change.