Visualisation- does it work?

There is so much talk these days about visualisation, with the release of the film The Secret that I am curious does it actually work? Well as with anything in life, if you believe it then of course it can be true. And that of course is my belief. Whilst doing yoga this week, I was reminded of the first time I visualised. I had been struggling with my headstand for some time. It was all wobbly and shaky and I simply found it impossible to stay up for any length of time. Until I read this Indian book on Yoga and it talked about visualising your headstand before doing it. So the next morning, whilst in the child pose before going up into my headstand. I visualised myself, as the book suggested, as a mountain. Tall and strong with a steady unshakable base. Then I went up into my headstand and was still for the first time ever and it  felt effortless. This was a simple example for me to demonstrate how your thought, visualisation, can change matter, the physical- for me visualisation does work. This was the start of many examples for me. But I would love to hear from you, your experiences of visualisation, as to whether or not, you believe it works?

Comments

[Olive Hickmott]

In my life and practice visualisation is an invaluable skill. I teach people to "tune up" their visual memory, to get the best images they possibly can - an invaluable skill for drawing, spelling, reading, revision and all those school activities some people found so hard (www.seeingspellsachieving.com). I also practice as a coach, almost entirely focused on health and wellness coaching, often with people who have chronic health conditions. All the work we do with clients is much easier if they can visualise well: from imagining moving fluently (is you have a stiff back), to imagining scoring that goal in the football match, to imagining being able to pick up a tea cup without shaking (for Parkinson's clients. The image people often use for this is to imagine your hand held up with hot air balloons and see if you can levitate the tea cup. It is never considered a cure but often hands the client back more control). I should be pleased to discuss further. The great thing about The Secret is to bring the concept to people to even consider the idea.

[Andy Mitchell]

Visualisation really does work. There is plenty of scientific evidence to support this including Dr Blaslotto from The University of Chicago. Like any great skill the key to visualisation is just practice and remember you don't need to be a 'visual' person to do it. Just pretend that you can visualise.