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The Power Of Visualisation

rainmakershub April 25, 2022

If you’re anything like me, you will marvel at some of the advances we are making in the world of technology, you look at the power that is placed at our finger tips, it is truly awe-inspiring what we can do with technology, much of which we simply take for granted. Something as simple and every day as the action I am taking right now producing this information in the way I am doing it would have been unthinkable a few years ago! We do tend to become desensitised to the power we have at our fingertips. I would suggest that the same is true regarding one of the most sophisticated and game-changing tools out there. I am referring to our own minds, the tool we all tend to take for granted! 

I recently watched a renowned psychologist working with patients who had suffered for many years from eating disorders. In this particular case, this was someone who had a fear of certain foods, and as a result, they were damaging their health with a diet that was far too high in salt from the high volume of snack foods they would consume. Because of the way they thought about food, their affliction, if you prefer, that is all they thought they could eat.

The psychologist explained to their patient they had two parts to their mind in effect. This was demonstrated by describing it in the following manner. What you were thinking in your head and what your heart was telling you. We all know that these are just different regions in your brain and have nothing to do with the biological heart. But this was the explanation used to keep it simple and understandable, without a degree in biology or psychology.

The patient knew there was no reason not to eat the food that everyone else was eating in their heart. Still, their head was shouting, no, you must not eat that, and the head was being listened to, and so the patient continued to eat the unhealthy food and damage their health and life expectancy.

The psychologist knew that if he could get the patient to understand the power of their mind and illustrate how they could take control of their behaviour simply by changing the way they were thinking, this would put the patient on the road to recovery. Despite me already understanding the power of the mind, watching what happened next was something special to witness.

The psychologist drew a circle on a sheet of A4 paper with two lines that met and crossed in the circle’s centre. He then placed the sheet of paper on the lap of the patient. He then handed the patient a simple pendulum on the end of some string. He instructed the patient to hold the line in one hand and, with the other, ensure the pendulum was in the centre of the target and not moving.

Once the pendulum was still, the patient was told to hold it there to hang just above the centre of the circle. Then the patient was asked to concentrate on imagining the pendulum moving in a North-South direction but not to move their hand. To keep the focus on visualising the pendulum moving North to South.

It only took a few moments before the pendulum started to swing in that direction, to the amazement of the patient. Despite his best efforts to keep the pendulum still, his focus on visualising the movement had been transmitted subconsciously through unnoticeable micro activities into making the pendulum swing in that direction.

This was such a powerful demonstration for the patient; within moments they were taking teaspoons full of food that would typically repel them. The patient was eating these spoons of food by simply using the same principle as was used to move the pendulum.

Later, I was to find out that this patient was eating normally for the first time in thirty years within a few weeks! Once they understood the power of their mind and the relationship between head and heart, they could affect the change that was needed to improve their health significantly.

more importantly, the patient knew that ultimately they had control; they just had to use it. The rest was down to personal effort. Everything requires effort; you just have to be willing to give that level of effort consistently.

Another great example is a study that a University in the United States undertook. In this case, they wanted to demonstrate the power of the mind and how it can influence physical actions when using the art of visualisation, something I use all of the time personally and have done for several years in both my personal and professional life.

In this example, a group of Basketball players who were all of a similar standard were split into three equal groups. One group were placed in a room with snacks, soft drinks and a big screen with a selection of movies to watch for a few hours.

The second group was taken to a court and asked to practise shooting baskets at the same time. The final group was placed in a room and asked to sit quietly in a comfortable space and visualise shooting baskets. They were given instructions on the best techniques and encouraged to bring great levels of detail into the visualisation so that they could almost feel the ball in their hands and the sound it made as it passed through the net and bounced on the court floor.

At the end of the period allocated for this experiment into the power of the mind, through visualisation, the three groups were individually brought onto the basketball court and asked to shoot as many baskets as they could in a given time.

The results demonstrated the power of visualisation in the following way. The group that had been relaxing watching movies scored well, as you would expect from seasoned players. However, they were outperformed by a significant margin by the other two groups.

While the group who had physically practised scored the most, the gap between them and the group who had been visualising scoring was minimal. The act of concentrated visualisation had produced as good results for these seasoned players as actual practice.

I am not suggesting that you do not need to embark on physical practice; I am saying that the art of detailed visualisation can and does impact physical activity and will enhance performance. Thoughts do indeed become things after multiple repetitions of the same ideas. You do become what you think about most.

As I pointed out earlier, I strongly believe in this because I have done it with great success on many occasions and still do. I am constantly reminding myself through visualisation of the course I am steering with my business and the development of my writing for the various books I am working on.

I have visualised the patrols I would go on while on active service in my previous life to prepare myself for this high-pressure role. I have imagined the Rugby games I was selected to play the night before the game to get my mind in the right place for my best performance. I constantly visualise the presentations that I give and my business development.

All of these things contribute to my overall mindset and, therefore performance. The key to this practice is to make the thoughts, the visualisations as vivid and as detailed as possible. The more detail, the better, the more frequently you do it, the better. I call this visualisation; I am sure others will see it as a form of meditation. Interestingly, many of the world’s most successful business people, the shapers of business rather than the simple doers, openly share that they regularly meditate or visualise or both.

The people I am referring to that you will of heard of are the likes of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Ray Dalio, Anita Roddick and Peter Jones, to name just a few of the more well-known characters.

Later on, I will be asking you to work on your vision for the future, your future and the future of your business. I will also be asking you to look at your core values and their relationship. It will come as no surprise that I will also be asking you to adopt the habit of visualisation. But guess what? You do not have to wait; you can start this process right away.