Positive visualization: how to visualize mentally?
Written by: Loris Vitry (holistic coach)
Validated by: Cathy Maillot (Osteopath)
Caution: If you have any medical questions or concerns, please speak to your doctor. Even if the articles on this site are based on scientific studies, they do not replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
With the evolution of humanity, several feats have been achieved in the fields of neuroscience, psychology and parapsychology.
Research has combined over time techniques from conventional Western medicine and traditional therapies of the peoples.
In doing so, many theories relating to the action of the individual mind on collective reality have been tested and verified.
This is how the techniques of creation by the mind have become more accessible in a conventional setting today.
Among these is the technique of positive visualization, which achieves concrete results in everyday life.
It is applied according to the VAKOG principle which involves the use of all the senses: the Visual, the Auditory, the Kinesthetic, the Olfactory and the Gustative.
To find out how this is done in practice, read this article to the end!
The Visual
As the name already suggests, visualization is largely characterized by the use of the senses of sight.
Obviously, in this specific case it will not be about using the physical organ, but rather the neurons responsible for the visual appreciation of things.
To do this, you are going to participate in a simple exercise, which will allow you to awaken and then gradually explore the mental dimension of each of your organs of perception.
The exercise we are going to choose here is very simple.
You can then vary depending on the situation you want to visualize, to achieve the desired results.
To begin with, in a peaceful setting, and away from outside noise, make sure that you are not going to be disturbed for about fifteen minutes.
Make yourself comfortable, let your eyes close, take a deep breath, then let’s get started.
Choose packaged food, such as strawberry candy.
Suggest in vision, the shape of the candy and add a color to it.
Then observe it from all angles, gradually in 2 and then 3 dimensions.
Observe its details, visual texture, contours, bulges, scratches, possible inscriptions.
Make the packaging bag that covers it.
Watch calmly, savor the image, take your time.
The Auditive
In this part of the visualization, you are going to engage your hearing senses.
They will add life to your visualization.
So let’s continue with the previous exercise.
Suppose you are going to ask for the candy.
Hear yourself asking for the candy and listen to the response of the person you are asking.
Have a little conversation with this one around the candy, details that you noticed just now.
Listen and respond by confirming what you are saying.
As you see the other person’s hand pick up the candy, hear the crunch of the wrapper.
After receiving the candy, listen to yourself thanking him for the offer.
The Kinesthetic
The kinesthetic represents the senses of touch, of physical contact.
The kinesthetic part of positive visualization is to get you to feel on your body the situations that you are visualizing.
To do this, continuing our exercise, you watch yourself take the candy.
Simultaneously, as you hear the screech of the wrapper again, you feel the touch of the candy with your fingers and firm your touch to actually feel the shape of the candy.
Appreciate its weight, its hardness.
Visualize yourself shaking it in your hand while hearing the packaging screeching.
Feel your body move as your hand shakes.
Using your second hand, hold the other end of the wrapper, then undo it: “crsssshhhh”, it’s the sound of the wrapping coming apart.
L’Olfactif
At this stage of positive visualization where you have decided to ask for a treat that will be offered to you and that you are going to eat, you will now experience the situation with your senses of smell.
You will add odors to the previous perceptions.
Once you’ve unpacked, breathe calmly.
What do you smell?
Certainly the scent of strawberries that scent your nostrils.
Bring the candy closer to your nose and inhale again.
You perceive the scent of strawberries more intensely with this time the good old smell common to all confectionery.
While you were doing this exercise, the sugar in the candy started to make your fingers sticky as usual.
Now that you are going to make the decision to eat this candy, it is time to engage your senses of taste.
Le Gustatif
This step begins long before you put the candy in your mouth.
The taste phenomenon is triggered with appetite.
If you have followed the instructions given in the previous levels, “now that you are going to make the decision to eat this candy”, what will happen?
You will start to salivate: this is not voluntary salivation.
You’re not just going to start swallowing your saliva on purpose, but because you just smelled that sweet strawberry smell and also because you are about to suck on that candy.
As you revel in its delicious nectar, your taste buds will begin to rejoice.
Enough patient, put it in your mouth.
How does it taste ?
Is it tangy?
Slightly milky?
Pay attention to every detail.
Savor your candy, slowly and have fun.
Here is presented in a few lines a visualization session.
This is a basic session, an initiation prototype, which allows you to gradually trigger your mental perception mechanisms.
You have to proceed step by step and above all give yourself the time.
Some experts say there is no point in upgrading to one level if you haven’t passed the previous one.
However, we suggest that you do the entire exercise each time.
Indeed, certain senses, taking into account our genetic heritage, our habits and our environment are more developed in some than in others.
To this end, some people might feel the last phase more easily, for example, than the first.
In this case, it will be a matter of going up to the top, to make sure you use all the senses.
This is the main objective of a mental visualization session.
As you progress through the success of this exercise, you can add more detail to it, and then gradually begin to picture everyday situations to yourself.
These can be past experiences, hypothetical cases, and then with practice and mastery you can begin to venture down the path of visualizing future situations.
Positive visualization can help you get out of stressful situations to attract the events you want to happen in your life.
Continue reading:
Tinnitus and post traumatic stress: what is the link?
