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Positive Visualization For A Great Life

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I want you to try using positive visualization techniques because I believe that it can greatly improve your life and help you achieve your goals. This is done through the power of imagination and mental imagery.  For men over 50 this may be enough to help you regain your  edge and make a huge difference in your life.

 

Take James Nesmeth, a POW prisoner stuck in a prison camp in Vietnam in the 1970’s.  James enjoyed playing golf but wasn’t that good. However, he used visualization to help him escape the physical hell he was in by imagining himself playing golf in his mind. His visualization was so detailed that he could see and feel every part of the game in great detail, even though his body was still captive.  When he was finally released from prison he found that upon playing golf again his game had greatly improved even though he hadn’t played in years.

 

In this article, we’ll explore what positive visualization is, the science behind it, and how you can use it to reach your goals and build lasting habits.

 

Colourful dream like sky -Positive visualization

What is Positive Visualization?

Positive visualization is a mental technique that allows you to imagine a future in detail where you have achieved your life goals. It uses the power of the mind to create vivid and detailed images of what you want in life. It can be done exclusively through your imagination or can be enhanced with images on a vision board to help build details and consistency.  

 

By continually visualizing what you want, you can make your path to realizing your goals clearer.  This reinforces your commitment to making those visions a reality.

 

The Science Behind Positive Visualization

Positive visualization is based on the principles of neuroscience and psychology and shows how our thoughts can impact our behavior and outcomes. Here are three popular techniques for using positive visualization:

 

1. Visualization with Emotional Engagement

This technique involves visualizing your emotions as well as creating vivid mental images of your goals.. The more you can imagine the emotions associated with your visualization, the more effective it becomes. For example, if your goal is to improve your physical fitness, visualize yourself feeling strong, healthy, and full of energy. If you can also imagine all your senses while visualizing your goals or future state, the more impact this has on the visualization process. 

 

2. Mental Rehearsal

Frequently rehearsing visualization of goals is done by many successful athletes before competition. This approach involves breaking down and visualizing each of the steps that are part of achieving a goal.  For example, prior to a golf tournament Tiger Woods would carefully visualize every aspect of the game and the course he was playing, including how he would grip his club. This method helps build confidence and makes you ready by familiarizing your mind with how you expect the future will unravel.

 

3. Daily Affirmations

Using positive affirmations in your visualization process can increase your belief in achieving your goals. Affirmations are just positive statements that you repeat to reinforce your goals. For instance by saying, “”I am committed to reaching my goals.” and adding these affirmations to positive visualizations you can build a mental model that helps you improve your visualization and keeps you focused on your goals..

 

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How Positive Visualization Can Help You Reach Your Goals

You can use positive visualization to improve the connection between your mind and body to reach your goals.  Here’s how:

 

1. Clarifies Your Goals

By Visualizing your goals you are able to envision and define your goals more clearly. Once your goal is vividly clear, it becomes more real. With greater clarity comes the motivation to take the actual steps to achieve it.

 

2. Boosts Motivation and Confidence

By being consistent with visualizing success your mental vision of success helps you believe and become more capable of achieving success. This can boost your confidence and motivation, making it easier to stay committed to your goals, even when problems come up.

 

3. Enhances Focus and Concentration

Positive visualization helps you keep a sharp focus on your goals by regularly envisioning them and reinforcing their importance to you.  This helps you prioritize your actions to what you desire. 

 

4. Reduces Stress and Anxiety

By using positive visualization you reduce your stress and anxiety levels as you envision yourself already successful.  It can give you a sense of calm and better control over your future. You no longer have a fear of failure, giving you a more positive mindset. 

 

5. Improves Performance

Visualization can improve your physical performance, as studies suggest [1]. Through mentally rehearsing your actions, you can improve your skills and improve your chances of success. This is why many athletes use visualization to prepare for competition.

 

DID YOU KNOW?

Studies indicate that people do much better accomplishing a goal when their goals are relevant but challenging [2].

 

The Power of Habit Formation

Habits shape our daily routines and our lives. By creating positive habits, you can create changes in your life that lead to accomplishing your goals. Check out how positive visualization helps in forming habits:

 

1. Creating a Clear Vision

Visualization helps you create a clear vision of the habits you want to develop. For example, if you want to develop a habit in which you exercise daily, visualize yourself doing that exercise.  Also, visualize feeling energetic and happy while doing it.  The clarity of this vision helps motivate you to develop this habit. 

 

2. Reinforcing Consistency

Regularly visualizing the outcome of new habits helps reinforce the importance of consistency.  By imagining yourself sticking with your habit and benefiting from it you build greater resolve to keep up the habit, especially when it is difficult to do so.

 

3. Building Neural Pathways

You build neural pathways in your brain through positive visualization, which makes a new habit easier to adopt. Your brain begins to recognize the habit as familiar and an automatic action when you visualize it regularly.  This makes it easier to add the habit to your daily routine.

 

4. Enhancing Self-Discipline

By imagining the successful formation of a habit you can improve your discipline.  You see yourself practicing self control and overcoming obstacles in your mind and, which prepares your mind to help you better handle challenges in real life.

 

5. Tracking Progress and Celebrating Success

You can also use visualization to track progress and celebrate success by envisioning yourself reaching milestones and the feelings you imagine when you do.  This can improve your motivation and keep you committed to your habits.  

 

QUOTE

The key to effective visualization is to create the most detailed, clear and vivid a picture to focus on as possible. The more vivid the visualization, the more likely, and quickly, you are to begin attracting the things that help you achieve what you want to get done.

~Georges St-Pierre, MMA Fighter

 

Steps to Implement Positive Visualization in Your Daily Routine

Start using positive visualization in your daily routine to help you stay focused and motivated to reach your goals.  Follow these steps to get started:

 

1. Set Clear Goals

Begin by coming up with SMART goals you want to achieve.  Jot them down in detail.  This provides a concrete target to envision through positive visualization.

 

2. Create a Visualization Schedule

Take a few minutes each day to practice visualizing your goals. Try and make this a quiet time where you can focus without distractions, such as early in the morning after waking up or before going to bed.

 

3. Find a Comfortable Space

Find a place to relax. Sit or lie down in a position that allows you to be relaxed yet awake and aware. Relaxation helps improve attention and focus [3].

 

4. Use Deep Breathing Techniques

Start visualization with a few minutes of deep breathing. This helps calm your mind and gets you ready. Inhale deeply through your nose, hold for a few seconds, and then exhale slowly through your mouth.

 

5. Visualize Your Goals in Detail

Close your eyes and create a clear mental vision of you achieving your goals. Use your senses to imagine the visualization to be as real as possible. For example, if your goal is to get fit, imagine yourself full of energy,  running on a forest trail, hearing the sounds of nature while feeling strong and healthy.

 

6. Incorporate Positive Emotions

Focus on the positive emotions that come from achieving your goals as you visualize. Feel happy, powerful and satisfied, as a result of your success.  These emotions will make your image more powerful and motivating.

 

7. Repeat Affirmations

Be sure to add  positive affirmations. Repeat statements like, “I am committed to making positive changes in my life.” These affirmations help support your mental imagery.

 

8. Stay Consistent

Be consistent in order to make your visualization effective. Practice visualization daily, even if it’s just for a minute or two. The effect over time will reinforce your goals and keep you motivated.

 

Pit fall of positive visualization

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

While positive visualization can be a powerful tool, there are some common pitfalls that can hinder its effectiveness. Here are a few to watch out for, along with tips on how to avoid them:

 

1. Lack of Specificity

Visualizing vague outcomes makes it difficult to stay motivated and track progress. Be specific and focus on reaching milestones.

 

2. Inconsistent Practice

Practicing visualization infrequently or irregularly can weaken the impact of your vision. Start a routine, perhaps a couple of minutes each day, and stick with it.

 

3. Negative Self-Talk

Don’t allow negative thoughts to invade or undermine your visualizations. Use positive self talk or affirmation to change negative thoughts into positive ones. 

 

4. Impatience

It is easy to become impatient expecting immediate results can. Avoid frustration by understanding the visualization process will take time.  

 

5. Lack of Action

Visualization is only part of the process to achieving your goals.  You must also take action to achieve them   

 

6. Overwhelm

It is easy to become overwhelmed if you try to visualize too many goals at one time.  Try focusing on one or two important goals at a time. 

 

 

Conclusion: Positive Visualization for Remarkable Results

Positive visualization is a great tool to help you achieve your goals in life by using the power of your mind. For men over 50 looking to regain their edge and reach their goals, using visualization daily can give you clarity, motivation, and focus to succeed.

 

By having clear goals, using visualization, imagining your emotional state and combining this with positive affirmations, you can build a mental model that helps you succeed. Be sure to stay consistent, patient, and reinforce your visualizations with real action.

 

Make sure to be specific when visualizing, stay positive and flexible as you begin to achieve success. This will allow you to change your mental images into reality and enjoy the real benefits of positive visualization.

 

Try positive visualization out – add this to your toolbox of techniques to help you regain your edge!

Check out The Power of Habit: Great Results for Men Over 50.

 

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