The Power Of Creative Visualisation | Vishen Lakhiani

So in my book, the Code of the Extraordinary Mind, I briefly mention creative visualization and the impact this particular technique has had in my life, particularly when it came to healing. A lot of readers asked me to share more to help them understand how they could look at creative visualization. So what I wanted to share in this quick video are a couple of tips. So firstly, creative visualization is a word for a form of therapy that is often also commonly called imagery therapy. And I got therapy fascinated by it because I read about how doctors like Ocarl Simonton of the Simonton Research center had found that by taking patients and having patients visualize certain things in their head, many of these patients could go through an accelerated healing, even from deadly diseases like cancer. Dr. Okarl Simonton called it imagery therapy, and you can learn more by Googling his name. But creative visualization goes so much more beyond that. It also seems to be a really effective way to help people move towards goals and to help people feel positive about their lives and to help you do more in less time. And so, in my life today, whenever I'm facing something massive, whether it's a project I have to do at work or it's a goal or an outcome I want in my life, I practice creative visualization really quickly in one or two minutes every day as part of my morning six phase meditation routine. So here's how it works. The first thing about creative visualization is that it is the act of seeing in your mind's eye that which you want to attract into your life. It could be a particular healing for an illness or a disease you have. It could be the accomplishment of a goal. It could be the positive outcome of a difficult situation you're currently going through. Now, the first rule is creative visualization seems to work best when you are in a relaxed, meditative state of mind. One reason this might be so is that when we're in a relaxed state of mind, we work better with auto suggestion. In a way, one of the things you're doing at creative visualization is practicing auto suggestion. It's like a form of self hypnosis. You are telling yourself, commanding yourself to heal in a certain way, to attain a goal in a certain way. And this tends to be more powerful when you're relaxed. So it's not something you would do while you're say, sitting in a subway car during commute with all of that noise around you. It's something you would do sitting up in bed before, during or after your regular meditation routine. So get yourself into a relaxed State of mind. Studies have found that that you are more susceptible to autosuggestion when you are at the alpha level of mind, which is a brainwave frequency where you go from beta or waking consciousness to alpha states of mind, which is where you're relaxed, you're meditative. It's that state you're in when you just wake up in the morning or when you're about to take a nap. So one of the best times, if you are new to meditation, is in the morning when you just wake up. Now here's how the process works. So close your eyes and directly in front of you, imagine you're seeing a television screen. A large television screen. Like, think of the fanciest, largest, most high res TV screen you've ever laid your eyes on and picture that in front of you. Many people make the mistake of seeing what they want to visualize in the back of their eyelids. Do not do that. Think high definition, futuristic, massive, kick ass television screen directly in front of you. Now here's the next step. You're now going to visualize certain things on that screen. And the first thing you're going to visualize is the situation that you're currently in that you want to heal. It could be an illness, it could be an injury. Let's say you injured your back at the gym. You want to see the situation in front of you at the gym, the back injury, and you want to feel the emotional pain of what just happened. If it was a fight with a loved one, you want to relive that. Now some of you may be wondering what? I don't want to bring my memory back to that. But interestingly enough, proponents of gutter visualization have found that when you start by seeing the pain, when you start by seeing that which you do not want, you seem to get better results. So you're going to see or relive or remember that which you want to heal. Again, see it directly in front of you on this giant television screen. Bring in emotions, bring in anger, bring in that pain. It's okay to punch a pillow if you're there. So it's okay to feel this negativity for a moment. In fact, this negativity that you're about to feel right now in this brief moment is rocket fuel for what's going to happen next. Okay, so see it, feel it, feel the pain, feel that which you want to change. But don't do this for too long. This would be maybe a minute, maybe two minutes. Now, after you see this, you're going to imagine you're erasing that scene. Imagine you have a whiteboard eraser and you're erasing that scene. Or imagine you're turning off that television set. Just something to say, enough is enough. And now you turn the television set on again. Or you display and visualize a new scene, and now you're seeing the new outcome. You're seeing that new thing that you want to bring into the world. Now, when it comes to this new thing, you want to see it, but you want to make it even more vivid. You want to bring in full colors. You want to feel the joy, feel the emotion. Try to bring in what all of your five senses. Let's say what you are looking to go from is back pain to a really healthy, powerful back where you can jog, you can play with your kids. Nothing is holding you back. See that? See that setting. See yourself playing football. See yourself lifting your kid on your shoulders. The back pain is gone. Feel the joy. Now, here are a couple of rules as you do this. Make sure it's vivid, it's in color. And bring in all four additional senses other than just visualization. You see, some people have difficulty visualizing. That's normal. About 50% of us are visual, so we think in terms of images. But there are others amongst us who think and feel better when we think about touch or smell or hearing or sound or taste. So no matter what you do, it's not about just visualizing. It's really about different senses that you bring in. So again, you might see yourself overcoming the back pain. You have your kid on your back. Maybe you're walking through a park. Your back feels absolutely fine, absolutely healthy. Bring in smells. What does the park smell like? Sounds. What do you hear in that park? Touch. How does it feel like having your kid over your shoulders? And then bring in taste. Maybe you're eating an ice cream as you're holding your kid. So bring in as many senses as you can, make it as real as you can, and bring in finally feelings and emotions. So the third rule is, other than see it in full color, bring in all senses. The third rule is feel feelings of joy, any positive emotion, bring that in and feel the feelings. Feel what it's like to feel proud that your back and your body is so freaking rock solid. Feel what it's like to be playing with your kid in that park knowing that you are fine and healthy and are going to stay this way for a long time. Now, there is a thought rule, and that thought rule is really interesting. It was suggested by One of the pioneers of creative visualization. His name is Jose Silva. He wrote a really famous book on it in the 1970s. And that book is see two or more people benefit. So this rule is interesting. In that final image, don't just see yourself benefiting. See two or more people. So you could see your kid benefiting as well, because he now has a mom or a dad who is in perfect shape and can play with him and have more fun with him. You might see your spouse benefiting because you are in perfect shape. You have a healthy back. You're better able to help out your spouse with chores around the house. Maybe you're better in bed. You are healthy. See two or more people benefiting. Okay, so again, let's do a quick recap. You are going to see. See it in full vivid color. Bring in all your senses, feel emotions, see two or more people benefiting. And all of this is happening on that giant futuristic television screen directly in front of you. And now you're done. When you've experienced that taste of positive feelings, when you've seen two or more people benefiting, you're good. You can now open your eyes and step out into the world. And another tip that you might want to do just before you end the session is to end with, let this or something better happen. I've often found that by ending that way, I feel at least that not only will I get what it is that I'm visualizing, but often something better. So you end with a simple affirmation, let this or something better happen. And you're done with your creative visualization session. It's that easy. So, quick recap. You can apply creative visualization to healing, to resolving any problem, to accomplishing a project. Now, as I do this recap, let me pick something different. Let's say it's a goal at work. Let's pick something really common. You have a project or a target you have to hit at the end of the month. Okay, so you would start by doing this early in the morning when you're in your meditative level of mind and feel your current situation. Maybe the revenues aren't in yet. Maybe the project is in shambles. You're seeing that giant television screen. You're feeling the anger, feeling whatever negative emotions you have. But you're not doing this for long. Maybe a minute now. You imagine yourself turning off the TV or erasing the scene, turning back on the TV or projecting a new scene to it, and now it's in full color. You see yourself as if the project has already finished as if it's already moving along beautifully and has wrapped up. You see your team celebrating. You bring in all your senses. You smell the sounds in the office, maybe bottles of champagne popping. You hear the sounds of people high fiving each other as this project wraps up. Bring in all your senses. Third, you feel celebration. You feel joy. You feel that feeling of accomplishment. Think about your internal feelings. What would you feel if this project was truly done? And fourth, see two or more people benefiting your clients, your co workers, people around you. And now you're done. Before you open your eyes and step out of this particular session, you would now say, let this or something better happen. So those are the basics of creative visualization. That's what I do. I found that it's a really powerful tool and, and that I find that I function better in life not just when I'm doing things in the physical world, but when I'm doing this simple mental rehearsal and conditioning exercise in the mornings before facing my day. And I find that since I've been doing this, and I've been doing it now for almost. Well, I started when I was 14. It's really helped me accelerate what I'm able to do in life. So I hope it works for you as well. Thank you.