by: Andre Judice, Ph.D., LPC, LMFT
Positive thinking, affirmations, and visualization are not just for fairy tales or feel good stories. We hear about using a positive outlook or visualization to improve our lives in many ways, but I also hear people make comments about their doubt about the actual effectiveness of this process.
There is well documented evidence in scientific journals that using a certain mindset or visualization can create a psychological or physical change compared to an equally matched group of people used in the studies that does not use any such techniques. In some cases, the degree of change can mirror that of the impact of the actual experience (instead of only having visualized it).
One example of this is study done at the University of Chicago, where the effect of visualization was noted with regard to the ability to shoot free throw shots. All participants were first tested to see what their “baseline” free throw shooting ability was without any intervention. Then they were separated in three groups: those that practiced for 30 days by shooting free throws, those that only visualized making free throw shots (without any direct practice,) and those that did not do anything at all. After 30 days, they were all tested again on their free throw percentages. The group that did not do anything showed no improvement. The group that had direct free throw practice each day showed 24% improvement, while the group that had indirect practice via visualization had 23% improvement. This means that practicing visualization each day accounted for almost as much improvement as direct practice did. And the good news is that there are many scientific studies that show the same results with using positive thinking and visualization when applied to a wide range of things.
So why does this actually work? I think there are two reasons. First, our brain takes in information and files it away no matter if it is something that really happened to us, something we think happened to us, or something we visualized. Although the encoding of information in our brains is a very detailed discussion, for our purposes it is only important to note that the brain does not discriminate between a direct or indirect experience when it comes to coding memory. So each time we visualize something, our brains take it in as real experience and files it accordingly, thus creating neural pathways to handle this information when continuously presented. The more we use a neural pathway, the more it becomes like an information “superhighway”, and it gets more prominent the more we use it. The end result is that our brains actually create a mental and physical expectancy about the free throw shooting experience. It creates an expectation of what needs to happen in our bodies to make this possible, thereby creating improvement. The second reason I think this works is that we actually have more of an ability to influence our outcomes than we might think, and visualization can also create a mental expectation and belief that is able to manifest itself.
So what does this mean for you and I? That it actually is possible to harness our brain power to bring about a certain result. So I encourage you try it. Pick something that you want to improve with, and create a mental picture of what it looks like when you are performing that action the way you want to. Pay special attention to use all of your senses to really “feel” the experience. Notice how your body reacts and feels as you see yourself performing the desired action; if this is a physical action (like shooting free throws), see if your muscles can feel the movement you see in the visualization. Feel the emotions and sense of pride or accomplishment. Hear the positive feedback from others. Use your five senses as much as possible. Repeat this everyday for at least 7 to 10 days, then try the action for “real”. You aren’t going to be perfect at it, but you should notice some improvement.
This can also be used to help you feel more confident and competent before dealing with uncomfortable situations such as confronting someone, giving a public speech, or asking your boss for a raise. Use your imagination! You might just see that we have more power to change our own reality than we ever thought!
Source
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