Visualize Your Way to a Healthy, Happy Life

A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Waistline

What do you want out of life? Really think about it right now. What are your big dreams and long-term goals that keep you awake at night or get you up in the morning? They seem lofty at times; maybe near impossible! Yet…they don’t have to be. It’s possible that the key to achieving your every desire in life comes from something called visualization.

You may recall?an article?I wrote a while back about the word “don’t” and how our brains can’t compute it. The same vein of thinking applies here; it’s not just about dream boards though. Visualization is a kind of mental exercise in which we want to mold our subconscious minds to make healthful and helpful choices all on their own. Lots of athletes, from Muhammad Ali to Michael Phelps,?have been known to use visualization?to make them the best in their sports. Maybe you’re thinking, “how does it even work?”

I like to describe it as a mental rehearsal of sorts. It’s a way of picturing the situation, any situation you want, going your way. Part of why this works is because?the brain doesn’t know the difference between reality and imagination. When we visualize a situation going great, the brain takes this as fact. Whether you have an important work presentation or you’re preparing yourself to not stop at the doughnut shop on the way home, visualizing the outcome can make a difference in real life. Because we’ve mentally put ourselves through the scenario and given it a positive outcome, it then becomes easier for our behaviors in the moment to replicate it. It’s as if the moment of the actual event reminds the brain of the rehearsal and it recreates the same outcome.

This isn’t just manifestation blah blah blah; it’s backed by science. Visualization may leverage what is called the?reticular activating system?(RAS) in the brain, which sorts through thoughts, and decides what’s important to pay attention to. Visualization exercises essentially tell the brain this situation is important! That way, when we face the visualized situation in real life, the brain already knows how to handle it because it’s ingrained the sequence into our subconscious. Part of this can also be explained with neuroscience. Visualization triggers neurons in the brain to react as if the imagined situation is really happening, which can either form a new pathway or deepen an existing one. It’s even been used to?help patients recovering?from injuries and strokes during rehab.

Continuous activities, like visualization,?also activate the motor cortex of the brain?which helps us move more efficiently as a situation arises. Think about the routines you do every single day without fail; things that are so automatic, we don’t have to think about doing them. Visualization allows new situations to become more like routines in the same way.

Enough science talk! How do we actually visualize? Experts argue it’s more effective if you visualize yourself in the first person, like how you perceive the world now, with everything around you, as opposed to picturing yourself in a movie-like scenario, watching yourself. This way, the visualization is more powerful, and it matches what we’ll see or experience when it’s happening in real-time.

Now, pick your scenario. With the holidays pretty much in full swing, maybe there’s a family dinner you’re dreading or perhaps you struggle every evening with overeating on the couch while you catch up on a show. Whatever it is, that’s up to you, but the second and most important part about visualization is mentally rehearsing it going?well. I recommend doing this a few times, in fact, whether you talk it out loud or picture it all in your mind’s eye. Walk yourself through the holiday party scenario and not overeating, putting the appetizers on a plate, and walking away from the buffet to eat them. Or maybe it’s visualizing sitting on the couch, making a snack of berries and walnuts in the kitchen, and then sitting back down. Perhaps you picture that the first thing you do in the morning once your alarm goes off is wash your face, brush your teeth, put on your workout clothes, and head out the door for a walk. It’s important to mentally repeat it again and again and remember it’s progress over perfection here.

Our mental rehearsals to make these real-life situations easy takes a kind of muscle memory and a rebuilding of new routines, new neural pathways. Visualization can help our brains imagine the person who does these actions. No matter what you’re working on, it’s important to know you can rebound, again and again if need be. It’ll take some time, but visualization can be so powerful in achieving what you want in life.

So, what are some goals you’ll be working through with visualization? Let me know in the comments!