Visualization

If you have been studying personal development for long I am sure you have come across the concept of visualization.  My purpose now is to explore exactly what visualization is and why it is important.  How do you do it, and what difference does it make?

Visualization is imagining something so strongly, so clearly, that you almost feel as though it is really here.  Or, if you are very good at it, so that you really DO feel it is here!

Everything is energy.  Have you ever heard that before?  Well, it is true.  Absolutely EVERYTHING is energy.  The chair you are sitting on.  The floor you are standing on.  Yes, they are physical, they are material.  But what do we mean by physical and material?  Everything physical consists of atoms.  And atoms consist of sub-atomic particles - which are all simply energy.

When you dream of something, if you invest that dream with enough energy you will create the substance of your dream.  In order to do that properly you have to visualize it.  Really see it.  Close your eyes and imagine you are really there. 

Are you dreaming of a lovely holiday on a sunny beach in a hot climate?  Is that something you would like to turn into reality?  If so, do everything you can to feel as though you are really there now.  Prepare for this in advance of your visualization.  Begin by getting some photos of the kind of place you would like to visit.  Stick those pictures in an album.  Take some time to look carefully at each picture.  Burn it into your visual memory.  Are there any sounds that should be associated with this dream?  Maybe the sound of waves gently lapping at the shore?  See if you can find some recordings of this sound.  Search hard enough and you will find a recording like this somewhere online.  How about the sense of touch?  In the example I have given, there is the feel of sand slipping through your fingers.  You should be able to find some nice soft sand somewhere too.  Pick up a handful and let it slip through your fingers just as if you were sat on the lovely beach you have imagined.  Now close your eyes.  Bring back into your mind the pictures you put in the album.  Play the associated sounds - you can either literally play the recording now, or simply re-play it in your mind.  Feel that soft sand running through your fingers.  Smell the salt air.

How does all this make you feel?  It should, of course, make you feel happy!  Very happy!  Bask in that happy feeling.

If you do this properly, you are truly visualizing.  By visualizing you are creating an alternative reality.  Your visualization and emotion combined will have produced the right energy to turn your dream into a reality.  That reality has not yet turned into a physical reality, but it will at some point in the future if you allow it!

Do not underestimate the power of visualization!  It is a very powerful technique indeed.  Treat it, therefore, with some respect.

Never try to visualize something negative.  For example something bad happening to someone who has hurt you.  It is actually possible to create something very negative, something very bad in this way.  That bad thing may indeed happen to that unfortunate person, but whether or not it does, be certain of one thing - it will come back to haunt you and something at least as bad will happen to you.

Also, be careful in general about including real people in your visualizations.  It is one thing to dream of something you want to happen happening to you.  You may find when it materializes that it is not really what you wanted - but then you can simply change your visualization, fine tuning it so that it produces what you really want.  But it is quite different using the same technique to make something happen to someone else, no matter how good you think it might be for them.  Certainly hold them in love, with wishes for happiness, peace, and other positive states.  But don't be too specific.  Just as you can find you need to fine tune the dream you had for yourself, so it can be that the dream you had for someone else is not really right for them in their situation right now.  The difference is that they are unaware of what you have done and cannot therefore fine tune or ask you to fine tune it.  God gave us all free will, so don't try to turn yourself into a god and impose your own will on someone else, no matter how good you think it might be for them.