Visualize your Week
God Nuggets, Issue 4

Do you have a challenging week coming up? Maybe an important meeting, whether it's with a family member, co-worker, potential employer, business opportunity, etc. Or do you need to perform at something exceptionally well this week?

It is possible to "visualize your way to success."

Scientists believe they have found a "flaw" in how our brain works. It seems that your brain cannot distinguish a strong imaginary scene from reality. For instance, if you start thinking about a really threatening situation you'll start to feel the same side effects as if you were actually facing that situation. If you start to really concentrate, focus and visualize a chaotic situation you'll notice that you lose any sense of peace and calmness. On the other hand, if you start to visualize yourself in your favorite garden, woods, or beach scene having a quiet time of prayer, meditation, or just plain relaxing, you'll start feeling more at ease.

When you start thinking about someone you really love and why you love them, notice how your feelings are different then if you think about the one person in your life that you really don't want to be around. ( Note: You need to devote at least 20 minutes of focused attention to any visualization exercise to give it a real test.)

The point is: not only does visualizing affect our feelings, but it also affects our performance. We all know that practice makes perfect . The more an athlete practices the better she is. The more a salesman or debater practices the better they are. The more experience a computer programmer has the better he is. Now we know that such practice is greatly enhanced by "mental practice" as well. Olympian and professional athletes have learned that if they visualize themselves practicing everyday and hitting those baskets, homeruns or touchdowns, that they are much more effective than if they relied exclusively on physical practice.

Bottom line: visualize how you want your week to turn out. See yourself very clearly going through the motions or going through the conversations that you want to have. Visualize the other person's positive response. In other words, create the scene exactly as you want it to happen, and play it over and over again in your mind. Practice this at least once a day for five or ten minutes and when you get to your event, your brain will be fully programmed for what you want to happen. You'll have a sense of ease and peace because "you have already been there before." In other words, it's not the first time you have been up to bat.

by C.V. Doner

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