There’s more proof that visualizing can train the brain for the actual performance. In other words, thoughts produce the same mental instructions as actions! Isn’t that amazing to consider?
This might be more impactful if you take a look at what’s on your mind the most. Where do you put most of your focus on a daily basis? If you are constantly thinking about how poor you are, you’re training yourself to be poor. If your mindset has always lived in the I Can’t category, you’ve been training all your life to Can’t. Does this put things into better perspective?
Mentally training along with the physical part, can be more effective than doing either alone. You can bet that the top athletes use visualization along with their training. Considering the success they have, why wouldn’t we want to do the same? It was found that the brain patterns of weightlifters that were activated when lifting hundreds of pounds were similarly activated when they only imagined lifting! Whoa! Doesn’t that prove there really are benefits to visualizing?
Mental practice can get you closer to where you want to be in life, and it can prepare you for success! For instance, Natan Sharansky, a computer specialist who spent 9 years in prison in the USSR after being accused of spying for US has a lot of experience with mental practices. While in solitary confinement, he played himself in mental chess, saying: “I might as well use the opportunity to become the world champion!” Remarkably, in 1996, Sharansky beat world champion chess player Garry Kasparov!
Considering this, it’s probably time to retrain our brains by spending more time visualizing what we want and less time thinking about all the obstacles that prevent us from success. This is not as easy as just repeating mantras, although that can distract your mind enough to stay away from the negative cycle.
It’s important to visualize your goals with images that trigger you in the most physical way possible. You want to feel excitement from your visualizations. This means actually spending time diving into the vision and letting yourself see the details so you can react with emotion. A better visualization would be to imagine breaking the tape as you cross the finish line, to the roar of the celebrating crowd, than to just imagine running in a marathon.
Once you’ve got that vision, repeat it often. Commit to it several times a day. At the same time, you’ll need to practice the physical part of the performance. And your decisions should be based on whether you’re in line with your goal. The power of the aligned mental and physical efforts will propel you quicker in the direction you want to be going.
Since we now know how powerful the mind-body connection really is, it’s time to retrain your brain to practice what you ultimately want to achieve!
