What is visualisation?

It’s a term that’s used to help people realise and achieve goals and dreams, but what do we mean exactly by visualisation and what impact can it actually have?

Well, fundamentally visualisation is a cognitive tool used to picture exactly what you want to happen.

In doing so we are creating all aspects of the scenario that we to experience or obtain. Now, I mean everything, so that could be sounds, sights, smells, feelings.

The more realistic the visualisation you take part in and the more it stimulates you, the more impact it will have in you realising and moving closer to what you want to achieve.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter gives a fantastic explanation of what visualisation is and its power:

“A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more”

So, with this depiction, we can start to understand that visualisation is an opportunity for us to try and control what we are struggling to control.

It is a tool that helps us create what we want to see and achieve.

This all sounds great, ideal, give me some visualisation!

Well, hold on for a second. What is important when thinking about concepts that talk about how they are the key to success, is to look at the research.

What does psychology say about visualisation?

Well, often in psychological services, visualisation boards are used to help illustrate what the client is seeking.

These external tools can help in keeping the client focussed on visualisation.

Visualisation boards are often used for people that want a better future, a healthier lifestyle and even for those attempting to overcome addiction.

In psychological services, concrete objects are often utilised to help with the process of visualisation.

This is often used with patients with depression to visualise a better future and used to great effect.

These concrete objects can include things such as pictures in wallets for example, or mementoes that the individual carries with them.

Visualisation is also used in psychological and therapeutic services for patients with severe anxiety to create mental holidays to retreat to a calmer environment.

This might sound abstract but it has been shown to have incredible effects.

So, it’s clear then that visualisation techniques can be used to incredible effect in therapeutic and psychological contests but where else is visualisation used?

Where else is visualisation used?

Well the easiest one to appreciate perhaps is in the world of sports

Athletes will spend huge amounts of time visualising good performances.

Recent research has in fact inferred that spending time visualising performances and potential different outcomes and responses in sports settings have as much a role to play in how well an athlete performs the practice itself.

I watched the Winter Olympics earlier in the year and saw bob slay team captains pretending to go through the motions of the full course in their minds.

They would turn in ways that they would expect when they go down the track, all to ensure that they fully utilise the power of visualisation.

Visualisation can also be really effectively utilised in a studying context.

For example, you might visualise exams and coursework that you have due. Visualising what questions, you might get asked and best to answer them are all really powerful ways of utilising visualisation in studying.

The trick here, with regards to anything in visualisation, is to go through the entire process.

Don’t just focus on one questions in an exam or one move on the sports field. Visualise the full thing in its entirety.

That means, from waking up that day, to what you have for breakfast, to walking to school or the gym, to entering the room and sitting down and opening the paper…you get the idea.

The important thing is that you go through as many different scenarios in your head in as much detail as possible.

This way, you teach yourself not to expect anything unpredictable. You also reassure yourself of the different outcomes that could happen and how you might react as a result.

How can you use visualisation to great effect in your everyday life?

Well, you might to create your own visualisation board and keep it somewhere that you will see it every day. Whenever you walk past it, take some time to visualise what it is you desire as you look at the pictures.

When I was studying for exams, I used to pin my notes and mind maps around my house and when I went to the fridge for milk, there would be some notes there, I would take my time and read them through and visualise how I might use them in a potential question in an exam.

When I went to go out the front door, there would be another page of notes and I would do the same.

I was utilising visualisation to improve my upcoming performances.

Fundamentally guys, visualisation is seriously powerful, it’s not just a generic term thrown around by people who think they know what they are talking about, it has real psychological backing and is a toll that you can use every day to achieve and progress more in whatever you want to do.

Interested in learning more about visualisation? The check out the recent video I did about the psychology of visualisation on my YouTube channel GetPsyched by clicking the link here.