Your Dreams Can Come True – Use Creative Visualization To Make Them Happen

“Success is within reach, if you believe that success is already yours. What you imagine is the seed of what you will experience.”

                                                                            -      Remez Sasson

Last week I touched on the power of Affirmations. This week I am taking it a step further and discussing Creative Visualization.

Creative Visualization comes from the premise that our thoughts influence our material, physical reality. This is an ancient principle dating back thousands of years and has its roots in Hinduism and Buddhism. Most recently it was put to the test through a study that I will go into in more detail later in this article.

The actual practice of Creative Visualization involves invoking images into your mind of a conscious, desired outcome – visualizing specific things that you wish to have, accomplish, or become. It is a bit like day-dreaming.  The first step is to paint in your mind a very specific and detailed picture. What will your ideal job look like? How will your bank statements look once you’ve achieved success? What will you look like in the mirror when you reach your ideal weight? Add details, including how others will look at and react to your success, whatever area of your life it may be in – love, health, career, etc.

The second step is to use all five senses and incorporate them into your mental picture. Smell it, touch it, feel it, hear it, see it. Focus your thoughts, use your imagination and really go for it!

The third and most important step is to associate feelings to your desired outcome.  All of us have, at some point in our lives, experienced the joyful, ecstatic feeling of success, even if it was a long time ago.  Remember and capture that feeling and associate it to what you want to create now. How empowered and successful will you feel at your new job? How amazing will it feel to know that you have a lot of money in the bank? How beautiful and sexy will you feel when you’ve achieved your perfect weight?  Neville Goddard, a great spiritual leader and teacher, advices that one must “Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled” to give our visualization the power to manifest what we want.

Napoleon Hill, author of “Think ad Grow Rich” explains the importance of attaching feeling to your Creative Visualization “Your subconscious mind recognizes and acts upon only thoughts which have been well-mixed with emotion or feeling;" and, "You will get no appreciable results until you learn to reach your subconscious mind with thoughts or spoken words which have been well emotionalized with belief."

You have the power to alter your reality and you must become conscious of that power to use it to your benefit. Creative Visualization is a powerful tool if you are willing to do the work, including:

-      Using Creative Visualization daily. Focus on the same picture and follow the steps of adding details, all five senses, and emotion to it

-      Believing in yourself and your abilities

-      Doing the work that must be done to achieve your goals

-      Exercising perseverance, willpower, concentration and discipline

Scientific Study on Creative Visualization

According to Wikipedia, the most well-known study involving Creative Visualization was done during the 1980s.This study was done using Russian Olympic athletes as test subjects. Olympic coaches and scientists set up four different training regimens for athletes:

I.    100% physical training
II.    75% physical training; 25% mental training
III.    50% physical training; 50% mental training
IV.    25% physical training; 75% mental training

The athletes in group IV showed the most improvement in actual performance, even though they performed the least physical work, while the athletes in group I performed the worst, even though they performed the most actual physical work.

What Does The Study Mean?

The Soviets concluded that mental images can act as a prelude to muscular impulses. Creative Visualization works! It is not new to the great masters of Eastern martial arts and it is now used by world-class athletes as a supplement to their physical training.

Creative Visualization is a powerful tool to make your dreams a reality. Like athletes, use it as a supplement to the actions that must be taken to achieve your goals. Success is yours for the taking!

How To Create The Life That You Deserve Now

“You are a creator; you create with your every thought. You often create by default, for you are getting what you are giving your attention to - wanted or unwanted ...”

-       Abraham Hicks

Over the past few months it has been brought to my attention that we all can literally create circumstances, feelings, and results around us based on what we think.

Think of this - how many times have you been able to do something because you were so pumped up in your head that you kept telling yourself  “I can do this, I can do this”.  Then think about this, how many times have you lost weight by telling yourself “I’m so fat”?

You see, whatever you tell yourself over and over becomes a belief and you make it happen.  If you constantly tell yourself negative things, you will keep attracting those negative things which you don’t want into your life. However, if you consciously repeat the things that you DO want in your life, you will attract them. Consciously repeating and visualizing what you want in your life can be done most effectively by harnessing the power of affirmations.

What are affirmations?

Affirmations are short, positive statements that describe a desired situation. They are repeated several times in order to impress the subconscious mind and trigger it into positive action.

 I say my affirmations 3-9 times each morning and night, and sometimes while I’m doing things around the house like cleaning and doing laundry. It is advisable that you are emotionally and physically relaxed and focused when you repeat your affirmations, so that you can actually visualize what you are affirming, instead of just saying the words.

 Affirmations must ALWAYS be in positive words. For example, if you’re trying to loose weight, don’t repeat “I am not fat”. That’s a negative statement, bringing into the mind mental images of what you do not want, and because it evokes those images to your mind (the images of you being fat) you will actually manifest what you’re focusing on – being fat. Isn’t that counterproductive?  Say instead, "I am getting slim" or "I have reached my right weight". Such words evoke positive images in the mind. Of course, affirmations must be paired with committed action. If you keep repeating “I am getting slim” while downing a couple of Big Macs, then that probably won’t work!

Another thing to remember about affirmations is that they must be in the present. “I am wealthy, healthy, and complete NOW”.  If we say “I WILL be wealthy, healthy, and complete”, the mind interprets this as happening in the distant future or maybe never. Say it in the PRESENT and see how powerful these affirmations are.

Also, don’t just say your affirmations. Think, feel, taste, smell what it will be like to get what you are affirming. Visualize it. Remember that you are a powerful creator and you can create anything you really put your mind to.

Why do Affirmations Work?

Remez Sasson says “Affirmations program the mind in the same way commands and scripts program a computer… The repeated words help you focus your mind on your aim, and automatically build corresponding mental images in the conscious mind, which affect the subconscious mind. The conscious mind, the mind you think with, starts this process, and then the subconscious mind takes charge. By using this process consciously and intently, you can affect your subconscious mind and thereby transform your habits, behavior, mental attitude and reactions, and even reshape your external life.” 

My Own Experience

I have a lot of examples of how affirmations have worked in my life, but my most recent one has to do with my IRS audit. The IRS had been auditing me for three and a half years and I was scheduled to go to Tax Court on October 15^th, 2010 for an appeal. Prior to going to Court I had a meeting scheduled with my IRS Appeals Officer. Initially, the IRS claimed I owed them over $200,000. I wrote down an affirmation that said “My audit is settled after my meeting with my Appeals Officer. I owe the IRS nothing and they owe me $10,000”. At the time I wrote that, I didn’t even know how the IRS was going to owe me. I said this affirmation over and over again over a three week period and IT WORKED! I didn’t even have to go to Court, the Appeals Officer agreed I owe the IRS nothing, and my attorney said I can recuperate my attorney fees from them!!!

If you’ve never done affirmations, you deserve to try them and see for yourself what a powerful tool they are.

Examples of Positive Affirmations

-       I am happy,  healthy, and complete

-       I have a lot of energy

-       I radiate love, success, and happiness

-       I am in the perfect love relationship with the perfect partner for me

-       Money flows into my life from expected and unexpected places

-       I am successful in everything I do

-       I have a wonderful and satisfying job

-       My mind is calm. I am at ease. All is as it should be