Unpacking and unpicking... Visualisation
Is it a myth? A fad? Wishful thinking? Or a useful tool for your 'figuring life out' kit?
Beyoncé, Oprah, Arnold Schwarzeneggar, Allyson Felix and Billie Jean King. And my friend Hannah. What do they have in common?
Spoiler alert: it’s visualisation.
Visualisation might sound like wishful thinking. But at its core, it leans on fundamental ways your brain works. Visualisation is effective, and the research says so.
Here’s an example of a vision board turned into reality by my friend and partner in visioning, Hannah Harvey. She made this vision board at our workshop in January 2024, and check out the progress she made by May:
A vision board is a kind of psychological powerhouse. Every glance at it primes your brain to notice opportunities, feel motivated, and take aligned action.
Are you read to unpack and unpick the relationship between visualisation and how your brain works? And learn how to do it?
Unpacking visualisation - what is it?
Visualisation means forming a picture in your mind of something you want to achieve, in order to make it more likely to happen.
It’s common in sport: Athletes imagine their next competition race in their heads, like a movie playing from the moment they step onto the track to the moment they cross the finish line.
It keeps them going on those training runs in the depths of winter when they’d rather be doing anything else.
And it keeps them calm when they finally hit those crucial seconds where performance really matters (at the Olympic blocks, say).
In my chat with Hannah last year on her podcast, before she made that board above, I shared a couple of my own vision boards, including one from around 2016, 2017…ish? I didn’t write a date on it. First rule of vision boarding: write on the date that you make the board, because you will want to celebrate your progress later.
I made the board I shared on the podcast back when I was living in Cambridge, which is about as far from the sea as you can get.
That board started as a massive piece of paper - huge! I tore up loads of images that I loved from different magazines and just stuck them down. And I remember that I was babysitting for a friend's kid, and she stuck a leaf on the board, which is now very brown and crunchy.
That was really nice, actually, because she could see that we were out in the garden when we did it. We were out in nature. And that was a lot of what was reflected on my board. So she made my vision 3D and tactile, and I recommend you do the same. Vision boards are about evoking a feeling.
I still have that board, because it reminds me of the journey to get here, where I am now, living a ten minute walk from the beach.
Was it magic, having that board?
Was it easy to make the change? No way.
Was it hard? Yes. Did it take unexpected turns and difficult decisions to get here? Is it still hard, sometimes, now that I’m here? Absolutely. And yet, the board helped. And now, every time I look at it, it reminds me that I can do hard things.
Unpicking visualisation - how does it work?
Priming is a psychological phenomenon. It goes like this: exposure to a specific stimulus influences your response to the stimuli you see afterwards. That’s the science bit.
And it often happens without your conscious awareness. That initial stimulus activates certain associations in your memory, which then affects your perceptions, decisions, or behaviours.
What does that mean in practice? Here’s an example: A picture of a tidy workspace above your desk might nudge you to keep your workspace tidy.
There’s also research that shows that imagining a task activates the same brain regions as actually doing that exact task. It’s the same parts of the brain lighting up, whether you’re doing the task or imagining doing it.
Then there’s other research that shows that people imagining their muscles getting stronger had better improvements to their strength than people who went through a muscle training programme.
Guided imagery reduces stress and promotes relaxation. It increases confidence and promotes optimism.
There’s other research that shows that mental imagery can improve judgement and facilitate problem-solving. Better decision making by imagining or looking at pictures? Yes please!
It’s not magic. It’s not a shortcut. It is a helpful tool with a wide range of benefits. Are you in yet? I hope so!
If so, here’s how to do it.
How to visualise.
Picture your desired outcome. Here are three ways to do it.
1) Vision board. One way to picture your desired outcome is to make a vision board. This gives you a tool for focusing your attention and maintaining your momentum. It’s a sensory blueprint that primes your brain to notice similar stimuli in the world around you. And a visual reminder that turns your intentions into action, one small nudge at a time.
Take a plain sheet of paper and write today’s date on it.
Gather images, words, symbols that represent your goals, desires, and aspirations.
The words work by priming related concepts in your mind, so choose words that reflect how you want to feel and what you want to do.
The images work by priming your brain for similar images in your environment. Just like Hannah’s kitchen; her vision board made her more likely to make choices that would result in a kitchen like the one on her board. She didn’t even need to directly refer to the image when designing her kitchen for it to work.
Don’t get the glue stick out straight away. Play with the order and location of your gathered things, until you’re happy. Then start to stick things down, starting with the biggest thing or the piece of paper that’s at the back of the images you’ve organised into a set that works. It can help to take a picture on your phone of the arrangement you’re happy with, before you start using the glue. You’ll need to deconstruct your images and words a bit as you go, so the picture serves as a reference for where you want things to go.
Keep going! Sticking and adding until you’re done.
Then pop your vision board up somewhere. This could be somewhere you see every day. It doesn’t have to be on display; I’ve used the inside of my wardrobe door before.
Every glance at your vision board is a gentle reminder to notice opportunities, boost your motivation, and take action every day towards your goals. That priming I mentioned before gets to work.
Repeat exposure to the vision board will subtly influence your actions. Looking at it regularly will drive habits and decisions that align with the goals represented by the board.
2) Mental journey. Imagine the steps you’ll take to do the thing you’ve always wanted to. Lift weights? Start a side hustle? Improve your fitness? Take time each day to imagine the steps you’ll take to do that. For me, I’m planning to get out of the house and walk more in 2025, so I’ll be imagining putting my shoes on, leaving by the front door, and taking the route to the beach. Or I know some people want to do less. So in that case you might imagine closing the lid of your laptop at a certain time of day, and making your favourite tea to sit and savour.
3) Engage all your senses. Do you share my dream to live near the sea? Bring a little of the beach home and keep it in a jar by the door. Do you want more calm in your life? Wear a specific scent when you meditate and then start to spray it around your home. When you smell it, pause to visualise that state you reach in meditation. What are some creative ways you can engage all your senses to help you visualise more often?
Reflection time.
What are your experiences with visualisation?
What’s worked, what hasn’t, and what have you learned along the way?
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