Using Visualisation Exercises To Promote Positive Thinking
The human mind is an incredibly powerful machine. We can use our minds to develop incredible ideas and solutions.
One of the most powerful things we can do with our minds is visualisation. Humans can use their ultra-creative minds to visualise their futures and help bring those visions into reality. The power of visualisation can be used to enhance positive thinking.
If you ever find yourself stuck in a cycle of negative thinking, you can use visualisation exercises to break that cycle and build a more positive mindset.
Visualise in the long-term as well as the short-term.
When people think about visualisation, they often think about all of the energy that goes into working towards meeting a big goal. Visualisation is a great way to work towards those big goals and cultivate a positive mindset to meet them. It can also be a very helpful practice in your day-to-day life with much smaller tasks and goals.
For example, pretend you have an errand you need to run that you are dreading. Every time you complete this errand, it’s always a miserable experience; you tend to procrastinate doing it until the last minute so you can avoid it. You probably spend a lot of time thinking about how much you hate this errand–this is an example of negative visualisation.
Even though thinking about an errand you don’t like has nothing to do with meeting a big goal, it still involves you thinking and placing a lot of energy into something until it eventually happens in reality. When it’s time to finally complete the errand, think about how all that negative thinking affects your attitude toward it.
How would things be different if you chose to approach it with more positive visualisation instead? Because you invested a lot of time having negative visualisations about the errand, you increase your dread about the task.
Next time, force yourself to think more positively during your visualisation of a task or errand you don’t like–you may be surprised about how it will change your attitude about it. If you have a strong habit of thinking negatively, it may take time, small steps, and practice to change the way you visualise.
Start small to develop a new positivity habit and then grow it from there.
Any time you’re trying to add something new to your usual routine, it’s best to start small. Taking a large life change and breaking it into small, manageable pieces makes it more likely that you will commit to your changes and continue developing them. This is also true for positive thinking and visualisation.
If you tend to have negative thoughts and want to build a more positive mindset, it’s best to start small first. A good suggestion from Success Magazine is to start each morning by imagining your day going perfectly.
Before you leave for work or prepare to leave for school, think about all the things you’re going to need to do that day. Imagine how great it would be if everything on your task list–even the smallest and most boring errands–went in the best way possible.
Rather than starting your day with dread about all the things you need to do and all the things that could go wrong, you’re choosing to think more positively about them. This is a really small and simple way to begin changing your overall mindset with positive thinking and visualisation.
Develop small positivity mantras and include them in your visualisations.
Life doesn’t always work out the way we want. Even people with strong positive thinking and visualisation skills may find themselves surprised or disappointed by the way something happened in their lives. That’s also a part of being a human.
However, you can include some short mantras to serve as reminders and include them in your visualisations. Success Magazine also suggests constantly reminding yourself that you’re either going to benefit from something or learn from something when it happens in your life. Even when life doesn’t work out the way you wanted, you can still learn and grow from that situation.
Some suggestions include:
Life is a joy and filled with love.
All is well in my world.
I prosper wherever I turn.