Summary: We have been looking a the power of the mind for the last few days and a few times the word visualization has been thrown around. This word visualization was made popular by the book The Secret. You might have tried the whole visualization thing and had no success. Before you completely write off visualization I would like you to remain open and check out this visualization experiment. Ingredients For The Visualization Experiment 1 - Australian Psychologist Alan Richardson 3 - Groups of basketball players tested on their ability to free throw Group 1 - Physically practiced their free throw everyday for 20 mins Group 2 - Visualized the free throw and no real practice was allowed Group 3 - Did not practice or visualize. The Results The group that did nothing which was group 3 showed no improvement. Group 2 who only visualized improved by 23% Group 1 who only practiced their free throws improved by 24% What have you got to say about those results? There was only a 1% difference between the group who only visualized and the ones who only practiced. What are the possibilities if they had a 4th group who did both the practice and visualized? Now I know some of you might be wondering how is that possible to see improvement with only visualizing. Do you want the scientific response or just my response? OK, I am going to give you both. The scientific response from a physiologist called Edmund Jacobsen revealed when a person consistently visualized a certain physical skill they develops muscle memory which helps the individual when they physically engage in activity. Ready for my response? Who cares how it works, just do it. End of story. I dug around to find more amazing stories of people using the power of their mind and found the story of Major James Nesbeth who was a prisoner of war for 7 years in North Vietnam. He was imprisoned in a cage that was approximately 4 1/2 feet high and 5 feet long. He saw no one and talked to no one for almost the entire time he was imprisoned. He credits visualization for keeping his mind active and also keeping his sanity. He would play a game of golf everyday in his mind on his favorite green, literally a full 18 hole game. During these games he saw the trees, smelt the freshly cut grass, heard birds signing. He even created different weather conditions to play in like windy days, hot summer days and overcast days. He narrowed in his thought and actually felt each and every step he would go through when playing golf. He did this seven days a week, for 4 hours each day for seven years playing a full 18 holes. Here is the crazy part of the story. When major Nesbeth was released, he found he had cut 20 strokes off his golfing average without having touched a golf club in 7 years. He used the power of his mind to transcend his physical situation. The man was in a 4 by 5 cage for seven years. What part of your life are you allowing to cage you in? How can you use the power of your mind to transcend your physical situation like Major Nesbeth? The key to visualization is to feel it like its real. Weak thinking begets weak results. Strengthen your thinking with visualization Love Peace and Bliss Alecia
