Visualisation - Are you imagining yourself fat?

Mental pictures can be a powerful force to aid and empower you or to make you ill and unhappy depending on how you use your imagination and what you tend to visualise. Visualisation can be used to attain almost any goal, to heal yourself, or to improve your health and self-esteem. In visualisation therapy patients can be taught imaginative techniques to benefit their health, to help with natural healing processes, and to reinforce positive feelings, behaviour and images of themselves.

In everyday life, people often concentrate on fears and problems rather than on how they might improve their circumstances or find a solution. For example, a single woman going to a party may fear that no one will want to talk to her. She may imagine or picture herself entering the room which is full of guests attending the party and being totally ignored. When she actually gets to the real party this image is so strong that she will inevitably seek out those people who are most likely to turn the imagined situation into reality.

Now, if you compare this scenario to someone who goes to a party believing that at least one guest will want to have a conversation with her, and then upon arriving at the party... she will actually seek out someone to talk to.

In a nutshell your "thoughts become things". What you imagine and visualise actually becomes a reality and here is the proof!

A few years ago they did a test in Europe and discovered some important issues about weight, weight loss and then subsequent weight gain. So, I am sure you have done it before.... you go on diet, stick to your diet, lose the weight you want and then a couple of months later those kilograms of fat are back on and then some. Well what you are actually doing is going on diet and losing weight off your body in a physical sense, but in your mind, your self-image.... that nagging picture that you have of yourself is still exactly the same. That mental image that you have of yourself has not actually changed - it remains exactly the same as it did before you lost any weight, and so given time your body starts to regain its weight to manifest that mental picture.

This is exactly what they found out in the test.

Your body might of lost the weight, but guess what your mind didn't. Such imagined situations and the underlying beliefs that cause them tend to become their own self-fulfilling prophecies, which influence your mind, body and emotions. In the same way, people who practise creative visualisation believe that positive, health promoting images will eventually help them to create the sort of life and body they want.

Making images is a natural mental process that occurs every night during dreams. Visualisation is similar to dreaming, but involves making a deliberate attempt with the conscious mind to imagine particular beneficial results. It is also based on the belief that the mind and body are not separate but affect each other directly, so that thoughts can have physical effects as well as mental ones.

I put this to the test earlier this year with 8 volunteers. They all needed or wanted to lose in excess of 10 kgs. They learnt some visualisation techniques, applied some practical aids and Voile - 6 of the 8 volunteers all lost more than 10 kgs.

There are a number of theories that have been suggested to explain how visualisation works, mostly based on the idea that there is a close link between emotions, images and sensations. Just as emotions are accompanied by physical sensations such as deep sighs and a long face when you are unhappy, so images call up emotions, and emotions are experienced in terms of images. Think about it for a minute.... angry people are often said to 'see red', by altering images, visualisation can affect the feelings and physical sensations that we experience.

Visualisation is also said to be beneficial in balancing and integrating the hemispheres of the brain. The left hemisphere of the brain being logical thinking and the right hemisphere being the creative and intuitive side. Many people predominantly use their left hemisphere and visualisation, creating images and mental pictures can help tap into the right hemisphere and bring about more balance and harmony.

TRY THIS TO HELP

Therapists advise that it is usually best to learn the technique of visualisation from an expert and then practise it at home. Most people will learn quickly, but for a few it can take longer, sometimes because they tend to process information in terms of sounds and sensations rather than pictures. If you find it difficult to build visual images at first, try this simple exercise:

Look at a picture or photograph for two or three minutes, then shut your eyes and try to recreate it in your mind in as much detail as possible. Once you can do this easily, repeat the exercise using a room instead of a picture, and then a moving scene in real life.

So if you want to apply this to your weight loss program (or goal weight attainment), find a photograph of yourself when you where at your ideal weight. Look at the picture for two or three minutes, shut your eyes and try and recreate the image in your mind. Carry the photograph with you and whenever your mental image of yourself starts to get "fatter" take the photograph out and go through the process again. Stick photographs up on your mirrors and keep them handy. When the mental image of yourself being slim, is a constant one, progress to visualising yourself as slim while walking, sitting and going through your normal daily routine.

Visualisation can also help with relaxation and breathing exercises or vice versa.

Practice breathing in and out from your diaphragm. Visualise a circle right in front of you. Without moving imagine that you are drawing one half of the circle with your breathe as you inhale, and the other half as you exhale. Repeat this several times until the circle seems as round and smooth as you can make it. Then spend a few minutes visualising each in-breathe as travelling from the tips or your toes along the spine to the top of the head, each out-breathe as travelling down from the head to the toes. Relax each muscle in your body. Try to imagine some special, peaceful place once you are fully relaxed. Notice as many details about the scene as you can and examine each part of it with care. Try to imagine sounds, smells and sensations as well as sights if you ca. After five to ten minutes, let the image slowly dissolve.

For the relief of severe pain, visualisation can be most beneficial but it does require practise and should be learned from a professional therapist. For less serious pain try this simple exercise. Close your eyes, try to relax, and concentrate on slow deep breathes. Visualise your breathing as coming in and out of the painful area, bringing a warm glow as you inhale and expelling pain with each breathe that you exhale.

When Consulting a Therapist
The practitioner begins by listening carefully to your description of the problem, and then will encourage you to relax in a comfortable position with your head, neck and body aligned. Some people like to sit in a firm chair, but you can lie down or sit cross-legged. The therapist may also teach you breathing exercises to help in the relaxation process. When you are fully relaxed you will be asked to imagine a scene that in some way relates to your problem. This may be a picture, a still from a film, a photograph, a painting or a scene from the remembered past and the therapist will ask you to describe details of what you see, perhaps making changes to the original suggestion. While you are exploring the scene, the therapist will help you to become aware of any feelings or bodily sensations that you experience. Subtle changes to what you visualise can then be used gradually to alter your response in ways that will help you to solve your particular problem.

"What You Can Picture With Your Mind,
You Can Make a Reality"

The Power of Visualisation
As amazing as it seems, your subconscious mind doesn't distinguish between an actual event and a vividly imagined one. It is medically and scientifically recognised that visualised images actually bring about virtually the same psychological and physiological changes as direct experience. Visualisation is now being used in numerous medical applications, as well as to accelerate learning, to improve athletic performance, to promote successful career achievement, and in almost every area of human potential.

It's All in your Mind
At the University of Chicago, students with the same ability in basketball were divided into three groups and asked to shoot penalty shots. Their percentage of baskets was recorded. Then, the first group was told not to practice for 30 days. The second group was told to practice for an hour every day for 30 days. And the third group was told not to go on a basketball court at all, but to practice shooting in their mind for an hour each day.

After 30 days, Group One, had made no improvement. Group Two, who had actually practised, had improved their performance by 24%. Group Three, who had only practised in their minds, had improved their performance by a phenomenal 23%, almost the same improvement as the group who had actually played basketball.

February 2002 - Copyrights apply WhyWeight