![]() ![]() Decreased levels of stress and anxiety.Visualizing specific details associated with the bigger picture in your mind require you to work out those brain muscles and focus. The benefits of visualization are plentiful, and whether you are an athlete or artist trying to improve performance, an executive getting over a fear of public speaking or an everyday human trying to achieve your goals, visualization is an effective tool for all walks of life and all types of goals.Īs Michael Phelps’ coach mentioned, visualizing every aspect of a winning streak (down to the nitty gritty details) has helped the Olympic gold medalist win time and time again. Ultimately, your body and mind are a whole, and training the mind will have strong effects on what your body can achieve. In a Loyola Marymount University study, dancers were able to improve their jumping height by looking at imagery and imagining their “whole body is a spring.” Another study focused on everyday people found that, while people who went to the gym increased their muscle strength by 30 percent, those who simply visualized their workouts increased theirs by 13.5 percent - nearly half as much. loving-kindness, where you focus on one particular person you have in mind or several people, depending on the exercise, and direct kindness toward yourself and them.įrom professional athletes and dancers to everyday humans, research shows that visualization has impacted physical performance in a variety of circumstances. ![]() One type of visualization meditation is meditation for compassion, a.k.a. During the exercise, your amygdala - the tiny structure in the center of the brain responsible for the fight or flight response - has trouble distinguishing between something that is simply being seen during a visualization meditation session and something that is actually happening in real time. What is the science behind visualization working? Well, the brain is a fan of visual stimuli. In a visualization meditation, on the other hand, the brain uses the same imaginative mechanics, but it instead focuses on an image of something or someone, that is conjured as the object of focus. This eases performance anxiety through familiarity. Your mind does the heavy lifting while allowing your body to relax, and begins picturing an experience before acting on it in real life. For example, in order to achieve success à la Phelps, you would be employing pure visualization. Rather, they intersect at times and both rely on your imagination. Visualization and visualization meditation are not quite interchangeable. He smells the air, tastes the water, hears the sounds, sees the clock,” Phelps’ Olympic swimming coach Bob Bowman said in a 2016 interview with Forbes. He mentally rehearses for two hours a day in the pool. “For months before a race, Michael gets into a relaxed state. Today, notable athletes such as Michael Phelps also employ visualization as part of their winning strategy. Visualization gained popularity in the 1980s when the Russians began using the technique to excel in sports following the 1984 Olympics. Visualization, on its own, involves picturing in your mind the outcome of something before it's happened, whether that's a task or opportunity at hand - such as getting on stage to speak before a large audience - or a sport about to be played. ![]()
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