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VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUES 7 BREAKTHROUGH METHODS

Think about something you want to have happen and it happens. Think about something long enough and hard enough and it will actually take place. The idea seems ridiculous. It seems wrapped in superstition, and suggests bizarre

dances performed by chanting warriors around flickering fires, voodoo queens and swamis, high priests and mystics.

Just because you think about something, that doesn’t mean it can actually happen. Or does it? Are there remarkable functions of the brain we are only now beginning to

understand? Let’s move as far away from mysticism as we can, and go into a laboratory in

Providence, Rhode Island. It is 2012, and we are at Brown University where researchers implanted silicon chips into the brains of two people who are paralyzed.

The research team members are from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Brown

University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

The two people who are part of this experiment cannot speak and they cannot move.

The chips that have been implanted are connected by wires to a computer, which in turn is connected to a robotic arm.

The scientists ask a paralyzed woman to drink coffee. She thinks about this, and the

electrical signals created in her brain which correspond to this thought are sent to the computer. The computer translates these signals into a command that the robotic arm will understand and respond to.

The arm takes a container of coffee with a straw, lifts it to the paralyzed woman’s

mouth, and she is able to take a sip. This is the first time in history that there has been a scientific demonstration

supported by peer-reviewed research of people suffering from tetraplegia, a severe paralysis, using brain signals to control a robotic arm in three-dimensional space to complete a task usually performed by their arm.

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For the first time in history, scientists have been able to document that when people simply think about something, what they think about can actually happen.

So… What does this mean for you? If someone who is paralyzed can think about

something and create an actual physical action as a result of that thought, what can you do? How can you put your thoughts to better use and start to use your brain to achieve

your goals, improve your health, and to live a more rewarding life? There are all sorts of questions about how the mind works, how the brain actually

creates, sends, and keeps track of electrical signals. But there is no question that we can control our thoughts. Visualization techniques

are one of the ways we can start to change the shape of our attitudes, our beliefs, and our behaviors. These techniques are not completely understood, but they work.

And you are about to discover the seven breakthrough methods to make your

visualization techniques powerful and productive. These seven methods will reveal...

1. The best visualization technique to start working with. 2. How to use belief to power your visualization exercises. 3. What to do if you can’t create a vivid image in your mind. 4. How to use a visualization exercise to get “unstuck.” 5. The schedule to follow for maximum results. 6. How to turn down the volume on all the noise in your mind. 7. How to plant a powerful image in your unconscious mind.

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HOW TO GET STARTED As you consider all of this, what’s the best way to actually start turning thoughts into

achievements? Here’s some advice from Mark Twain.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks, and

then starting on the first one.

A good starting place for this process of visualization is to consider the common sense reality of turning thoughts into achievements. Understand the limits… what can be done by visualizing outcomes in your mind, and what can’t be done.

Start by determining what is reasonable to expect from visualization. As Mark Twain

suggests, visualization is indeed overwhelming. The notion of connecting your conscious and unconscious minds takes some getting used to. So figure out which small and manageable tasks make sense for you.

Maybe you’re a bit skeptical. Some proof that visualization works might be good

before you commit more time and more mental energy. So here’s a small and manageable start. Give yourself seven days and three

visualization exercises a day. This is the “21 Stones” of the Zurich Method, where different techniques to experiment with and different exercises to choose from are taught.

In one week, you’ll know if there’s something worth exploring or not. Your total

commitment is only one week. Each of the three daily exercises will take about ten minutes. Three and half hours of exploration and you’ll know for yourself what a remarkable skill visualization is.

But before you start, let’s look at a bit of what we’ve been able to learn about

visualization. It doesn’t work the same way for everyone. We each have our own way of

thinking, of observing and processing information. We each go about solving problems a bit differently. This is why The Zurich Method doesn’t have you listen to audio tapes or follow a rigid system.

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Visualization and meditation are closely related. But they aren’t the same, because visualization tends to be much more specific, and goal oriented.

We know that thoughts can result in action, even for someone who can’t move

a bone in their body. We know that by using visualization exercises, we can start to build powerful connections between our conscious mind and our unconscious mind. We also know that there are limits to this practice. We can’t close our eyes and tap into a universal energy field to pluck tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers out of the collective unconsciousness of the universe.

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STRETCH OUT BEYOND YOUR LIMITS There is a lot you can do. The most astonishing benefit of visualization is being able

to change the path your life and to steer it forward in any direction you want.

We become what we think about all day long. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Since we think about all sorts of different things all day long, the challenge becomes to discipline ourselves to keep returning to a thought that we believe is important. Emerson did not mean that if we think about a 1963 Corvette Sting Ray all day long we’ll turn into one.

But if you want to drive one, or own one, and you create vivid mental images of yourself in the 1963 Sting Ray, you are definitely on your way to achieving this goal.

Why? Nobody knows for sure. There is no scientific evidence that proves visualization lets you achieve goals. This doesn’t mean that the positive results of visualization are miracles, coincidences, or dumb luck. Too many people have achieved remarkable outcomes for the process to be dismissed.

Walt Disney… who told us “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Jack Nicklaus… the golfer who captured 18 major championships who never

swung a golf club without seeing in his mind where the shot would land. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior… who helped usher in an era of equality for all

Americans, based only on a vision. Dr. King once said, “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.”

Any scientist whose work revolves around an understanding of the brain will tell you

there are too many unanswered questions about visualization to pass data-driven judgment. One of the many reasons why: the curious combination of what happens inside the brain, with chemicals, and what happens outside, with events.

These external, random factors throw scientific measurement and analysis into a

tailspin. Solid answers become virtually impossible to come by. All we are left with is anecdotal evidence, which is a ball of skepticism that’s easy to take and run with.

The 23 billion brain cells, or neurons, that we are born with, are somehow connected.

But there is another connection that makes visualization possible – the connection between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind.

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When the conscious mind takes a thought and plants it in the unconscious mind, something we’re not quite sure how to measure, or even explain, starts to happen. But it does happen.

The process of visualization is nothing new, and has been respected by a striking

collection of great thinkers.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Henry David Thoreau

Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel

it, believe in it. Make your mental blue print, and begin to build.

Robert Collier

It is all very well to copy what you see, but it

is better to draw what you see in your mind… then your memory and your

imagination are freed from the tyranny imposed by nature.

Edgar Degas

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.

Albert Einstein

Belief creates the actual fact.

William James

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Miracles do not happen in contradiction to nature, but only in contradiction to which is

known in nature.

St. Augustine

All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy.

What right have we then to depreciate imagination?

Carl Jung

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WHAT VISUALIZATION IS Here’s what visualization is, and here’s what is reasonable to expect it can do. This

description of visualization comes from David Fontana, Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the University of Wales and Visiting Professor to Portugal’s University of the Algarve.

Visualization is the art of helping us obtain

desired goals by picturing ourselves actually achieving them.

That sounds simple enough. And visualization is simple. There is no need to clutter it

up. There is power in its simplicity. It boils down to structuring your imagination and bringing a bit of discipline so that

the things you want to achieve are constantly being pushed down into your unconscious. It is as if you are taking a seed from your conscious mind and planting it in your unconscious mind.

The actual planting is a process that puts the unconscious mind to work. After all, the brain is never turned off. So the seed we plant during our waking hours can start to germinate whether we’re mindful of the thought it contains or not.

Some people who use visualization compare the process to driving a car or brushing

your teeth. You’re performing these functions, but you’re not actually putting a lot of conscious, deliberate thought into them. These are reflexive actions, and there are people who feel that visualization helps to turn our goals into reflex habits.

Psychologists often call this a "cognitive map." The cognitive map gives you an image

by which to check progress at every moment. Thanks to the work of people such as Dr. Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and

psychotherapist, we know that we have a collection of thoughts in our unconscious mind that somehow or other make connections with the thoughts in our conscious mind. We know that we can somehow plant a conscious thought in the unconscious mind. And we know that we can plant this seed of conscious thought, a thought that starts off only as a desire, and that with the right fertilization, this seed of a thought will grow into reality.

The process of planting seeds naturally takes some work. And the work begins

before you actually perform a visualization exercise, because you want to choose some worthwhile goals to pursue. Worthwhile for you, not what you would like others to judge worthwhile.

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Here’s the good news. There’s no need to delay. You can start to practice visualization with something other than your goals. In The Zurich Method a number of visualization techniques are explained.

Here’s a very simple technique that will get you started. It is called “The Circle.” Draw or print a colored circle with the color of your choice. Find a quiet place and make sure you’re not interrupted. Relax. Settle into a comfortable chair. Keep your eyes open and focus on your breathing. For a few minutes try to think about nothing but your breathing. If you yawn, that’s fine. When you focus on your breathing, don’t take great gulps and quickly exhale,

but inhale and exhale through your nose. Don’t try to control your breathing, simply be aware of it. Focus your thoughts

on each breath. After a few minutes, look at the colored circle. Study it carefully. Fix the image in your mind. Imagine that your mind is taking a picture of the circle and close your eyes. Hold the image in your mind. When the image starts to fade, open your eyes, study the circle again, then

close your eyes and imagine it again. Repeat this exercise five times. When you get good at this, change the color of the circle and repeat.

This is the basic technique of visualization. It is a building block, a starting point.

The true value of this exercise is that you will soon learn how you visualize. Stick with it. Make a commitment to do this three times a day. A good way to make

this as powerful as possible as quickly as possible is easy. Just wake up ten minutes earlier. Get out of bed, go sit down in a comfortable place and do the circle exercise.

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HOW TO BUILD YOUR VISUALIZATION SKILLS QUICKLY The best way to build your skills quickly so you can start to work on exciting projects

is to learn a little about how you think. We don’t all think the same way and we don’t all visualize the same way. If you close

your eyes and don’t see the exact details of the circle creating a vivid image in your mind, this does not mean you can’t visualize.

What it means is you see things in your own way. Some of us only develop a “sense”

of an object. We know it’s there, and we’re familiar with it, but we don’t have a strong and graphic representation.

Or if we do have a strong and detailed image, it only lasts for a fraction of a second

before it fades. Visualization experts believe that this is common, that each of us visualizes

differently, and that our ability to visualize isn’t strengthened or weakened by our ability to create a vivid and detailed image. It is the process that matters, and the thoughts that put this sense of an image into our mind.

If you can’t create this highly detailed image when you start to visualize, should you

work on getting better at seeing the specifics? No. Pushing yourself creates a tension, a pressure that is counterproductive. You should simply visualize the way it works for you, and if you are sensing your image and feeling it, knowing it is there instead of actually seeing it, accept this.

Will your visualizations change with practice? If you aren’t creating vivid images

from the start, will you grow into this? Maybe, maybe not. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is consistency, taking the time to visualize on a regular basis. And your commitment to keep going.

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THE FIRST FEW DAYS OF VISUALIZATION: WHAT TO EXPECT

The same thing that happened when you learned how to ride a bicycle. The idea of

being able to balance yourself on a moving object just doesn’t register. You’re skeptical but you give it a try and you get the hang of it and then you get better at it.

Are there visualization exercise training wheels? Not really. It’s just a matter of

starting off with simple exercises. What you can expect over the first few days, or during the first week, is probably not

going to be that dramatic. You might start to think you have more physical energy. Perhaps your mind isn’t quite as foggy, you’re able to remember things more easily or perhaps solve problems more quickly.

But none of these things will be life altering. Not right away. After you have been

able to maintain a routine of three visualization exercises a day, just a few minutes each, you’ll start to notice a change. You’re probably moving toward some kind of transcendence. What does this mean?

Let’s look at this from a couple of different perspectives. In religion, transcendence

refers to God’s powers which are detached from the known, physical world, or the ability of prayer to remove some of the limits the known, physical world places on us.

When philosophers talk about transcendence, they’re probably referring to an

advance… a climbing, exceeding or a surpassing. It is this kind of reaction your visualization exercises will start to produce. A feeling

of beginning to move past previous boundaries or limits. Thinking that you can indeed do more.

This may be as simple as finding yourself starting to think about things differently,

believing that you can achieve more, that more in your life is possible. You are starting to have a hunch that what you thought were huge obstacles that stood in the way of changing your life for the better, aren’t so huge after all.

Are we suggesting that these first few days or weeks of visualization techniques will

change your fundamental attitude? Will you suddenly shift from pessimist to optimist, or cautious to reckless?

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No. What will probably happen is that you’ll simply think differently. Here are some of the things you might expect to happen.

Some self-consciousness will fade away. A changing sense of your connections to the past and the future. The beginnings of a detachment from specific cultural expectations and moving

toward what Abraham Maslow refers to as “the universal man.” Growing acceptance of responsibility for and acceptance of your personal past. Greater acceptance of the natural world and to let the world be itself. Less judgment and less resistance to accepting the judgment of others.

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WHY VISUALIZATION WORKS Why should we expect visualization to change us when we have to admit that change

is difficult? If we are honest with ourselves, don’t we believe deep down that we are who we are, and there are no dramatic changes about to enter our lives?

When someone says “people don’t change” what do they really mean, and how does

this apply to us? Visualization works because the only thing in the world we are able to control is what

we think. All sorts of external influences are working on shaping our thoughts. Sometimes they succeed, both in good ways and bad. A positive role model or mentor is obviously helpful. A manipulative “friend” who wants to drag us down to her level is not. Either way, the influence of each has to be something we consider, evaluate, accept, or reject.

But ultimately, our thoughts are our own. And if we can figure out a way to get our

unconscious thoughts onboard in a supportive role, we are adding a remarkable reservoir of new power.

When it comes to playing a role in our desire for personal development, growth,

achievement, whatever you want to call it, our unconscious mind can do one of three things.

It can be stuck in neutral, neither holding us back with negative thoughts or propelling us forward with positive ones. Stuck in neutral, it is an untapped resource.

It can fuel our fears. Our fears will never vanish. They are as much a part of life as joy, uncertainty, and pain. But fears are controllable. When they veer out of control and cross the line to become full-fledged anxieties, there’s trouble. Quite often, the unconscious mind can be put to work to put these fears into a more reasonable perspective.

It can nourish us with remarkable strengths. An unconscious mind can give us reasons to believe, the ability to pick ourselves up and keep going when we’ve been knocked down, and the balance that keeps our lives fulfilled.

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WHAT WE KNOW, AND WHAT WE DON’T KNOW, ABOUT THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND

It’s not brain surgery. But the unconscious mind is a close cousin, because it is

constantly whirring away in the brain. Here’s what we know.

Most cognitive neuroscientists agree that we are conscious of roughly 5 percent of our cognitive activity. This means that our outlook on life, our belief in ourselves, how we make decisions, our emotions, our behaviors, 95% of all this is driven by brain activity that is not taking place in our conscious awareness.

When Sigmund Freud took some of the notions first explored by the German philosopher Friedrich Schiller and the British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he determined that the unconscious mind is the home of repressed feelings, automatic skills, subliminal perceptions, thoughts, habits, automatic reactions, complexes, hidden phobias and desires.

Because Freud developed his theories a century ago, when our ability to measure brain activity didn’t exist, his work has been caught in an ongoing crossfire of attack and defense. We don’t have 100% quantifiable proof of Freud’s basic beliefs on the power and the function of the unconscious, but we do have extensive scientific evidence to support the concept that thoughts and actions are connected.

To have a simple understanding of the unconscious mind, and how it helps power the process of visualization, let’s look at how some great thinkers weigh in.

Carl Jung

Jung is the grandfather of the unconscious, along with Sigmund Freud, its discoverer. Jung splits the unconscious into two pieces; the personal and the collective. The personal unconscious is our memory storage, with all of our memories, either forgotten, dimly lit, or somehow in different types of storage.

Along with the personal unconscious is the collective unconscious. Jung feels that

the collective unconscious ties all of humanity together. This collection of thoughts is partially genetic, but also universal, full of myths, symbols and archetypes that all of us, no matter what our culture, can understand.

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Erich Fromm

Fromm does not believe an unconscious exists. (He is not alone, neither did the great existentialist, Jean-Paul Sartre.) Fromm, a German psychoanalyst and sociologist, refers to the concept of an unconscious mind as a “mystification.” He says, “There is no such thing as the unconscious; there are only experiences of which we are aware, and others of which we are not aware, that is, of which we are unconscious.” More Scientific Flavors of the Unconscious

If we dig deeper into what the unconscious is and isn’t, we find different interpretations and categories. John Kihlstrom suggests we have a “cognitive unconscious.” Timothy Wilson suggests we have an “adaptive unconscious.”

Elizabeth Loftus and Mark Klinger suggest we have a “dumb unconscious.” They feel the unconscious is capable of handling simple tasks, tasks a psychologist might call a “motoric skill” such as apply the brakes when we’re driving without giving the task much thought, but that more complicated decisions, such as which thoughts to repress and which not to repress, is not a chore the unconscious can handle.

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BEST PRACTICES: SEVEN WAYS YOU CAN

MOVE FORWARD WITH VISUALIZATION

1. Plan Then Plant. Before you can plant your future in the subconscious mind, you need to give some thought to what your future should be. Make a written list of everything you want from the future, and everything that has to change in order to achieve these things.

2. Strengthen the Image. Once you are good at taking a specific, stationary, still image and seeing it in your mind, start to expand it. See yourself skating. Use different points of view for this, so you can sit in a bench on the side of the rink and see yourself skating, or actually be skating, looking at the fast-changing view ahead, feeling your weight shift as you adjust your balance to pick up one foot and lay it across the one still on the ice.

3. Practice. Repeat the visualizations again and again. If the unconscious mind works on issues that it considers important, make sure the issue is prominently placed in the unconscious mind. This takes repetition. It also takes focus. Concentrating on a few goals at once, or even one goal, is probably the most effective.

4. Bake in Affirmations. Affirmations are simple statements of purpose. This statement describes a goal as if it has been completed. “I am looking out the living room window of my penthouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

5. Visualize in the Present. Create a future reality to exist in the present. When you

visualize, don’t create a sequence of images that you will someday be a part of.

6. Accept the Imagery You Create. You may not be able to create the exact details of the penthouse. Vivid and intense images may not appear as regularly as you would like. Getting upset with yourself because the precision of the image you are working on isn’t quite what you had in mind is counterproductive. Relax and return to the visualization later.

7. Visualize Positive Outcomes. Desire, belief, and acceptance are the three cornerstones of successful visualization exercises. Imaging that something terrible will happen to someone so you can exact revenge is not the way to connect with your inner, more spiritual self.

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IS VISUALIZATION HOGWASH? Now, you know the basics. You can start to use visualization as a tool to change your

life. Mastery and confidence will take some time. So will your belief, because skepticism

about visualization is natural. After all, the idea of being able to make something happen simply by thinking about it seems far-fetched.

You will need to pass judgment for yourself. And you’ll need to give visualization a

fair chance. Your life is not going to change in a couple of days. There probably won’t be any breakthrough discoveries about your purpose in life. If you aren’t in the best of places right now, and you are living your life in black and white, life is not going to suddenly shift to Technicolor.

But give it a fair shot, and visualization will work. It worked for the woman who is paralyzed and has been studied by scientists at

Brown University. It worked for U.S. Air Force Colonel George Hall, who played a round of golf in his

mind every day while he was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, and came home to shoot his lowest scores ever after all that mental practice.

It worked for athletes such as Olympic skier Bill Johnson, who stayed up most of the

night before his event in 1984, racing down the slope again and again in his mind, and wound up winning a gold medal.

Remember… Desire, belief, and acceptance are the three cornerstones of successful visualization

exercises. The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the

inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

William James

What changes will you making? For more information, visit www.TheZurichMethod.com

©2012 The Zurich Method. All Rights Reserved.