How visualisation can change your life

visualize it

you can make it happen remember that

if you can visualize something you can

make it happen

when i was only 5 years old my family

and i

moved from venezuela to spain because of

the situation of our country

my dad had to leave his company my mom

her job and we had to say bye to family

and friends

in spain my parents decided to invest

everything that they had

into a project that was going really

well and allowed us to live a very

comfortable life

i said everything was going really well

until may 2010 wow i remember that day

as if it was just yesterday

i was sitting in my room finishing some

school work when i hear that my parents

called my name and my sister’s name we

ran downstairs

expecting to find dinner ready but what

we actually found

is my dad covered in tears and my mom

struggling to put into words what she

was about to tell us

because of company debts the bank was

taking our house

at the time my only concern was staying

the four of us together

i asked if i had to go back to venezuela

with my father maybe my mom and my

sister had to stay in spain or vice

versa

but as always in the case i didn’t

really understand the problem too well

we were lucky enough and we could move

in with my grandparents

but that doesn’t mean it was much easier

because we lost most of our personal

space

many of our friends my mom didn’t have a

job neither did my dad

and i knew even though it was only 11

that there was something that i could do

to help us all get out of the situation

that we were stuck in

so i started thinking about something

that i was good at

something that i enjoyed and something

that i could make money with

the answer was always jewelry so what i

did

is i started selling bracelets necklaces

earrings to my friends and family

eventually

i got a spot in the local market where i

would go and sell every single sunday

then some shops started buying from me

on a monthly basis

and i remember how one day i was at the

local market

and a businessman came to me and he said

i would like to get a thousand units of

this one

in my head i was thinking he must be

crazy but i obviously took the

deal i lowered the production cost by

ordering abroad

i employed my sister and in around three

months

we finished a production process however

our project continued for

around two years at this time i was

between 11 and 13

but my profits were actually over 5000

euros

because that is a reality life is not

about what happens to you

it’s rather about how you react to the

different circumstances that emerge

because when a problem comes up

you have three different options you

either let that problem destroy you

you let it define you or you let it make

you stronger by reinventing yourself

and starting this business when i was

only 11

is exactly how i reinvented myself

however my story doesn’t end up here

a few christmases ago i go back home

from university

and we’re living in a beautiful house my

mom has a great job so does my dad and i

was in my room again reading a book

when i hear that my mom calls my name so

i go to her room

and she asks me if i could read a

paragraph

from her notebook out loud the paragraph

literally said my name is maria isabel

i’m living in a beautiful house with a

very good dog

i’m working in my dream job and i’m

earning x amount of money

my husband is also working in his dream

job

and he’s earning x amount of money my

daughter anna

is studying abroad as she has always

wanted to do

and my daughter daniela is still in high

school figuring out her future

we’re very happy and united family so my

mom

goes through the pages of this very

thick notebook and

i figured out she’d written the same

paragraph once and once again

until she filled up this very thick

notebook i promise it was at least

written a thousand times

i look at her and i ask mama you bored

are you obsessed with us what’s wrong

with you

so she tells me go to the first page and

look at when i wrote this down

2010 may 2010

when we lost everything my mother was

able to visualize

exactly what she wanted and just asked

her she wanted it

and she made it happen because when you

visualize something

you can make it happen it was through

visualization

that we were able to direct the course

of our lives and focus on our goals

and the same way that visualization

changed my life and

all of my family members lives it will

change your lives here as well

thought precedes creation it guides the

energy in the physical world

in order to attain certain specific

behaviors and for creative visualization

to be fully effective there are three

requirements that need to be met

the first one is that you need to have

the desire

you need to have that desire to achieve

what you’ve decided to visualize

after having the desire you need to have

the certainty

you need to have the certainty that you

will actually achieve this

and that you will do it through

visualization as well and finally

you need to have the acceptance the

acceptance of whatever you’re

visualizing

is a goal in your life because we all

definitely here

have those dreams that we would love to

achieve but they seem really far from

achieving

however visualization is the perfect

tool

that enables you to use your imagination

in order to figure out what you really

want work towards that specific goal

and not get lost around the way and it

doesn’t take that much effort

a scientist from india found

that when you visualize yourself lifting

your right hand the same brain region is

being activated

that when you actually lift your right

hand however

research on visualization goes actually

much further than that

so there’s a strong scientific basis for

how and why

visualization actually works there’s a

system in your brain

which is called the reticular activating

system which is basically a network of

neurons

that are responsible for filtering

information in and out of your brain

in other words what this filter is doing

is letting information come into your

brain

and blocking other information from

entering

the way i like to think about this

filter is as if it was google

you get the opportunity to search

trillions of web pages out there right

however you have specific keywords

that allow you to filter some so you can

select them

or ignore others

the point of this reticular activating

system is really important

imagine all of the information that

we’re exposed to every day

entering our brain it will probably

explode

so the reticular activating system let’s

put us

ourselves in an example let’s say that

you think

that you hate public speaking and you’re

terrible at it

this system is going to spend all day

trying to actually

find evidence that confirms that

specific belief

however you can’t actually program this

filter

and there’s a secret that i want to

share with you and that is

that the reticular activating system

cannot differentiate

between real and imagined memories so

you kind of differentiate between what

happened to you

and what you imagined and that

translates to your visualization

athletes of course have known about this

incredibly powerful skill for a very

long time

a famous study found that nationally

ranked gymnast

gymnasts executed for the first time

several complex tricks after they

actually visualized

i was an athlete myself for over 14

years

when i was around 16 i really wanted to

make it to the national championships

i was training six times a week three

hours every day

i was going to a physiotherapist a

nutritionist following a specific diet

i was getting my eight hours of sleep i

wasn’t partying

but what i didn’t realize at the time

was that i was training my body

but not my mind so from the moment

that i started visualizing myself

crossing the finish line my parents and

my sister on the stands shouting my name

my coach and my teammates supporting me

the wind blowing on my face

my legs on pain and the excitement of

finally achieving something

that i had worked so hard for from that

moment

i actually made it to the national

championships what i did

is that i prepared myself and my mind

for success

another key thing at the time was being

able to control

my own self-talk i believe what i

visualize

and then i convinced my mind using the

appropriate language

to put an example let’s think that

i consider myself a very lazy and not

hard-working person

do you think those thoughts are going to

change my reality

of course they won because if you fight

for your limitations you’re only going

to keep them

so in my case what i kept thinking was i

am a champion i’m going to make it

there was no possibility of failure

there was no such a thing in my mind

oprah winfrey summarizes the power of

visualization

just perfectly create the highest

and the grandest possible vision for

your life because you become what you

believe in

and what what i find so interesting is

that you don’t become what you want

you become what you believe in so if

you’re able

to visualize and to make of your mind

your best friend you can get ready

for your next athletics competition but

also for the interview that you have

next week

maybe you can get ready for the surgery

that you have next week

you can even prepare to live your best

life

can i get a quick show of hands in this

room how many people here

have a dream a short-term long-term

dream it doesn’t really matter

okay that seems to be most of you

however if you didn’t put your hand up

do not feel bad

visualization still applies to you

what it can do it can help you

understand where you see yourself in

maybe two years time five years time

understand that picture better and then

towards that to work towards that goal

i will ask you i’d like to ask you all

now to please close your eyes

and picture yourself achieving that goal

and if you didn’t have a goal seem

an image of yourself in two years time

maybe you’re finally visiting that

exotic country

that you always wanted to go to or

you’re in that job interview that you’ve

always dreamed for

maybe you’re starting that final you’re

starting that business

hunting it that dissertation finally

visualize exactly what you want just as

you want it to be

and now listen to your inner guidance in

order to affirm

that what you’re visualizing is what you

really want

is something positive and is also meant

for your highest good

involve all of your senses now

what are you seeing around

can you see the sea or the mountains

maybe you can see high-rise buildings

because you’re in the middle of a city

maybe you’re in university or in your

hometown

what about the sounds is it noisy around

you

can you hear the birds singing maybe

your friends are shouting your name

and the smell or the taste can you smell

any food can you smell the seaside

now it’s time to actually involve our

emotions

so imagine you open a door you don’t

really know where this door is coming

from

you open the door you go in and you find

a table of 30 people

to realize that they are your friends

and family

you just realize that they’re toasting

for you they’re shouting your name

wow you can also smell your mom’s

favorite recipe she’s cooked your

favorite recipe for everybody

and again they’re toasting for you

they’re celebrating the person that you

have become

they’re celebrating all that you have

achieved

they’re celebrating the person that you

have become today

feel the energy in that room

breathe that energy i want you to

breathe in as much as you can

how happy are you now

how do you feel

when you’re ready you can open your eyes

visualize this dream as often and in as

much detail as possible

do not forget the two main pillars

have a vivid and clear picture utilizing

all of your senses

and then your emotions if you experience

the emotions

you’re going to be ready for when the

actual situation comes up

and another key thing is to do it in the

first person

and in the present tense just as my

mother did

because what you are visualizing is

happening to you right now

so be extremely clear in the way that

you’re visualizing and create exactly

what you want to happen

if you visualize and you believe your

visualization you’re creating

your beliefs and you’re creating those

skills because you’re reprogramming your

brain

and then that is you achieving your

dream that is you making that dream

reality

so i want to challenge you all to

visualize i want to challenge you all to

leave this room and start visualizing

one minute every single morning

because again that’s going to help you

build skills build confidence

and then again that’s you make it that

dream reality

visualize and become the director of

your own life because dear world

if you visualize something you can make

it happen thank you