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