You’re using your imagination all the time, without realising it.
Someone might automatically imagine themselves to have low self-worth, and imagine that people won’t like them, that they’re awkward and have little to offer a random conversation. They’ve imagined their reality – and then respond accordingly, making poor eye contact, wanting to avoid or leave the situation as soon as possible. The experience reinforces the underlying belief, and they continue to imagine such things even more. But they haven’t yet realised that these happenings are actually subconscious doings – that their imagination is influencing the experience.
We’re all imagining things which influence our realities – all the time. It’s the same mechanism that hypnosis utilises, which is why as a tool, it can be useful for influencing those deep-down beliefs and expectations.
There are countless studies to support the powerful influence of our imaginations over our immune systems, hormones, energy levels, and how we perceive the world. Expectations, or what we imagine for ourselves in our lives, influence the opportunities we recognise (or fail to), how we relate to others, and the actions we take.
So… how we use our imaginations is very important!
Picture a big mansion in your mind right now. Go on, it won’t hurt to close your eyes for just a few seconds and imagine one.
You might have difficulty imagining visually – but hopefully you found a mansion just emerged. Did you consciously choose the building? What it was made out of? The sky? Weather? How big the windows were? Whether in a field, a street, overlooking the ocean? Whether there were trees around? The colouring? Whether there were people in the picture? The shapes of things? You probably found that your mind automatically filled in those details all by itself.
Now what happens if you imagine a social event? Your mind will do the same thing – automatically fill in the details, with so many details, feelings, threats, opportunities – however your beliefs and experiences have calibrated your map of reality. This is what it’s doing all the time.
Let’s get back to that mansion. What if you were to imagine that you could walk inside? That there was a room with a plaque saying “a frightening memory”? That you could walk into that room and allow it to ‘become’ whatever your mind conjures? That you could change things in that room. That a person will approach you, someone important who cares about you – who would it be? These kinds of visual imaginings can reveal things that you might not have been aware of.
One of the key ways in which we automatically imagine is through mental visualisations. As an example, everyone gets anxious at some time or another, and anxiety is the result of pure, automatic imagination. For example, if you’re anxious about a future event, you’re imagining it in a certain way. Realising that you’re doing this is the first, major barrier to change. Then, how are you doing it? If you find out, you can change it, and get different results.
Heres a quick exercise to get the ball rolling – if nothing else, I hope it gets you curious to learn more and experiment a little with your imagination.
1/ Think of a word that can be your symbol for accessing a great ‘feelgood’ state in just a moment. Perhaps something like energy, focus, fresh, or something more random like ‘orange blossom’.
2/ Close your eyes, think about a time in your life you have felt fantastic. Yes, this might sound a bit cheesy and self-helpy, but try to really get into it. Visualise it. Notice what you visualise and how you do it. Can you see yourself in the picture, or are you looking through your own eyes? It is black and white, or colour? Moving, or still? Big or small? One big picture, or lots of little ones? Play around with them to get the feeling even greater – perhaps make the picture even bigger, brighter, sharper, put some favourite music in there. Whatever you like! When you find yourself accessing those good feeling – see your ‘word’ written over the picture, and hear yourself saying it to yourself in your mind. You might like to also associate the feeling to an action, like pushing your thumb and a finger tip together. Do this a few times for a few different memories where you have felt excited, confident, or just fantastic.
3/ Now think about something you feel anxious about. How are you visualising it this time? Notice how it’s different. How are you making yourself anxious? Are you saying something to yourself in a negative, dreary way? Is the picture dark and blurry? Are there other people present in the imagining, looking down at you or being discouraging? Start playing with it! Get that imagination going. Make it brighter, see yourself as confident, comfortable. Whatever it takes! Hear yourself say that word again, push those fingers together, and let that associated good feeling flood into the anxious picture.
As you practice this, you’ll notice the unique things you do to evoke certain feelings. It may be that you feel more comfortable when you are visualising as if through your own eyes, but vulnerable if visualising yourself from the outside. Maybe you visualise people from your past who were critical, when you are feeling fragile. Perhaps you visualise lots of little disorganised pictures when feeling overwhelmed with a task. Put them all in order, followed by a single picture of the end goal, and see how much better it feels.
This technique is one of the more useful ones from NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) – but really it’s been around a lot longer than that. Again, I fully appreciate it might sound cheesy – but this stuff really can work when you get into it.
The main thing to take away is that your imagination is a very powerful thing. It’s not just something to consciously do once in a while – it’s something to be aware that you’re always automatically doing, subconsciously. Becoming aware of your subconscious doings, that are leading to what seem like happenings, is hugely useful for being able to change things which aren’t going as well as you’d like them to.
Until you fully accept your own part in things, you’ll be forever confused and blaming everything and everyone else instead. That’s not to say other things (or people) are influencing your experience – they often are. Just that it’s useful to become aware of and accept your own part, whatever that might be.
But what about that feeling of conscious control, volition? How can we really be in the driving seat, as well as a passenger at the same time?
A solution to that paradox could really change the way you see things – it’s time to reframe our sense of conscious control and…
…explore the illusion of conscious will.
Buckle up!
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