I thought I’d deep dive into visualization and how it’s different than meditation. Both are incredibly powerful tools that you can use to ignite your dreams.

One is like a relaxing swim and one is like a quick run on the beach to give you a burst of energy.

Both are wonderful. But you use them differently at different times.

Where it can get confusing is that you could visualize while you’re meditating. And you could visualize without meditating. But they’re not connected.

Clear as mud?  It comes down to the purpose.

Meditation is passive and visualization is active.  Let’s look at this a bit more in depth.

How Are Meditation and Visualization the Same

They’re not, really. I had to put this in there since you’ll see them being used as though they were the same.

Often, you’ll see “visualization” used interchangeably with “guided meditation.”

I will say that meditation and visualization are both great for helping you see your goal and training your brain to believe you can achieve it.

How Are Meditation and Visualization Different

Now we can dive into the fun parts.

The difficulty in explaining the difference is that there are many types of meditations.  And as I mentioned, you run into confusion with “guided meditations” being used in the same way as visualizations.

But there are two key differences between visualization and meditation.

Visualization is specifically using guided imagery. That is, you use your imagination on behaviors or goals that you’d like to change or achieve.

You’re viewing a future event. And you’re using visualization to reprogram your brain and how your body reacts to life.

Meditation’s goal is to get you to become more in the moment. You’re using meditation to calm your nerves and center your Self.

Second, meditation is more focused on training your brain to relax. You’re spending more time in your head. And you’re in a relaxed state. It’s a quieting of the mind.

Plus, you’re in a different conscious state.

Whereas when you’re visualizing, it’s important to tap into as many senses as you can.  What are you hearing or smelling? How does it feel when you reach out and touch it?

Visualization is most effective when you’re connecting your head to your body. So you need to be mentally alert.

You’re activating every part of your brain and body while you see yourself achieving that goal, or confronting that problem and pushing through the resistance.

When you visualize, you’re viewing a future time rather than being in the present.

Visualization Resources

 

When you visualize, even if you’re active, you’re connecting with the creative part of your subconscious brain. This allows you to program it.

Seeing and feeling yourself achieving is how you connect to the law of attraction. So it helps to have a vision board or something you can focus on to help you connect to your dreams.

Regularly spend some time identifying your goals. Use a special journal to record your vision.

Then at the end of the year, review your journal and see how many of your goals you’ve achieved. You can also do this any time you need a motivational boost.

Visualization Best Practices

As with meditation, you will need to practice and build up your mental muscles to become super effective at this.

Give yourself time and space.  And then imagine how great it will be when you find yourself in a situation, and you can quickly visualize a positive outcome, and then achieve it!

Getting Started

You may wish to meditate for a few minutes in order to clear your mind. Then work on relaxing all of your muscles.

Take a simple situation that you want to have a positive outcome. Perhaps you want to make sure you get to the gym.  Or perhaps you want to visualize what you ideally would like to do after dinner instead of your usual habit of flopping on the couch and watching television.

Then let yourself relax and watch your ideal scenario play out.

At first you may find yourself passively watching a movie. In time, try to get your body more involved.

Hear yourself saying “Thanks for inviting me. And I’m going to go walk around the block and then wash up the dishes.” Then feel your feet on the pavement. Feel your hands washing the dishes. Hear the sounds of the plates going into the dishwasher.

You can also use this to think through how you’ll respond to a difficult situation.

What if you have decided to change how you eat, and you have to go visit your family for a special dinner. And you know the dessert is full of sugar. You can rehearse in your head a few responses so when the actual situation happens, you’ll be able to confidently thank the person, and stick to your new and healthy lifestyle.

If you’re having some difficulties, you can use guided meditations to help you learn to visualize. It will train you to use your minds’ eye to play the movies.

Have Clear Images

The best way to successfully visualize is by clearly knowing what goal or behavior you’re focusing on, and how you want to see yourself achieve it.

Create goal pictures or a full-on vision board. Goal pictures are where you can take screen shots of things, and make an online collage. It doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be meaningful to you.

Write out clearly how everything will go in the most minute detail.

Mental Rehearsal

The next exercise uses neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) for visualizing.

Pretend you’re sitting in a movie theater. Watch your movie unfold.

Then get up out of the chair (mentally) and go walk into your movie.  See how that feels for a time.

Finally, exit your movie, and shrink the screen down to the size of a small biscuit. Then pop it into your mouth, chew it up and swallow.

Instead of being in a show, the show is in you. And you are now in control of your situation.

Connect to Your Goal

I’d recommend writing down and reading your visualization script twice a day. Then spend the few minutes really connecting to emotions and physical responses.

Another suggestion is to have a specific image and affirmation for each goal.

Because of course you have more than one, right?

You can even have more than one in each major category.  Here’s the areas where you may wish to have a goal in.

• Spiritual
• Physical
• Financial
• Intellectual
• Emotional
• Personal Relationships
• Professional Relationships
• Vocational/Career
• Family/Parent/Marital Connections

Write the affirmation on an index card. You can also print out and paste a small image that represents that goal to you.

Then carry your stack of cards around and review them regularly throughout the day.  You may be waiting in line at the supermarket. Just pull out the deck and read the affirmation.

Spend a few seconds visualizing yourself having achieving it. It doesn’t have to take more than 15 seconds.

Remember, don’t see yourself achieving it…see yourself having achieved it. How do you feel?

Elated? Satisfied? Content?

My Final Thoughts

You will achieve your dreams faster once you are crystal clear on what they are. If you want to make more money, achieving that will take a lot longer than if you want to make $2500 extra per month recommending things that you use and enjoy.

If you really want to ignite your dreams, add in visualizing having achieved your goal at least twice a day.

I hope that journaling out your visions helps you refine them so you’re living your best life today!