Unit 6: Focusing on the Image of Your Goal

You have completed the first two steps of the creative visualization process: determining a goal and then picturing what it will look like when you achieve that goal. Now you are ready for the third step, focusing on your goal. In this unit, you will learn how to focus on your goal regularly by adding specific mental imagery (visualization) to your relaxation exercise.

In Unit 1, you learned that the images which are implanted on a “screen” in front of your face serve as a filter and allow you to recognize only those events or experiences which match the pictures (data) stored on your screen. To change or expand what you are able to recognize in the world “out there,” you simply need to change or expand the images (data) implanted on this filtering screen.

When we use this approach, we save ourselves a lot of work and bother! It can be difficult sometimes to control the world around us, trying to make this or that happen. It’s a whole lot easier to control the thoughts and images we hold in our heads (and implant on our filtering screens)! It doesn’t take any struggle or heroism, either. All it takes is some practice.

Visualizing Your Goal

Finally! It’s now time to begin visualizing your goal along with your progressive relaxation exercise. All the preparation you have done up until now will pay off by making your visualizations much more powerfully focused than they would have been if you simply began visualizing from the start.

To prepare you to do your regular creative visualizations, read and then do each of the following imagery exercises. Complete the first exercise before going on to the second.

The Lemon Exercise

Close your eyes and allow yourself to imagine that the darkness you see is a blank screen. We’ll call this screen the “inner movie screen.” Wait a moment or two while you adjust to the darkness, and then bring the image of a lemon onto your inner movie screen. If you can’t actually see the lemon, sense that it is there. Make it a bright yellow lemon and notice the bumpy texture of its skin. Now take a knife and cutting board and slice the lemon in half. Bring the lemon to your nose and see if you can smell it (some people can!). Take half the lemon and give it a good squeeze, catching the juice in a glass. Bring the glass to your lips for a taste of the lemon, allowing yourself to experience it’s tartness. When you have finished doing this, open your eyes.

Some people are able to experience the lemon in this exercise very vividly the first time they try it. Others find that their ability to experience the lemon vividly requires a little practice. Whether this kind of mental imagery comes easily to you or is a skill you need to practice, be assured that almost everyone is able to visualize it to some degree.

For some, sensing the lemon and its color, smell and taste is a good alternative to “seeing” it. So, how do you “sense” something if you can’t “see” it? That’s not so easy to explain. But you can demonstrate to yourself how to do this by practicing sensing different things. For example, sensing a yellow lemon will definitely feel different than sensing a red sports car! You can also try to sense experiences from your own memory—the view of a mountain on your ski trip, your favorite meal, the first time you held your child, etc. Again, practice and experimentation will help fine-tune your visualizing and sensing skills.

Visualizing Your Scene

Now close your eyes again and become aware of the inner movie screen before your “mental eyes.” This time, bring to the inner movie screen the image of the scene you drew in Unit 5. Fill in as many details as you can: the time of day, the temperature, other people who might be there with you, what is taking place, your various qualities, etc. Hold this picture on your inner move screen for a good 30 seconds, if possible. Do the best you can and don’t worry if your image seems a little vague at first. With practice, it can become quite crisp and clear!

You are now ready to begin to regularly visualize your goal. You’ve already done everything that’s involved; it’s just a matter of putting the steps together. They are:

1.      Set the scene for progressive relaxation.

2.      Breathe deeply and relax all your muscles.

3.      Visualize your scene on your inner movie screen for 30 seconds or so.

4.      Return to full waking consciousness and go about your day (or drift off to sleep).

The whole process shouldn’t take more than 10-15 minutes. You need about 5-10 minutes to relax, a few moments to visualize your scene, and then a few more moments to bring yourself back into the room.

Guided Aids for Visualizing

If you’d like a little help with your creative visualization exercises, there is an excellent tape by Shakti Gawain called Creative Visualization. On this tape, she has several different exercises related to creative visualization, including one for progressive relaxation and one for visualizing a goal. There are other good visualization or imagery tapes on the market as well. Some guide the listener to visualize achieving in specific goal areas such as financial, health or relationship. Feel free to use any tape product as long as it provides a period of time to focus on your specific goal.

You may also want to make your own tape or have a friend whose voice you like make a tape for you. To do this, write out a script of the progressive relaxation process that you guide yourself through when you practice. Write it in the second person, using you and your. (For example, you are fully relaxed, now see your scene, etc.) Play relaxing music to be taped in the background and read your script into the tape recorder. Speak clearly, slowly and gently. When it’s time to visualize your goal, tell yourself on the tape, “It’s now time to visualize your goal. I will tell you when it is time to stop.” Then allow about a minute of silence—it sometimes takes a few moments to bring the scene up onto your inner movie screen, so you want to give yourself more than just the 30 seconds needed to visualize. After a minute has passed, tell yourself, “Now it’s time to end the visualization and come back into the room.” You may want to count out loud slowly from 1 to 5, telling yourself that when you reach the number 3 to gently begin to stretch your body, and when you reach the number 5 to open your eyes.

Regular Focusing

Now that you know how to relax yourself and visualize your goal, it’s time to do it regularly. In the homework for this unit, you will be instructed to add the imagery component to your progressive relaxation exercises from now on. Regular repetition of the scene of the your “happy end result” (your goal) will program your subconscious mind with the data you want to begin to recognize in the world “out there.” This data is the effect you want to experience. The quanta you learned about in Unit 1 will follow the blueprint this data sets out. Another way to think about what you are doing is the metaphor of implanting the picture on your filtering screen so that matching images from the outside world will be allowed to pass through for you to recognize!

Give the Process Time

Don’t expect to see results the very first day, but don’t be surprised if within three days or so you begin to notice some things changing. In my class, I use myself as a human scale to demonstrate how the process of change takes place. I stand up, lowering my left arm and raising my right, telling the class that the “negative” thoughts and images I currently hold regarding my goal area are on the left side. Since they are now the heaviest, their weight pulls this side of the scale toward the ground and causes the right side of the scale to lift high in the air. Over time, as I practice creative visualization, I begin to fill the right side of the scales with new “positive” thoughts and images related to the goal. By continuing to focus on the new thoughts and images, I give them greater weight. This weight will begin to balance out the old thoughts and images, so my arms slowly come to a balanced position—straight out to each side. In time, the new thoughts and images will become the heaviest, so I gently lower my right arm to reflect this and my left arm rises with it’s lighter load. Now the heaviest thoughts and images are the new, carefully selected thoughts and images planted by my visualizations.

Stand up and go through this scales demonstration process for yourself. It will show you through your body how the process of change will take place and help to prepare you for this change. Notice that you don’t have to do anything to the old, negative thoughts and images. You don’t have to blast them, kill them, wrestle them, argue with them, or in any way attempt to eliminate them. All your attention goes to the new thoughts and images you are implanting. These will eventually weigh the most because they’ve gotten the most attention. The old thoughts and images will simply dry up—starved for the attention they need in order to thrive!

Unit Follow-up Activities

1. The progressive relaxation exercise now becomes a visualization exercise! Repeat this exercise at least four times during this third week of the course, following these steps:

a) set the scene

b) breathe deeply and relax

c) visualize your scene

d) return to waking consciousness

2. Re-read the material in Unit 1. You will get more out of this second reading and this will help make your visualizations increasingly powerful.

3. After each visualization session this week, make notes of your experience in your journal. Also note any additional thoughts or ideas that come to you throughout the week (your usual journaling).

Go to Unit Seven