Hall of Mirrors at Damanhur – Image from Daily Mail

The brain processes ‘imagined‘ and ‘real‘ events in very similar ways.  The same visual centers of the brain are stimulated, for instance, when you see something in your bedroom and when you imagine it.  And because information in the brain is stored, not in isolation but in association, visual stimuli trigger emotional, sensorial, mental and physiological responses.

Such is the nature of the complex networks of  associated information.  It is the reason behind ‘wet dreams’, waking up in a panic and finding butterflies in your stomach when you are anxious or nervous :-). Whether ‘imagined’ or ‘actual’, the brain and the body’s responses are similar.

This fact can be used to great advantage and it is, by athletes, scientists, teachers, healers and anyone wanting to effect a reality different to their current reality.  Children are born with this ability, which, sadly for many, diminishes as they get older.  Why?  Because we live in a society dominated by the belief that values and respects only that which is physical, tangible and quantifiable.  Anything ‘imagined’ is treated with suspicion and often dismissed.

Yet, interestingly enough, we hold a conflicting belief, or rather, a ‘knowing’ that our imagination is the basis for some of humanity’s most spectacular achievements, from the Taj Mahal to computers and the internet to high consciousness communities in Damanhur, to name just a few.  Many of us are also familiar with the story of Einstein visualizing himself riding on a ray of light, the speed of which would be impossible for us to appreciate through mere reasoning but possible to ’sense’ through imagining or visualizing as Einstein did.

So, how does visualization work?  When we visualize something in our mind’s eye, we activate the associated sensations, emotions, thoughts and beliefs.  I explained in previous posts about affirmations and the need for them to be supported by our beliefs and emotions.  Visualization provides us with a powerful means of generating those emotions rapidly and effortlessly while bypassing conflicting beliefs! This ability for visualizations to bypass conflicting beliefs is what makes them particularly powerful.

As the appropriate and most supportive emotions are generated, our entire mental, emotional, biochemical and physiological ‘maps’ and patterns are changed.  Clearly, the more often we visualize and the more deeply we enter into the sensorial and emotional aspects of our image i.e. we see, taste, smell, hear, feel that which we are visualizing, the more powerful and stable are the new patterns or ‘maps’ that we create.

Put another way, if you are having trouble believing that you will find your ‘perfect partner’, visualizing being with the perfect partner, doing things with her/him by using the brain’s ability to ’see’, ‘touch’, ’smell’ and ‘taste’ will evoke strong emotional responses that start to lay down the ‘maps’ or patterns for that reality!  You are therefore primed and set for that reality!

The fact is, all the things that we do routinely/habitually are the outcomes of what was once consciously desired, imagined, thought and felt.  Having a cup of coffee, for instance, once began with the desire, thought and positive feeling for coffee.  Over time, this ‘map’ of desire, thought, sensation and emotion was laid down, refined and accessed/retrieved so frequently that it became an ‘automatic‘ response.  In other words, you no longer had to consciously go through the entire gamut of desire-thought-emotion-sensation to get you to the point of making and drinking a cup of coffee (action/tangible, physical reality).  The entire process has been truncated to go directly from thought (mental) to action (physical)!  But more of that another time :-).

What is important to remember here is that visualization is something that we naturally and routinely do.  As far as the brain is concerned, visualizing activates the same centers in the brain as information received from physical stimuli.  It is an elegant, efficient and powerful technique (natural ability) that we already possess but which most of us have forgotten how to use to our advantage.  Visualization is particularly powerful because it enables us to rapidly and effortlessly arouse the emotions and beliefs that are needed to support our desires and intentions/affirmations and to turn them into reality while bypassing conflicting beliefs.

Do you have trouble visualizing things you desire?  Or are you a pro?  Share your experiences in a comment!

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I have been following Gregg Braden’s work for some time and I feel he has much to offer us, both in our personal as well as collective journey to happiness!

Gregg Braden – The union of thought and emotion

Gregg Braden – The spontaneous healing of belief

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A mystical story about performance anxiety with hidden messages!

Lucy Lopez

Awakening to our Natural Happiness!

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gorgeous

unimaginably wealthy and

god’s greatest gift to humankind“

What are affirmations?  They are powerful messages that we give the subconscious mind with the intention of making it conform to particular desires or goals.  Generally, affirmations are presented in the simple present tense (remember what I said about this in this post?).  As such, they are supposed to reflect ongoing truths.

For example, if you happen to be  afraid of public performance, some affirmations that might be suggested to you are: “I am a wonderful performer”.  “I enjoy performing to audiences, large or small”.  “I just love every performance and look forward to each one”.

Great!  So you start repeating these affirmations daily like a mantra and sometimes several times a day.  (Someone recently told me they spend three hours a day repeating affirmations, bemoaning the fact that ‘nothing has changed’).  One week later, one month later, several months later, you have still not shaken off your fear of public performance.  If anything, you are even more of a nervous wreck when it comes to presenting yourself to an audience.  Why?

The reason is quite simple.

Your affirmations lack your emotional support.

Have you noticed how the most impactful experiences in your life are the ones where your emotional response was strong and unmistakable, whether in a positive or negative way?  Film makers, writers and advertisers make use of this fact to persuade you to ‘buy’ whatever it is they are selling, whether it is a product, an idea, a character or a service.  To them,  your emotional response  is gold!  Without it, they know they have lost you.

Even when we have an intellectual agreement with an idea or intention, without our emotional support, that idea or intention is about as useful to us as a bicycle tyre without air.  So the question is, how do we get our emotions to cooperate with our thoughts, with our affirmations?

Belief!

Even if I can intellectually agree with an idea, it does not mean that I actually believe it.  For instance, I might agree that enjoying performing in public would be a good thing but I may not believe that I can enjoy performing in public.  It is at this point that my subconscious mind and I part company.

By now you might have guessed that beliefs and emotions have a very tight partnership.  The stronger your emotional response, the stronger your belief.  Hence, “I didn’t believe it until I saw it”.  Why?  Because upon seeing it, you felt it!  Our senses are directly connected to the emotional centres in our brain.  They arouse your emotions in a very powerful way.  Advertisers, film makers and writers have a field day with this fact – they show you things rather than just talk about them.

So, affirmations need to be supported by your emotions which are deeply tied to your beliefs.  If you believe something, there is little that can get in your way.  I guess your next question is, How do I believe what I want to believe? Well, I tackle that one in my next post and I’ll even explain why repeating affirmations without the corresponding emotional support and belief can work against you.  In the meantime, you can enjoy this, this and this.

By the way, if you attempted to purchase my ebook, Moby Duck and the Spirit of Grace and found that the paypal link didn’t quite work, I’ve replaced it with one that does.  Don’t worry about the white box, just click on the ‘Buy now’ button :-).  It’s in that post as well as this.  (Incidentally, Moby Duck had performance anxiety too :-))

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Lucy Lopez
In the Spirit of Grace!

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My writing this morning is motivated by a jumble of thoughts, impressions and loose threads that are offering themselves for organization. I don’t know if I shall achieve that organization although I do know that the process of writing often helps me sort through such cognitive hotchpotches!

I am also motivated by the comments that my last post has attracted. Ellumbra (Tim) and Barque have made suggestions and shared views about my journey of discovery (of the meaning) of the ‘soul’. I do appreciate their interest and input and am taking all of it on board. In the meantime, I have been re-reading some of James Hillman’s writings on the soul as well as scouring the web and various spiritual texts for soul-maps and signs. I shall be sharing these as I go along. For now, however, let me attempt to sort through my jumble.

One of the things that has lately prompted me to go ‘soul-searching’ has been my recent experiences in my country of birth which I left over thirty years ago! Although I have returned to visit Malaysia many times in those thirty-odd years, this latest visit has been different in at least two ways: By the time I return to my home in Brisbane, Australia next week, I will have spent just over a month here. That is the longest visit I would have had, the others usually lasting no more than 2 weeks.

The other difference, and perhaps this is related to the first, is that I have felt such a depth of emotion this time which has been less to do with family and more to do with the ‘essence’ of this place, the ‘soul’ of this place if you like! (Yes, there I go again, using a word I am not really sure I know the meaning of, yet sensing that it holds the meaning I intend :-)).

Perhaps the length of my stay has given my mind-heart-soul enough time to reach into a deeper layer of experience and emotions…I attempted to capture these in a couple of posts some weeks ago at one of my other blogs. If you’re interested you could read Helplessly Fascinated and That Window in My Heart at Longings, Enchantments and Sacred Space.

Bittersweet emotions, tugs at the heartstrings, unexpected moments when I find myself gazing into the distance of time at such imagery that remains startlingly close. So vivid that I am fearful of being imprisoned once more in a place that I could not wait to escape all those years ago! And yet, there is a tenderness there:

I feel I am losing myself as my senses heighten and I wonder why I feel like I am teetering on the edge of pain, as if my next breath would cause me to free-fall into an interminable abyss? And yet, do I not also sense a tenderness waiting for me there – a tenderness I am finding so very hard to resist?

(From Helplessly Fascinated at Longings, Enchantments and Sacred Space)

You see, I associate this tenderness with the soul and I associate this tendency to gaze, as if with vacant eyes, on the stirrings of the soul. Gazing which, if I am not vigilant, could slide into brooding, for deep within, there is a darkness that hangs like a veil over the face of ancient secrets. A darkness that somehow, despite the warnings of my rational mind, draws me to it. It doesn’t force. It just makes its presence felt and I find myself going weak, helplessly yielding to it…

I suspect it is this darkness that I wish to explore, to become familiar with, to befriend. It is a darkness quite different to, say, the negativity of mundane thoughts and emotions which tend to hold an energy of fear and anger. Rather, this darkness is alluring, suspended like fine mist, yet filled with the promise of enchantment, so that I cannot help feeling that, by yielding to it, I am well and truly on the soul-trail!

Love Always, Lucy
How shall I serve you, my Love?

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