When you imagine yourself exceeding your limits in sport, would it surprise you to know that your body is preparing to catch up to that snapshot you see in your mind? When you visualize, details become clear and the next step in your evolution as an athlete is made possible.
This is an exercise in belief as well as how sharply you can imagine and see your destination inside your mind’s eye. Allow yourself to release old ideas of performance and capabilities. Move your thoughts and your expectations to another level, one that is not defined by the past, your weaknesses or your mistakes.
Table of Contents
Practise through repetition.
Repeated sessions visualizing your accelerated and improved performance creates a memory that activates your subconscious mind. The mind goes to work accepting this performance as already been achieved and imprints the body, the muscles, the nerves and the supporting chemistry to collaborate with this perceived truth.
Training sessions: Simulated vs Actual.
By setting practise sessions in your imagination, you are effectively training yourself to another level of high performance. NASA scientists have proven that this does indeed work. Elite athletes tested did notice improvements without physical practise. Their bodies also recorded the imagined training sessions and athletic events as memory. In other words, the mind established these visualized events as real and the physical experiences imprinted the body as actual training sessions or events.
Testing ground.
The best way to know if this is working for you is to test it for yourself. Visualize an improvement and then, go out there and see if this imagined improvement has been achieved or if this improvement is showing signs of improvement. Run that distance faster, swim faster and shave time off your laps. Build endurance in your imagination first and then , see your physical body and mental tenacity enable another level of performance.
Resistance shapes results.
Sometimes, we set the bar of athletic performance too low. Limits set by your resistance to visualization as scientific and a potential factor in shifting your performance and physiology as well as beliefs in what is possible for you or for someone your age will shape your results. Use this method to break through personal and societal limits about age and athletic ability. Everything is possible with the right mindset and consistent practise as a visualizer and through dedicated training sessions.
Apply visualization to recovery sessions.
Athletic performance is one tier of visualization but it can also be applied to recovery. Use visualization to restore, heal and gain strength from training sessions as well as encourage injuries to heal faster. Alternate practise sessions and imagined ones. Alternate recovery sessions with dedicated self care regimes. Allow your neurobiology to catch-up to envisioned performance.
Combining meditation with visualization.
Combining meditation with visualization is a powerful mediator in redefining limits and transforming your physiology. As mentioned in other Science meets Meditation blogs, being present and clearing the mind of chatter through a meditation practise allows you to visualize and focus. The two together are powerful catalysts for transforming your physiology. Meditation can calm you and heal. Visualization can catapult you into a new level of being.
Moving energy through visualized results.
In meditation-visualization sessions, it is possible to re-direct extra energy toward healing the body and using all the body’s energy including the emotional, magnetic and electrical energy to create high performance in sport. Exceeding limits begins with seeing it in your mind’s eye.
Skills as a visualizer.
Your limits will be tested by what you believe to be true for you and your developing skill as a visualizer. You can begin by visualizing something simple like an apple. You can recreate the image by attaching it to a memory, a taste, a smell and day, an event or even another person’s face. The same principle applies to honing your skill to zero in on details of what you want to experience and to create. Be in that high performance experience in your imagination. Add as many vivid elements and your feelings of excelling and it will increase the potential to “shift” your physiology.
Practise session length.
Over time, the quality and length of sessions will increase as needed. Yet, even with a few minutes of consistent practise, it is possible to see a massive change. Do not expect immediate results. See your evolution as progressive. Perhaps you will see your recovery or healing accelerated.
Scientists have opened the doorway to new performance levels through visualization techniques. Use the science and your own exploration to your advantage. Excel. Break limits. Defy old beliefs about what is possible. Just a few dedicated minutes a day can have a profound effect.