I hold monthly seminars at my school, THE STUDIO and Grappling Unlimited to talk about some important topics that will help my students to grow as athletes, but more importantly with life in general. This month I focused on visualization and meditation and how it has helped me in my life. This is just an introduction to visualization and meditation and hopefully it will get you interested to learn more!
I started experimenting with visualization and meditation at a considerably early age, 16. Growing up I would always find myself visualizing myself failing at what ever sport I was playing or whatever goal I was trying to accomplish. I new that this was going to make me become a falier, and I would have to find a way to stop thinking these negative thoughts. This is when I started doing research into visualization and meditation. I read up on things like your subconscious mind and your conscious mind and how these work. This is what I found out:
- There is a basic law of the mind at work here: whenever your conscious and subconscious are in conflict, your subconscious invariably wins. This is called the law of conflict.
- Once an idea has been accepted by the subconscious mind, it remains until it is replaced by another idea. The longer it is held, the more it tends to become a fixed habit or thought pattern. This is how habits of action are formed, both good and bad.
From this information, I decided that the only way to control these negative thoughts and in turn produce positive thoughts would be to find a way to control my subconscious mind. Through meditation and visualization I was eventually able to do it!
Now, this didn't happen over night, just like anything else, these things take time and practice, so I am going to give you some basic tools to get you started.
First, you must be able to clear your mind - this must be done to be successful in visualization. Your body and your mind must be relaxed and ready for visualization. Sitting in a relaxed position, close your eyes and imagine the air around you being smoke. Breathing through your nose breath in the air and envision it traveling through your head, down your lungs, circling your lungs, and releasing. While you breath try and clear your mind and focus on counting to 5. You should be focusing on this alone. Once you can count to 5 without anything distracting you, you are ready to move on.
The next step is to break visualization down into senses. You will work through all senses starting with sight. In your comfortable position, close your eyes and try and see a changing stoplight. When you have done that move on to the next sense and going on through the list.
See: Changing stoplight
Sound: Leaves in a rustling in a tree
Touch: The feel of sand under your feet
Feeling: Touching a silk shirt
Taste: A lemon
Smell: Bacon frying
Feeling of: Hunger
Some senses may be easier than others for you, remember to focus on the easier ones in the beginning and work your way to the harder senses once you get the hang of it.
This is the first step of mastering visualization! Just remember, you will need to practice this though, a good time to do this is at night when you are in bed. This can help you as well if you are having a hard time sleeping. I hope this will help you in any way that it can and spark your interest to learn more about visualization and meditation!
