Our most vivid memories arise from events that have sparked strong sensations and emotions in our being. These memories live within us for a lifetime, just like The Proust’s madeleine.
We can also use vivid mental images to materialise our dream life. Those are memories from the future. We can create memories from the future thanks to visualisation, also called mental imagery.
How does it work?
Visualisation is a powerful tool if done properly. You have to train to get better at it before it can really work. When disruptive thoughts and emotions come, you have to start over and over again until the images and feelings are exactly what you want in a perfect world. Generate mental images that are more and more precise, welcome more intense sensations (the smells, the sounds, the tastes, the physical sensations) and invite deeper emotions because visualisation works in the exact same way as our memory; the more vivid the images and the stronger the sensations and emotions, the deeper and longer the impact.
The science behind it!
Once you’ve mastered vivid visualisation, you become more optimistic as the future positive event becomes more and more realistic in your mind. It is possible. You can do it.
In addition, visualising a positive future outcome also increases motivation. You can hang on to your very clear vision when all you feel like is giving up. You’re also ready to increase your efforts and put in the work. And lastly, you start aligning your actions to your vision, engaging in more behaviours directed at achieving it.
A sprinkle of gratefulness!
Another layer that I love adding is to welcome a deep sense of gratitude while visualising my dream life. I am grateful for this vision, for this future, for the possibilities, for the deep bliss and peace I’m feeling. My whole body is filled with gratefulness as I am already tasting this potential reality. I feel as grateful as if I were living this dream life for real. This helps me apprehend this idealistic future with positive emotions rather than frustration for not having it yet. This reality is already integrated in me. It is already mine. I am ready for it. I am prepared. I know it’s coming. It is just a matter of time.
Let’s grow together !
Close your eyes, visualise your dream life and create powerful memories from the future.
Imagine, visualise and feel your dream life. Make sure the visualisation includes all the key elements that make you know you've achieved your goals and that you're living your dream life. Can you visualise an entire normal day in your dream life? Where are you? How's your home? With whom? What are you doing from morning to evening? What job do you have? Visualise yourself working. What are you wearing? What are you eating? What can you smell, hear, feel, taste? Which emotions are arising?
Example: I will know that I'm living my dream life when I live in a house in the tropical forest overlooking the ocean. I work as a freelance wellbeing specialist, I have a family and I spend most of my time outside in nature. While visualising a normal day in my dream life from morning to evening, I have to include the 4 goals above!
Once you’ve succeeded at creating vivid mental images (this takes practice, don’t give up!), you can bathe in this bliss and create a vison board. Just like the taste of the madeleine brings back all the memories to Proust, your vision board should bring back all the feelings and images of your memories from the future (what you’ve visualised). Choose pictures and words that instantly bring back all the feelings. Be as creative as you want!
Take the time to stop and stare at your vison board. Feel all the feels. Feel the possibility of it becoming true. Feel the gratefulness. It is your life.
Simon E. Blackwell, Nathaly Rius-Ottenheim, Yvonne W.M. Schulte-van Maaren, Ingrid V.E. Carlier, Victor D. Middelkoop, Frans G. Zitman, Philip Spinhoven, Emily A. Holmes, Erik J. Giltay, Optimism and mental imagery: A possible cognitive marker to promote well-being?.
Psychiatry Research, 206(1), 2013, 56-61.
Taylor, S.E., Pham, L.B., Rivkin, I.D., Armor, D.A., 1998. Harnessing the imagination.
Mental simulation, self-regulation, and coping. Am. Psychol. 53 (4), 429–439.