If you are fortunate enough to be a person who remembers dreams, then you understand how your ability to visualize is so powerful. We can basically create movies in our minds, and when we are asleep they are as real to us as if we were living it in real time.
What we see in our minds affects our bodies on many levels. Think about a nightmare you may have had. It’s not uncommon to wake up from an unpleasant dream with your heart racing and sweat running down your face. Nothing is happening that should cause these physical reactions, but they are very real.
We are blessed with minds that can see things as they are, and we can also see them how we would like them to be. It is possible to create entire movies in our minds that can become a path we choose to follow to live the lives of our dreams. Conversely, we can torture ourselves with scenes of misery and terror while envisioning worst-case scenarios.
By learning to control what we project within our minds, we can control the amount of peace and happiness we allow ourselves to feel.
Action – We tell ourselves stories all of the time. None of them are more true or false than any other; they are all just mental fabrications. If the stories you are telling yourself don’t make you feel good, causing stress and unhappiness, then change the narrative. It is within your power to envision what makes you happy, no matter what things look like at the moment.
Steps – Meditation is the quickest way to learn to train the mind to do as you would like it to do. If you are prone to fatalistic thinking and depression, this sounds quite impossible. If you believe that you can begin to take control of what is going on within your own mind, then you can start to take small steps to learn how.
By slowing down the incessant flow of thoughts, peace within can be achieved. Then you can learn to create mental movies that assist you to become the person you wish to be.
Use guided meditations at first. They will teach you to quiet your mind and then picture different scenes. There are many free ones on YouTube that are excellent.
Why It Makes You Feel Better – When you feel powerless to control your mind, and you become tortured by thoughts that affect every aspect of your life negatively, it is impossible to live a life of peace and joy. Visualizing good things allows your body to function smoothly and in a healthy way. Thinking of horrible things makes your entire system clench up, and the negative physiological effects of stress are many.
Because our thoughts are fantasies anyways, it is much easier to go through life thinking of the best outcome and seeing things working out rather than always expecting the worst. Either way, you are living the movie that you are producing from within.
Example – I don’t watch the news anymore. I know enough about what is going on to be aware, but I don’t need to see the same stories of doom and gloom repeated endlessly. Making the decision to expose myself to positive input instead of chronically negative narrative was a simple way to have a chance to feel good instead of bad.
By realizing that you can choose how you process what happens around you any way you decide to, you can use the power of visualization to create a pleasant existence. If you aren’t at least in control of your own thoughts, then who are you allowing to control them?