We use images all the time – we just may not realise how much. Our belief system (which includes all the negative associations and judgments as well as positive ones like hopes and ambitions), is largely guided by our imagination, and this shapes our understanding of our world.

Visualisation (or creative imagery), is the practice of using the imagination constructively to influence our goals and successes. Regardless of whether or not you accept that it shapes outcomes, there is no doubting the power of the imagination to affect us emotionally as well as physically.

Worry is simply the imagination doing it’s thing; projecting and making negative predictions about possibilities. Artists, entrepreneurs, pioneers, and politicians who, through the ages have been guided their ‘vision’, do the opposite. As for some of the physical effects triggered by the imagination, think of how the thought of sucking on a piece of fresh, juicy lemon produces saliva, or of the sexual arousal resulting from lustful imaginings.

There is no escaping it, the imagination can shape outcomes, so whether you embrace the notion, or you think that it’s just a load of happy-clappy nonsense, you cannot avoid it, because it’s part of you.

My view is that visualisation used creatively is one of the most powerful tools we have. Everything you create in life begins as an image in your mind. It makes sense, therefore, to have a hand in steering your imagination in the direction you want to go.

See also:

Dina Glouberman, You are What You Imagine: 3 Steps to a New Beginning Using Imagework.