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At Academics Plus, we encourage students to use visualization as a tool to help them achieve their goals.  

You might ask, well what is visualization? 

Visualization is a simple but effective process in which you use your imagination to create—in your mind’s eye—what you would like to be, do or have. Many athletes use visualization, including Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, who have both spoken about its effectiveness in helping them achieve great success. In the following article, Shakti Gawain (who by the way, is a pioneer in the field and a strong advocate of the process of visualization) talks about the process of creative visualizing and offers some helpful hints.  

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Creative Visualization: How to Make It Part of Your Life: By Shakti Gawain 

The most important thing to remember is to use creative visualization often, to make it a regular part of your life. Most people seem to find that it works best to practice it at least a little every day, especially when they are first learning. I suggest that you have a regular creative visualization meditation period for fifteen minutes or so each morning when you wake up, and each evening before sleeping (these are the times when it is most effective), as well as the middle of the day if you can manage that.

Always start your meditation periods with deep relaxation, then follow with any visualizations or affirmations you wish. There are many different ways that creative visualization can be used, and it’s up to you to remember to try them at appropriate times. Conscious creative visualization may mean a new way of thinking and a new way of living. As such, it will take some practice. Try it out in different situations and under different circumstances, and use it as often as you can for any type of problem-solving.

If you find yourself worried or puzzled about anything, or feeling discouraged or frustrated about a problem, ask yourself if there is a way you could use creative visualization to help you. Form a creative habit of using it at every appropriate moment. Don’t feel discouraged if you don’t immediately feel totally successful with your creative visualization. Remember that most of us have years of negative thought patterns to overcome. It takes time to change some of these lifelong habits. And many of us have some underlying feelings and attitudes that can slow us down in our efforts to live more consciously. 

Fortunately, creative visualization is such an innately powerful process that even five minutes of conscious, positive meditation can balance out hours, days, even years of negative patterns. So be patient. It has taken a lifetime to create your world the way it is now. It may not necessarily change instantly (although it often does). With perseverance and a proper understanding of the process, you will succeed in creating what seem like many miracles in your life. 

Two things I have found most important in my growth process with creative visualization are: 

1. Regular reading of inspiring and supportive books that help to keep me in touch with my highest ideals and aspirations and/or that can give me encouragement through difficult times. I usually keep a book by my bed and read a page or two each day. 

2. Having a friend or (ideally) a community of friends who are also tuned into learning to live more consciously and who will support you and help you in your efforts. Attending regular or occasional consciousness classes or workshops, support groups or therapy, can be an important way of getting this type of support, and giving it to others as well. 

In my book, Creative Visualization, I give you many different techniques, ideas, exercises, and meditations. Choose the ones that feel right to you and seem to work for you. There are many different levels and approaches to the creative visualization process, and I have tried to include a wide variety of possible practices. In any given situation, one may be appropriate and another may not. Follow the flow of your own energy, and use the ones that you feel drawn to. For example, in a certain situation you may try to do affirmations and find that you simply can’t repeat them, or you don’t feel they are accomplishing anything. In that case you might want to try a clearing process, or get in touch with your inner guidance and ask for clarification, or just let go for a while and focus on other things. What works at one time may not at another; what works for one person may not for another.

Always trust yourself and your own deepest intuitive feelings. If it feels like you are forcing, pushing, exerting effort, or straining, don’t do it. If it feels helpful, releasing, opening, strengthening, enlivening, inspiring, do it.  

Adapted from Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain. Copyright © 2001 by New World Library. 

About the Author: Shakti Gawain is a bestselling author and a pioneer in the field of personal growth and consciousness. Her many books, which include Creative Visualization, The Creative Visualization Workbook, Creating True Prosperity, Developing Intuition, and Living in the Light, have sold more than six million copies in thirty languages worldwide. 

Copyright © Shakti Gawain. All rights reserved worldwide.