4 Creative Visualization Techniques to Help You Accomplish Anything

• Visualization refers to creating mental images in the mind's eye.
• Through visualization, the Law of Attraction can help us bring positive resources, connections and circumstances into our lives.
• To effectively visualize your goals, paint a goal picture, create a collage and watch other people do it.

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Visualization allows us to conceptualize our goals and enables us to invite the energy it'll take to reach them. It's one of the most powerful superpowers we have — but it's also one of the most overlooked. 

In this article, you'll learn about the benefits of visualization, your subconscious mind's power to manifest your desired outcomes and four techniques that can help you visualize effectively and immediately.

What is visualization?

Visualization refers to creating mental images in the mind's eye. When exercised, visualization techniques can allow you to imagine and identify with desired outcomes, in order to create the circumstances that'll help you bring them to life. They can also help you see your goal as already complete, allowing you to recognize and accept them more willingly.

The benefits of visualization.

• Mental images help you get clear on your desires by engaging your five senses in an imaginative experience.
•  Visualization requires you to envision your higher self, allowing you to clearly identify the resources you already have, and the ones you'll need, to reach your goals.
• Through visualization, the Law of Attraction (which is the belief that positive or negative experiences are drawn to us based on the vibrations of our thoughts) can help us bring positive resources, connections and circumstances into our lives.
• Visualization helps prepare your brain to recognize and receive the resources you'll need to reach your desired outcome.
• Your internal motivation is heightened through your sensory connection to your desired outcome.
• Your creative subconscious is activated by visualization, providing access to creative pathways and ideas that'll help you reach your goal.

4 visualization techniques

1. Make a mind movie.

Visualization through a mind movie allows you to engage in a sensory experience with your desired outcome, allowing you to embody the energy and emotion of the situation before it arrives. You can multiply the effects, too, by imagining the smells, sounds, tastes and sensations associated with the moment in order to deeply resonate with it.

This can be done one of two ways — through the eyes of your audience or your own. As an audience member, you could imagine how you would carry yourself in the situation, notice who you would talk to and imagine how others would see you in the situation. As the star of your own movie, you can imagine these things through a first-person lens, and use your imaginative agency to rehearse before the real thing.

2. Paint a goal picture.

If you're the artsy type, illustration can help you depict your desired outcome, allowing you to connect with a tangible representation of it. Illustration is a powerful visualization technique because it helps you plan, allowing you to notice what you have and what you'll need to make your dream a reality. 

If, for example, your goal is for you to crush an interview or run an engaging panel, you can draw an image of what that would look like. Think about who your audience would be and what would they look like. Also, illustrate how you would present yourself through dress and posture. And depict the surrounding environment — who else would be present, and what would that venue look like? 

3. Watch other people do it.

Visualization can be challenging when you don't have relevant experiences to pull from. Depending on your goal, you can familiarize yourself with your vision, little by little, by placing yourself in similar situations or surrounding yourself with people already doing what you want to do. 

Let's say someone who's about to exhibit their artwork for the first time is curious about how to best present. They can learn by attending art exhibitions, watching others present and asking them questions to help simulate the process for themselves. 

4. Create a collage.

Collages — or more specifically, vision boards — can help you depict and connect with your goals. They're typically created on large poster-boards using magazine clips, photos and other decorative props and tools, and can serve as a visual reminder of your goals, helping you further align with them.

You can get super crafty with your board by printing and cutting out photos of yourself, and adding your cutouts to photos of locations you want to visit or even dressing them up in clothing you've clipped from magazines. 

Activating your creative subconscious.

The job of the subconscious mind is not to think or reason (as that is the job of the conscious mind). Rather, it is to store and retrieve the data delivered to it from the conscious mind, which it then uses to create our blueprint — our unique set of patterns, behaviors and responses. 

Since our subconscious mind can’t discern between what we are visualizing and what we already have, we can activate our creative power through visualization by manifesting the truth that we want to step into. By envisioning the goal as complete, we engage our thoughts, energy and subconscious power with our desired outcome, galvanizing us to create the solutions we need to get there.

Engaging your subconscious mind also allows you to notice things that'll help you achieve your goals (which you probably would've overlooked otherwise). 

Practicing visualization.

Dedicating as little as 10 minutes a day to visualization can help you reap the full benefits of the practice. Start by making a mind movie during a guided meditation, or placing a vision board somewhere visible. And bring that energy with you by pairing positive affirmations with your visualization, which you can repeat throughout the day.

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Stephanie Nieves is the SEO & Editorial Associate on the Fairygodboss team. Her words can also be found on Medium, PayScale and The Muse.