How to Visualize so you can 'See' it

Some of us don't 'see' as a preferred way of experiencing our inner world. We may 'feel', 'hear', or perhaps 'smell', and 'taste' better than we 'see'. And that goes for stored, and new, experiences.

'Visualising' is only one of our sensory modalities. Visualising can be described as seeing something in your mind's eye. If you're not able to 'see' internally, its likely that your preferred sense is 'hearing/auditory' or 'feeling/kinesthetic'. Its not that you can't see things, its just that your naturally 'preferred' method for internal experiences is through another sensory modality- like hearing, feeling, touch, smell, or taste.

If you're having trouble visualising your goals for example, lets practise and start by identifying your particular preference. Do you prefer to hear, see or taste? If you're not already aware of your particular preference begin by imagining a river. Can you picture it, do you hear it flowing, or do you just 'know' it's there?

So if you hear it better-you're auditory. If you can 'feel' the river and know it to be there then your preferred method is kinesthetic. Knowing this means you can use this process to enhance your visualisation. If you were trying to visualise money for example and but found you were more inclined to feel your image, you're predominantly kinesthetic. In this case you would imagine riffling the bills through your fingers, or opening your purse to feel the coins inside.

When you know that sound is your preferred modality, then enrich your visualisations with the rushing of the river, hearing the eddies and the ebb and flow of the water as it rushes downstream. Or in the money example listen to the coins jingle in your purse.

Some of you might believe you can't 'see'. Take heart because if you close your eyes and can remember what the front of your house looks like in a picture form, then you can visualise. If you're wanting to increase your powers of visualisation, practicing 'seeing' any picture in your minds eye. Lets keep with the river example: take a 'snapshot' of any part of the river flow - either a real shot, or one you can conjure up in your head- then close your eyes and recreate it. Start with something strong like a snapshot of white water rapids, or use a more soothing flow of a placid current around a rock if that's preferable.

The other modalities of taste/gustatory and smell/olfactory aren't as commonly preferred as visual, auditory or feeling. But to really enrich any imagery experience- whether real or imagined- incorporate as many modalities into your visualizations, immerse yourself in them and use them together. In the case of the river see it in your mind's eye, feel it, hear it, taste it and smell it.

Incorporate all the sensory modalities together into your goal plans and strategies and imagine yourself having achieved success: picture and see your new car (visual), hear the purr of the engine (auditory), run your fingers over the leather seats (kinesthetic), smell that new car smell (olfactory) and open the window (touch again) and taste the rain (gustatory).

And rest assured because the remarkable plasticity and flexibility of your mind to learn and understand new things is formidable. Continue to reinforce it through practice.

And when you're in that new car remember to internalise and fully experience the feelings of happiness, gratitude and success that go with it!

Images from texas finn and h.koppdelaney