Visualization: Art of daydreaming!

Dr Sumedha Kushwaha *

Daydreaming was something we were all scolded for during childhood. Parents would often say, stop daydreaming and they would snap us back to so called”reality”. And that would seem to be the truest advice at that time.

It’s practical to be in the present, look at the pros and cons of each situation keeping in mind micro details, and of course being positive is good but being stupid is not. But I think- when you are stupid but listening to your heart- you are intellectual.

Today, if my child stops dreaming, I would be worried. If the young children, the youth, the adolescent minds don’t think of the impossible, how would we as a human species evolve? Dreaming, Daydreaming, Wishful Thinking- whatever you name you call it- is absolutely important.

Those few minutes when you look out of your window and see a billboard which has a bank advertisement that says “Travel the World with our Money” and if it sets you thinking, you are boarding a flight to Paris, I would say– staying in that feeling is much better than feeling drained and unworthy of the huge benefits you can claim from life.

A fairly recent concept in today’s world is the visualization practice. It’s a meditative practice where you just don’t wish for or day dream but act from the end. Acting from the end means disguising yourself to feel that you already have it.

The pioneers of this art say- it’s the feeling that’s important. Dress up for every meeting like a CEO before you are actually one; Feel the love for yourself even if you are single; act in the position you want to be- walk, talk, act, feel, behave the way you would have done from the end.

This meditative practice works best when done before sleep or soon after waking up when your body is totally relaxed and your brain is producing a specific type of brain patterns.

It’s essentially making a mental movie by fixing, adjusting, creating all variables according to your choice. When I started this practice, I got a fair sense of the fact that human minds have been trained for fight or flight reactions.

Human brains have the tendency of thinking in an extreme direction. Once we are able to modulate the thinking patterns, hold what we wish for in our vision, keep our focus on it and feel it as if we already have it- that’s when we realize the effortlessness of things. Visualization is one of the few techniques used for manifestation.

While some people who are realists, totally believing in pragmatism and harsh realities of life might not like this practice. However, people who are open would think this as an aid to achieving what they have been aiming for.

One word before the year ends, be stupid, be crazy, do things that you want to do, aim higher, and dream bigger.

Life is too short for the melodrama we have created for ourselves. If you are feeling stuck, try to put on your headphones, and use any guided visualization practice, immerse yourself into it and tell me, did it help?