Visualization is a simple practice of seeing and feeling what you want as if it’s already happening. It’s an effective method of not only manifesting with the law of attraction but also used by people who simply want to hack their subconscious mind to more easily realize their dreams and goals.
If you’ve been trying visualization for a while, you might be wondering if you’re doing it right, or why you haven’t seen any results yet. In order to succeed with this practice, you need to avoid some of these common mistakes.
Mistaking Visualization for Daydreaming
One of the most common mistakes people make when they start using visualization to achieve their dreams is confusing it with daydreaming. While it can seem similar, they are completely different things and will benefit you in different ways.
Daydreaming is often more fantastical. It typically revolves around your biggest fantasies, not your goals. You might be listening to a song and daydreaming about you dancing on stage to that song or singing it expertly at karaoke.
But is this really a goal you want to achieve? If it isn’t then it is just a daydream. Something that is fun to imagine in your mind, but not really aligned with practical goals or desires you want to manifest into your life.
Visualization, on the other hand, is a way of envisioning what you really want to attract in your life. This can be a car or a house, a loving relationship, your dream career, wealth and abundance, really anything you can think of. It is more detailed, realistic, and is aligned with the future you see for yourself.
Both daydreaming and visualization have their place, and are both are really good for your mindset. But visualization is more involved and requires a little more work if you want to use it to manifest something tangible in your life.
Not Using Details to Fuel Your Visualizations
Another mistake you might be making with your visualization is not seeing the details. This is where meditation and even journaling out what you want in your life can help. For visualization to be successful, you need to know all the intricate details.
Think of it as a way of using all your senses when you achieve your dreams, such as what you would taste, smell, feel, hear, or see. What emotions would you have in that dream life, what would you see around you, what can you almost feel on your skin.
If you want to live in a beach house, try to bring the sense of smell into it by smelling the salty ocean or feeling the gritty, warm sand under your feet as you stroll along the beach.
These little details make all the difference because they can transport you to what you are trying to visualize and make it feel more real.
Not believing What You See
With anything you want to manifest into your life, you need to believe it is possible, and in your visualization, you need to believe it is actually happening. This goes back to the first two points. Don’t try to create a dream scenario similar to daydreaming where it isn’t something you actually want to happen or think you can accomplish. But also, when you do decide it is a goal of yours and you want to visualize it, don’t forget the details.
When you begin exploring how this would all play out in the future, you should start to believe it can actually happen. The more you visualize with feelings and emotions, the more you start to believe it will be in your reality someday.
Keeping Your Visualizations Only in Your Mind
This is a great reason to start using a journal for your visualizations. You can use it in many ways, both before visualizations and after.
If you are just getting started with visualization, then planning everything out in your journal is a good place to start. Write down your goals or dreams, how you will accomplish them, and what your life would look like if you achieved them. This is how you can create a list of details for your visualizations.
You can also use the journal after you have done your visualization practice, writing down what you visualized, how it felt, and if it brought up any emotions. You can even write this down as scripting, where you write it in the present tense, to make it feel even more real.
Entertaining Negative Visions as Possibilities
Finally, try to make sure your visualizations remain positive. This can be one of the hardest parts since our minds naturally focus on what could go wrong. Try to keep your self-doubt out of the visualization and challenge it any time it comes up.
Focus on the positive emotions, how amazing it would feel, how happy and content you would be, how in love, how comforting abundance would be to your life. Every time a negative thought pops up, immediately challenge it by flipping it around to something more positive.
