Blog

Updated July 26th 2023

In previous blog posts, we have extensively discussed the influential role of visualisation in acquiring new skills and cultivating beneficial habits while replacing old ones. Many accomplished individuals now employ techniques long embraced by successful athletes to enhance performance, motivation, and focus. However, it’s essential to acknowledge that not everyone possesses a natural talent for visualisation, making the process of creating lasting, meaningful change in both personal life and the workplace more demanding for some individuals than others.

As far back as 1932, Bartlett (One of the 1st psychologists to relate memory performance to peoples learning strategies) found that he could classify his research participants on the basis of their informal comments as ‘visualisers’ who claimed to rely mainly upon visual imagery in remembering, or as ‘vocalisers’, who claimed to rely mainly upon language cues rather than mental images. Vocalisers tended to be less confident in their recall. Bartlett regarded this distinction between ‘visualisers’ and ‘vocalisers’ to reflect a relatively stable characteristic of individuals or in other words a dimension of cognitive style.

One of our associates, Erika Brodnock, is here to share the challenges she had in making the changes she wanted because of this distinction that Bartlett noticed so long ago…

Erika: Our conscious, subconscious and super conscious minds are constantly working together to keep us acting in a way we know to be true to ourselves. This understanding is the first step toward lasting change – getting an awareness of who we are, what we do, our needs, triggers and the person we want to become will enable us to make even the changes we believed were impossible.

The awareness of who we are now, what we do, our needs and our triggers are important, as with this awareness we can self correct and make more conscious decisions to think, do and be ‘better’. But these elements collectively are only 1 tenth as important as the ability to see the person we want to become.

According to Dr Steve Peters, author of ‘The Chimp Paradox’ and trainer to top Olympic athletes; the unconscious mind is at least 5 times the strength of the conscious mind. Peters also asserts that the unconscious does not process things logically with words and numbers. The language of our unconscious mind is sight, smell, sound, taste and feeling. Being completely sensory, the most effective mode of communication is seeing you as the person you wish to become and the things you will think do and be at that time. Hearing the sounds you will hear, feeling the way you will feel and tasting what you will taste will strengthen this communication further…

But what if you’re like I was, and whenever you close your eyes all you see is darkness (with a hint of red if there is a light source in the room)… I remember sitting in many a coaching, training and staff training course, as others described all the wonderful things they could see in their minds eye and feeling a familiar block of envy sinking from my chest to the pit of my stomach. I could see nothing, it didn’t matter how many times someone told me “We can all see, your pictures are just moving too fast” or whatever else it was they decided to say to console me. I still couldn’t see anything and the more I tried the less I saw…

Join me in coming weeks for the step-by-step account of what I did to access my visualisation skills.

Erika Brodnock is one of our associates at Adaptas™. Erika is an energy psychologist, specialising in cutting-edge techniques that embrace Quantum Physics, Epigenetics, Noetic Science and Energy.  She qualifed as an EFT Master Practitioner and Trainer (AAMET), NLP Master Practitioner and Coach (ABNLP), Matrix Reimprinting Practitioner, Psych –K advanced facilitator and is an accredited Heartmath provider of workshops and training. She is also the CEO and Founder of The Centre for Positive Children Ltd.