In My Mind's Eye

Dear Coach Fabulous

For some reason I can’t visualise things with my eyes closed. I have very vivid dreams in colour and sound and in exceptional circumstances, say when massaging someone that I have a connection with, a spontaneous colourful beautiful image comes to me.

I can visualise things with my eyes open and can translate it to paper but I cannot create an image in my minds eye. I feel I am missing out on a whole dimension of my inner world.

Do you think I can learn to visualise or do I have to stay in my dark world?

Blind Spot


Dear Blind Spot

You don’t say why you feel the need to create images with your eyes closed, so I am guessing it’s something to with positive visualisation in meditation. This technique is a very powerful way of building confidence and creating uplifting emotional states, so it’s worth a bit of perseverance.

The good news is that you clearly already have some facility in this arena, given that you can visualise with your eyes open and that spontaneous images do come to you at times. That means this is really just a question of refining that skill, rather than starting from scratch.

When you close your eyes, try first to visualise a blank screen in front of you, rather like a movie screen. This is where all the action will take place. It might help to imagine that you are sitting in a cinema watching it all from a distance. Feel how comfortable you are in the seat, imagine the temperature in the room, sense if there’s any noise around you and see if you can notice any particular scent (like popcorn!). What is really going to make this work is your ability to tap in to as many of your senses as possible.

Then, choose a scenario to visualise that brings pleasant memories and engages all of your senses. For a lot of people, one of the easiest things to visualise is food. Think of something that’s juicy, full of flavour and scent, that you love to eat, perhaps a piece of fruit like a very ripe mango. Draw on a real memory of tasting it, to get your emotions engaged, remembering who you were with and how you felt at the time. First imagine holding it in your hand, noticing the colour, how soft it feels and what it smells like. Then take a big bite and really notice the taste, the feeling of the juice running down your chin – I defy anyone to eat a mango without that happening – and how sticky it makes your fingers feel. Notice if it’s sunny, if there’s a breeze and what’s going on around you.

When you feel comfortable with the sensations of your particular scenario, try projecting that up onto the screen, seeing the action take place in your mind’s eye. Keep re-running it and filling it with colour and light until you can be totally absorbed in it, as if it were real. Let the screen get bigger until it takes over your whole inner vision and you’re no longer watching it, but actually in the action as it’s taking place.

The more you practice with simple scenes like this, the stronger your powers of visualisation will be. Then you can build up to more complex stories of seeing yourself healthy, successful, happy, relaxed, enjoying a relationship – basically anything you want to draw into your life. Remember that the subconscious mind can’t tell the difference between real and imagined events, so your body will respond to visualisation as though it’s actually happening and release all the relaxation or happy hormones that it would in a real occurrence. So, if you can’t afford a holiday, at least get some of the benefit by visualising having one!

Coach Fabulous

If you have an issue you’d like guidance on, need some help finding direction or could just do with a bit of inspiration, email CoachFabulousCo@aol.com and a little cyber-coaching will appear, as if by magic. Of course, the names will be changed to protect the innocent (and the not-so-innocent). All material © 2006 Alison Porter