Hello and welcome to Ablaze.
Today's training will be focused on visualization and training your dominant doorway to improve.
As we always do,
Let's settle into a comfortable position,
Whether seated or lying down.
Allow your body to arrive exactly as it is.
There's nothing to fix,
Nothing to force,
Nothing to achieve in this moment,
Just arriving.
Let's begin by bringing your awareness to your breath.
Not changing it yet,
Just noticing.
The air entering and leaving,
The slow rise and fall of your midsection.
Feel where your body is supported,
The ground beneath you,
The surface holding your weight.
Let gravity do some of the work for you.
As your body settles,
Allow your mind to soften with it.
In this practice,
We'll begin to train visualization and mental imagery.
Before we go any further,
There's something important to understand.
Visualization is not about seeing clearly,
It's not about perfect pictures or forcing images into your mind.
Imagery is simply the brain rehearsing experience,
Using sensation,
Emotion,
Sound,
Or images.
Everyone imagines differently,
And today,
You're not here to perform,
You're here to notice.
During visualization,
The brain utilizes multiple areas.
The visual cortex,
The prefrontal cortex,
The parietal lobes,
The hippocampus,
And the default mode network.
The brain doesn't strongly distinguish between seeing something and vividly imagining it.
It's using the same pathways.
That's why visualization improves performance,
That's why imagery can trigger emotion,
And that's why mental reps create neural adaptation.
Guided imagery and visualization is multi-sensory,
But each person has a dominant entry point.
Just like with learning a new skill,
We all have our own strengths and weaknesses.
What we're going to do is we're going to find that entry point for you so we can learn to better train this skill.
I want you to bring your attention inward now.
As if you're gently listening to your own inner experience.
Without trying to change anything,
Notice what's most accessible for you right now.
What do you notice?
Pictures or shapes?
Sensations in the body?
A feeling or specific emotion?
Maybe sounds or inner language?
There's no correct answer.
Whatever shows up first,
That's information.
We're now going to gently explore a few different doorways into imagery.
We're going to move through each one without effort,
And I want you to simply notice what feels most natural.
First,
We're going to start with the visual doorway.
I want you to imagine a simple,
Neutral scene.
It could be a quiet path in the woods,
A room,
Or just an open space.
Don't worry about clarity.
Just notice,
Does anything visual show up at all?
If this feels easy or familiar,
Just take a mental note.
Now I want you to let that image fade.
I want you to shift your attention to the body.
Imagine the sensation of standing confidently.
The weight in your feet.
The length of your spine.
The steadiness of your breath.
Just notice,
Does sensation come alive more easily than images?
Now allow sensation to soften and bring your attention to emotion.
Imagine the feeling of being calm and capable.
Not excitement,
Not intensity,
Just grounded confidence.
Does this feeling arise without needing pictures or movement?
One of these doorways likely felt more natural than the others.
That doorway is your brain's dominant entry point into imagery.
This doesn't mean the others don't matter.
It simply means this is where your training begins.
When you train imagery through your dominant doorway,
Your nervous system learns faster and resists less.
Now,
I want you to return to the doorway that felt most natural to you.
If it was visual,
Allow a simple image to form without forcing detail.
If it was sensation,
Let the body feel steady,
Aligned,
And present.
If it was emotion,
Let that calm confidence spread gently through you.
I want you to stay here for a few seconds,
Not trying to improve it,
Just allowing it to be real in this moment.
This is what effective imagery feels like.
Subtle,
Grounded,
And effortless.
This is also not something that you can master the first time.
Just like with anything that's worthwhile,
It takes time,
It takes energy,
And it takes work to train and to get a little bit better each day.
As you move forward,
And if you plan to pursue this,
And to continue to develop your ability to visualize anything,
Really,
Just remember you don't train imagery by forcing pictures.
You train it by returning to your doorway.
You start there,
And then slowly allow other senses to layer in over time.
With consistency,
Imagination becomes clearer,
More stable,
And more usable under pressure.
Now I want you to return to the room around you.
Start to bring yourself back into your body.
Start to focus back on your breath.
I want you to take one deep inhale through your nose,
Hold at the top for three,
Two,
One,
And exhale through your mouth,
Emptying everything in your lungs.
Just remember,
The mind trains like the body,
Through patience,
Repetition,
And trust in the process.
When you're ready,
Gently return your awareness to the room around you.
Carry this understanding with you,
And continue to train the mind with intention.
Set your heart ablaze.
