Opening Your Opportunities

“Opportunity rarely knocks on your door. Knock rather on opportunity’s door if you ardently wish to enter.”
- Charles Forbes

Now that your new positive mindset is firmly rooted in your mental garden, you will start to see the buds of possibility appearing everywhere in your life. You can learn to coax blossoming success from the endless fertile fields surrounding you. Recognizing opportunity is an essential component to achieving your objectives; whether it is subtle as a clover or brilliant as a sunflower.

Today, we will review tips and techniques for realizing the full potential of the power of positive thinking
Visualizing in Technicolour

“We must be over the rainbow!”
- Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz

Anyone who has seen the timeless classic film The Wizard of Oz remembers that magical moment when Judy Garland’s Dorothy steps out from the wreckage of her black-and-white house into a breathtakingly colourful world- a world she later discovers had been there all along. Realizing the power of positive thinking is like capturing that movie magic for yourself. Suddenly, your surroundings appear in a whole new light: alive with the possibilities of your life and ripe for picking.

One powerful method for accessing positive thinking is visualization. This means picturing seeing yourself actually achieving your goals and being the person you want to be. Like many of the processes we have described so far, using visualization can feel awkward at first. The best way to start off using visualization is solo practice, but eventually you will be able to initiate the process of visualization in just about any circumstance, under any conditions.

The most important thing you should learn about visualization is this: it only works if you really, really want it to work. Whatever you are visualizing, whether it’s a material goal or a new mental attitude, you must be absolutely convinced of your vision, and seeing you complete the end result or evidence procedure. This method runs on mental energy, so the stronger your thoughts are, the more likely they will be to influence your life.

Shoot the works – visualize something beautiful.
Preparation: Boarding the Visualization Train

There are several varieties of visualization methods, but the first step in any one of them is always the same. You must prepare yourself mentally to receive your vision in order to be able to fully immerse your consciousness. The process of preparing for visualization is nearly the same as meditation, and you can add in your own elements as you gain more experience with the process.

• Find a quiet, undisturbed place. At first you will need to be alone while you visualize. Choose a room or a space that you will use on an exclusive basis for visualization during the beginning stages. Be sure your surroundings are quiet and uninterrupted. White noise is acceptable for visualization, but for most methods you should not use music or recorded sound (you will be visualizing your own sounds!).
• Get comfortable. The best way to perform visualization is from a seated position. You can use a comfortable chair or the floor or ground, as long as you seat yourself in a way that will allow you to remain comfortable for at least ten to fifteen minutes.
• Set a timer. The effects of visualization vary from person to person, but in some cases it can produce a trance-like state. To ensure you don’t end up visualizing the day away, get a silent electronic timer (no ticking!) or set an alarm clock to go off in fifteen to twenty minutes (at this point, you still have a few minutes of preparation before you begin the process of visualization).
• Relax your body. If you happen to possess the ability to relax at will; great, do that! If you’re like most of us and you do not, you can engage in progressive relaxation to drain the tension from your muscles. Begin at your feet and concentrate on releasing all tension, one body part at a time. It may take you a few tries to do this; don’t worry if it doesn’t happen the first time. It can be difficult to achieve complete relaxation, and in many cases there will be some tension or stiffness remaining. You will find that the more often you practice relaxation, the less tension remains.
• Clear your mind. There are a few ways to accomplish this; you should choose the one that works best for you. One way is to imagine a single, benign object such as a white ball or a leaf, and focus entirely on the imaginary object until all your other thoughts simmer down. Picture your thoughts as a crowd in a football stadium, with the object in the centre. Each thought stills as its attention is drawn to the object, until they are all silent. Another method for clearing your mind is to “send” your thoughts away by wrapping them in a mental “bubble” and allowing them to drift away from your consciousness.
• Breathe. Once you have relaxed your body and cleared your mind, you should perform three to five minutes of deep, concentrated breathing. Try to keep yourself focused on nothing but your breathing; this will relax you even further and prepare your mind to experience visualization.

You can also use this introduction to visualization as an alternate form of meditation. Taking a few moments to relax is always beneficial, and can energize you to face the tasks you’ve set for yourself.

Copyright 2008 Mark J Holland.
All Rights reserved.
http://www.markholland.com.au/