What Is Visualization & Why Can’t I Do It!?! Not long ago I got a message from one of my Substack followers after I talked about visualization in an earlier blog.  I got back  to them and also asked if I could share their question because I thought it was both a great question and hopefully, I could help some others at the same time. They kindly said yes and here is part of their original message.  Gregg,I hear people talking about visualization and forgive me for sounding stupid but I’m not sure I know what visualizing is and I definitely don’t know how to do it. Can you help me with this? (Keep in mind there are no stupid questions! Thank you for wanting to learn and asking the question in the first place. Because of your courage, now you’re helping others!)  So, what’s this whole visualization thing? First, let’s take a look at what Visualization is not. Visualization is not some mystical practice that only guru’s can accomplish. Visualization is at its most basic, simply a technique or a tool we can use to help make our life better. (There now, that’s not so scary is it?)Also, visualization isn’t something that only an elite few can discover and use. It’s a tool that doctors and nurses, police officers, the ultra rich and the ultra poor, mothers, fathers and children, business men and women and everyone else who wants to, can use in their everyday lives. The one constant to making your visualizations to work for you is ALWAYS MAKE YOUR VISUALIZATIONS POSITIVE! Even those who claim they can’t visualize, actually visualize all the time. The trouble is that most of those are probably negative. We imagine (*another word for visualization*) how nervous we are and are going to be, how bad an interview will be or we visualize that upcoming family gathering and only think about the negative things or people. Remember, in order to make visualization work for you, you MUST visualize the good things that are going to happen. By visualizing success, you are building up your self-confidence, which makes you perform better, which makes you build even more self-confidence and on and on and on! Instead of building a vicious  circle of failing, visualizing lets you create an ENLIGHTED CIRCLE OF SUCCESS. As you visualize  every successfull step along the way, it’s the same as an Olympic athlete getting  their mind and body ready to take those steps in real life. Anyone can benefit from visualization, including you!!!Congratulations!  So how do I do it? 1. What Is The Outcome You Want To Happen? What do you want to visualize about? Maybe more importantly. Why is it important for you? Have you had bad outcomes before and if so, what went wrong? If you know what the negatives were, you know where and what to Change in your visualization. Feel deep down everything you experience in your visualization.  2. Picture the end result.  What’s the best case outcome of the event or presentation or test or conversation […]

Share this with your friends, family and followers in the US if you can. You never know who might need it or when. You very well might help to save someone’s life.Thanks… ……Gregg

“Your Selfish Self…” I was searching around the internet this morning for something else and quite by accident I saw a Rumi quote that really caught my attention and made me think.  “Once you conquer your selfish self, all your darkness will change to Light.”                                                                      Rumi… ‘Your selfish self?” I do my best not to be selfish. I don’t always achieve that goal, but when I first read this, I rolled my eyes a bit, thinking that on this one, Rumi might have missed the mark.  Who is he or anyone for that matter, to tell me that I’m living a selfish life? What about the “selfish pleasure” of giving to others? Still, this quote kept sticking with me. The more I considered it, the more sense it seemed to make.  It’s pretty complicated stuff isn’t it? I mean there’s a fine line to walk but on each side of the fine line we find many many questions. Walking that fine line between being selfishness vs unselfishness is something that ultimately only we can discover, assess and change. Then, add in doing things for ourselves vs others plus how to make that work in our busy lives and we’re ever so close to just calling a “time out” and endlessly scrolling on our phones eating HoHo’s! Sometimes in life we purposely forget about ourselves all together and completely focus outwards. It’s alright to do things for yourself. It’s alright to give things to yourself. And as I mentioned earlier, sometimes the greatest “selfish pleasure” is to give to others and see their joy and hope. What I came up with is that Rumi was right if we can conquer our selfish self, we’ll be better and so will the world around us. Let’s take another look at that Rumi quote.  “Once you conquer your selfish self, all your darkness will change to Light.”                                                                      Rumi… So, Rumi was right, or at least mostly right. For me, it doesn’t end where he left it. It’s not so much about selfishness vs unselfishness, it’s more about where our selflessness and focus is pointing and what’s the intentionbehind it is as we walk our path in life.  What about you? What do you think? I’d love to hear what your thoughts on this are. So whatever the format you might be listening to or reading this off of, drop me a message and let me know what you think about this or any of my thoughts that I might post. Whatever your path is, as Rumi said…  I hope your “darkness will change to light” PEACE       …..Gregg