I didn't see that one coming!
I won the award for worst mom ever last month when I signed both my 6 and 8 year old up for summer school. 🏆
On Fridays, to celebrate the completion of a week without complaints, the kids get to Minecraft during the 45-minute school commute. Meanwhile, I get to indulge in my favorite media - podcasts. While I feel like I’m always listening to podcasts, it’s limited to two topics. Either I'm learning how to help my children find success despite dyslexia struggles or listening to discussions on evidence-based healing and mindfulness. What I never saw coming was a podcast that talked about both.
It was an episode from The Personal Brain Trainer. One of the hosts, Darius Namdaran, who is my favorite dyslexia podcaster, was talking about a study he participated in during college. Three groups were taught to juggle in three different ways:
Group 1: Watch tutorial. Watch tutorial again. Practice.
Group 2: Watch tutorial. Practice. Practice again.
Group 3: Watch tutorial. Visualize successfully juggling, step-by-step. Practice.
Only 2 out of 10 succeeded in the first two groups however 8 out of 10 of the visualizers succeeded!
I practice visualization in treatments to help people release the subtle layers of tension and also teach it in the online self-healing classes but I’ve never thought to look for other evidence of neuromuscular results like this. Between the benefits I’ve experienced myself and the continued results from the Observatory members, I never needed any other evidence…but here it is. Cool, right?!
However, what really surprised me is that these same techniques should be a staple in my kid’s school toolbox, especially because of their learning disability. I guess if it helps me as an adult with dyslexia, why not them? 🍎 🍎 🌳
But you don’t need to be neurodivergent to gain benefits from visualization. While some of us NEED a variety of learning strategies for information to “stick” in our “slippery” brain, every brain can benefit from the technique. Want to give it a try?
Instead of writing down a task on your to-do for the 800th time or reading another book about what you’re looking to achieve, visualize yourself succeeding at it in detail. Why not pick something you love to procrastinate?
Start small and repeat. If you need to clear your mind a little bit before you start visualizing, you can grab my guided Snow Globe settling here. Then after you settle, spend another 2-3 minutes visualizing yourself doing whatever it is that you’re looking to achieve or shift. You can either visualize the end result or the steps you’ll need to take to get there. I’ll check back in with you at the end of the month to see how it went!
Until next time, stay awesome.
Aimee
PS – If you liked the end of week celebration idea, check out next week’s post where I have a few simple celebration ideas for you!