No one really likes to be overweight, but the life one lead can contribute quite heavily to how they shape up physically. And once one starts gaining weight exponentially, it is quite difficult to lose it. This is why people sometimes take extreme steps to reduce weight- surgery, consuming innumerable pills, and generally putting themselves through hell. Interestingly, one individual who weighed around 400 pounds used a completely different method for losing weight, and according to him, it worked! This man used visualization techniques to lose weight, after consulting a lot of doctors with no results to show for it. The man shared that even after a meeting with famed Dr. Atkins, he wasn’t able to lose weight.
This is when he started visualization techniques. His techniques involved imagining exactly what sort of a body he wanted- the tight stomach muscles, the tight skin, no loose folds, and he didn’t want to go through the medical industry again, only to fail. The individual further claimed that he used to go to sleep every night visualizing the body that he wanted, and he started noticing after just a few days. He stopped being hungry during the day and stopped his cravings for junk food. Not just that, he also looked out for people with a similar mindset, who would be able to help him in his journey, and things started looking up for him finally.
The man lost 220 pounds over two and a half years and got the look that he had always desired. What was particularly interesting was that the body that the individual wanted was down to the last muscle size. His visualization techniques were so successful, that he got the body that he always wanted, and lost weight in the process, without having to go through a medical ringer.
BUT WHAT IS THIS VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUE?
According to this individual, visualization techniques basically imply the presence and usage of symbols as a mode of communication. This is expressly important if one wants to know where one stands, and has no idea how to go about it. In the case of the human body, people often forget that it is not just a working machine- it is actually a living consciousness, and we simply don’t know how to communicate with it. As it stands, we won’t be able to speak to it in English, so the only reliable tool at our disposal is the visualization techniques.
This further means that the visualization techniques that we use need to be more than just material or superficial desires. If you are unwilling to work, and simply imagine yourself in a beach body in the next 6 months, that is not going to work. The body doesn’t have a relative concept of time as the brain does, and it doesn’t understand what a beach is. We reiterate the body doesn’t speak any human language, and our inability to communicate with our body can often be detrimental to our well-being.
This is when we start using symbols and signs because that is a suitable mode of communication. Our body understands what we want over a period of time if we are able to showcase which body we actually want. This has the same principle that we see in sports- the mind-muscle connection. Sometimes, our instincts and our bodies are so in sync through visualization that we are able to perform sporting activities at peak physical fitness. When we are able to communicate with our body better, we are able to utilize the hormonal, as well as the neuronal changes that help us deal with the requirements placed before us.
THE CREATIVE PRINCIPLE THAT GOVERNS VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUES
With the advancement of science and technology, humans have somewhat stopped using their creative juices and faculties. Humans have stopped imagining, something that is still prevalent in indigenous communities around the world. Even as kids, we used visualization to dream, to concoct stories, and it is this creative faculty of life that sets the dial for the body to move on its own accord. With visualization techniques, one imagines how their day is going to turn out, and how they want to perform activities. Visualization techniques, or the creative principle allow one to tap into the potential that we have no idea about. We might have lost it somewhere amidst the advancements made in technology, but it is still there inside all of us.
For those wondering how it works, visualization techniques work by addressing the root of our stress- which is a structure in the brain called the amygdala. When an individual is under chronic stress, the brain ends up producing catecholamines, which are chemical messengers, that head for the amygdala. And according to neuroscientists, this structure does play quite a crucial role in generating emotions. In a situation that is quite necessarily stressful, the chemical messengers direct the amygdala to emit worry and fear. When one calms down their stress response with these techniques, they also end up reducing the flow of pro-inflammatory cytokines and stress hormones.
Research has also noted that visualization techniques such as guided-imagery meditation could be developed to be of therapeutic benefit in multiple chronic inflammatory conditions. These conditions include some of the most troubling chronic inflammatory conditions of all: weight gain, hunger, and obesity. And as it turns out, not just everyday humans, but legends in the sporting industry are also known to practice visualization. One simply has to turn towards nine-time gold medal-winning sprinter Carl Lewis, and golfing legend Tiger Woods, who practice visualization and credit a major part of their success to this mind-body connection that they have.
Visualization techniques to lose weight can be quite simple if one understands the way to go through it. To put it clearly, if one is trying to lose weight, they owe it to themselves to try out the technique before resorting to medical jargon. People barely understand the power of visualization- for if they do, they will end up being the best possible versions of themselves that they could ever be.
Disclaimer: This is not medical advice, only an account of one individual