How visualisation can change your life | Ana Isabel Bacallado | TEDxUniversityofGlasgow

visualize it you can make it happen remember that if you can visualize something you can make it happen when I was only 5 years old my family and I moved from Venezuela to Spain due to the situation in our country my dad had to leave his company my mom her job and we had to say goodbye From family and friends in Spain, my parents decided to invest everything they had in a project that was going very well and allowed us to live a very comfortable

life

. I said that everything was going very well until May 2010. Wow, I remember that day as if it were yesterday.

I was sitting in my room finishing some schoolwork when I heard my parents call my name and my sister's name. We ran downstairs hoping to find dinner ready, but what we really found is my dad covered in tears and my mom struggling to put into words what he was about to tell us because of the company's debts, the bank was taking our home at that moment, my only concern was the four of us staying together, I asked if I had to return. to Venezuela with my father maybe my mother and my sister had to stay in Spain or vice versa but as always in the case I did not understand the problem very well we were lucky and we were able to move with my grandparents but that does not mean that it was much easier because we lost most of our personal space, a lot of our friends, my mom didn't have a job and neither did my dad, and I knew, even though there were only 11 of us, that there was something I could do to help.

We can all get out of the situation we were stuck in, so I started thinking about something I was good at, something I enjoyed, and something I could make money from. The answer was always jewelry, so what I did was start selling bracelets, necklaces. earrings for my friends and family, I finally got a place in the local market where I would sell every Sunday, then some stores started buying from me monthly and I remember one day I was in the local market and I was a businessman. He came to see me and told me that I would like to have a thousand units of this in my head.

I was thinking I must be crazy, but obviously I took the deal. I lowered the production cost by placing orders abroad, hired my sister and in about three months. We finished a production process, however, our project continued for about two years at that time I was between 11 and 13 years old, but my earnings actually exceeded 5000 euros because that is a reality,

life

is not about what happens to you, but about how you react to the different circumstances that arise because when a problem arises you have three different options: either you let that problem destroy you, you let it define you or you let it make you stronger by reinventing

your

self and starting this business when you only had 11 years is exactly how I reinvented myself however my story doesn't end here a few Christmas ago I came home from university and we live in a beautiful house my mom has a great job also my dad and I were in my room again reading a book when I hear my mom says my name so I go to her room and she asks me if I can read a paragraph from her notebook out loud the paragraph literally says my name is María Isabel I am living in a beautiful house with a very good dog I am working in my dream job and I'm making x amount of money my husband is also working his dream job and he's making x amount of money my daughter anna is studying abroad like she's always wanted to do and my daughter daniela is still in high school thinking about her future we are a very happy and united family, so my mom turned the pages of this very thick notebook and I discovered that she had written the same paragraph over and over until it was full.

I lift this very thick notebook I promise you it was written at least a thousand times I look at it and ask mom are you bored are you obsessed with us what's wrong with you so she tells me to go to the first page and look when I wrote this In May 2010, when we lost everything my mother was able to visualize exactly what she wanted and just asked her if she wanted it and she made it happen, because when you visualize something you can make it happen, it was through visualization that we were able to direct. the course of our lives and focus on our goals and in the same way that visualization

change

d my life and the lives of all the members of my family, it will also

change

your

lives here, thought precedes creation, it guides the energy in the world physical to achieve certain specific behaviors and for creative visualization to be completely effective there are three requirements that must be met: the first is that you must have the desire, you need to have that desire to achieve what you have decided to visualize after having the desire. you need to have the certainty that you will really achieve this and that you will also do it through visualization and, finally, you need to have the acceptance, the acceptance that whatever you are visualizing is a goal in your life because definitely everyone here has those dreams that we would love to achieve but seem very far from being achieved;

However, visualization is the perfect tool that allows you to use your imagination to discover what you really want, work towards that specific goal, and not achieve it. It gets lost along the way and doesn't require much effort. An Indian scientist discovered that when you visualize yourself raising your right hand, the same region of the brain is activated as when you actually raise your right hand. However, research on visualization goes much further. On top of that, there is a solid scientific basis for how and why visualization actually works. There's a system in the brain called the reticular activating system, which is basically a network of neurons that are responsible for filtering information in and out of the brain, in other words.

What this filter does is allow information to enter your brain and block other information from entering. The way I like to think about this filter is like Google, you have the opportunity to search billions of web pages, however you have specific needs. keywords that allow you to filter some so you can select them or ignore others. The point of this reticular activation system is really important. Imagine that all the information we are exposed to every day entering our brain will probably explode, so the reticular activating system. Let's take an example, let's say you believe you hate public speaking and you're terrible at it, this system will spend all day trying to find evidence to confirm that specific belief, however, you can't actually program this. filter and there is a secret that I want to share with you and that is that the reticular activation system cannot differentiate between real and imagined memories, so you can differentiate between what happened to you and what you imagined and that translates into your visualization athletes, of course.

I had known about this incredibly powerful skill for a long time, a famous study found that nationally ranked gymnasts first performed several complex tricks after visualizing that I was an athlete for over 14 years, when I was around 16 years old. I really wanted to reach the national championship, I trained six times a week, three hours a day, I went to a physiotherapist, a nutritionist, I followed a specific diet, I slept eight hours, I wasn't partying, but what I didn't realize at the time was that I was training my body, but not my mind so from the moment I began to visualize myself crossing the finish line my parents and my sister in the stands shouting my name my coach and my teammates supporting me the wind blowing on me I faced my legs with the pain and excitement of finally achieve something I had worked so hard for since that moment.

In fact, I made it to the national championship. What I did was prepare myself and my mind for success. Another key thing at that moment was being able to control my own internal dialogue. I create what I visualize and then I convinced my mind using the appropriate language to give an example. Let's think that I consider myself a very lazy and hard-working person. Do you think that those thoughts go to change my reality of course they won because if you fight for your limitations you will only maintain them so in my case what I kept thinking was that I am a champion I will achieve it there was no possibility of failing there There was no such thing in my mind Oprah Winfrey It sums up the power of visualization just perfectly creating the highest and greatest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe in and what I find so interesting is that you don't become what you want to become what you believe in so that if you are able to visualize and make your mind your best friend, you can prepare for your next athletics competition, but also for the interview you will have next week, maybe you can prepare for the surgery you will have next week you can even prepare to live your best life can I raise my hand quickly in this room?

How many people here have a dream? A short-term, long-term dream. It doesn't really matter, okay? seems to be most of you, however, if you didn't raise your hand, don't feel bad, visualization still applies to you, what it can do, it can help you understand where you see yourself in two years, five years, understand better that image. and then towards that to work towards that goal I will ask you I would like to ask everyone now to please close your eyes and imagine yourself achieving that goal and if you didn't have a goal, look like an image of yourself in two years. moment maybe you're finally visiting that exotic country you've always wanted to go to or you're at that job interview you've always dreamed of maybe you're starting that end you're starting that business looking for it that dissertation finally visualize exactly what you want just the way you want it to be and Now listen to your inner guidance to affirm that what you are visualizing is what you really want, it is something positive and it is also intended for your highest good, it involves all your senses.

What do you see around you? Can you see the sea or the mountains? Maybe you can see high-rise buildings because you are in the middle of a city. Maybe you're in college or in your hometown. What about the sounds? Is there noise? you can hear the birds singing, maybe your friends are shouting your name and the smell or the taste, can you smell any food, can you smell the beach? Now is the time to engage our emotions, so imagine opening a door that you don't really know about. where this door comes from you open the door you enter and you find a table of 30 people to realize that they are your friends and family you only realize that they are toasting you they are shouting your name wow you can too smell your favorite recipe mom she has cooked your favorite recipe for everyone and again they toast you they are celebrating the person you have become they are celebrating everything you have achieved they are celebrating the person you have become today feel the energy in that room breathe that energy I want you to breathe as much as you can how happy are you now how do you feel when you are ready can you open your eyes visualize this dream as often and in as much detail as you can It is possible, do not forget that the two main pillars have a vivid and clear image using all your senses and then your emotions.

If you experience the emotions, you will be prepared for when the real situation arises and another key thing is to do so. in first person and present tense just like my mother did because what you are visualizing is happening to you right now so be extremely clear in the way you visualize and create exactly what you want to happen if you visualize and believe in your visualization , you are creating your beliefs and you are creating those abilities because you are reprogramming your brain and then you are the one who achieves your dream, that is, you make that dream come true, so I want to challenge you all to visualize, I want to challenge you all to come out of this room and start visualizing for a minute every morning because again that will help you develop skills, build confidence and then again, you will make that dream come true, visualize and become the director of your own life because, dear world, If you visualize something you can make it happen, thank you