Virtual reality glasses

I read something the other day about virtual reality glasses. Apparently they’re on the horizon finally, after being vaguely talked about for a few years. Within a year or so it will probably be fairly common for people to watch ‘TV’ on VR glasses, and according to what I read just the other day it equates to looking at a 50″ TV screen in which you can almost lose yourself. I know this type of thing has been hovering in the near future for a decade or two, but I can remember playing with the idea when I was still in my teens (yeah, that’s a bit more than a decade or two ago actually, although I still only admit to being 23).

Once this becomes the norm, television will fairly quickly become very old fashioned, I suppose, a technology that’s suddenly past its sell-by date, a bit like the VCR. We’ll all be sitting around wearing our own personal technologically advanced headgear, lost in our own little worlds. It’ll be amazing, and at the same time a bit sad, each person experiencing the wonders of technology in chilly isolation. But before we get all maudlin about how the advance of technology is driving a wedge between us all, we should consider how it’s actually quite similar to the way our brains work anyway.

Creative visualisation

If you want to really bring about some changes in your life one of the best ways is through creative visualisation. Spending a few minutes vividly watching our mental screen as positive scenes play across it is a very real way to influence the brain to bring about positive results.

The brain simply can’t tell the difference between a vividly imagined scene and the real thing. It sees them as exactly the same, no difference at all. And this is great news, because, using this little nugget of information, we can go ahead and harness the power of our subconscious mind to bring about enormous change.

I knew about this years ago, from reading a lot on the subject and attending courses looking into this and similar things. From there on, you might imagine, my life should have turned a corner and quickly become truly amazing. The truth is a bit different … er, nothing much changed!

The reason is quite simple: I made that classic mistake of thinking that because I knew something, I had already made use of it. Actually two different things! But easily confused (by my, anyway). I remember a great teacher in school when I was about 13 or so (there weren’t many, most of them should have been doing something else entirely, didn’t have a clue). This one, an Irish guy, about mid-fifties at the time (and inevitably nicknamed Paddy), was like something out of an old Will Hay film. He always looked dishevelled, big patches of chalk dust round his pockets, hair wild like the professor in Back to the Future, and always muttering to himself as he walked round, working things out in his mind.

Anyway, one of his catchphrases was to grab someone’s book off their desk and wave it around, shouting about how it was only a book, it wasn’t magical or anything. You have to read it, he’d say, you have to study it .. it won’t magically climb into your brain and suddenly you’ll know everything in the book, that’s never going to happen. He’s go on and on about this, and still (apparently) I failed to fully get the message. He didn’t fail though – he got me interested in maths, which I thought would never happen, and although I never became particularly good at it I was able to understand the concepts and pass the necessary exams.

So I should have known (if I’d got the message) that you have to TAKE ACTION to make something happen, not just learn the process. And I should have made it a habit to spend a few minutes, about twice a day, just visualising the things I wanted to do, to have, to achieve. It’s not a high cost to pay, yet it can somehow feel like hard work. Makes no sense!

Enjoy visualisation!

The key, I think, is to remember to have fun. Visualisation should be something you look forward to, not try to avoid. It should be fun to see, in advance, the great things you can do, the things you particularly want to own, the skills you want to develop. Kids do it all the time, in daydreaming, and as we get older we tend to leave all that behind, as though it’s just kids’ stuff. Wow, what a mistake! Couldn’t make a worse one. It IS kids’ stuff! But look what kids achieve in those early years – they learn how to talk, the way the language works (in great detail, not the kind of thing you could ever learn from a book), they learn to interact with others, they learn right from wrong, they learn literally thousands of things. And then they grow up. And most of it stops. Those little kids become bored adults, cynical, ungrateful, unappreciative. And then they wonder why life’s turned a bit sour …

Your own personal, inbuilt, virtual reality glasses

If you start to spend time regularly visualising you’ll be using your own VR glasses. You came equipped with them, right from the day you were born. Oh sure, if you’re like me and most other people, you’ve probably forgotten how useful they are, or even how they work. But don’t worry, the skill never goes away, it’s like riding a bike, you can’t really forget it once you’ve cracked it. It’s yours forever!

So before you put in an advance order for those brand new, innovative VR glasses (or headset, or whatever), try to remember how powerful (infinitely powerful!) your own mind is at creating vivid and convincing images and scenes. And commit to spending just a few minutes, twice a day, quietly visualising all that you want. Your subconscious wants to help you, and it will, given the right information. But if you don’t even share information with it, how can it collaborate?

I know this can seem like hard work (which is ridiculous, but anyway …), but commit to it right now, even if it’s just for a single month. Commit to spending just five minutes, twice a day, for just one month, and in those few minutes visualise all the things your heart desires. Lose yourself in your vivid, colourful, exciting mental videos, and have fun!