David discusses how inventing your own positive ‘virtual reality’ can help you to create the ‘actual reality’.
I was standing on the very edge of a 20-story building. In front of me was a wooden plank that was 30 centimetres wide and two metres long. All I needed to do was walk to the end of the plank, turn around and come back, but without any safety equipment… I couldn’t take a single step. Every time I thought about moving, I reached back to grab something secure to stop myself from falling. There was absolutely no way I could do it!
Thankfully, this whole experience took place in my lounge. I was only experiencing this through the virtual reality headset I was wearing*. Even though I could feel the rug in my lounge under my feet, I couldn’t bring myself to move. Everything felt so vivid and real. There was the noise of wind, the building and cars below. I lifted the goggles and took two steps forward, to where I believed the end of the plank would’ve been. The second I put the goggles back on, I felt dizzy (and I have to admit I took the goggles off very quickly). It was impossible for me to even stand there.
A virtual image in my brain caused me to not be able to walk across a perfectly flat rug, in the comfort of my own home. Our brains are incredibly powerful!
I’ve read a lot about how our mind struggles to distinguish between what’s real and imagined. So, what do we choose to imagine? We could start our day by imagining a meeting going well, smashing a presentation or even achieving a life goal. On the flip side, we could start by visualising things negatively. I know which one I’d rather choose! How about you?
When I studied NLP, I realised that I could help someone overcome a phobia through a visualisation technique. Literally change memories that are causing the phobia by reimagining them in a different way. Put another way, you imprint a new virtual reality over the actual reality with an added splash of calmness and feelings of strength and safety. What’s weird (or another demonstration of the power of personal, virtual reality) is that in many cases the person couldn’t really remember having the phobia in the first place. I used to joke that ‘payment was upfront’ in case the client forgot they needed help.
As many of you who read our blogs will know, one of my colleagues, Chris, is a two-time Olympian. He told me all about how elite sportspeople utilise visualisation in a really positive way. If you look closely at the beginning of a Grand Prix race for example, you’ll see the drivers visualising the perfect lap. You’ll see their heads tilt as they go around the corners in their minds, visualising the turns they’ll be making.
I used this approach recently when I got an invitation to go for a blood pressure screening at my local clinic, where I found out that my blood pressure was considerably higher than it’s meant to be. They asked me to take my blood pressure reading twice a day, in the morning and the afternoon, for the next eight days, to get an overall measure. I was given the usual list of things that cause high blood pressure, for example, salt, alcohol, stress, lack of exercise, etc. I immediately did a self-audit and made a lifestyle change. I began eating less salt, limiting my alcohol intake, and ensuring I continued to exercise. I was told that these changes would take months to make a positive impact on my blood pressure, but I confidently told the nurse that I’d be able to decrease my blood pressure by the end of the eight days.
I attempted to achieve this using visualisation. I recognised that I’d been working too fast, to get too many things done in the day. So, I revisualised my previous memories of being stressed being much calmer and slower. I also created a mantra that I could repeat to myself, “Slower, calmer, healthier, better.” This mantra reminds me to take a step back and slow down, which had an immediate effect on me. I upgraded my virtual reality to one with normal blood pressure. Even as I type this, I can feel my body relax and my heart rate slow, and eight days after my test, I no longer have high blood pressure.
An amazing book, ‘Creative Visualisation’ by Shakti Gawain, will give you techniques to help you with visualisation. I use these techniques all the time. When I’m sat in the chair at the dentist, I’m known to fall asleep. For me, I find it’s better to sit and visualise somewhere else that I’d rather be, like up in the mountains in France skiing. Why not try it next time? Visualise what you can see, hear, smell, touch, and even how you were feeling in that moment. Maybe you want to visualise yourself riding a unicorn through clouds made of marshmallows. It’s whatever relaxes you in a moment of stress or anxiety. Shakti also covers health outcomes which visualisation can drive. It may have glossed over me at the time I first read the book but that blood pressure reading certainly got my attention.
So, there’s lots of things that point to the idea of positive virtual reality being important for our success and health. What reality do you want in your life and therefore what virtual reality might help?
*Some of you may be curious about why I was using a virtual reality headset in my lounge. I was actually testing the equipment for a brilliant initiative where a team are using a virtual reality experience to help others understand what it feels like to be a vulnerable person travelling alone in a big city. The ‘walk the plank’ was one of the demonstration settings.