PART 1 | Chapter 7 (Cont'd) | Treat Yourself Right!

The Power of Mental Rehearsal - done well

The Power of Mental Rehearsal

I’m SO glad I get to write this bit of the book.  It’s my favourite geek-out subject - I am in full-on nerd mode here and loving it.  Because this is genuinely INCREDIBLE.

You know that imagination thing we talked about?  Remember how it’s just as powerful as reality?  Do you know how we know that?

We know that because imagination can actually be used to make physical changes in the structure of people’s brains - that mirror the EXACT changes that would happen if they had really experienced the imagined scenario. Yes.

If you imagine playing a sequence of notes on a piano and practise it for a period of time, your brain will change in exactly the same way as the brain of your friend (who actually DID play the same sequence of notes on a piano for that same period).  This was exactly what happened in a study conducted by Pascual-Leone at Harvard University. The same has been shown to be true of shooting basketball hoops.  Dr. Biasiotto from the University of Chicago had 3 groups of participants make free throws and see whether they could score.  The first group practised their throws every day for an hour over the study period, and improved by 24%.  The second group just visualised themselves making free throws for the same period of time - and improved by 23%.  The third group did nothing - and didn’t improve at all.

We know that this applies to all sorts of things, not just simple, repeatable tasks.  In my own therapy practice I’ve used mental rehearsal to help people through everything from job interviews, driving tests and stressful launches, to significant functional language loss due to stroke-induced brain trauma. It’s powerful stuff. 

And now you know that this is true, just imagine all the ways you could use it to make your life so much easier!  From smashing your sales calls through to visualising ending your week in a calm, contented way, having focused really well and having ticked the important things off your to do list… or maybe you’d like to dream bigger and use your visualising powers to imagine yourself doing something truly incredible?  The possibilities are endless.