Jump to content
  • 0

Guided Visualization, but not weird


Reisen

Question

Guided meditations often have someone lead you through a walk in the forest or along the beach or some such, effectively describing an environment for you to visualize with words. They might even add natural sounds to help. But for a lot of people, that sort of thing feels too weird, or otherwise uncomfortable. In the context of practicing visualization, there's really no reason someone has to specifically guide you through it - intentionally, at least.

 

Guided visualization can be as simple as closing your eyes while watching a Youtube video. Any type of video you're comfortable with really, but in our case, we do best with video game let's plays. As an example, we are intimately familiar with Super Mario 64, and are a big fan of the Game Grumps, and their let's play of it. Crude language warning, if you decide to watch them. Earlier I spent 40 minutes 'watching' the first three episodes, except I had my eyes closed. Just based on the game's sounds, and sometimes the grumps' reactions, I visualized what I thought was going on in my mind the entire time. Sometimes I opened my eyes for a moment just to check what was actually going on, and understandably was off by a bit. But there's nothing wrong with that, all that matters is that you're practicing visualization! You can almost forget you're even doing it for practice and treat it like a game, for fun. You may want to find a less chatty let's player if you have trouble filtering out their conversations though.

 

Or you know, don't even watch a let's player. I would say the possibilities for this are pretty much endless. For video games, it may help to actually be familiar with the game you're trying to imagine (though I suppose you could also try it blind). But for anything dealing more with "real life", all you need is your imagination. You probably won't be visualizing what's actually going on very accurately, but again, that's not the goal. If you want to be more accurate, open your eyes/check the video every so often. It's not cheating, and if you have particularly poor visualization it might help give you something to work with. In the case of video games it'll probably end up being a necessity to stay in the same place as the video, but that's fine.

 

Other examples of videos that may "guide your visualization" include sports (play-by-play announcers help a ton), TV shows or cartoons/anime (again being familiar with them can help, or you can go in blind), perhaps how-to style videos where someone details what they're doing every step of the way, and really anything else where either the talking or the environmental sounds provide enough information to form a continuous mental image.

 

It probably goes without saying that audiobooks (or just generally books being read aloud) are the epitome of guided visualizations that aren't directly telling you to imagine something. I'm not sponsored by Audible though, so I definitely won't tell you to check out that site. But most big Youtubers will, and come with some kind of discount too.

 

Lastly, I want to note that you don't have to be sitting in front of a screen to listen to a video, nor do your eyes have to be closed. You can download an MP3 of a Youtube video (or just play it) and put it on your ipod/phone and take it with you, perhaps on a walk. You can also practice open-eye visualization by simply not looking at the source of whatever you're listening to, perhaps on a walk. Seems like that would take quite a lot of focus however, so sitting down in front of a screen might be better if you can't get sufficient visuals in whatever activity you do with it. In the end, all that matters is there's a picture in your mind. Accuracy and content are only as important as you want them to be.

 

Good luck! Aside from wonderlanding, this is the only visualization practice we've ever done. Ours is too poor for more standalone methods, and that's why I thought of this one.

Edited by Reisen
Fixed video embed from forum transition

Hi guys, plain text is just me now! We've each got our own accounts: me, Tewi, Flandre, and Lucilyn. We're Luminesce's tulpas.

Here's our "Ask Thread", and here's our Progress Report (You should be able to see all of our accounts on the second page if you want)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Recommended Posts

  • 0

For Tips & Tricks! I think, anyways. I glanced over that section and didn't see anything that looked like this, sorry if it's been done. I just thought of it as something we could do and it actually sounded really good to me. The let's play stuff is really all I had in mind, I wrote everything else to make it actually worth posting here. I think I covered a wide enough area with the other examples, right? They took me a while to think of...

Hi guys, plain text is just me now! We've each got our own accounts: me, Tewi, Flandre, and Lucilyn. We're Luminesce's tulpas.

Here's our "Ask Thread", and here's our Progress Report (You should be able to see all of our accounts on the second page if you want)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Yeah, this is definitely one of those things that seems really simple after you hear it, but never came to mind trying to think of other methods. I almost doubted myself before I wrote this because it sounds too easy/simple. But I know there are people out there that will never have thought of this, and it might help them.

Hi guys, plain text is just me now! We've each got our own accounts: me, Tewi, Flandre, and Lucilyn. We're Luminesce's tulpas.

Here's our "Ask Thread", and here's our Progress Report (You should be able to see all of our accounts on the second page if you want)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

We've used Michael Sealey's guided meditation videos before and they helped out a lot. I don't recall this being mentioned a lot around here, or not to this length, at least.

 

Approved for Tips & Tricks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

For those that do like guided meditation/visualizations, I just want to note that some people aren't comfortable being.. I don't know, "led" through what to think or imagine. I'm sure I'd be fine, but in the past Lumi couldn't relax while listening to typical guided meditation walk-through-a-forest stuff. And I dunno, something about how deliberately they try to describe the environment is kind of annoying too? But I guess we haven't listened to many, obviously, I'm sure they're not all like that.

 

Anyways, I came up with this so that he'd have something he's comfortable with for practicing visualization, other than just wonderlanding. Wonderlanding is nice, but I guess it's a little tiring when you're constantly trying to see things clearly?

Hi guys, plain text is just me now! We've each got our own accounts: me, Tewi, Flandre, and Lucilyn. We're Luminesce's tulpas.

Here's our "Ask Thread", and here's our Progress Report (You should be able to see all of our accounts on the second page if you want)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

Well, it sure is a tip. Nothing more I can really add to that, so approved from my point of view.

The THE SUBCONCIOUS ochinchin occultists frt.sys (except Roswell because he doesn't want to be a part of it)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

A pretty interesting idea that I think some people might greatly prefer to open-ended visualization practice. I feel like it could have been condensed some, with some of the points being made more concisely, but other than that, not much to say.

 

Approved for Tips.

"If this can be avoided, it should. If it can't, then it would be better if it could be. If it happened and you're thinking back to it, try and think back further. Try not to avoid it with your mind. If any of this is possible, it may be helpful. If not, it won't be."

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

I think it's more in our nature to write a guide than a "Tips & Tricks" post. The original idea was more akin to (and called) a guide, but Reisen didn't want to write an entire guide, just put the idea out there. Nonetheless, she tried to cover the entire topic so it was "worth posting". So you've got something in between.

 

I don't see anything wrong with more information than less as long as it's not redundant, though.

Hi, I'm Tewi, one of Luminesce's tulpas. I often switch to take care of things for the others.

All I want is a simple, peaceful life. With my family.

Our Ask thread: https://community.tulpa.info/thread-ask-lumi-s-tulpas

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 0

I started doing this purely because I listen to lets plays while I go to sleep. So I end up getting so tired I close my eyes and just imagine what is happening. I am glad to know my little habit can actually help me visualize better!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Answer this question...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...