How Visualisation Can Change Your Life: Ana Isabel Bacallado (Transcript)

Read the full transcript of Ana Isabel Bacallado’s talk titled “How Visualisation Can Change Your Life” at TEDxUniversityofGlasgow 2020 conference.

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

The Power of Visualization

ANA ISABEL BACALLADO: 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 because of the situation of our country.

My dad had to leave his company, my mom her job, and we had to say bye to family and friends. In Spain, my parents decided to invest everything that they had into a project that was going really well and allowed us to live a very comfortable life. As said, everything was going really well until May 2010. Wow. I remember that day as if it was just yesterday.

I was sitting in my room finishing some schoolwork when I hear that my parents called my name and my sister’s name. We ran downstairs expecting to find dinner ready, but what we actually found is my dad covered in tears and my mom struggling to put into words what she was just about to tell us. Because of company debt, the bank was taking our house. At the time, my only concern was staying the 4 of us together. I asked if I had to go back to Venezuela with my father, maybe my mom and my sister had to stay in Spain or vice versa.

But if that wasn’t the case, how do you really understand the problem too well? We were lucky enough and we could move in with my grandparents, but that doesn’t mean it was much easier because we lost most of our personal space, many of our friends.

My mom didn’t have a job, neither did my dad. And I knew, I didn’t know I was only 11, that there was something that I could do to help us all get out of that situation that we were stuck in. So I started thinking about something that I was good at, something that I enjoyed, and something that I could make money with.

Starting a Business at 11

The answer was always jewelry. So what I did is I started selling bracelets, necklaces, earrings to my friends and family. Eventually, I got a spot in the local market where I would go and sell every single Sunday. Then some shops started buying from me on a monthly basis. And I remember how one day, I was at the local market and a businessman came to me, and he said, “I would like to get 1,000 units of this one.”

In my head, I was thinking he must be crazy, but I obviously took the deal. I lowered the production cost by ordering abroad. I employed my sister, and in around 3 months, we finished the production process. However, our project continued for around 2 years. At this time, I was between 11-13, but my profits were actually over €5,000 because that is the reality.

Let it know about what happens to you. It’s rather about how you react to the different circumstances that emerge. Because when a problem comes up, you have 3 different options. You either let that problem destroy you, you let it define you, or you let it make you stronger by reinventing yourself. And starting this business when I was only 11 is exactly how I reinvented myself.

The Power of Writing Down Your Goals

However, my story doesn’t end up here. A few Christmases ago, I go back home from university, and we’re living in a beautiful house. My mom has a great job, so does my dad. And I was in my room again reading a book when I hear that my mom calls my name. So I go to her room, and she asked me if I could read a paragraph from her notebook out loud.

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The paragraph literally said, “My name is Maria Isabel. I’m living in a beautiful house with a very cute dog. I’m working in my dream job, and I’m earning x amount of money. My husband is also working in his dream job, and he’s earning x amount of money. My daughter Anna is studying abroad, as she has always wanted to do. And my daughter Daniela is still in high school, figuring out her future. We’re a very happy and united family.”

So my mom goes through the pages of this very thick notebook, and I figured out she’d written the same paragraph once and once again until she filled up this very thick notebook. I promise it was written at least 1,000 times. I look at her and I ask, “Mom, are you bored? Are you obsessed with us? What was wrong with you?” So she tells me, “Go to the first page and look at when I wrote this down.” 2010, May 2010, when we lost everything, my mother was able to visualize exactly what she wanted and get it as if she wanted it, and she made it happen. Because when you visualize something, you can make it happen.

The Science Behind Visualization

It was through visualization that we were able to direct the course of our lives and focus on our goals. And the same way that visualization changed my life and all of my family members’ lives, it will change your life here as well. Thought precedes creation. It guides the energy in the physical world in order to attain certain specific behaviors. And for creative visualization to be fully effective, there are 3 requirements that need to be met.

The first one is that you need to have the desire. You need to have that desire to achieve what you’ve decided to visualize. After having the desire, you need to have the certainty. You need to have the certainty that you will actually achieve this and that you will do it through visualization as well. And finally, you need to have the acceptance, the acceptance of whatever you’re visualizing as a goal in your life.

Because we all definitely here have those dreams that we would love to achieve, but they seem really far from achieving. However, visualization is a perfect tool that enables you to use your imagination in order to figure out what you really want, work towards that specific goal, and not get lost along the way. And it doesn’t take that much effort. A scientist from India found that when you visualize yourself lifting your right hand, the same brain region is being activated as when you actually lift your right hand. However, research on visualization goes actually much further than that.

So there’s a strong scientific basis for how and why visualization actually works. There’s a system in your brain, which is called a reticular activating system, which is basically a network of neurons that are responsible for filtering information in and out of your brain. In other words, what this filter is doing is letting information come into your brain and blocking other information from entering. The way I like to think about this filter is as if it was Google. You get the opportunity to search trillions of web pages out there. Right? However, you have specific keywords that allow you to filter some so you can select them or ignore others. The point of this reticular activating system is really important. Imagine all of the information that we’re exposed to every day entering our brain. It would probably explode.

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So the reticular activating system, let’s put ourselves in an example. Let’s say that you think that you hate public speaking and you’re terrible at it. This system is going to spend all day trying to actually find evidence that confirms that specific belief. However, you can actually program this filter. And there’s a secret that I want to share with you, and that is that the reticular activating system cannot differentiate between real and imagined memories.

So it cannot differentiate between what happened to you and what you imagined, and that translates to your visualization. Athletes, of course, have known about this incredibly powerful skill for a very long time. A famous study found that nationally ranked gymnasts executed for the first time several complex tricks after they actually visualized.

Personal Experience with Visualization

I was an athlete myself for over 14 years. When I was around 16, I really wanted to make it to the national championships. I was training 6 times a week, 3 hours every day. I was going to a physiotherapist, a nutritionist, following a specific diet. I was getting my 8 hours of sleep. 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 that I started visualizing myself crossing the finish line, my parents and my sister on the stands shouting my name, my coach and my teammates supporting me, the wind blowing on my face, my legs in pain, and the excitement of finally achieving something that I had worked so hard for. From that moment, I actually made it to the national championship. What I did is that I prepared myself and my mind for success. Another key thing at the time was being able to control my own self-talk. I believed what I visualized, and then I convinced my mind using the appropriate language.

To put an example, let’s think that I consider myself a very lazy and not hardworking person. Do you think those thoughts are going to change my reality? Of course they won’t. Because if you fight for your limitations, you’re only going to keep them. So in my case, what I kept thinking was, “I am a champion. I’m going to make it.” There was no possibility of failure. There was no such thing in my mind. Oprah Winfrey summarizes the power of visualization just perfectly: “Create the highest and the grandest possible vision for your life because you become what you believe.”

And what I find so interesting is that you don’t become what you want, you become what you believe. So if you’re able to visualize and to make your mind your best friend, you can get ready for your next athletics competition, but also for the interview that you have next week. Maybe you can get ready for the surgery that you have next week. You can even prepare to live your best life. Can I get a quick show of hands in this room? How many people here have a dream? A short-term, long-term dream, it doesn’t really matter? Okay. That seems to be most of you. However, if you didn’t put your hands up, do not feel bad.

Visualization Exercise

Visualization still applies to you. What it can do, it can help you understand where you see yourself in maybe 2 years’ time, 5 years’ time, understand that picture better, and then to work towards that goal. I would like to ask you all now to please close your eyes and picture yourself achieving that goal. And if you didn’t have a goal, see an image of yourself in 2 years’ time. Maybe you’re finally visiting that exotic country that you always wanted to go to, or you’re in that job interview that you’ve always dreamt of. Maybe you’re finally starting that business, finishing that dissertation, finally. Visualize exactly what you want, just as you want it to be. And now listen to your inner guidance in order to affirm that what you’re visualizing is what you really want, is something positive, and it’s also meant for your highest good.

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Involve all of your senses now. What are you seeing around? Can you see the sea or the mountains? Maybe you can see high-rise buildings, because you’re in the middle of a city. Maybe you’re in university or in your hometown. What about the sounds? Is it noisy around you? Can you 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 seaside? Now it’s time to actually involve our emotions.

So imagine you open a door. You don’t really know where this door is coming from. You open the door, you go in, and you find a table of 30 people to realize that they are your friends and family. You just realize that they’re toasting for you. They’re shouting your name. Well, you can also smell your mom’s favorite recipe. She cooked your favorite recipe for everybody. And again, they’re toasting for you, they’re celebrating the person that you have become. They’re celebrating all that you have achieved. They’re celebrating the person that you have become today.

Feel the energy in that room. Breathe that energy. I want you to breathe it in as much as you can. How happy are you now? How do you feel?

When you’re ready, you can open your eyes. Visualize this dream as often and in as much detail as possible. Do not forget the 2 main pillars. Have a vivid and clear picture, utilizing all of your senses and then your emotions. If you experience the emotions, you’re going to be ready for when the actual situation comes up.

And another key thing is to do it in the first person and in the present tense, just as my mother did. Because what you are visualizing is happening to you right now. So be extremely clear in the way that you’re visualizing and create exactly what you want to happen. If you visualize and you believe your visualization, you’re creating your belief, and you’re creating those skills because you’re reprogramming your brain. And then that is you achieving your dream. That is you making that dream reality.

Conclusion

So I want to challenge you all to visualize. I want to challenge you all to leave this room and start visualizing 1 minute every single morning because, again, that’s going to help you build skills, build confidence, and then, again, that’s you making that dream reality. Visualize and become the director of your own life because, dear world, if you visualize something, you can make it happen. Thank you.