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June 17, 2016

Meditation and Children, Part 8: Visualizing Goals

Continuing with our blog series on meditation and children – including progressive relaxation exercises and the importance of breath, seated meditation, creative visualization definition and basics, as well as goal setting – today’s blog post will teach you how to help your child visualize his goals.

THE END: NOW IT’S TIME TO VISUALIZE THE GOALS

Now that you and your child have settled upon what the goals are and a specific plan of action to achieve them, it is time for your child to visualize himself carrying out those steps leading to the goals. Up to this point we’ve been explaining a very logical, left-brain process. Now it is time to engage the creative, right-brain. In this way, your child will be using the entire brain’s resources to help him achieve success.

Once your child has done the exercises to enter that relaxed, happy, peaceful state (as laid out in previous posts Visualization Basics and Setting Goals), he is ready to bring his goals to life. Because your child has already taken a great deal of time and energy in detailing the goals and the action-plan, it will be relatively easy seeing himself carrying out those actions.

Walk your child through the following steps until he can do it on his own:

Close your eyes and direct your mind gently to your goal.
See yourself taking the action that you have outlined at each stage in your plan.
For example, if your goal is to get an A in a class that used to give you trouble, you have to break that goal down into smaller parts.
1. See yourself studying hard for a specific test. Actually envision yourself at your desk, look at each page of the textbook you will have to study carefully.
2. Feel yourself enjoying the sensation of learning new material with ease.
3. Imagine yourself raising your hand in class and basking in the pleasure of the teacher’s approval.
4. Visualize yourself making new friends in class and getting along better with everyone because you feel so confident.
5. Allow yourself to feel the pleasure of opening the report card at the end of the semester to see a huge letter “A.”

The more your child visualizes the scenes of carrying out the steps that lead to the final goal, the easier it will be for him to summon those images often, day or night. Your child will be able to mentally rehearse these scenarios while taking a bus to school or as he falls asleep at night. The images keep him focused on the goal. And the visualization will also fill your child with the positive feelings and confidence needed to achieve those goals.