Research – Visualisation
Best Possible Self Exercise
Kennon M. Sheldon and Sonja Lyubomirsky asked participants to complete an exercise in which they imagined and wrote about their “best possible selves” in the future, where they had worked hard and accomplished all life goals, reaching their own best potentials. Those who completed this, in comparison to two other exercises, saw a significant increase in positive emotion immediately afterwards.
Read the study here:
(If you have any problems following links in our research, then please copy and paste the text from our footnote* into your browser top bar)
Yvo. M.C. Meevissen, Madelon L. Peters and Hugo J.E.M. Alberts found optimism levels can be improved, independent of mood, by completing a short Best Possible Self exercise. Participants conducted a 5-minute exercise each day for two weeks, where they began with the sentence “In the future I will…” then imagined their best possible future selves, considering their personal, relational, and professional lives.
Learn more on the study and its positive implications on psychological and physical well-being here:
Become more optimistic by imagining a best possible self: Effects of a two week intervention
Laura A. King, professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri, asked 81 students to write about one of four topics for 20-minutes each day, for four days. The topics were: a traumatic life event, their best possible future self, both of these topics, or a non-emotional topic. King found that writing about life goals brought about an increase in subjective well-being. Five months after writing, the participants also saw a decrease in physical illness for those who wrote about trauma or one’s best possible self.
Find the study here:
Neuro-Linguistic Programming
Linguist John Grinder with physicist Richard Bandler believe that through modelling the thoughts and behaviours of those who have achieved excellence, and through taking control of their own thoughts, individuals are able to improve many of their own life circumstances. This model of personal development is called Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).
NLP uses mind techniques such as visualisation to help people overcome the way they respond to past events, fears and phobias. Those using it claim to have gained increased self-confidence, motivation to make positive change, and greater resilience and adaptability during challenging times.
Learn more about NLP here:
Find some examples of NLP exercises here:
Richard Bandler advocates that it is important for individuals to set concrete goals, to have clear ideas of what success looks like in positive and meaningful terms, and to envisage how these positive changes will impact their future. This allows for individual achievements to be measured whilst working towards the final outcome and for endorphins to be released with every small step accomplished.
Watch what Bandler has to say about happiness here:
NLP has been criticised for being a pseudoscience as there has been little controlled research looking into the area. Nevertheless, hypnotherapists, such as Paul McKenna, and other self-help gurus have adopted the model in their techniques. Many individuals and businesses from a diverse range of backgrounds continue to thank NLP for their successes.
In this book, using NLP as a basis with additional research into happiness, Paul McKenna has developed his own technique that aims to shift our minds from concentrating on the negative and replace it with positive thinking instead:
or An alternative book link here.
Footnote*
(If you have any problems following links in our research, then please copy and paste the text below relating to the article you wish to see into your browser top bar)
Kennon M. Sheldon and Sonja Lyubomirsky
How to increase and sustain positive emotion: The effects of expressing gratitude and visualizing best possible selves
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/application_uploads/sheldon-SustainPositiveEmotion.pdf
Yvo. M.C. Meevissen, Madelon L. Peters and Hugo J.E.M. Alberts
Become more optimistic by imagining a best possible self: Effects of a two week intervention
https://www.bi.no/OsloFiles/OpenEnrolment/Arrangementer%202013/Helsefremmende%20arbeidsplasser%202013/Dokumentasjon/Straume2_Meevissen%20et%20al%202001%20Best%20possible%20self.pdf
Laura A. King
The Health Benefits of Writing about Life Goals
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247895325_The_Health_Benefits_of_Writing_about_Life_Goals
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
NLP Academy
http://www.nlpacademy.co.uk/what_is_nlp/
Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming
http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/nlp.html
Richard Bandler
How to Become Happy – The Secret of Happiness
Paul McKenna
I Can Make You Happy
http://store.paulmckenna.com/product-i-can-make-you-happy-428.aspx
or – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10107620-i-can-make-you-happy