ESSAY OF Journal 7 Min 350 words

Introduction: When we are chronically living in a state of stress and anxiety, fear has gone from being an evolutionary savior to a personal foe. Chronic stress and fear can literally change the way our brain works in destructive ways that have the effect of compounding the effects of stress in a vicious cycle. You can purposefully make choices each day about your mindset and behavior that can help. One such choice is to activate your imagination, particularly as you explore and get closer to discovering your personal why. When combined with a compelling personal why, imagination can provide the fuel as you move toward your higher purpose with more courage. Whether you actually do something or imagine doing something, the brain does not register the difference—this is why visualization is so powerful. This scientific insight can go a long way in manifesting what you want into what you actually achieve.

Goals: • Facilitate you identifying your personal “why”. • Create a visualization that you can practice regularly and fall back on during times

of struggle. • Begin to reduce stress and anxiety for you.

Instructions: Complete the following:

1. Why is it important to you to graduate from college? 2. Identify a scenario in the future related to graduating from college that would bring

you joy. Examples: Getting your diploma, telling your family you graduated, getting your first post-college job, being able to have the money from your new job to buy something you really want

3. Create a visualization that describes that scenario in detail. Remember to include: o Use all of your senses: As you envision and feel yourself in the moment,

enacting the steps that lead up to your “why,” what do you feel, hear, see, smell, and touch? It’s important to put this process into a logical bodily sequence. For example, if you were preparing to run a race, you might first experience yourself tying your shoelaces, then warming up and stretching, then moving up to the start line and taking your position. The next experience you would have would be hearing the loud explosion of the starting-gun going off as you propel your body forward, and so on. Whatever the moment, invest in making it as realistic as possible. Then sequence what you would be experiencing moment by moment as you transition through the visualization.

o Activate your emotions: This is important. Choose emotions that are in response to something meaningful and positive for you. Maybe you’re receiving an award or being offered a job or promotion, maybe you’re surrounded by

friends and family, or maybe you’re publishing a book. The point is, the emotion should be in response to something that matters to you and that is possible to achieve in the amount of time you’ve selected for the exercise. Make it personal and emotionally compelling in a positive way.

4. Connect yourself physically: By imagining and experiencing your physical response, you are activating your brain’s propensity to believe what your imagination is feeding it. Are you celebrating or throwing your fists into the air? Are you shaking someone’s hand? Are you clinking a champagne glass? Are you hugging someone? Take the time to feel yourself enacting those behaviors. This, along with your emotions, activates your unconscious mind’s ability to support your visualization. It replaces the reward of giving up with the reward of something that is of equal or greater pleasure.

5. When you are in a relaxed mood (like when you wake up, after you meditate, or right before bed), practice the visualization.

Example (to be used for reference ONLY): I want to graduate from college because I know that having a college degree will provide me with opportunities for better jobs and a more secure future. Additionally, I want to be successful and make my parents proud.

I began to visualize telling my parents that I’m graduating and would like them to see me receive my diploma.

1. I see myself driving home, excited to tell my parents that I’m graduating from college.

2. I walk in the front door and the dogs jump all over me. 3. I hear my dad call out to me and I tell him to meet me in the kitchen because I want

to tell him and mom something important. 4. I find my mom in the living room and ask her to follow me into the kitchen. 5. We all sit down at the table and I look at both my parents, seeing that they are

wondering what I’m going to tell them. 6. I tell them that I am graduating at the end of the semester and would like them to

attend the ceremony. 7. I can see the look of excitement on my parent’s faces. They look very proud and

excited. 8. I feel my mom and dad hug me and tell me how proud they are of me and of all the

hard work I put into getting to graduation.