How to visualize better?

[UltraIncredible]

I'm always hearing about the importance of visualizing desired situations, visualizing success, visualizing possibilities, but I'm not really sure it comes naturally to me. With chess games and abstract geometric problems, I can sort of visualize different positions but then I lose focus fairly quickly. It's much easier to write things down or diagram them, and I'm much better at imagining sounds or abstractions involving concepts and language. But I do think that visualization has value, and I'd like to get better at it. Do any of you focus on or have experience with this sort of thing? Does learning to draw better help at all?

[Nightmare]

Do not forget that the brain is a plastic organ. If you have the drive to master any potential skill, the only thing that goes against you is time and practice. I've learned in my time that learning to draw doesn't help me in any beneficial way I can calculate. As a result, I'm fine with not being skillful in it. My recommendation would be to master a skill that has use; without utility a learned skill is meaningless.

[UltraIncredible]

Do not forget that the brain is a plastic organ. If you have the drive to master any potential skill, the only thing that goes against you is time and practice. I've learned in my time that learning to draw doesn't help me in any beneficial way I can calculate. As a result, I'm fine with not being skillful in it. My recommendation would be to master a skill that has use; without utility a learned skill is meaningless.

What I really meant about drawing was "does learning to draw better help with visualization skills"? Not that drawing is my end goal. Assuming already that visualization has utility (for stuff like planning, remembering, strategizing, etc.).

[X51]

I think you may not necessarily need to achieve perfection in drawing, but you may want to add more detail to your notes or diagrams. I draw diagrams, figures, charts often to help me organize, plan and think. I have noticed that the more detail I put in them, the more it helps me. Earlier I used to dismiss visualizing stuff and just rely on my mental image. But as things that you internally visualize grow bigger and more complex you cannot function efficiently unless you write it down in full detail. I have also noticed that when I draw detailed diagrams I see loopholes and other details that are required to be filled in to make my original mental image complete. So I would say, don't focus on prettier pictures, focus on the tiny details that you really need to capture.

[BuShinJu]

My visualisation skills stem a lot from meditation. One of the practices was to look at the thanka painting of the diety, then look away, visualise it and then once the image was firm start twisting and turning the image.

Now I use visualisation to get good at sports. I get videos or get on YouTube and I watch them over and over again. Then they just get wedged in my mind. Then I go out and do the activity and I compare my actions with the actions from the video.

[Ambra]

I think you're taking visualization to mean visual, no?

For me it is not necessarily picturing the situation, it is about imagining (thinking of) the outcome. This can mean imagining the end result, then working your way backward to fill in the blanks. Imagine this happened, you are living this now. How do you feel, act, think? Now think, how did it happen?

It is like how mazes are always easier to solve if you start from the finish line and work backward to the starting point—far less opportunity to take the wrong turn.

When people talk about visualizing they are saying imagine with detail.

[DrAwkward]

*administers electric shocks to your right brain*

I think when people say "visualize' success they just mean imagine it, which could really just be thinking about or thinking about how you'd feel.

I am the least visual thinker around. I can't even begin to visualize shapes, hate, hate, hate geometry and have awful spatial relation skills.

Not too much you can do about that IMO but getting into art or something may kick start the visual/creative areas i n your brain a little.

[UltraIncredible]

My visualisation skills stem a lot from meditation. One of the practices was to look at the thanka painting of the diety, then look away, visualise it and then once the image was firm start twisting and turning the image.

Now I use visualisation to get good at sports. I get videos or get on YouTube and I watch them over and over again. Then they just get wedged in my mind. Then I go out and do the activity and I compare my actions with the actions from the video.


Meditation and sports are very good examples of what I'm talking about. In your case constant repetition and re-evaluation seems to be key.



For me it is not necessarily picturing the situation, it is about imagining (thinking of) the outcome. This can mean imagining the end result, then working your way backward to fill in the blanks. Imagine this happened, you are living this now. How do you feel, act, think? Now think, how did it happen?



Excellent. This is good stuff, and you're right, I was thinking more about the literal "visual" than thinking about the details of the result.


*administers electric shocks to your right brain*

I think when people say "visualize' success they just mean imagine it, which could really just be thinking about or thinking about how you'd feel.

I am the least visual thinker around. I can't even begin to visualize shapes, hate, hate, hate geometry and have awful spatial relation skills.

Not too much you can do about that IMO but getting into art or something may kick start the visual/creative areas i n your brain a little.

I probably focus instinctively on what I think instead of how I feel, so focusing on the latter sounds like the right approach in many cases.

[Dung]

Magic mushrooms can help to visualise better, and unlock thought / creativer inhibitions when used responsibly.

[intjistp]

I think visualizing things is an opposite of imagination ( or intuition).

[TheWanderer]

Close your eyes and practice. Like everything else its get better with practice