Now that I know I have aphantasia, I notice when someone mentions visualization, mental imagery, or anything of the sort, and it happens a lot more often than I would have expected. Of course there are the obvious places you’d expect discussion of visualization, like in meditation or while recalling memories or visualizing structures or other physical things.
But people also discuss visualizing goals (which is a different type of visualization but still uses the word), visualizing not just the colors but the textures and lighting of outfits and scenes they have seen, what food on a table will look like, or how they want a picture to turn out.
Personally, even in Taekwondo, which is a big activity of minevisualization has been brought up. It has been discussed as a method to explore a form (a combination of fighting moves, similar to a martial arts dance) without actually doing it, to consider possible sparring/fighting combinations, or as a way to push yourself to break boards, through “visualizing your hand passing through the board”.
Where have you seen visualization in your own life? I’m interested to hear all your experiences!
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