0316 - The Difference between Mindfulness and Visualization

Ashley and I have been doing quite a few workshops centered around what psychological strength is and what the components are that make it up. And, there's one component that consistently generates more confusion and questions than any other. That topic is mindfulness.

The skill of mindfulness sits at the center of our wheel of psychological strength, and it's the core of psych strength for a reason. You need strong mindfulness skills to develop skills in all of the other areas. Your relationship with your thoughts relies on mindfulness. Mindfulness is the foundation of emotional intelligence. It impacts your relationships, your sense of self, it interacts with your habits and behavior and is an important component in life design. It really is the core of psych strength. However, it frequently gets confused with other similar skills and techniques. Specifically, visualization.

In today's episode, I want to dig into these two concepts: Mindfulness and visualization to give you a solid understanding of what each of them is. How they're similar, how they're different, and more importantly, when to use each one of them because they're both useful for different things.

Supplemental information:

1. Podcast episode 0239 - "How to not hate meditation"

2. Cheryl B. Engelhardt's episode

3. Use of mental imagery for sports performance