Life Performance Coach, Lindsey Paoli, teaches Vision Bossing
Manifesting success may come across as purely spiritual, but that’s not entirely true.
Life Performance Coach, Lindsey Paoli, who has earned her Masters in Science of Marriage and Family Therapy and also founded Fundamental Health, explains that she was a skeptic at first. During her Vision Bossing workshop at The Space, she shares an inspirational story about Roger Bannister.
Roger Bannister, an English neurologist, was the first athlete to run a mile in less than four minutes. Before he accomplished this feat, everyone from scientists to professional athlete coaches believed that this was impossible. He was an untrained, med-student who hit the mark despite bad weather conditions.
Bannister came along and beat a record that held tight for seven years straight. Forty-six days after he broke that record, his record was broken again by someone else. And then, within that same year, it was broken three more times.
“We’re always looking to aspire to what other people are doing and it keeps us safe. But if you tell yourself that it is possible, you can break barriers that the experts didn’t think were possible.”
Lindsey Paoli
After attending Vision Bossing, I learned five ways to tap into the neuroscience of manifestation to create an effective vision board for 2022.
1. We’re Never Too Old to Learn Something New
We’ve been taught for a long time that by a certain age people stop learning and just “cap out.” But the truth is that no one ever stops learning when they make the effort. And science backs this up. It’s called neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to adapt, reorganize and change itself throughout an individual’s life. Our neurons and neural networks are capable of change through their connections and behavior in response to learning new information, experiencing sensory stimulation development or brain damage.
“You can learn, continue to grow your brain and reconnect new neural pathways up until the point when you die. You can even create new neural pathways after a brain injury. And if we haven’t been taught how to challenge our brains appropriately, then it does feel like you cap out. Neurons that fire together wire together,” says Paoli.
While creating a vision board, don’t be quick to dismiss the desire of learning a new skill. Remember Bannister’s story. Brains, regardless of age, have the ability to learn something new.
2. There’s Two Ways to Change Your Brain
There are two ways the brain changes: repetition and strong emotion.
“You can rewire your brain through repetition, constant habits, constant routine or even more powerfully and much faster, through strong emotion,” says Paoli. “Your brain is actually an automation machine. It’s constantly trying to do the work for you, which is a great thing, but it can also get in the way if you don’t recognize the way it functions.”
We do complex things everyday without even realizing it. We drive while singing to the radio, walk and talk at the same time and binge watch shows while eating a meal. Through repetition, these complex things became simple and ordinary.
“But if you’re not paying attention, negative thoughts can also become automatic. You have to challenge those thoughts with positive thoughts. We have 70,000 per day and it’s estimated that 90 percent of them are repeated,” says Paoli. “And 85 percent of that is negative. It can lead you to being stuck because you are not challenging that thought pattern. Visualization helps you to create new and unique ideas.”
Learn more about brains and bodies at some of the best museums on the Strip.
The dream board is a way to organize and visualize goals. Think of it as a map for a future version of yourself.
Looking at it daily is a repetitive habit that can help it consciously or subconsciously stick in your mind. Add images that evoke strong emotion to combine both habit hacking methods.
“Our thoughts lead to feelings. Our feelings lead to actions,” explains Paoli.
As cliche as it is, this means that there is some weight to the “fake it ‘til you make it” strategy.
3. Follow the Rules of Manifestation
What if you changed the story you told yourself? When you change the story, your brain will conspire to do everything it can to find ways to prove it.
Confirmation Bias is when “your brain starts thinking something and your brain tells itself that the story is true, it’s going to find all the evidence to show you that it is true,” explains Paoli. Use this in a positive way to make changes.
What is Manifestation?
“Manifestation doesn’t mean magic really, it just means ‘an event, action or object that clearly shows or embodies (and to me that is the most important) something, especially a theory or an idea.”
Lindsey Paoli
“So if you are embodying the lifestyle of the person that you aspire to be, if you are truly showing up as that person, challenging the way that you think, putting yourself in uncomfortable situations and show up as the person you have zero training to actually be, you can make it all come true,” she says. “And to me, that makes sense.”
Although it sounds crazy to say that people’s lives can change by simply talking it into existence, it does work. The mantras or affirmations used in manifestation serve a purpose.
When you aim to show up as the person you long to become, there are a few basic rules to get it kick started.
The Rules to Manifestation
- Practice Gratitude
- Create Clarity
- Ask For It
- Let Go and Be Flexible
- Have Faith In Yourself
- Be Open to Receiving
- Disconnect with the Outcome
- It’s Okay to Say No
- Celebrate Small Wins
These rules may read as common knowledge, but they are easier to say than to consistently follow. After seeing goals come to fruition, start the process over again. It’s all about creating healthy new habits.
“Usually it’s the failures along the way that lead you to where you need to be. I have faith in myself to make the right decisions and the wrong decisions to get me there.”
Lindsey Paoli
4. Activate Your Reticular Activity System
“Our reticular activating system is a portion of our brain that is focused on focus,” says Paoli. “It helps you to understand how to become more aware of things.”
Paoli walked us through an exercise that illustrated this ability. We closed our eyes and she asked us to feel our left foot, then she asked us to shift that attention to our right palm and then our forehead. After this, she told us to open our eyes.
“Our brain is so powerful and we are constantly missing so much if it. But once you bring yourself back in control, you wrench it. The reticular activating system is really important when understanding the vision board specifically because you’re not always going to be aware of the long term goal while surviving life. Having a vision board is just a constant jog or reminder that this is here. And it might not even be conscious, it might be in your subconscious that you notice it.”
That’s why it’s important to not closet a vision board after making it. Place the vision board somewhere that you will see it everyday. Make it visible so that it helps you focus directly or indirectly on your goals.
5. Tap into Bilateral Stimulation
It’s not by coincidence that after going for a run or working out at the gym that new ideas float to the surface. That stroke of genius comes from tapping into bilateral stimulation, which accesses a different way the brain functions.
“We have a left hemisphere and right hemisphere. Most of us [use] predominantly one or the other, but we want to get into the middle. So I say that bilateral stimulation brings you into the sweet spot,” says Paoli.
To further understand the way this works, she guided us through another exercise. This time she taught us The Butterfly Tap. For this part, we closed our eyes and folded our arms across our chest. Next we gently tapped our arms. Then, she asked us to stop thinking and “imagine the magic question.”
“[Imagine] if there were zero limitations and you could be anyone or anything. [Imagine] that nobody told you that it was outrageous or stupid or that you’re not smart enough or that you’re not strong enough for wanting this dream. What would your life look like 10 years from now? I want you to get as detailed as possible. I want you to think about where you are and literally feel it. Is there a breeze there? Can you hear any sounds? Who are the people surrounding you?”
Recognize how it feels picturing this dream coming to fruition. Then, she asked us to envision all the hard work it took to achieve this goal. It doesn’t have to feel hard. The process can feel however you desire. We all took a moment to write down our vision after this experience.
Instead of creating a vision board planning for only one year, she encouraged attendees to draw a roadmap that reflects what we want our dream lives to look like in five to ten years from now. She recommended dividing the board into three sections: one year goals, five year goals and ten year goals.
Remember that it’s never too late to learn something new, there are two ways to retrain the brain, the basic rules of manifestation, focus with clarity and tap into that bilateral stimulation for a spark of inspiration.
Manifestation is more than a spiritual fad. There’s a science to success.
Follow Lindsey Paoli’s Instagram to stay up-to-date about the next Vision Bossing event slated for Sunday, June 5.
