Five visualisation exercises to boost children’s confidence and creativity

As Mohamed Ali famously said, “If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it – then I can achieve it.” Or maybe you prefer Oprah’s version: “Anything you can imagine, you can create.”

Visualisation has been practised by many different people, including Lady Gaga, Richard Branson and Michael Jordan. It harnesses the power of your imagination so you can envisage yourself succeeding. That can be a powerful step towards achieving it in real life.

Introduction to visualisation

Visualisation is a powerful technique that involves creating mental images to achieve goals and enhance creativity. It involves creating a goal and then harnessing your senses of sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing to create a vivid mental picture of it becoming reality.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has had many careers, including as a bodybuilder, actor, businessman, filmmaker and politician. The former Governor of California has practised visualisation since the beginning.

Before I won my first Mr. Universe, I walked around the tournament like I owned it. The title was already mine. I had won it so many times in my mind that there was no doubt I would win it. Then, when I moved on to the movies, the same thing. I visualised myself being a successful actor and earning big money. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnie is not the only one. Swimmer Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time with 28 medals to his credit. When he was still quite young, his swim coach encouraged him to visualise his success.

Watch Bob Bowman and Michael Phelps discuss visualisation

including the importance of deep relaxation, vivid visualisation and frequent rehearsal.

How to visualise

There are three key aspects of visualisation:

  1. Having a clear goal – like calmly and capably completing a major exam or delivering a fantastic presentation to the Board or
  2. Deep relaxation – you might begin with a progressive muscle relaxation exercise or a deep breathing one
  3. Imagining yourself achieving that goal – it’s like watching a movie where you’re the star and can see yourself carrying out each step required to achieve your goal

Benefits of creative visualisation for children

Growing up involves many challenges. Your child may be learning academic skills, building friendships or trying to achieve their dream of sports stardom.

Visualisation can help them with all that. Creative visualisation can help your child to:

  • Foster a positive mindset
  • Focus
  • Set goals they want to work towards
  • Believe in themselves and their abilities
  • Improve their confidence and resilience.

5 visualisation techniques for children

Visualisation is most effective when engages your child’s senses and emotions to create a truly immersive experience. Ask your child to close their eyes, relax their body and vividly imagine the scenario you’re working on.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

1. Ease anxiety by visualising the Possum and the Worry Tree

Ask your child to imagine a beautiful tree with big strong branches. A very sweet possum lives in the Worry Tree and takes care of it.

Climb up into the tree and imagine sitting there for a while, feeling a gentle breeze. Ask your child if any worries come to mind. If they do, then put them onto a branch of the tree. If more worries come to mind, then place those on a branch too.

After a while, tell your child that the sweet possum is scampering towards them. It’s there to help them smile. And it will keep a close eye on their worries. Give your child a few minutes to enjoy this and then, when they’re ready, suggest they climb down the tree – but remind them that they can visit the worry tree and the possum whenever they want to.

2. Create a wheel of life

Get some paper and draw a big circle on it and then divide the whole thing into segments.

Each segment represents an important part of your child’s life. They may list things like:

  • Relationships with parents or siblings
  • Friendships
  • School
  • Health and well-being
  • Sports and hobbies.

The middle of the circle scores 0 while the outside is a 10. You and your child plot how well things are going in each area of life. It builds up an interesting visual of how well your child thinks their life is going. Often, it’ll be clear that some areas are going well and others are not so good. Now you can talk about why and perhaps begin to visualise how things could improve – and even set goals for what they’d like to achieve.

3. Craft a vision board

You may have used a mood board before when choosing home decor options, for example.

A vision board is a little different, though. This is more about envisioning your future and helping to create it.

Maybe your child is saving their pocket money so they can buy a special toy. Their vision board could be as simple as a photo of the toy pinned to their bedroom door. Each time they see the board, they’re reminded not to fritter away their pocket money but to keep saving towards their goal.

Some families enjoy making a vision board at the start of each year. Armed with paper, glue sticks and a stack of old magazines or photos, your children can create a vision board for the year ahead. It might show them hanging out with friends, going camping as a family or getting to the top of the rock climbing wall – whatever is important to them.

Once it’s finished, make sure you put the vision board somewhere where you can see it often.

4. Three stars and a wish

This is a lovely game to play. Ask your child to name three things they’re good at, like caring for their dog, skateboarding or writing stories. Then ask them to think of one thing they’d like to work on and talk about how they could do that.

5. Goal ladder

Does your child have a specific goal in mind? Maybe they want to become class president, win the swim carnival or join in the games more confidently at playtime.

Whatever the goal is, break it down into smaller steps. Then draw a ladder or staircase. Your child can colour in each step once they’ve achieved the smaller goal it represents.

Need some resources?

Check out The Big Life Journal

How can we help?

At Think2Be Healthy, we love helping children develop a resilient mindset. If you’d like to receive more tips, please subscribe to our newsletter.

 

Disclaimer

All information is general and not intended as a substitute for professional advice. 

References 

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