Imagination: The Little-Known Mental Health Hack
How was your week, Self-Work fam? ❤️🔥
I hope it was as full of insights and progress as mine was. My days were jam-packed with coaching sessions, mental health trainings, and studying more self-work reads.
Oh, and guess what? Two of my TikTok videos hit over 1,000 views. I’m still a newbie over there, but I'll take all the wins. It’s been fun sharing self-work insights with another group of people.
And when the day's done, after hustling to share self-work with the masses, these are the adorable faces that greet me:
The finish line is in sight. I’m wrapping up my coach training and applying for the best certifications. Each day, I’m taking steps in the right direction — small steps, big steps, steps steps steps.
I have to say say, it's surprising how great I've felt while handling the stress that comes with kickstarting a new business.
Know why? My imagination.
The imagination is the most powerful tool I use — on myself and every single person I coach, too.
This week, I’ll tell you all about it…
How can I use my imagination to improve my mental health?
Our inner world shapes our outer world.
What goes on inside our minds and bodies determines what happens outside of them.
Think about it: one person might lose a basketball game and feel so crushed they never play again, while another person gets fired up, puts in more practice, and becomes an amazing player.
Both outcomes happen all the time, at different levels and in various situations.
Take Steve as an example. He came to me with big challenges at work. He felt unsure of himself when his boss asked for clarification, and he felt attacked when getting feedback. It got so bad that he'd struggle to hold back tears during Zoom calls.
But by working with his imagination, we tackled the root of his uncertainty, fear of judgment, and limiting beliefs. Now, Steve is way better at taking feedback positively and moving forward at work with confidence and conviction.
That's why self-work matters — and that's where NLP comes in.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is all about understanding and tweaking how our minds process information, specifically through three channels:
Visual: This is all about processing info through images, colors, and spatial relationships. If you're a visual kind of person, you probably remember stuff by creating mental pictures.
Auditory: In this modality, we take in information through sounds, tones, and rhythms. If you're more into auditory vibes, you likely focus on spoken words, music, and other sound-related cues.
Kinesthetic: This one's all about physical sensations, emotions, and touchy-feely experiences. If you're a kinesthetic learner, you probably remember things through movement, touch, and getting emotionally connected.
Take one of my memories, for example.
When I recall a ski trip from my childhood, I can picture how the snow looked (visual), hear the crunch of snow under my boots (auditory), and feel my cheeks burning in the cold (kinesthetic).
We're constantly soaking up and storing info through these three ways.
By getting to know these modalities and how they influence our everyday lives, we can make smarter choices, talk like pros, and seriously boost our mental health game.
Tweaking old memories with imagination
We've been absorbing all this info since we were born, and that's what forms our memories.
Memories have a huge impact on our mental health, shaping our beliefs, emotions, and actions.
From my experience as a coach, I can tell you this:
What holds us back comes from negative memories.
That's where the imagination and NLP come in: they offer techniques to re-frame or change these memories, making them less emotionally intense and creating new, empowering outlooks.
Want to give it a shot?
(Note: Please only try this with memories that aren't super emotional. If you're dealing with trauma, make sure to work with a licensed professional.)
Here's a step-by-step guide to modify old memories using your imagination:
Spot the memory: Pick a specific memory that brings up strong negative feelings. It could be an event, a conversation, or a past experience you want to flip around.
Break down the modalities: Remember the memory in detail, focusing on the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic parts. Figure out which channel is the most dominant and has the most impact on the memory.
Change up the modalities: Use your imagination to mess with the memory's main modality. For example, if it's mostly visual, play with the colors, size, or distance of the images. If it's auditory, try changing the tone, volume, or pitch of the sounds. If it's kinesthetic, zero in on switching up the sensations, emotions, or physical aspects of the memory.
Repeat that step: Changing the modalities works better with repetition, so I suggest doing it at least 3 times to make it stick.
Test your changes: Go back to the memory and see if your emotional response has changed. If you've nailed the modification, you should feel less of those negative emotions tied to the memory.
I’ll walk you through an example from my own experience.
There's this memory of a super intense phone call I had with someone. It was pretty tense and left me feeling regretful and angry.
So, using the steps I mentioned earlier, I revisited that memory and tweaked what I heard on the phone (the auditory part) to something kind of funny. First, I made the sound of the other person’s voice muffled and turned down the volume. Then, I changed their voice to sound like the parents in Charlie Brown: "Waa waaa wa waaaa." I went through the change a few times, and just like that—bam!—I felt free.
That memory doesn't hold me back with regret and anger anymore. Now when I think about it, I feel warmth and compassion for what both of us were going through.
My favorite imagination exercises
Balancing and boosting your internal modalities through your imagination can do wonders for your mental health. By getting into exercises that target each modality, you can create a well-rounded approach to self-improvement and feeling good.
Take Nicole, for example. When we first started our sessions, she was feeling uncertain about her future and her ability to improve her day-to-day experience in the way she dreamed of. After working with her imagination and using other NLP tools, she’s transformed her daily experience to encompass so much more of her desired experience, all while feeling more free to be her true self.
Here is the exact imagination exercise I had her do daily:
Take a moment to pinpoint the future you desire. Get ready to jump into it using your imagination.
Engage all three channels — visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Let yourself be fully immersed in that future scenario, paying close attention to every aspect of what you're seeing, hearing, and feeling.
Take out a journal and write about your experience in the present tense, as if everything's happening to you right now. Don't hold back on the details — describe the sights, sounds, and emotions that accompany this ideal life you're envisioning.
When you let your imagination go wild and really dive into your dream future, making it as vivid and frequent as you can, it starts to feel more real in your mind.
As you do this, your limiting beliefs will lose their grip on you. You'll be rewiring your brain for endless possibilities instead of being stuck in limitations.
Give this exercise a shot for a few days, and you'll see how tough it is to cling to those limiting beliefs. You'll be practically unstoppable, racing towards that amazing future you've been dreaming of.
I assign this exercise to nearly every coaching partner I work with. On top of that, I do this exercise myself, and it's a key part of keeping a positive mindset and making some real progress in my life.
Wrapping up
Your imagination is a little-known tool for boosting mental health by transforming old memories and messing with your inner visual, auditory, and kinesthetic vibes.
By figuring out how these channels or "modalities" affect our thoughts and working with them using specific exercises, you can make lasting, positive changes in your life.
The best part about using your imagination? It’s available to you at any time.
Give that journal exercise a shot this week and report back on what you discover.
I’d be jazzed to hear how you’re turning limiting beliefs into positive vibes.
You got this. ✌️
All the best vibes ✨
