Dream it. See it. Do it.

Power of Visualization.

Cool breeze.

I vomit. The excruciating pain is making my head dizzy. Everything is turning into a blur. I try hard to stop moving my right leg, and slowly the world stops spinning. Things become clearer. Now I can feel the cool breeze. Now I’m hungry. Sri opens the tiffin box. There are idlis with coconut chutney fusing them. We are both hungry. He feeds me the first bite. It feels strange to be fed by a friend. I’m shy. I say I’m good; I can have it. We spend an hour finishing the food slowly, taking every gulp without moving an inch in my lower body. Sri leaves me to find water from a nearby building or factory. There is nothing else nearby. Why did I end up here? Under the tree? In the mid-afternoon? Let us see how the day started.

Unlearn.

Today is an exam day at college. The day is calm, bright, and beautiful. We can come home in the afternoon after the exam. It means there will be fewer buses operating at noon, so we decide to take the new bike. It is the bike I bought after pestering my parents for months: a brand-new Hero Honda Splendor. I’ve ridden it a couple of times with Dad and another friend. I’m new to riding a geared motor vehicle; however, I’m used to gearless scooters. I take the keys, lock the house, and off we go. I’m referring to some notes on the way while Sri is driving. We finish the exam. The code executes perfectly, and I answer all the questions in the viva well. While coming back home, I want to ride. I want to take a new route. The route is a long way, deserted mostly. I encounter an unexpected S-shaped bend, I mistakenly pull the clutch thinking it’s the brake and lose control. I go straight ahead and fall into a ditch, narrowly missing a nasty granite pillar fencing a paddy field. My right leg twists, and I hear a crackling sound. Our brains are so strongly wired by practice. It’s unlearning that is most difficult. The reflexes of gearless scooters kick in, sensing impending danger.

Guilt.

What follows next are hours of agony and pain. I lie in bed, looking at the spinning fan. My dad comes into the bedroom, looks at me, and says nothing. The pain of my fractured right knee at the upper tibia is less compared to the guilt. He says he would spend time with me over the weekend to practice more. But I was in haste. The next 45 days I’m confined to bed. I miss the following six final exams that year. I miss going out with friends. I’m ashamed. I want to get back on the road as soon as possible.

Power of Visualization.

I question myself: why did I make such a blunder? I imagine how I would do it differently if I were in that situation again. I lucid dream about how I would start riding my bike. I construct scene by scene how I would take the bike out, carefully sit on it, turn the key, pull the kick rod, kick-start it, pull the clutch, change the gear, and slowly release the clutch while giving throttle. There is this fine balance where the clutch is half-released when the bike starts to move forward, when you need to give a gentle throttle. I imagine that phase over and over again. After 45 days, when I am barely walking without support, I ask my mom if I can go out and ride the bike. She says yes!

Back on the Road Again.

I take the bike out and do exactly as I imagined. It is smooth. I enjoy every bit of riding the bike. I can feel the gentle breeze on my face. I never look back. I am surprised at how everything goes so naturally as if I have been riding the bike forever. I enjoy riding my bike until I take my car out after five years without telling my parents. But that’s a story for another day. I realize the power of visualization right then. What you dream and visualize repeatedly, where you give your genuine focus, the whole universe conspires to manifest it. Things are bound to happen.
Buddha said,

“What you think, you will become.
What you feel, you attract.
What you imagine, you create.”

Double-Slit Experiment.

And it is not some romantic idea you want to believe, that visualization helps you manifest things. Physicists performed an experiment called the Double-Slit Experiment, where they passed electrons through two slits and found interference patterns on the screen. It means they behave as waves. But when they give attention to the electrons the next time, they hit the screen exactly in the position of the slits, as if they behave like particles. I feel all the things you want are around you as invisible waves waiting to become real.

Not a One-Time Wonder.

It doesn’t happen just once. While I have all the time lying in bed, I see repeated events of visualization being manifested multiple times in my life, sometimes knowingly or unknowingly. As a child, I prepare for a test to get into a good school in my town. My sister tells me there is a train track beside the school. I am immediately attracted to the idea of a passing train and visualize seeing trains pass by from my class window. It motivates me to push myself to practice more. Later, I get through the test and relive all the imaginations. Later, I visualize many times in my life with a clear focus on the outcomes, and I eventually materialize those things.

Limiting Beliefs.

But why don’t we visualize that often? Ironically, our very life gets in the way. We are too busy to stop, dream, and visualize. Either with our own self-limiting beliefs, we can’t dare to visualize and realize its power. We can remind ourselves to visualize more with honest intentions by setting a time in the day.

By the way, I pass all 13 exams on consecutive days at once from the year I missed due to the accident and the next one.

Happy visualization!