Visualization Meditation Helps Athletes Stay Calm, Confident, and Focused. Here’s How to Try It

Just imagine: You’re running the race you’ve been training for and your legs are feeling strong as you cross the finish line. Or maybe you close your eyes before a yoga class and can “see” yourself doing that handstand you’ve been working on for months. Or perhaps before you start pedaling on your bike, you take a minute to envision yourself conquering the big hill that always gives you trouble. 

Those are all broad examples of visualization meditation—and it’s something that can be used in your daily life to move closer to meeting professional, personal, and athletic goals. Learn more about what it is, how to practice it, and how visual meditation can improve athletic performance. 

What Is Visualization Meditation?

Remember how you were told as a kid that imagination was a good thing? You can also make it work for you as an adult with this type of meditation practice. “Visualization meditation is a mentally active state of meditation,” says Peloton instructor Kirra Michel. It differs from other meditation practices that focus on awareness of the breath or another focal point. Instead, “visualization asks the practitioner to envision an image, scene, or experience with detail to help them feel calm and peaceful,” Kirra says. 

Fortunately, your mind is really great at doing this. You can use your imagination and senses to “create vivid, lifelike scenes,” says New York City-based psychotherapist Noah Kass. “This form of meditation is distinctly goal-oriented,” he adds, meaning you create an image in your mind to affect your mood or help propel you toward a goal. In this sense, visualization meditation is geared toward action, which differs from the observant nature of other meditation practices, Kass says. (For the record, both are equally worthy of inclusion in your meditation practice.) 

Benefits of Visualization Meditation

Not sure if visualization meditation is right for you? Here are a few of the many good things that can come out of “seeing” what you want with visualization meditation:

It Improves Self-Confidence

Are you doubting your abilities in any way right now? Quick: Close your eyes and imagine yourself completing a goal you’ve been shying away from, whether that’s trying a new workout class or pitching a fresh idea at work. Do you suddenly feel a little more capable and powerful? That’s the power of visualization. 

“Consistent practice of visualization meditation significantly boosts self-confidence and creates a greater feeling of control in decision-making,” Kass says. “This psychological edge can be invaluable—if you can see it, you can achieve it.” 

It Helps You Stay Calm When Needed

Nerves can get the best of us, leading to a shaky voice when presenting in front of a group, memory blips during a job interview, or faltering during an athletic event. But one of the great things about rehearsing events in your mind is that you can imagine things going right, as well as how you’d overcome difficulties that may pop up along the way. “This practice trains your brain to remain calm under pressure,” Kass says. 

In addition to helping you prepare for future outcomes, visual meditation can help you settle your nerves in the moment, too, Kirra adds. “Visualization is a great way to help someone focus, calm, and center themselves,” she says. 

It May Help Quiet Anxious Thoughts

When you’re feeling anxious, you can also use visualization meditation to imagine a setting that brings you peace and relaxation. Research from 2018 found that nature-based guided imagery—imagining yourself lying on a beautiful beach or sitting in a lush meadow, for instance—is particularly helpful in managing feelings of anxiety. Try it out next time you’re in an anxiety-provoking situation and need to center yourself.

How to Practice Visualization Meditation

Ready to get your imagination going? Here are a few step-by-step tips to consider when trying visualization meditation:

1. Pick Your Place

In real estate, they say location is everything—and it’s a big component of meditation too. “A quiet and comfortable space is always recommended to help get deeper into the meditation, ideally somewhere you won’t be disturbed,” Kirra says. Think about a space that lends comfort and privacy—your car, your bedroom, your back porch—and use it as the setting for a visualization meditation.

2. Plan to Meditate a Short Time (at First)

Meditation is a skill that’s built, and so it’s good to start small with five minutes a day for the first couple of weeks, Kass says. As you feel more comfortable with your practice, you can increase the time to 10-, 20-, or 30-minute sessions. Getting up to those longer classes will take practice, but with time, you’ll be able to do it.

3. Let Your Imagination Run

If you’re just starting out, you might find it helpful to try visualization meditation without a defined objective for your practice. Close your eyes, listen to the sound of your breath, and let your mind run, Kass says, “as if you’re watching a movie in your mind.” Once you learn how to flex this mental muscle, you can take it a step further by playing out specific scenarios in your mind, like that meeting with your boss or the 10K race you signed up for. 

4. Choose Your Visualization

You go into a workout or workday with a general plan of what you’d like to accomplish, and once you get the hang of visualization meditation, it can help to do the same. Before you start your practice, decide what you’re going to visualize, whether that’s practicing a certain skill or creating an outcome to strive for. 

One caveat: If you’re using visualization meditation to impact your mood and emotions, such as calming your nerves or quieting anxious thoughts, you’ll want to take a bit of a different approach. Bring to mind an image, place, or color (real or imagined) that gives you peace instead.

5. Invite Your Senses

When you’re in the middle of your visualization meditation, try to activate all your senses. Can you feel the rain coming down as you cycle? How does the gym smell as you attempt a new weightlifting PR? Can you hear the chatter of other runners as you wait at the starting line? To more fully immerse yourself in the experience you’re conjuring up, don’t just think about what you see, but also what you feel, taste, smell, and hear. 

6. Consider a Guided Meditation

If you’re going to bring to mind a calming image, for example, Kirra recommends using a guided meditation practice. “Guided meditation helps provide structure and direction,” she says, adding that guided classes are especially helpful for beginners or those of us with busy minds. You can explore the library of guided meditation classes on the Peloton App to find one that resonates with you.

7. Stick with It

Visualization meditation is one tool to help you reach your goals, but it takes time and practice to start noticing results. “Like everything in life, consistency is key to help establish a regular practice,” Kirra says. If you have trouble focusing now, know that with regular practice, visualization—and the focus it requires—will become easier.

How Can Visualization Meditation Impact Performance?

So often we’re focused on the physical side of our athletic pursuits: Did you squeeze in enough reps? Did you change your form on that lift? How did your legs feel during that speed workout? But there’s also a huge mental component to performance, and it can help to imagine your success before you even achieve it. 

“Visualization allows athletes to rehearse—mentally, rather than physically—their desired outcome, which creates new neural pathways in the brain, impacting their performance,” Kirra says.

There’s some research that reflects this. For example, one 2017 study looked at tennis players who were instructed to use visualization to reach a goal. Those who used visualization to imagine both a mastery goal (aka improving their skills) and a performance goal (outperforming others) experienced a greater boost in performance compared to focusing on just one of those goals alone. 

What’s great is that you can use meditation and visualization to envision the outcome you want—a victory, so to speak. But it’s also useful for picturing the hurdles that might get in the way. 

“Athletes often face uncertainty—the predictability of their opponent’s game plan, rainy conditions on the track, potential injuries, or a myriad of other possible setbacks,” Kass says. “A regular, intentional visualization practice helps these athletes remain calm and focused, utilize creative problem-solving skills, and overcome obstacles toward accomplishing success in their sport.”

When you believe you can handle whatever happens, you, well… can handle whatever happens. That doesn’t mean that you won’t make mistakes or have a single negative thought that bogs down your performance—these things certainly happen even when using imagery, research shows—but visualization meditation can help you overcome some of your limiting beliefs.

The Takeaway

Visualization meditation is an active meditation practice where you can mentally rehearse events, scenarios, or athletic skills before they happen. You can also use this type of meditation to bring to mind calming scenes to help influence your mood and manage anxious feelings. 

If the practice feels challenging at first, know that this is normal. “Be patient and persistent, and don’t expect perfect results,” Kirra says. Rather, know that regular practice can help you feel more comfortable with meditation and visualization over time, she says.

This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute individualized advice. It is not intended to replace professional medical evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment. Seek the advice of your physician for questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. If you are having a medical emergency, call your physician or 911 immediately.