Think you can't visualize? Not true. When you crave something—say chocolate—you strongly sense chocolate in your mind. Perhaps you sense it through taste, texture, or appearance…even when that chocolate isn't anywhere in sight. When you're looking for your cell phone, you hold an image of that cell phone or perhaps a tactile sense of what it's like to hold it, even when you're not actually looking at it or holding it. And how, exactly, do you know your house from your neighbor's house? From an inner vision of what it looks like (or a sense of its general location) that you carry around with you wherever you go, naturally.

See what I mean? Everyone can visualize, and everyone is literally doing so constantly. For magical purposes, we want to learn to channel this inherent ability in a way that helps us resonate with that which we want to manifest. Because everything is vibration and like attracts like, this helps us draw our intentions into our life experience and essentially create the life we desire.

Now, as you may have noticed from my examples above, visualizing—in a metaphysical and magical sense—isn’t always, well, visual. It can be visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, taste-oriented, or any combination thereof. But when it comes to manifesting, the most important thing of all is the feeling or emotion behind the visualization. Once you know what it is you want to manifest, you want to also get clear on the feelings you want to experience as a result of your manifestation. Then you'll accompany your visualization with those feelings, visualizing and feeling that your intention is already manifested.

But how to begin when visualizing seems tough? It's a simple answer, but a true one: show up every day and do your best. When I first started practicing visualization, I chose the intentions I wanted to manifest, and then I did my very best to visualize and feel as if they were already true. Sometimes, the very best I could do was to think the words of my visualization affirmation-style, such as, "I am confident," or, "I make at least ____ per week." But the more I practiced and did my very best to have a sensory and emotional experience of these things as if they were already true, the easier it got.

To this day, I make it a part of my daily meditation to practice visualizing. I do this with the things I want to manifest, but also with the energetic qualities I want to conjure. For example, I do a daily clearing and shielding visualization for both myself and my home. I also surround my partner, my cat, and our cars in protective light. Now that I've gotten better at visualizing, I'll get sort of elaborate sometimes and visualize things like giant, spinning, sacred geometrical structures of light encompassing me. But this was not something I could do right out of the gate. I've built up to it little by little over time. And you can, too! In fact, you might start with the simple (and exceptionally useful!) visualization practices below.

1. Shield in light. A daily shielding visualization is a must for magical practitioners, both for the visualization practice and for the metaphysical benefits! Simply relax comfortably with your spine straight and take some deep, relaxing breaths. Then envision a very bright sphere of light around yourself. See how bright you can imagine the light, and perhaps infuse even more brightness by recalling what it's like to glance at the blinding face of the sun. Set the intention that within this light, only love remains and through this light, only love may enter. Hold this vision until your focus begins to slightly wane.
 
2. Visualize starting a positive new habit. Choose a new habit you'd like to adopt. Then, as soon as you open your eyes in the morning, or last thing before you drift off at night (or both), convince yourself that you already have this positive new habit in place. If it's exercising every day, think of how great it feels to exercise every day. Even if you haven't actually done it yet, feel as if you do it regularly and really make yourself believe it. Also think of the reason you'd like to manifest this: So that you'll feel healthier? Stronger? More energized? Imagine also that you are already experiencing exactly these things. Make it as real to yourself as you possibly can, using any inner senses that feel right.
 
3. Be a money magnet. Since most of us wouldn't mind manifesting a few more bucks, as a part of your daily meditation, envision attracting huge amounts of currency toward yourself. Sense and really believe that you are a literal money magnet, and that currency of all sorts can't help but fly your way and stick to you. Alternatively, you could imagine that you are holding a giant wealth-attracting magnet, and that you're attracting money with that.
 
4. Conjure up laughter. Laughter is so healthy! Why not attract more into your life? While you're driving to work or in the shower, think of the times in your life when you've laughed the hardest, and remember how that felt in your body, mind, and spirit. Stay with the feeling of laughter until the feeling naturally starts to wane. You'll notice that the more you do this, the more you'll find yourself laughing throughout the day.

Try any one of these, or all four, for at least one full month, and you'll almost certainly see results, both in your ability to visualize and in the effects of the visualizations themselves. Indeed, the great thing about these practices is that they're simple, but they'll shift your life quickly and in beautiful ways. Then, when you see firsthand how powerful visualizing can be, you'll be inspired to continue your practice. As it gets easier and easier over time, you'll get into a positive momentum and before you know it, your trouble with visualizing will be a thing of the past.

P.S. If you do try any of these out for at least a month, and if you think of it, please drop me a line and let me know how it goes. You can find ways to contact me at www.tesswhitehurst.com.

P.P.S. For more visualization advice and exercises, please check out my book, Holistic Energy Magic!