Visulisation For Performance
How Can We Utilise Visualisation for Performance?
Visualisation is a powerful mental technique that can help us achieve our goals, overcome challenges, set intentions, perform our best under pressure, and enhance our general wellbeing. It entails the use of mental imagery – i.e. conjuring up pictures in our minds. In most cases, it involves creating a vivid mental picture of a desired outcome or goal. We can picture ourselves in the process of working towards or achieving this goal, or else as already having achieved it. We can also imagine ourselves as calm, composed, and confident in a situation that causes us some stress and during which we want to perform at the top of our capacities.
Visualisation engages the mind in a process that goes well beyond mere daydreaming. It activates our imagination and primes our subconscious mind. When used intentionally, visualisation can influence our attention, cognitive processes, emotions, and even our physiological responses. Visualising our dreams also simply feels good – there is great pleasure to be found in anticipating what we want. It activates our parasympathetic nervous system, relaxes us, and generates positive emotions such as joy and gratitude.
How Do We Use Visualisation Audios?
“Vividly visualising future goals and past resourceful states can be an incredibly powerful tool for high performance. Many athletes and professional performers use it all the time. You, too, can easily discover its power – whether you want to prepare for a presentation, a sales pitch, a sport event or being on stage. When we visualise seeing ourselves performing at the very hight of our powers, we not only mentally rehearse our performance, but we also prime our subconscious mind for success. We also release dopamine and strengthen our motivation and optimism – all of which are key preconditions for peak performance.“
— Anna K. Schaffner, PhD.
About Anna
Anna is a Performance Catalyst coach, facilitator and a bestselling author. She is passionate about helping others better to understand themselves and to take courageous action. She helps her clients to gain clarity about their unique gifts, strengths, preferences, and their purpose.
Anna uses visualisation audios to complement her coaching practice, helping her clients to bridge the gap between insight and action. She holds qualifications in Co-Active Coaching, in ACT coaching, and in mBIT coaching. With the help of visualisation techniques, she has coached executives and professional athletes to unlock what might be holding them back, and to truly maximise performance.
Read More from Anna: The Guardian, British Vogue, Psychology Today, Times Literary Supplement
The Science Behind Visualisation For Performance
Enhanced Cognitive Function & Neuroplasticity: These audios are designed to stimulate neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to reorganize itself), leading to better learning, memory retention, and cognitive flexibility. They seek to increase hippocampal activity, which enhances spatial and emotional memory consolidation. At the same time, they seek to reduce activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, helping bypass cognitive rigidity and allowing for easier behavioural change and habit formation.
Habit Modification & Behavioural Change: These audios seek to increase suggestibility by reducing activity in the critical, analytical prefrontal cortex, making it easier to adopt new behaviours. They are designed to help you with feeling more motivated to eat healthier, to exercise, and to break negative habits. My audio trainings seek to enhance goal-directed behavior by strengthening neural connections in the basal ganglia and striatum, which are responsible for habit formation and reinforcement learning.
Neurochemical Modulation & Mood Enhancement: The positive suggestions and invitations to visualise resource states in these recordings seek to increase levels of dopamine (reward and motivation), serotonin (mood regulation), and endorphins (natural painkillers and euphoria-inducing peptides). These neurochemical changes can enhance mood and increase overall well-being.
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Brainwave Modulation & Instigation of Relaxation Response: These audio recordings are designed to induce increased alpha (8-12Hz) and theta (4-8 Hx) brainwave activity, promoting deep relaxation and reduced mental chatter. Theta wave dominance enhances calm, creativity, emotional processing, and problem-solving.
Stress Reduction via the Autonomic Nervous System: These audio guides also seek to promote a shift from sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activation (fight or flight response) to parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) dominance (rest and digest state). PNS dominance leads to reduced cortisol (stress hormone) levels, lowering systemic inflammation, and preventing chronic stress-related disorders. PNS dominance can also decrease heart rate, lower blood pressure, and reduce respiratory rate, inducing a physiological state that mirrors the neural patterns of deep meditation or sleep.
Improved Sleep Quality & Insomnia Relief: An increase in theta and delta wave activity helps with non-REM sleep induction, slow-wave sleep (deep sleep), and fewer nocturnal awakenings, improving overall sleep efficiency. By dampening activity in the hyperactive prefrontal cortex that keeps people awake with racing thoughts, my audios seek to reduce hyperarousal, which is a major cause of insomnia.
Emotional Regulation: My hypnotherapy recordings are designed to enhance limbic system processing, particularly in the amygdala and hippocampus, which play key roles in emotion regulation and trauma response. They seek to facilitate emotional reframing by reducing negative emotional reactivity and promoting cognitive restructuring.
All content courtesy of annakschaffner.com
A small selection of recent studies that confirm the efficacy of hypnotherapy for a wide range of conditions
Chamine, I., Atchley, R., & Oken, B. S. (2018). Hypnosis intervention effects on sleep outcomes: A systematic review. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14(2), 271-283.
Fisch, S., Brinkhaus, B., & Teut, M. (2017). Hypnosis in patients with perceived stress: A systematic review. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 17, 323.
Kittle, Jessie, & Spiegel, David. (2021). Hypnosis: The most effective treatment you have yet to prescribe. The American Journal of Medicine, 134(3), 304-305.
Lee, H. H., Choi, Y. Y., & Choi, M. G. (2014). The efficacy of hypnotherapy in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility, 20(2), 152–162.
Lynn, S. J., et al. (2000). Hypnosis as an empirically supported clinical intervention: The state of the evidence and a look to the future. The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 48(2), 239-259.
Milling, L. S., Valentine, K. E., McCarley, H. S., & LoStimolo, L. M. (2019). A meta-analysis of hypnotic interventions for depression symptoms: High hopes for hypnosis? Psychotherapy, 56(4), 537–549.
Nash, Michael R., et al. (2009). Clinical research on the utility of hypnosis in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of medical and psychiatric disorders. The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 57(4), 443-450.
Schoenberger, N. E. (2000). Research on hypnosis as an adjunct to cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy. The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 48(2), 154-169.
Thompson, J. M., Waelde, L. C., Tisza, K., & Spiegel, D. (2016). Hypnosis and mindfulness: Experiential and neurophysiological relationships. In A. Raz & M. Lifshitz (Eds.), Hypnosis and meditation: Towards an integrative science of conscious planes (pp. 129–142). Oxford University Press.
Thompson, T., Terhune, D. B., Oram, C., Sharangparni, J., Rouf, R., Solmi, M., Veronese, N., & Stubbs, B. (2019). The effectiveness of hypnosis for pain relief: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 85 controlled experimental trials. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 99, 298–310.
Valentine, K. E., Milling, L. S., Clark, L. J., & Moriarty, C. L. (2019). The efficacy of hypnosis as a treatment for anxiety: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 67(3), 336–363.
How Can Visualisation Support Coaching?
Visualisation can play a vital role in coaching to improve performance by helping individuals reconnect with their energy, purpose, and inner resources. In the context of burnout and exhaustion, visualization supports clients in imagining renewed vitality, focus, and confidence—creating a mental shift from survival mode to possibility. By combining evidence-based approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with ancient techniques of mindfulness and letting go, visualization helps people rewrite unhelpful self-stories, reduce the influence of their inner critic, and clarify what truly matters to them. This process empowers individuals to perform at their full potential, guided by self-awareness, compassion, and alignment with their authentic values.
How Can Workshops on Visualisation Help Your Team Achieve Their Goals?
Bringing people together creates opportunities for catalytic change. Our tailored workshops generate actionable insights and teach specific skill sets that maximise individual and collective performance. They accelerate core prerequisites for effective leadership and high-functioning teams, such as in this case on the power of visualisation. Below showcases a brief summary for a highly interactive and experiential workshop for the whole company on:
Workshop Format
What is visualisation?
Introduction and reflection on the VAK modalities:
- Visual thoughts – sight, mental imagery, spacial awareness
- Auditory thoughts – sound, speech, dialogue, white noise
- Kinesthetic sense – feelings in the body, temperature, pressure and emotion
Different sensory-based modalities: Which is your strongest sense and how will you know?
How visualisation can help you with:
- Goal achievement
- Stress reduction – link to health and wellbeing
- Skill enhancement
How anchoring can help you access a peak state and tips for how to practise it