Because that's how you see yourself

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Thoughts produce pictures in your brain. These pictures are more powerful than you suspect

You don't perceive reality as it really is. You perceive reality as it is constructed by your own mind.

Henri-Louis Bergson stated, "The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend." He was right. Your brain thinks in pictures, not words.

Close your eyes for a moment and think of a tomato. Notice that you saw a picture of a tomato. It was probably red. You didn't see the letters “t-o-m-a-t-o” floating in space. This picture was created in the occipital lobe of your brain. Metaphorically, we call this "the mind's eye."

The pictures in your mind's eye are a big deal. Scientists, for years, have speculated that the act of seeing things in your mind's eye uses the same brain circuits that you use when seeing things with your physical eyes. Brain scans now show this to be true.

The mind's eye really does exist, and it shapes your version of reality. Your brain engages with your environment by connecting incoming stimuli with what is already stored in your brain. Most likely the dominant picture.

You may check your social media accounts and look at family photo albums, but when was the last time you mindfully checked the pictures in your brain? It is difficult to overstate the importance of this. Napoleon Hill once said, "You become what you think about." This is a powerful thought.

Your brain is a thought-producing machine. Thoughts are real forces. Thoughts produce pictures in your brain. These pictures are more powerful than you suspect. Any picture that is held in the mind's eye is a force that will eventually produce an effect. And remember, thoughts that are emotionalized become magnetized. They attract similar thoughts.

Here is a great video that illustrates the power of the mind's eye to shape reality. It’s a reminder that we all play out our own version of it every day.

Terry Small, B.Ed., M.A., is a master teacher and Canada's leading learning skills specialist. He is the author of the Brain Bulletin with over 34,000 subscribers worldwide. 

Originally published on Brain Bulletin.