Maybe this is why you can't meditate

𝙸 𝚝𝚎𝚊𝚌𝚑 𝚒𝚝 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚗'𝚝 𝚍𝚘 𝚒𝚝❗

𝘿𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙜𝙜𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣

Do you think you just can't do it❓

To be clear, I do practise meditation but I've always been unable to do the visualisation that is often taught in many techniques.

Then I saw an article about something that was on Radio 2

In Jeremy Vine's show, there was a feature about Aphantasia, a term coined by Professor Adam Zeman from University of Exeter 10 years ago.

Ongoing research continues to learn more, it is thought to affect 1% of the population; and I think I'm in that 1%

𝙄𝙩 𝙢𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙚𝙡𝙡

It is people who have the inability to create mental images.

It's called a blind mind's eye.

I've always struggled to do visualisation, yet I'm a very creative person and very capable of producing sketches, drawings and paintings

Over the last 30 years of teaching I've led thousands of hours of visualization technique relaxations and yoga Nidra, yet I'm unable to actually see at the Spiritual eye myself.

Now I have a scientific name for it!

Maybe this is why people think they can't meditate 🤔

The best example to show how this works is to think of an apple.

In your mind's eye, picture an apple of any sort, see its colour and texture, stalk and leaves.

Can you see it?

Can you visualise an apple in your mind's eye?

🍎🍏❓

I can't

I know I'm thinking about an apple, I know what an apple looks like, but I just can't see it in my minds eye.

Apparently, the small number of people with this condition are often creative speakers, writers and photographers using their skills to fill the gaps neurologically.

That would explain my artistic ability and (as my students would affirm) why I can talk a good visualisation!

So that was today's, learn something new, my 💡 moment and I'm off to read about Aphantasia - a different way of processing information.

What was your learn something new this week?

Post in the comments, or drop me a message

I would love to learn another something new