When it comes to following guided meditations, more often than not, you will hear the term ‘visualise’. Visualisation is something we can all do although the term itself can be a little misleading. This can result in some people thinking they are unable to visualise.

The misconception is that visualisation means to get a clear image of something in your mind’s eye and see it as if it was real. This is not necessarily the case at all. Although some people can do this, many can’t. This is because they experience the world in different ways.

I used to think there was something wrong with me because I couldn’t get clear images in my mind the way others described it. It turns out that some people have minds that are just wired differently, and that’s okay.

The way we experience the world is through our senses and most people have one sense that is more dominant than the others. It is this dominant sense then crosses over from the outer world to how we also interpret our inner worlds.

Around 60% of the population has a visual sense as their dominant one and these are the people who can usually gain a clear image in their mind.

Around 20% of people are auditory meaning their dominant sense is hearing sound and may be able to experience their inner world through sounds and music.

Another 20% is kinaesthetic who experience through touch and feelings. This is the group I fall in to and our inner world is experienced through emotion, feelings and intuition.

In very rare cases a person can experience olfactory, a sense of smell, or gustatory, a sense of taste as their dominant sense.

There is another group of people that are very analytical. This can also be the case with their inner world, analysing and thinking logically about everything. Although this isn’t a sense as such it is still a way some people interact with the world. This perception of the world is referred to as ‘Auditory Digital’ or Ad for short.

Each of these types of people, experience both the outer and their inner worlds very differently, so it makes sense that they would all visualise differently. It would actually be a lot simpler to explain if we didn’t use the word ‘visualise’.