To kick here a comment off, I would say it definitely works, the so-called "mental rehearsal" especially concerning sportive activities. An example: My desire is to go hiking in Cornwall - starting at Newquay and ending in Plymouth. When doing the "rehearsal" in my mind (thinking the way through, meditating, planning, reading about it, setting goals, peparing, thinking again) it builds up an enormous healthy pulling power and provides tremendous confidence of reaching that final goal: Plymouth. Thanks for the description above!

thanks Jeff....this ties in with Dr David Hamiltons work...went to a couple of his book launches latest one 'Why Kindness is Good For You'...He has done a lot of research on how the mind influences the body ...and for example Meditation effects our very DNA by linking up with existing studies on the subject at Harvard 'The mind creates chemical changes in the brain and around the body. Hormone levels change, cells change, and genes express themselves, producing proteins all around the brain and body. In a 2005 paper, Eric Kandel, 2000 Nobel Prizewinner in Medicine, even wrote, ‘There’s no longer any doubt that psychotherapy can result in detectable changes in the brain.’ A new way of thinking about something activates different brain regions from before, encouraging blood flow in a new direction, leading to actual structural changes in the brain, often in the region of the prefrontal cortex' His latest book is very inspiring and presents the effects of an unconditionally giving nature on our health http://www.drdavidhamilton.com/