In the month of May, we at WSSF discussed the existence of energy, and its power as both an electrical and magnetic force in our lives and in the universe. We discussed the Universal Law of Attraction and briefly discussed harnessing the power of this energy to actually create, or bring into form, some of the things we want in life. However, what about manifesting who we want to be, or what we want to achieve, in addition to manifesting the “stuff” we want? Is there a different process for this?
I am reminded of a recent conversation with a friend who coaches his son’s basketball team. Their team was at least 10 points down with little time remaining in the game. My friend reported that he called a time out, got the team in a huddle, had them all close their eyes, and asked them to imagine the winning basket. He had them picture themselves high-fiving each other and celebrating the victory as if it had already happened. In the last moments of the game, they came from behind and won the game!
Some of the world’s most successful people – including professional athletes, actors, business people, astronauts, artists, and spiritual leaders, attribute their success to the highly powerful mind technique called Creative Visualization. Creative visualization involves the use of mental imagery to achieve a desired outcome. In other words, you must imagine yourself doing (or being) the thing you want to do or be, successfully, with repetition. This is exactly the technique my friend used with his basketball team!
While this technique is powerful, especially when used to create a positive experience, it is often used unknowingly to create negative experiences. We often have deep-seated negative self concepts about life and unconsciously expect or imagine lack, limitation, and challenges. And we are then surprised to find lack, limitation, and challenge show up in our lives. But what if we could become more aware, more conscious of what we are focusing on, what we are imagining, and where we are putting our mental energy? We cannot only avoid negative experiences, but we can become empowered to create new experiences, full of joy, good health, wealth, and abundance . . . like scoring that winning touchdown, hitting that last minute winning basket, making that hole-in-one, inventing the next big thing to help others, or meeting our soulmate.
This month we want to spend some time talking and sharing about the process of Creative Visualization to create the life you want! . . . by utilizing the power of the imagination and our knowledge about energy to create a life of joy, good health, wealth, and joyful abundance.
Shakti Gawain’s 1995 book called Creative Visualization outlines a 4 step process of creative visualization that we will use as a springboard for our conversations this month!
FOUR BASIC STEPS:
- Set Your Goal:Choose something you’d like to have, work toward, visualize, or create. It can be anything: a job, a relationship, personal growth or change, a healthier life or experience of wellness, etc. When you are just beginning, choose goals that are pretty easy for you to believe in and that you feel are possible to attain or achieve in the near future. (This helps to minimize negative resistance and to maximize your feelings of success.)
- Create an Idea or Picture:Create a mental picture, seeing it exactly as you want it. You should think about it in the present tense as ALREADY manifested into form and existing today ~ the way you want it to be. Picture yourself living the situation as you desire it, now, incorporating as many details as you can. You could make an actual physical picture or vision board of it as well.
- Focus On It Often:Bring your mental picture to mind frequently, both in quiet meditative moments and casually throughout the day as well. In this way, it becomes an integral part of your life. It becomes more of a reality for you, and you project it more successfully. Keep a clear focus on it, but also, do it in a light, gentle way. You don’t want to feel it as a longing, striving, or desperation – or that you must put an excessive amount of energy into it.
- Give It Positive Energy:As you focus on your goal, think about it with a positive attitude and with a sense of encouragement and optimism. Make strong positive statements to yourself: that it exists and that it has come or is now coming to you. These are affirmations, to yourself and to the energetic universe around you. While you are using affirmations, try as best you can to temporarily suspend any doubts or disbelief you may have ~ at least in that moment, while simultaneously practicing getting into the feeling that that which you desire is very real and possible.
While this seems like a fairly simple process, Shakti Gawain does emphasize the importance of the following elements in determining how successful you will be in achieving your goals:
- DESIRE
It must be a true desire to have or create that which you have chosen to visualize. True Desire means having a clear, strong feeling of purpose ~ NOT an addictive, grasping desire. A good question to ask is: “Do I truly in my heart desire this goal to be realized?”
2. BELIEF
The more you believe in your chosen goal and the possibility of attaining it, the more certain you will be able to do so. Two good questions to ask are: “Do I believe that this goal can exist?” and “Do I believe that it is possible for me to realize or attain it?”
3. ACCEPTANCE
You must be able to accept, allow, and have that which you are seeking. Sometimes we pursue goals that we actually don’t really want to attain; We often are more comfortable with the process of pursuing than the experience of having. Ask yourself: “Am I really willing to have this completely?”
Creative Visualization is a very powerful technique that uses the energies of the universe and the power of the mind to use mental imagery in order to create a new reality. And you will notice that nowhere in this blog have we discussed the concept of HOW to make something happen. You do not need to understand or figure out how things will happen, or try to figure out the best ways things will work out. Your participation simply asks and requires you to assume that it will all work out for the best, while you let universal intelligence take care of the details.
Of course, as with everything at WSSF, we are introducing new ideas, concepts, and a new language through our “conversations,” and we highly encourage all of our readers and viewers to become curious about this process and this potential new way of being in your life and creating your reality. When you allow your curiosity and desire to change in new and better ways, you can allow the new information that you uniquely need to find you, to better support the life and the experiences you most desire. It is all part of the creative process, that our lives are truly about!