Conscious Visualization – a form of prayer
It seems to me that visualizations are a form of prayer – worrying and obsessing are like prayers about negative things; joy and gratitude are like prayers for sacred things. Rather than rehashing the past and staying stuck in my negative images of yesteryear or catastrophizing about the future (over which I have no control – which is downright scary in itself) … I have an option – imagining sacred thoughts, longings of the heart, private fantasies that really matter to me.
There are two secrets to conscious visualizations – the first is to make them as real as the scary ones! The more feelings and physical/body sensations there are invested in the visualization, the more powerful the prayer. The more desperate you are to have it, the more fear is embedded in the prayer, the more the prayer is about NOT getting what you want … fear overriding your joy. Bottom line, the more needy you are about having what you want, the more your real visualization is about not having what you want (cuz your negative image is your real focus).
So the second secret is to make it OK if it doesn't happen. The more you know you will still thrive even if you don't get what you want (living in faith/trust), the more real joy and gratitude you can plug into your visualization – which makes it More Likely that it will happen.
Remember – there are no guarantees – NONE. God/Life/The Force is not manipulatable, period.
PS Conscious actions empower conscious visualizations! And the Results Process (More To Life program) is the perfect blend of both.
PPS I've done both ways – often. I like the conscious prayers the best – I am the most free and the most open with those visualizations. In fact, before every training, I consciously visualize Sunday evening – happy and serene faces, including the team, while I'm feeling total gratitude – moist eyes, thickening in my throat, expanding chest, satisfaction in my solar plexus, warmth in my gut … grateful to be alive, being who I am, being with who they are and with that which IS.
Boy did this one hit home! I find myself doing just this every time I look at our sales and see them going down in comparison to last year………or even 3 years before! And to even further hasten my negativity…..we are watching a new Ace hardware store go in 3 miles from us! Your post caused me to pull up short — even have a conversation with Jim about how we might instead view this as opportunity and fertile ground for creativity………updating our goals, re-visualizing our purpose for this business! I’m energized – THANKS, Ann!