Kirwan Rockefeller, Ph.D., WIA/TAA Academic Advisor at the University of California, Irvine Extension, is the author of “Visualize Confidence: How to Use Guided Imagery to Overcome Self-Doubt,” and is the co-editor of “Psychology, Spirituality and Healthcare,” Volume 2 of the 3-volume series, “Whole Person Healthcare.” This is the fourth installment in Dr. Rockefeller’s series of blogs on utilizing the imagination for personal transformation.
Your mental imagery will help you stay on course and prepare you for arriving at your destination. Whether it’s an image in your mind, or a Vision Board (more about this later), if you don’t know where you want to go, you’ll probably end up someplace else. And that someplace else will most likely be a destination that someone picked out and it may have nothing to do with you. Time and time again people come to me and say they feel like they missed the boat. My response is, “Well, you didn’t’ miss the boat, you were just on the wrong dock.”
Creating a Vision Board is a fun activity and can help you focus on the values that are most meaningful to you (and it’s a great stress-buster too). Find a time when you’ll be clear of any distractions. Gather all the old magazines you’ve been meaning to recycle, postcards, photos, colored marker pens, glitter or anything that sparks your imagination and tell your Inner Critic to take a hike. Begin to quickly flip through all the magazines and without thinking about it, tear out any images and words that strike your fancy. You don’t need to know why, just play along. Then, allow your creative imagination to arrange them on a large poster board, gluing them down so they don’t fall off. The trick again, is not to think about it. Just have fun.
When you’re done, let your eyes wander over the Vision Board and focus on the feelings that the board brings up. Ask yourself: “If this vision were hanging in a museum, what would be the title?” Is there a theme? Interesting groupings? The Vision will tell a story; your story, and point you in the right direction of your dock and your boat.
Thomas Jefferson wrote: “Nothing can stop the man (or woman) with the right mental attitude from achieving his (or her) goal. Nothing on Earth can help the man (or woman) with the wrong attitude.”
Develop a can-do attitude and focus on the feelings from your Vision Board. The “how” will take care of itself….
Next week: Focus on what’s right with you, not on what’s wrong.