Holding the Visual Until Life Links You Up

More and more I am seeing the value of the visual.  Whether you dream it, you watch it, you imagine or you draw it, what you see in your mind and in your world becomes your reality.

I'm not making this up, your brain is.  That's right, your brain sees in two dimensions because of the optic nerve, but we live in a three dimensional world.  What does your brain do to compensate?  It makes it up.  It's fact that part of what you see is fiction.

Why not leverage that piece of brain science to your advantage?  Next time you want to be someone or somewhere else in your life, make it up using that innate tool of creative genius -  your imagination.  Envision it thoroughly as if you are right there, right now looking out through your own eyes experiencing it.  Make  it vivid.  Paint it with emotion. Lock it into memory.

Then do EVERYTHING you can to take action towards that vision to make it real.  Dream it everyday and be grateful for every small or large movement in that direction. Celebrate that movement.

Surprise yourself at how quickly your inner and outer imaginings can become reality.
Not through hocus pocus but through leveraging your own brain.  Curious?  Don't take my word for it.  Experiment on your own.

Hold that visual until life links you to it.

Build the Bridge to New Ideas for People to Walk Across

Tired of people telling you what's best for you without ever asking what you think you need?
After reading Nancy Duarte's book Resonate, I readjusted my approach.  I started wondering what other people wanted to hear and needed to know about visual goal setting.  Then I began to ask them and here's what they said...

"What if I can't draw?"

"What does goal setting with a picture actually do?"

"Will the image help when I start feeling apathetic?"

When you want to make powerful change, you have to be willing to try something new.  The new things you try make your brain work better, reprogram it, forge new "neural pathways."
Try it, try driving home a different way, try singing out loud when a song you know comes on the speakers in the grocery store.  Shock yourself.  Change yourself.

Do something new.  Draw a picture of where you are and where you want to be and fill in the gap, that bridge to your beautiful dreamy picture.  Affix it to your mind, your heart and the dash of your car.

Then drive yourself to it.

ReWiring Your Brain

This year more than ever, my clients have been complaining about feeling distracted by a multitude of issues.  The news, the political shifts, organizational cut backs, restructuring, lay-offs have taken up a lot of their time and energy in our "new economy".  Did you know that you can change your response to these shifts in your environment?

According to Dr. Ellen Weber, you can tweak your amygdala (that tiny sac of neurons responsible for reactions) and make it work for you.  "Simply act deliberately in the opposite direction of any negative or moody feelings,"  she suggests.  She also encourages you to disagree with the brain in mind which rewires your brain.

You can also change your brain by using a visual image of that which you want versus don't want.   What do you want to experience?  Calm?  Clarity?  Control?  (yeah, right!)  How about creativity?  Shift your brain by imagining what it would be like to be completely feeling that feeling, no matter what your outer experience is like.  Get into it, that's right, crawl inside.

Now let's add a visual to accelerate bringing what you do want to you.  Imagine yourself using this quality effortlessly in your world.  Hold that image as long as you can until you actually relax into it and begin to "daydream" about other ways of using it.   Let's turn up the heat in that daydream by adding a symbol that will help keep you on track in your daily life, when you are not daydreaming. 

Imagine that someone you know and trust enters the scene in your mind carrying a gift box in their hands.  Hear them say, "Inside this box is a symbol that represents what you most want right now in your life for you to use as a tool in your outside world."  Take the box from them, open it up and see what is inside.

When you keep your critic, judge, paternal adult out of the room of your imagination, you will actually see something in that box.  If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  Do this exercise until you do see something.  If you are not successful after a day or two, ask for something to stand out in your everyday life to let you know that IT is your symbol.  Each time you see that symbol, it will remind you to refocus on that quality, thing or goal that you want.

Your mind is a powerful tool.  It needs you to refocus it on what is most important.  With all of the flurry of change that is now a constant state, it is up to you to take the helm of your mind and  rewire it, and in every moment, you can.