Do you have goals you are working toward, yet they seem just a touch out of reach? You have probably heard about vision boards, and The Law of Attraction. Both of these tools have one very powerful method in common, and that is creative visualization.
Visual reminders of your goals, dreams, and aspirations help keep you focused on what’s important to you. It is well worth the practice to hold your visions in your mind’s eye to bring your goals to fruition. I highly recommend keeping a journal. If you are a vivid dreamer, then it is already an easy thing for you to recount your dreams with a pen and paper.
The stronger you get your visualization to be, the easier it will be to sense the reality of your goals.
If you haven’t yet read Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way, this is a thorough and transformational book to boost your creativity and make your dreams come alive. My personal copy of this book has crossed many oceans and land masses with me!
Throughout life’s daily crises, stresses, and distractions, visual reminders can help you remember the big picture. They can help you overcome challenges and move forward each day toward achieving the life you truly desire.
Knowing that you’re always moving forward brings a confident, peaceful feeling. You’re sure that, no matter what life brings your way, you will achieve the success you crave. This feeling is an awesome motivator to keep you going even when the chips are down. Visualization can help you get where you want to be.
The Miracle of Creative Visualization
How do you intend to use creative visualization? A great majority of people utilize it to obtain material possessions. And of course, there’s not a thing wrong with this, but what you may not know is that creative visualization allows for the manifestation of much more than simple objects!
If you utilize creative visualization as it is intended, you can actually change your entire life. Whether it is the power of suggestion or something bigger, the belief in what you’re attempting to obtain is stronger than you realize. Concentrating and focusing on a very specific outcome can, indeed, lead to it.
Have you heard the name Morris Goodman? Goodman was a very successful insurance salesman who was well-versed in creative visualization. He had, in fact, used it to build his entire insurance business.
But in the 1980’s, after a plane crash, Morris was rendered paralyzed, unable to use any part of his body other than his brain, and unable to breath on his own with the help of a ventilator.
Sadly, doctors were not hopeful that he would ever walk or breathe on his own ever again. His family was notified, and plans were made to give Morris the best quality of life that he could have with his new limitations.
While still in the hospital, Morris communicated with the staff and his own family by blinking his eyes.
What he told them surprised everybody – that he planned on walking out of the hospital on his own.
Morris used the process of creative visualization to see and feel himself breathing and walking all on his own. He saw what it would look like when he left the hospital, and even the very route he would take home. He envisioned the astonished looks he’d get from passers-by, and the smile he’d return their amazement with.
At one point, he convinced the medical staff that he wanted to attempt breathing on his own. He claimed he had an urge to breathe on his own and he wanted to try. They removed the ventilator tube, and he did indeed breathe on his own.
From that point on, his recovery took on a life of it’s own, and in time, he walked out of the hospital on his own two feet – something that the hospital staff never thought they’d see.
He continued on with his successful insurance business, and also became a motivational speaker, proving that it only takes the brain and creative visualization to change your entire world.
I find his story miraculous, and there are so many people with stories as inspirational as his!
Dreams and Creative Visualization
Dreams have a fascinating way of enhancing our creative visualization. When we dream, our minds are free to roam and explore without the constraints of reality. In the realm of dreams, anything is possible. This allows us to tap into our subconscious and unlock a world of creativity and imagination.
As we sleep, our dreams become a canvas on which we can paint vivid images and scenarios, allowing us to practice and refine our skills in creative visualization. These dreams serve as a playground for our minds, where we can experiment with different ideas and concepts, pushing the boundaries of what we think is possible. By harnessing the power of our dreams, we can fuel our creative visualization and bring our wildest ideas to life.
The Dream Time is a very potent way of working with creativity and visualization. Working consciously with dreams can help you practice to set an intention, transmute the energy of a current challenge, and manifest a more desirable outcome.
Try these ways to use visuals as a means of achieving the goals in your life:
Keep a Dream Journal
Keeping a dream journal is like having a secret portal into the depths of your imagination. It is a place where you can capture the ethereal beauty of your dreams and harness their power to enhance your creative visualization. By jotting down the vivid details of your dreams in a dream journal, you create a tangible record of your subconscious mind’s wanderings. This not only helps you remember your dreams more clearly, but also provides a rich source of inspiration for your creative endeavors. Through the act of writing, you bring your dreams to life on the page, allowing your mind to delve deeper into the realm of creative visualization.
As you revisit the entries in your journal, you may start to notice recurring themes, symbols, or patterns in your dreams. These can act as powerful symbols that can be incorporated into your creative projects, adding depth and meaning to your work. By immersing yourself in the dream world through your journal, you can tap into a wellspring of creativity that lies within you, unlocking new possibilities and perspectives.
Keeping a dream journal can also help you develop your skills in creative visualization. As you read through your dream entries, you can close your eyes and vividly imagine yourself back in that dreamlike state. You can immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, and emotions of those dreams, allowing your mind to wander freely and explore new realms of imagination. This practice not only enhances your ability to visualize creatively but also strengthens the connection between your conscious and subconscious mind. In this way, a dream journal becomes a powerful tool for self-discovery and personal growth.
By capturing the essence of your dreams on paper and immersing yourself in their imagery, you can unlock new dimensions of creativity and tap into the limitless potential of your imagination.
Post-it Note Reminders
This simple method puts your goals and motivators at the forefront. Buy colorful sticky notes and fun colored pens and commit your goals to paper. Stick these notes in the places where they matter most so you can see them and think about them often.
Place notes on your bathroom mirror, your headboard, the refrigerator door, on your favorite coffee mug or right on the bottom of your computer monitor. Any place that you’re likely to glance throughout the day is a good destination for a motivating, goal-setting note.
Make your notes specific, “I want to eat right this week to lose 2 lbs by the 1st,” or broad but motivating, “Today will be a productive and motivating day. You can do it!” These sticky notes will encourage productivity throughout the day with simple, basic visuals.
Note Cards
Buy a stack of white note cards and commit a goal or aspiration to each one. Decorate them, write notes on them, and otherwise customize them to suit your needs. Keep them in your pocket, purse or brief case and refer to them daily as a means of motivating yourself to achieve your goals and dreams.
- When you refer to the same note cards on a daily basis, a habit forms. It is said that 21 days of repeating a task will ingrain it in you. Check your note cards daily until it becomes a habit, and it will become a vital tool in helping you achieve your goals.
Visual Mind Maps
This tool will help you organize your goals in a highly visual way. Create a mind map on a large sheet of poster board. Designate an area for each long-term goal, and add an image and a small amount of text. Create a cloud of medium and long-term goals around each long-term goal, with lines connecting them to the long-term focus. Please see my post on bringing your visions alive with mind mapping.
- Use images, colors, words, and other meaningful visuals to decorate your poster. Draw your own graphics, clip pictures from magazines, or download images from the internet to create a colorful – and visually appealing – goal-oriented mind map.
- Put time and effort into the creation of your visual mind map, and then put it in a place where you’ll see it daily. This visual will help you keep your short, medium, and long term goals in mind and will consistently remind you of what you want to be focusing on.
Remember, visualization of your goals is extremely beneficial. It is empowering. Hopefully the techniques I have listed above will help you recall your most important goals early on and throughout the day. If there are specific goals you want to focus on, visual reminders are most certainly a great way to help you achieve them. Don’t forget to not only think about your visions, but to radiate them. And have fun with this process! Want more? Check out my post, Recognize Your Personal Power to Make Your Goals Happen.
I am a very visual person in general. I make lists for everything.
Great ideas. I remember when I was little my Dad put a photo of a Bonneville SSEI on his wall. When I asked why, he said he wanted to visualize his goal, so every day when he walked into his office, he saw the car he wanted. LOL…
I like to visualize. Helps me keep on where I want to be.
I find that visual mind maps really help me. If I set the goal, and the path to the goal in my mind, I can achieve it in no time!
For me, I see that writing everything out, and making a list helps me stay motivated. Making a list of things to be done in order to achieve the goal is also helpful.
These are great ideas. I have a tendency to ignore post-its after a day or so though!
I’m all about making 2015 amazing by achieving my goals!