I was talking to a friend recently about visualizing the change they desire in their lives. Their comment to me was that they didn't like to visualize about the way they wanted things to be, because it just made them depressed about the way things were.
An excellent point, and one that must be addressed by any of us who are serious about using the tool of visualization. A couple of years ago I was driving an older car and had a desire to replace it with something newer that fit my family better. So I started visualizing this new car that I wanted.
I was pretty new at visualizing and found that every time I got in my car I liked it less and felt more discouraged that I was still driving it. That kind of reaction is not the purpose of visualizing! Feelings of discouragement and lack of gratitude only push away the fulfillment of our desires.
Accept What Is
An important first step to initiating change in our lives is, ironically, to accept the way things are. 1st Timothy 6:8 advises us: "And having food and raiment let us be therewith content." We need to know deep within that if nothing ever changed we could find happiness and contentment with the way things are.
Finding this contentment with the way things are actually helps us feel that we deserve to improve our situations, whether we are talking about prosperity, health, or relationships. It is empowering to accept what is and helps us leave the place of being a victim to circumstances and create the life we desire.
We Find What We Are Looking For
When you finish visualizing, prepare your mind for what you will see when you open your eyes. Think for a brief moment about the way things are at the end of your visualizing. Think of it from an angle that brings a smile to your face. Determine to open your eyes and see in your life what is good and right and beautiful.
Using my car example, I could end my visualizing by thinking about my children in the car I was then driving. I could think about my gratitude that I have a car that is safe and gets me where I need to go. This keeps me in a positive, grateful vibration and will move me towards more that will make me positive and grateful.
Remember that we are always trying to bring ourselves into alignment with truth. And the truth in every situation is that we have much to be grateful for. One of my favorite scriptures on this topic says:
"O how you ought to thank your heavenly King! I say unto you, my brethren that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, ...-I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another-I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants....And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?" Book of Mormon; Mosiah 2: 19-21, 24, excerpts
Work on Hope
One of the reasons visualizing can discourage some people is because the moment they are done visualizing, they begin to affirm that they will never have what they desire. They counteract their visualizing with feelings of not deserving. They might think thoughts in alignment with their false beliefs. "It will never happen." "It's too hard". "If it was supposed to happen, it already would have". And on and on....
As those thoughts and feelings come to the surface, acknowledge them and release them, turning your focus to affirming truthful, empowering thoughts. Spend some time healing and releasing the dis-empowering habits of thinking that have been keeping your from receiving good in your life. (Please see Pulling Weeds Part 1, 2, and 3)
Visualizing the good you desire will set you on the path to receiving it. An important step on this path is overcoming the obstacles you have set for yourself in your own heart and mind. Visualizing will help these become more apparent to you so that you can release them. Be aware, use your intuition.
As we accept what is, have gratitude for the good, and have hope for what's coming, we'll have much more positive experiences with our visualizing. This is a process and like anything-with practice and training, you will find it gets easier.
Remember that this is tool you are already using and have used all your life, just be more deliberate about using it to bring what you really want into your life.
