Imagination makes anything possible! I saw it at the airport!
So I recently returned from a convention of life coaches. Over 400 Martha Beck-trained coaches, and Martha herself, basically creating an incredible positive energy vortex around a beautiful high rise hotel in sunny San Diego. On the last day, Martha spoke to us about the power of imagination. And especially the power of imagination in service of love rather than fear. What's possible when we imagine this way is infinitely amazing and wonderful. And sometimes just plain fun, like this cat-certo - a concerto created around a YouTube video of a piano-playing cat!
I ran into a very simple example of the power of imagination in the LAX airport. There's a food vendor there called "Lemonade", and the wall of their dining area is bordered by giant script letters spelling "lemonade lemonade." This isn't that big an engineering feat, I know, but I was amazed. Here's what went through my mind: "Someone had to have the idea of making the wall of the restaurant out of giant script letters. Then they needed to quiet the part of their mind that said, You can't do that - it's silly. Or it's too hard." They imagined it, and then they figured out how to do it.
It's a beautiful concept - a lovely restaurant, and a fresh food oasis in the middle of the airport. I got curious and went to their website and found this - looks like imagination in service of love to me! Yum!
The tricky thing with imagination is how powerful it is. When we get good at using our imaginations and getting out of our own way, it becomes easier and easier to create whatever we envision. Which is amazing! Yet sometimes when we get what we imagined, we realize it's not what we really wanted in the first place. Like all the stories with genies in them, we are taught to be careful what we wish for - we might get it!
Here are some tips to getting what you actually want using your imagination:
1. Begin with your feelings. How do you want to feel? Everything you wish for, from cars to a cool job to a wonderful partner to a beautiful home or a tropical vacation, or even world peace, you wish for because it's going to make you feel a certain way. What you really want is the feeling.
2. Visualize. Use any tool you want - writing, collages, daydreaming - to picture your desire. Be detailed. Be bold. Be even more unreasonable than giant script letters spelling lemonade!
3. Pre-member. Imagine it has already happened. Bask in the glow of your desire and the feeling you get from having it. Feel the fantastic feeling now.
4. Take steps in the real world. Tell people about your desires. (Ok. I will tell you one of mine. My current unrealistic "lemonade lemonade" desire is to bond with big cats but only in a way that doesn't harm or exploit them. I have no idea how this will happen. I really want to hug them but this seems exploitative in just about every scenario I can imagine. Or if it's not exploitative it seems dangerous.) I have many slightly more doable desires that I'm taking steps toward as well. And telling people about. And imagining how they might be possible.
5. Pop back to that feeling again. Any way you can get a taste of it now? The feeling I'm looking for with the big cats is connection - oneness. I can do that with so many species - not just big cats! I can bond with my small cat. I can hang out with the birds, squirrels, turtles and bees in the yard. I can watch videos of beautiful wild big cats. I can learn more about animal communication. Curious what I mean? Check out this gorgeous video of an animal communicator connecting with a black leopard. (I know it might be heavily edited and "storified", but it's still a beautiful video. And there is lots of lion hugging at the beginning!) I can donate to sanctuaries that rescue and don't exploit big cats. You may find a very simple beautiful way to get the feeling you want - without having to create anything complicated!
6. What if you create something you realize you didn't want after all? Maybe your dream job or dream house doesn't feel that way anymore - maybe it's not what you expected. That's ok - start again! Take another direction - try something completely different, or just tweak things slightly to connect you back to the feeling you were looking for. You don't have to stick with what you have just because you created it once - you can try something completely different! That's the power of imagination.
Oh, and if you know of a way I can hang out (unexploitatively) with big cats, let me know!
Visualizing your best holiday yet, even when the tree falls down...
The Christmas tree fell over just before guests were to arrive. And I had no time. I was like Bridgette Jones. With much to do and negative time remaining. I watched the tree fall over. I was across the room. The sound of shattering glass was heartbreaking. I called my husband in tears. Could he come home to help? Of course he could.
The irony wasn't escaping me. I was less than an hour away from hosting a Holiday Vision Board Party. I wanted my house to be an oasis of holiday cheer. The eight foot tree was the centerpiece. And it was on the floor, surrounded by needles and broken ornaments. I thought, "There's some life-coachy lesson here. What is it? Don't strive for perfection? Go on no matter what? It's not that bad?" My mind was not on board. I was a bit freaked out.
My husband came home. After some cursing and a second toppling of the tree, followed by more cursing, we got it back up and secured. Miraculously, many of the glass ornaments and most of the most irreplaceable heirloom ornaments had survived both falls. And when we plugged it in, it lit up! Truly a Christmas miracle!
But there was no time. I vacuumed quickly. I gathered the dozens of fallen and unbroken ornaments into a pile. I tried not to worry that the kitchen looked like a combat zone.
The guests arrived. I fixed drinks. I changed the beginning of the party to a "re-decorate the tree" activity. Everyone loved it!
And then, mostly to calm myself--my adrenaline was still going a mile a minute-- I led all of us in a holiday visualization. We took deep breaths. (I tried.) We climbed back into our bodies. (Everyone else was probably in their bodies already, but I had been gone for hours, lol!) We remembered a favorite holiday memory. We used all of our senses to dive back into the memory. Several of us got teary with the emotion. It was wonderful.
Try it now. Remember the sounds, sights, smells, tastes, textures - really revel in your happy memory. Now, recall the emotion you have around this memory. We recalled feelings like excitement, joy, comfort, safety, belonging, and love. It was beautiful.
Then we got down to the fun part - creating a holiday vision board! Each one was unique. One vision board simply had one image of a guy and a dog on the back of a pickup truck, because this person really wanted simplicity and the feeling of being on an adventure on the open road. Others focused on family and togetherness, or on relaxing and coziness. We had great fun. I had time to put out the food. We ate, drank, enjoyed the holiday music, the company, and the miraculously still-beautiful tree.
Would you like to envision your own best holiday yet? Grab some magazines, a glue stick, a piece of posterboard or paper, and scissors. Then print out this one page Holiday Vision Board guide. And if you email me what you create (carla@livingwildandprecious.com), I'll share it in an upcoming post! Or share your happy memory and feelings in the comments.
And if you need more help with making the holidays truly your own and making them match your life right now rather than five, ten, twenty or thirty years ago, click here for more tips, including how to avoid "holiday porn"!
My wish for you is a beautiful, just right for you holiday season!
The story of the tree with a heart in it
I love drawing. I especially love drawing with super-creamy water-soluble oil pastels. They're messy and imprecise and I feel like a kid when I use them. I don't draw as much as I'd like to. But that could change anytime, and maybe putting it out here will help it change. I especially like drawing just for the sake of drawing. Sometimes I get an idea in my head of something I'd like to draw and then copy from an image online, like this woodland path:
And sometimes I access my inner sixth grader and just make quick scribbly drawings like this garden of hearts:
So, months ago when I was trying to imagine an image that I could put on a business card that embodied wild and precious, I thought of the tree with the heart in it, and then remembered I'd already drawn one, about a year before. And in my quick way of doing something without messing around with it much, I just used a photo of a scanned copy of the tree and tossed it onto a lime green business card that looks like this:
I've drawn other trees with hearts in them, all over a year ago. The hearts are always a little lopsided, and I kind of like that. Maybe I'll turn them into notecards one day soon - they make me smile; maybe they'd make someone else smile too!
There's the original one,
one with a seasons theme,
and one with the Buddha (the Bodhi tree?) I love this one.
Maybe I'll go make some more in the next day or so. I've been away from those oil pastels for too long!
Is there some creative outlet that you love, but that you don't do as much as you'd like? Do you keep yourself from doing it because you're not "good enough" or not an expert? Do you fail to allow yourself the pure joy of creativity just for the sake of doing it?
Well, today, and tomorrow and the next day, go dance, write, draw, sing, or act. Take pictures. Make something with clay or paper or metal. It doesn't have to be useful. It doesn't have to serve any other purpose but being fun to create. More of this coming soon!