Envision Your Dream, Daily

There’s a principle referred to in many meditative traditions called “Dying Daily.” This means that every day as you practice contemplation or meditation you SURRENDER. In a way you are surrendering your ‘old self’ to be reborn to the ‘new’, daily.

So, here’s a thought. Remember to DREAM daily. By this I mean, envision your Life Dream every day, knowing that your Present exists in relationship with this desired future condition! Then every day you are living INTO your “dream come true.”

Many years ago I made a huge transition when I moved from Buffalo, New York (a lifelong Easterner til then) to Phoenix, Arizona (Out West). Every night for the year preceding this big move, I contemplated and asked questions inwardly  about this momentous turning point.  I work spiritually as many do with an Inner Guide figure, which helps me to focus on gaining higher awareness.  And every night, my question would be answered in a dream. One night, I woke with an actual song jingle and melody:

“I’m leaving, but there are a few doors left to close before I get over there.”

For the rest of the six months or so before my Great Adventure West, I sang this song frequently every day. Meanwhile I also taped pictures from SEDONA LIFE Magazine, a wonderful photojournalist sort of magazine depicting the amazing red rocks and canyons of Sedona, Arizona onto my office wall.

I was PREPARING, both outwardly and inwardly; orienting toward the new life I was about to assume with this trip upon which I was about to embark. The song lyric helped me realize every day that every action I was taking was movng me in the direction of this transformational life experience.

My move from Buffalo to Phoenix was indeed transformational! I became an anthropologist and experienced the Southwest and Native American cultures like I never could even have imagined as an Easterner.

So, what is YOUR DREAM around the horizon of some major departure? IMAGINE it daily; place PICTURES of your destination in your mind … and on your walls.  LIVE your dream now, in your imagination. Contemplate it, meditate about it. Surrender to its amazing potentials.

Now as I approach returning ‘back East’ for transitioning into the next stage of my life in 3 years, on my computer desktop I have a sepia postcard of the lake I will relocate near. Along the right of my screen is the lakeside  shoreline, winding up and around toward a clock tower that represents the very town I will be moving to. So, I have copied and pasted a little rowboat icon onto the base of this shoreline. Now every time I take some action in my daily life that moves me somehow closer to realizing this Big Move, I move the rowboat icon up the shoreline just a bit, closer to my Dream destination.

What are you doing or what might you do to ENVISION your future Dream come true? I welcome your insights and stories!

 

Take a Balloon Ride to a Higher Perspective

What is your next step forward that will move you in the direction of realizing your fullest potentials or a specific goal? Are you considering a significant decision yet remain unsure about which way you should go or whether to make a change at all? I offer you below a creative visualization/ active imagination technique that you can use to help you achieve a higher vantage point (cf. this month’s metaphor of life as “a mountain with vistas.”)

Creative Visualization technique:

Imagine you are in a round room with several doors and high, solid walls. Above the walls they are extended upwards by a clear plexiglass-like tube that forms into a dome at its apex. You know that you can open any door and step through that, but once you have chosen a door and step through it, you also know that you can never go back to this room for the door will automatically lock from the inside, behind you. You also have the awareness that each door is a portal to a specific direction that will realize one of your present options in relation to a goal or decision you are facing.

Imagine next that near the center of this large, circular room there is a small table and a chair. On the table is a sketch pad and a cup of pastel drawing sticks. Sit down and draw for yourself a colorful picture of a hot air balloon. Then move the table away from the center and place your picture there on the floor instead. Watch as this picture materializes into a real, full-sized hot air balloon, already inflated with its firebox glowing brightly.

Step into your balloon basket and you can remove sand bags from the basket so your balloon rises into the space above the solid walls of the room. Your balloon lifts slowly upwards toward the plexiglass dome, coming to a rest point to hover midway between the top of the walls and the dome.

As you look down from the balloon you can see the room you were in and you can also see 360 degrees all around that room on the outside. You can see where each of the doors of opportunity would lead you to, what sorts of pathways each represents for you as choices you could take toward achieving your goal or desire.

Stay as long as you wish in your balloon, considering all of your options freely.

When you have become aware of which of the doors below appears to open to the most desirable positive direction for you to take, you can lower the flame gradually in your firebox so your balloon settles gently back down into the room.

Now you are free to open and walk through the door that opens onto your greatest future potential!

I welcome your Comments or stories!