“To Visualize is to see what is not there, what is not real – a dream.  To visualize is, in fact, to make visual lies. Visual lies, however, have a way of coming true.”  Peter McWilliams

Visualizing your future helps to make it come true.   It’s a secret that top athletes and entrepreneurs have been using for centuries.

Some would call that little bit of magic “the law of attraction”, but I think it’s more like this:  when you set your intentions, out loud and in writing, your subconcious mind picks it up and believes it and stores it away.

Then, with that intention stored away, whenever something or someone comes your way that can help propel you to the intentions you’ve set, your subconcious recognizes it and sends a bolt through your body. This is what we call “inklings” or “instinct” or “urge.”

Have you ever had a strong urge to call someone or to do something, and you werent’ sure why?  Often we ignore those urges.  Some of us have been ignoring them all of our lives, so much so that we don’t even recognize them anymore.

We should never ignore our urges - an urge is our subconcious telling us that something we’ve been waiting for has arrived.  Here’s the important thing to remember:  usually it arrives looking very different than you imagined or expected.

And that’s where faith comes in.

Some people have a hard time visualizing.  It takes practice.  I’ve been practicing for years and now I’ve gotten good at it.  The thing that helped me the most was doing guided visualization meditations on a daily basis.  Now I can visualize at the drop of a hat.

Today, though, let’s visualize your intentions for this year through a fun little writing exercise.

This will help you visualize how you want your year to end up and what great things you want to make happen for yourself in 2011.

Write a letter to your mom or your best friend or even yourself; someone who cares deeply about you and will be excited when they hear about all the great things that happen to you.

Date it a year from now, and then write it as if the year has gone exactly as you want it to.  What’s surprising is that as you do this, new ideas will pop into your head that you haven’t thought of previously.

Be as specific as possible with as many details as you can.  Keep it positive and only list those things you want to happen.

Avoid stating the negative.  For example:  You want to kick out that bum friend that’s been living in your basement for free for the past eight months.  Your letter would put a positive spin on it like this:  ”Jack found another place to live and we have turned that room into a new office for me!”

One last suggestion:  leave your logic behind!  Go wild – it’s not like everything you write down actually has to happen.

This exercise is designed to get your creative juices flowing on the possibilities that life could have for you.

If you want more help on this exercise, check out Writing a Letter From Your Future Self and The Personal Excellence Blog.

After you’ve written your letter, go to FutureMe.Org and send the letter to your future self.  I just did with the letter below that I wrote to my friend Bridget.  I’ll receive this letter by email in one year.  Most likely, I’ll forget that I ever wrote it….

And then I’ll be surprised that most everything I wrote in the letter came true.  That’s how these things tend to work.

Grab yourself a pen and and have fun with this.  In the comments below, please tell me the top 3 wonderful things that “happened to you” in 2011!

(Below is the future letter I wrote to my best friend Bridget.)

March 1, 2012

Dear Bridget,

I have had the most amazing year!  It brought many great gifts and a few challenges, all of which I’ve grown from.

First, I learned how to deal with adversity through a few things that went wrong.  Like when both of my laptops broke at once – I had to learn the technical end of things.  Now, I’m an expert at dealing with PC problems!

Then, I got my THE PAINT SHOP tv show on the air.  And though it started out slow, only airing to three million people in Southern California, it’s now aired on National television!  I’m getting letters from artists all over the country who are not only inspired by the show, but energized by the idea that they, too, can earn a living doing what they love.

The show has attracted like-minded Sponsors who believe in our message on the show.  They are covering our costs and have enabled us to create top-quality episodes that we are very proud of.  We are being paid now to create this new art form that we’ve developed though tv.

Another great fallout from the tv show is that we’ve finally dispelled the myth of what professional artists do all day.  People are beginning to understand that the business of art is really about connecting with people, doing the work you love, and executing it to your best ability.  The stereotype of the “starving artist” is being thrown out the window!

We have signed on some very large clients this year as well.  We are doing business with one of the top car companies and the oldest camera company in America.  These partnerships have been lucrative for us, and now we are signing escrow papers for our dream house on the beach.

This year I’ve developed powerful skills in public speaking.  I’m finally comfortable on camera, and now it’s fun for me to be filmed!  That was the greatest milestone of all for me.

Drew and I are having a lot of fun creating new things together, and life is just getting more and more exciting.

I can’t wait to see you and hear about how 2011 went for you, too!

Life is Good – your best friend, Maria

“See things as you would have them be instead of as they are.”  Robert CollierSimilar Posts:

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Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds!

Shine.” Buddha

Do you think it’s possible, that just by practicing meditation, you can unlock creativity within yourself?

Many published writers and visual artists attribute the practice of meditation to their success.

WHY MEDITATE?

The regular practice of meditation can help:

• Unlock writer’s block
• Create a flow of ideas for new paintings
• Clear the mind of junk
• Enable you to better focus on your craft.

My artist husband, Drew Brophy, meditates every morning before he starts his day.

He says that meditation “gets rid of all the other nonsense in your brain so you can begin with a clean place, no distractions.  It allows me to focus better.”

As a result, Drew is one of the most focused, organized people I know.

HOW MEDITATION UNSTUCK MY CREATIVITY:

I’m about halfway through a book I’m writing for artists on the business of art.  It was going well, until a couple of months ago when I felt “stuck”.  I had hit a wall and feared that I would abandon the project.  But I had already told so many people that I was writing this book, I knew that I had to finish it!

So I decided to take a trip to recharge my mind.  A search on the internet led me to a writer’s meditation retreat at the Shambhala Mountain Center in Red Feather Lakes, CO.   Susan Piver, a bestselling author, was the instructor.

Her course description read “Through practicing meditation we can access our true voice and deepest inspiration.”

The idea that meditation could somehow unlock my creativity within was intriguing.

I registered, and 2 weeks later, flew to the cold, Colorado mountains to learn how to deepen my meditation and become a better writer.

This retreat created a huge breakthrough for me.  Susan got us into a routine of meditating first, and then free-writing.  I’ve since taken this routine home, and it’s opened up an entire new world of writing.  I’m back to making progress on my book, which feels great.  (Another benefit is that I’m a lot calmer, meaning that I’m less likely to lose it when my son accidentally wipes chocolate on my white shirt, or when a client rubs me the wrong way.)

WHAT IS MEDITATION?

In simple terms, meditation is the self-directed practice for relaxing the body and calming the mind.  There are many different ways to meditate.  For me, its finding stillness in the mind by sitting quietly and ridding my mind of thought of anything other than where I am at that moment.  One way of stilling the mind is to focus on your breath, which keeps you in the present moment.

It’s not easy, stilling the mind, especially for someone like me who is super-hyper, full of ideas, one right after another.

When learning to meditate, instructors will advise that “if a thought arises, gently acknowledge it and bring your mind back to your breath.”  Good advice.  It’s really taken me a lot of practice just to go a few minutes without a racing mind!  But each time I meditate, I get better and better at it.

Susan Piver wrote a blog post titled “Five common misconceptions about Meditation” and it provides a link to instructions.  I recommend checking it out.

MY MEDITATION / CREATION ROUTINE:

I wake up an hour or two before Drew and my son wake up.  I light candles and place a pillow on the floor to sit on.  I sit with a straight back, legs crossed, hands placed palm down just above my knees, eyes softly gazing straight ahead.  I set a timer for 10-20 minutes.

Immediately after meditation, I’ll move to the kitchen table and do a free-writing exercise for 30 minutes.  This is where I write anything that comes to me, always keeping the pen moving.  Once I’ve written, pen to paper, I’ll open the laptop and re-write, clean it up, and then post it or save it for more work later.

WHY A ROUTINE WORKS:

It’s what you do every day that shapes your career and your future. I’m committed to becoming an excellent writer.  And I know that in order to do that, I have to write, every day, regardless of how inspired I am or how poorly the words are coming out that day.  Beginning with meditation gives my mind a clean slate, one in which new ideas can more easily grow and flourish.

FOR MEDITATION BEGINNERS:

There are guided meditations you can buy on itunes and on CD.

Some of my favorite guided meditations are Meditations for Busy People (8-10 minute meditations) by Bodhipaksa and Indigo Dreams Soundtrack by Lori Lite.

I also recommend going on youtube and doing a search of “guided meditation” – here you’ll find many short, good meditations for free.

Find a meditation routine that works best for you, and make it a part of your daily life. It may work best for you to meditate right before you begin a new painting project.  Or, you may prefer to do it first thing in the morning when you wake up (this works best for me).  No matter what works for you, try to do it consistently so you’ll enjoy the benefits.

I heard someone once say that there is great freedom in routines, because it is what allows us to be who it is we want to be.

And like I said in one of my previous posts, “you are what you do every day“.

“Practice meditation regularly.  Meditation leads to eternal bliss. Therefore meditate, meditate.”  Swami Sivananda

Maria XXOOSimilar Posts:

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