Like, really let yourself go there?
To allow a desire or goal to pop into your head and then allow thoughts to flow, limitlessly expand and elaborate.
Your past experience, limiting beliefs, neggy chatter, the need to intellectualise or analyse...they stay banished from the party!
When did you stop?
As a coach I find myself urging clients to reconnect to daydreaming and visualising. We feel as adults we must have permission to spend our time doing such a thing. But, this is vital to creating and making choices in our lives that are lead by heart, not head.
"Logic gets us from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." - Albert Einstein
I have watched in wonder as my daughter loses herself in her imagination - a stick and blanket turns her into a wizard with a magic wand and cape, she has put her ear to trees to hear their whispers and loses herself in drawing stories that reveal themselves to her as she draws!
Having the freedom to move into those mind states without beliefs holding back or filtering her experiences...this enables her to learn, connect to her wants and interests, to go to places that spark her curiosity. Being in her imagination in fact fuels more imagination! More creativity.
As adults, often our life demands us to be doing, doing, doing, thinking about the future, doing things under pressure. We are asked to conform, grow up, be realistic...these do not set fine conditions to creativity, so we lose connection to it.
But why is it important that we do?
Well, just like for my Ula, this is where we can connect to what we want without limiting and filtering what arises straight away. Sometimes our daydreams will be realistic, sometimes surreal...either way they offer us huge insight into what we're craving for, what we want to learn and how we can live more authentically as us.
Yes, you might not actually want to retrain to be a pilot right now, but what is it about that image that lit you up that might be lacking for you right now? The adventure, travel, autonomy, confidence? Listen to that - (whilst travel is pretty hard right now!) how can you mix up your schedule, try something new, jump in the car and go somewhere new that inspires you.
So here is a simple daydreaming practice to help you access the life you want to live...
1) Find a quiet spot somewhere where you can sit without being disturbed for 10-20 mins. Grab your journal and a pen and have it close.
2) Shake out your body, clear any agitation and use big satisfying exhales to let the day's pace and any worries soften
3) Sit or lay down, take 3 big breaths and then let your breath settle.
Scan down through your body and feel your weight against the stable support beneath you. Yield into it further with every exhale.
Imagine yourself in your favourite place in nature. Build that whole image through your senses: the taste, the smells, the sensations, the sounds. Settle here for a while.
Imagine then a door ten steps down in front of you. You walk down each step counting down from 10 and then step through the door.
You walk into a beautiful room: again take it in through all of your senses. In front of you is a screen and it's showing you in a years time exactly how you wish to be, step into that screen and start living it. Where do you live? What do you wear? How do you feel in yourself? What are you doing?
Allow yourself to just go there, explore it, be it, feel it. Then when you're ready, walk back out of the screen into the beautiful, still embodying that version of yourself, because they already exist in you.
Walk back through the door, into your favourite place in nature and bring yourself back into your real space in time. Back into your body, follow the breath, notice how you feel.
As you slowly bring yourself round, gently moving and stretching the body, take pen to paper and jot down anything that felt significant, exciting, compelling...and let that curiosity and inspiration grow.
WHENEVER YOU FEEL YOUR "HEAD" TAKING OVER, ANALYSING OR FILTERING WHAT COMES UP FOR YOU, NOTICE AND ACKNOWLEDGE IT AND USE YOUR EXHALES TO LET THAT NEED TO CONTROL GO, IT IS NOT NEEDED HERE.