Over the last few months, we’ve been taking a closer look at visualization. If you’ve been following along, you probably have a pretty clear idea of what visualization is, but you may be wondering when to use it and how it works.
There are many ways to use visualization, some are particularly effective and supportive, such as:
- exploring an important question;
- refining details of a dream or goal, to make it feel more real;
- helping you to compare the pros and cons of two choices;
- or help you narrow a number of choices down to one or two that feel right.
Visualization can also support healing around issues that you’re not yet fully conscious of. As you use this tool, you’ll find other aspects of your journey that benefit from it.
Timing can be everything, when it comes to visualization.
Ideally, you want to have thought about and explored your subject or idea enough to be ready to “play with” it—to be clear where you’d like to go with it and be ready to refine and explore changes to it, or know the aspects that you want to zero in on to gain clarity. Often in our lives, we will repeatedly explore different aspects of the same fundamental question or challenge. It’s the specific facets that respond to the visualization tool, rather than the bigger question, once that is clear. “I struggle with being authentic” is a much bigger and more general topic than “Which of these two job offers provides the best opportunity for me to be true to myself?”
Let’s say I have a decision to make, and I feel torn about which choice is best. Usually, when I get to this point, I’ve already explored the pros and cons, yet I still don’t feel certain. I start by acknowledging the situation as it is, by seeing it in my mind’s eye, with as little judgment as possible. I look at it from various angles to understand it more fully. Then I go deeper, visualizing specific aspects and weighing how they resonate with what I know to be true for me. The decision becomes much clearer this way.
This general process works well for decision-making of all kinds, and I’ve used it to open up possibilities and gain clarity in my coaching business. For me, a big challenge that I’ve been given the opportunity to work on again and again is difficulty trusting myself. Growing up with adults who repeatedly betrayed my trust and didn’t respect my boundaries caused me to doubt my own truth and look outside myself for answers. But deep down, especially once I started coaching, I knew that doubting myself was getting in the way of learning, growing, and enjoying the work I do—as well as limiting the results I was able to achieve with clients.
In the process of using gem essence therapy and coaching others, I’ve learned that I have the intuitive ability and skills to heal people in a way that is faster and more effective than the techniques taught in mainstream psychology and coaching training. But I struggled with whether to identify who I really was: an intuitive healer. What if people didn’t understand? What if I lost business opportunities because I seemed too “out there” or “woo” or even fake?
This came back to my fundamental question: Can I really trust my own truth?
I started my visualization of exploration with a question. Can I say that I am an intuitive healer without rejection or loss of credibility as a professional coach?
After getting centered and fully present, as I do with all my meditations, I asked the question. As I began to envision what would happen if I began to express myself as an intuitive healer, I realized that the people who wouldn’t believe me, or who would have a problem with it, aren’t the clients I want to serve. And even more importantly, the clients who value my unique talents have no way to find me unless I clearly express who I am and what I can do. As I thought about being who I really am, I felt so much lighter and freer—a very different experience from the tension I feel in my gut when I know I’m limiting myself by trying to fit in a box. I realized that it’s okay if not everyone likes me, when I’m truly myself. It’s much more important that I like myself—and that I honor and respect my innate gifts and talents.
After this visualization, I started to tell more people about what I do, beyond the usual tools of coaching. To my surprise, there are endless potential clients who value my unique skill set. The results I get when I am authentic are so rewarding that I have been able to step fully into healing my self-doubt, and I no longer give more weight to others’ opinions than I do to my own truth.
Are you ready to put visualization to work for you? Schedule a Discovery Session, and let’s explore!
Warmly,
