We’re you ever forced to write something 100 times on the blackboard? Or perhaps you witnessed someone having to do this. Think back and remember how that felt.
One of our teenage foster kids incessantly left the kitchen cabinets and drawers open. He’d finish unloading the dishwasher and when walked into the kitchen, just about every single cabinet door and drawer would be wide open. Or he’d get a plate out of the cabinet, turn around and put food on it and not close the cabinet door. We’d bang our heads on the open doors and everyone in the family was frustrated with him. With 5 teenagers in the home, this was becoming an escalated problem. He didn’t want to do this, but he was completely unaware of it so he couldn’t change his behavior.
I tried many solutions. Sticky notes. Verbal reminders. Yelling. Rewards of extra allowance. More free time. Consequences of losing TV time. Family peer pressure. Nothing worked.
Then I tried repetition and visualization. I had him see the cabinets and drawers closed and how nice that was. I had him feel what it was like to open a drawer, get out a spoon, and close the drawer afterwards. Then I had him open and close each cabinet door 100 times and say out loud, “I will close the kitchen cabinets” each time.
It wasn’t long before we weren’t hitting our heads any longer.
Author David Cameron Gikandi, in A Happy Pocketful of Money writes,
Images. Images. Images! Life is images of the mind expressed. Imagine your life as you wish it to be—picture perfect, with color and details in your mind, every day. Spend an hour a day doing your images. And throughout the rest of the day, keep your thoughts in harmony with your images of your chosen life. This is so important that it cannot be overemphasized. The Source, God, works perfectly, giving you exactly what you envision and think about. Exactly. No more, no less. It is therefore extremely important that you have crystal-clear images and thoughts, consistently.
I have been practicing this more and more and actually seeing some remarkable results.
When my husband and I were house hunting, we couldn’t find anything in our price range that would work for our needs. We were frustrated. I remember walking through a home that was for sale, then sitting outside in the car crying trying to figure out how I was going to reconfigure myself to fit into the box I was looking at. It wasn’t even close to what I wanted.
Nancy, a dear friend, says, “Never downgrade your dream.” I was doing just that.
Then one day I was going to an event with Susan, a friend of mine, and I was venting my frustrations. She said, “I’m coming to visit you in your new home soon. Tell me what it looks like.”
At first I didn’t get it. I couldn’t even conceptualize how I would describe the home I wanted. Susan just waited.
So I took a deep breath and began to feel into what I wanted in a home. I envisioned opening the front door and welcoming her, showing her to her room, and having a cup of tea with her on the porch. I described the home in detail and when I was done, she said, “that was good!”
A few weeks later, I found that very home in a neighborhood I had always wanted to live in. Michael and I went to see it, put an offer on it that afternoon, and are happily living there. It had everything and more that I had described. We have loved living there.
Gikandi, in A Happy Pocket Full of Money states that we should spend an hour a day creating images. Take a moment and think of a problem that you are facing. What images can you come up with to resolve that problem?
When I coach clients in my Quantum Shift Your Business programs, I ask them to think about an outcome they want. What images can you create about that outcome? Then I witness them. The combination of creating images and having them witnessed is powerful.
If you need another car, what does it look like? How do you pack for a trip in it? Where do you park it? How does it feel to drive to work or the grocery store?
If you want a better relationship with someone in your family, what does that look like? Spend an hour creating images of your interactions. What are you doing together and where do you sit? What are you wearing? How do they smell and look? Experience the images.
In August, I am leading a very creative writing Masterclass on Facebook live. I will lead you through exercises to create images and write down what you see, feel, and hear. There is a lot of energy in doing this in a group and witnessing one another. Then we are going to be posting in the group what we write, and when and how those images begin to materialize in your life. We will be witnessing one another and watching God, our Source, bring into existence what we imagined.
Get ready! We are going to create some amazing things.