Best-selling author Joyce Schswarz, The Vision Board: the secret to an extraordinary life explains how vision board fans can take their life and work visioning to a deeper level after watching the new movie INCEPTION starring Leonardo DeCaprio in her new blog post on www.hollywood2020.net
By Joyce Schwarz, [email protected]
DISCOVERING THE POWER OF DEFINING IMAGES:
While delving into the writing of my book THE VISION BOARD: the secret to an extraordinary life, Harper Collins Publishing, Collins Design,12/22/09, I became even more fascinated than ever before with the power of imagery and what I call 'defining" images to power change in a person's life and work.
HOW VISUAL IMMERSION SPURS CREATIVITY
Bear with me a bit as I explain this fascination with defining images and then I'll show you how it ties together with the new Leaonardo DiCaprio film INCEPTION and what you can discover about creativity from watching that film and putting some of these key concepts into practice.
VISUAL MAP THAT EMPOWERS YOU TO LIVE THE FUTURE NOW!
Vision Boards as I found out researching their origin and popular culture impact back in 2007 are a deceptively simple way of creating a visual map to the life you desire to live. And in fact, truthfully my agent and I sold the book to Harper Collins based on a pitch that the volume would be a cross-between design and self help. The book proposal I wrote positioned vision boards as a type of folk art that was infused with new spiritual impact by being featured in the inspirational film THE SECRET and later on Oprah's show.
RISE IN POPULARITY OF VISION BOARD and DREAM BOARD AS TERMS ND AS EXERCISES IN OUR POPULAR CULTURE
Blogger note-- since that time in '07, I've monitored the rise of vision boards as an increasingly recognizable term in our popular culture and media. But that's another blog in itself. Suffice to say I've collected blog posts and news articles that document vision boards being used in such TV shows as "It's ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA", THE BACHELOR and films like THE WOMEN and others.
Vision Boards & Bean Counters DO MIX
Most recently I saw that vision board creation was part of an opening session at an accountants convention in the Midwest -- vision boards and bean counters do mix!
PAST-TENSE IN ADVANCE: In my Certified Vision Board Coach training (more than 75 CVBC grads around the globe) I explain that to truly activate a vision board -- or more correctly I should say to use the vision board as a tool to activate your own life, one of the techniques that provokes the strongest responses to that visual map is to do what I call "past-tense in advance".
Literally, take a leap of faith into the future and live that life you desire. Desire or what we call in the spiritual or wisdom community is better termed INTENTION. Past-tensing in advance is a term that journalists use when they cover an event that is about to happen (of course real-time blogs and the Internet probably date that term today) but say you're covering a School board meeting for a daily newspaper in Elyria, Ohio (like I did as an intern one summer a long long time ago)
And your deadline to get the article in is before the end of the school board meeting which later stretches into the early morning hours because of a debate over some 'hot' local issue. So you write the article as if it has already happened but you . You might say "as the paper went to press, the School board President was in heated argument with Mr. John Jones who claims the marching band music is making his dog sick. Other items on the agenda for tonight's board meeting included x & y & Z.
A very simplistic example of this would be that if you have a Jaguar sports car on your vision board, you will head to the Jaguar showroom and finagle a test drive.
At the very least, you'll get someone at the showroom to take a picture of you 'driving the Jaguar' while it sits in the showroom. And even before you get into the car you will feel the body of the car, touch the tires, run your hand across the chrome and as you open the door, you might even say to yourself, I'm opening the door to my Jaguar now and breath in the heady Jaguar new car smell.
Later you'll take the picture of you in the Jaguar and put it on your vision board and maybe even blog tht experience or make a Youtube video about it. Not unlike what WORK OF ART did recently with their reality show as the artists visit a new car showroom in NYC on BRAVO network.
Something I've often believed but had little scientific evidence for was that the "feeling' of the experience is more important than the visual -- immersing yourself into the future and bringing that bit of the future back to the present. Knowing now that YOU can experience it again and WILL.
CREATIVITY/DREAMS ABOUT THE FEELING not just the visual: As Ellen Page who plays Ariadne, a gifted young architecture student says in the film the feeling of the dreamscape is more important or stronger than the visual.
SCIENCE FICTION BECOMING SCIENCE FACT:
As this headline of the best news story I could find on the "psychology of Inception' explains science fiction is fast becoming science fact especially in the study of the brain:
| ||||
|
ABC News - Jul 16, 2010 The subhead for that article is: Dream Experts Say 'Inception's' Conception of the Subconscious Isn't Far From Science
LUCID DREAMING AT THE CORE OF INCEPTION's Plot
as the ABC story says, producer: Nolan takes the concept of lucid dreaming -- a dream in which the subject is aware that they're dreaming and can manipulate the dream -- and runs with it.
Expert explains POWER OF DREAMS in that same ABC news article : If you tell yourself, 'Tonight when I dream, I want to realize that I'm dreaming .....that's the single most powerful technique," said Deirdre Leigh Barrett, professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and editor of "The New Science of Dreaming."
CONTROLLING DREAMS AGE-OLD PRACTICE -- anyone into yoga or Buddhism or other practices knows that controlling one's dreams is an age-old practice. And delving into the various levels of consciousness is a skill that can be learned. That's why I included a whole chapter on the ancient art of visioning in my book THE VISION BOARD in fact.
DELVING INTO OTHER'S DREAMS POSSIBLE -- as many of us who watch lots of PBS TV and medical dramas know at UCLA and UC Berkeley they are already looking at neural images that evolve during the dream state. Cognitive neuroscience techniques allow researchers to view three-dimensional brain scans as they happen, and methods of monitoring the subconscious continue to advance. |
Couple this headline this spring from Intel:
IN INCEPTION the plot is driven by the concept of "dream sharing" how viable is that in today's world? The ABC story says, "You'll find it in mystical works going back thousands of years," said Dr. Matthew Edlund, author of "The Power of Rest." "You'll find in some cultures that priests are thought to be able to enter into people's dreams, like a Shaman can enter into a sick person's dream and help them with their illness."
INCUBATION -- setting the stage for your dreams & creative exploration
TIPS ON CREATIVITY and use of dreams to empower you!
That same ABC News article closes with a separate sidebar that talks about harnessing the power of dreams through a term called "incubation"
Deirdre Leigh Barrett, professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, explains that psychologists have developed rituals that aid in 'incubation' for those who want to use dreams to increase creativity and solve problems. Barrett offers the usual tips for remembering dreams but uses these as a way to 'encourage' creative dreaming ie 1) write down what you want to dream about 2) Sit on your bed and visualize yourself dreaming about the issue/problem or opportunity and keep a pencil handy of course for wakening in the am etc The usual things we almost all know about remembering dreams but this time she encourages us to use these tips to 'shape' the dream itself.
AHA --- confirmation for a vision board from a psyche!
The only tip that I really thought Leigh Barrett noted that was novel was to arrange objects that have to do with the creative issue/problem or opportunity around the bed or post them on the wall
JOYCE's TIPS FOR USING DREAMS FOR CREATIVE EVOLUTION and REALIZING LIFE VISIONS!
So I decided to distill this lengthy post down to its essence. Here are my top five tips for using your dream state to realize your life visions!
1) Create your vision board based on not just the stuff you want -- don't go through the magazines first. Design the board based on your own self-exploration process which can include group visioning or individual work on visioning the essence of your future.
PASSPORT TO POSSIBILITY -- if you're not sure what you want or can't get yourself beyond the stuff --car, house etc. Then I encourage you to see a Certified Vision Board Coach in your area www.visionboardinstitute.com will provide you with a directory so that you can do this powerful exercise that I developed back in 1986 and have used with more than 5000 people to determine what they really want in life.
2) Develop a vision statement -- a strong declarative sentence that explains not only what you want but why! My book THE VISION BOARD tells how to do this in Chapter 2.
3) From that Vision Statement create a mini-vision board with a handful of powerful images that literally envision that statement.
4) Develop additional rituals around your use of the vision board -- but the most important one is to put the board into action or rather -- you get into action and not only See the vision, Feel the Vision but BE THE VISION.
5) Get in as close proximity as possible to your vision and let the feeling soak into every sense of your body, visual, audio, touch, smell etc. Repeat this as many times as you can -- at least once a week.
6) CREATE A TALISMAN --Just as in the movie INCEPTION -- create a talisman that you can take with you wherever you go. In INCEPTION the talisman is a chess piece or a spinning metal top but yours might be a piece of jewelry.
For example when I was relocating to Hawaii I bought a gold neclace with a golden flip flop charm on it and even during my interview for the Vice President job at the big ad agency I eventually joined I wore that necklace. I owned the job, I owned a piece of Hawaii -- it became part of me I WAS LIVING THE FUTURE now.
During packing box after box waiting for the movers to come I regularly reached up to touch that golden flip flop and "feel the welcoming shores" of Hawaii flow into me (not over me. Later each anniversary year I was there I bought a new flip flop charm to remind me why I came to Hawaii . Crafting your own charm just like Ellen Page's character does in the film as she designs a golden chess piece may be even more powerful.
7) Add scent to the mix -- if I wanted a client to figure out the how of relocating to Hawaii -- I might suggest that she or he rub coconut oil sun tan lotion on before sleeping. Or add an infuser with that inviting smell to their bedroom area.
8) ADD TOUCH and TASTE to the mix -- prior to bedtime -- slice into a juicy pineapple from HAWAII get one that even has a sticker on it saying it's from Hawaii -- feel the pricklyness of the outer skin, savor that first piquant taste. Go ahead and live one night without brushing your teeth so the pineapple tast lingers.
9) Buy yourself a flower lei-- in Southern Califronia at graduation time flower leis are fairly reasonable - maybe $12 so buy that orchid lei and wrap it around your pillow feel the flowers and put them near your arm so you brush up against them or if you can sleep with it wear the lei. Make sure it's real flowers though. The flower smell the archtypal symbol of a Hawaiian lei will enhance the imaging.
10) HEAR THE SIREN CALL OF THE FUTURE...adding music to the mix is VERY powerful -- play TINY BUBBLES or some great Hawaiian local band music you find on the web to download on iTunes...listen for at least 15 minutes prior to going to bed. If you can keep your earbuds in to really flow with the beat.
11) Watch a Youtube video of walking on the beach, new software makes it possible to photo-shop you into the video..you can even make a video that shows you living in Hawaii before you ever visit. At the very least 'faux-to-shop' yourself into a picture of you in Hawaii --like I did here:
LIVE YOUR VISION ...best-selling author Joyce Schwarz, THE VISION BOARD explains in her blog post how the new Leonardo DiCaprio Movie INCEPTION reinforces her belief in the ancient art of visioning and vision boards. Joyce is shown above in a photo of her 'faux-to-shopped' into an image of a Hawaiian dancer to reinforce the concept of 'realizing your vision' and living the future now. See http//tinyurl.com/thevisionboard and click on look inside to see more about how the deceptively simple vision board exercise can empower your future!
NEXT -- an interview with a hypnosis expert and examples of visioning in action! Stay tuned for future blog posts on www.hollywood2020.net.
Comments