Realize Your Dreams

As we start to bring yet another year to a close, many of us will use this time to reflect on what we've done, and what we want to do in the New Year. Personally, I sit down and map out five things that I'd like to see come to fruition over the next year. It's not really resolution-setting, but intention-setting. They are things that I'd like to manifest, but require me to make decisions in order to stay on a certain path to see them through.

But this practice doesn't only apply to my end-of-the-year assessments. I actually have visualizations that I use every single day to help guide me to make decisions to move my life in the direction I hope for. We've all seen, and maybe even used vision boards to help us map out our futures. In fact, vision boards were my go-to for decades. However, the problem with them is that sometimes it's hard to really take a written word and turn into a true vision for yourself.

Over the last several years, I've taken to doing a morning meditation that is actually my own vision of my future. On the mornings when I'm blessed enough not to be awakened by my alarm, I use that extra time to lay there and breathe life into the future. Below, I'll walk you through some examples, but the real magic of what I do in the morning, is that I can really FEEL the vision. When I imagine what my life looks like with a manifested goal, I don't just see it- I breathe it into life! I can actually feel all the sensations that having that dream be realized would give me.

Visions come to fruition when you embody them.

For example, for many, many, many years, one of the most embarrassing and soul-crushing issues I contended with was being in serious credit card debt. Years of expensive taste and reckless spending coupled with living in the priciest zip codes in the world had left me buried in the red. Of course, I'd do "my best" at trying to chip away at it. I put sexy six-figure numbers for my income on my vision board. I'd hope to someday be paying those pesky cards down to zero every month. But the real problem, was that I couldn't FEEL what it would be like to be completely out of debt.

That all changed when I stopped writing down my visions, and started feeling my visions.

Instead of glancing at my vision board on the wall, and really just thinking, "That'd be nice," I started feeling the amazing sense of freedom, lightness, and pride I would have when looking at my $0 balance on my credit card apps. That amazing feeling of not being weighed down with that debt, that is what got me to start making decisions that actually helped it come to fruition. I was finally able to emerge into a woman who is debt-free!

I use the example above because it's relatable to most of us. But of course I encourage you to use the idea of visualizations in regards to

owning your wellness. Start with just one or two small things you want to see come to fruition this year. Lay there with your eyes closed and see what reality could look like, feel like, smell like, taste like, BE like with your dream realized. I used to (and still do for fear of a relapse) envision opening my credit card apps, and seeing a zero balance due. Then I would open my banking app, and see two very specific six-digit numbers in the checking and savings balances. I would have such a wonderful feeling of "Ahhhh" when I saw all those numbers!! No red, just ahhhh.

What are a couple things that might totally change your life if you could bring them into fruition? Being able to run a few miles? Maybe sleeping 8 hours a night? Wearing a sleek little cocktail dress? Putting on a killer tux and buttoning the jacket? Regardless of what it is, when you lay there and envision it, feel all the feels! Here are few examples:

• Putting on a pair of jeans you have coveted: You go into your closet, and move a few things to the side to see them hanging there. You pull them off the hanger and hold them in front of you and smile. You open them, and slide one leg in- effortlessly. As you put the other leg in and start to slide them to your waist, you feel them glide right up. Without sucking in your breath or laying on the bed, you just button and zip them up. You even squat down quickly in awe of how easily you can move in them. As you smile to yourself, you walk right past the mirror because you know just how fantastic you look and feel and don't need any validation.

• Sleeping 8 or more hours per night: You see yourself in the early evening, stepping away from the computer and putting your phone into airplane mode. You make your way to your bathroom and take a warm shower. When head to your bed, and see you new favorite novel sitting at your bedside. It's a great book, but taking you forever to finish, because after just a few minutes of reading, your eyes start to get heavy. You barely have the energy to put it down and turn off the nightstand light. Only seemingly moments later you roll-over to see that it is just 5 minutes before your alarm goes off. It's as if you were in a time-warp. You prop up your pillows and take a couple deep breaths. You are actually happy to be starting your day and smile. Your first thoughts are of how wonderful you feel, not about mainlining coffee.

• Eating intuitively: You are sitting at your desk completely wrapped up in a project. You look at the clock on the computer and realize you've been sitting there for over 3 hours, and start to feel the grumblings of hunger in your stomach. As you find a stopping point, you contemplate what you might want for lunch, even though it's really already 3pm. Instead of being concerned about having skipped a meal or even feeling shaky from hunger, you get up and send a text to your friend down that road to see if they'd like to meet you at the café. When you run into them in line to order, you enjoy catching up with them. In fact you barely remember to think about what you'll order yourself. When you finally look at the menu on the board you see a delicious sandwich you've always wanted to order but felt guilty to. When the server brings it to your table, you let it sit for a minute, engrossed in your friend's work drama story. You finally take a big juicy bite, and feel how amazing all the textures and flavors are in your mouth! With each bite you find yourself getting more and more full, and are surprised when you end up leaving more than a quarter of it sitting uneaten. As you walk away from your visit with your friend, all you are thinking about is how wonderful it was to catch up, and hope you'll see them again soon...

What all these 3 visions have in common is that they are stories. You can see yourself living them. You breathe life into them. You are there! It's almost a form of self-hypnosis! By knowing what it feels like to be that person, you intuitively and organically start making decisions and choices in your daily life that actually bring that vision to fruition!

I have a feeling that you'll find you end up with a similar issue that I have these days: I have to keep coming up with new visions because my old ones are now my reality!