Power Tools of SOM, Part 2
Another wonderful tool many folks bank on is visualizing, which is imagining a successful outcome of any situation or upcoming experience. It’s helpful for me to run through my mind’s eye that successful job interview, the disgruntled customer coming to a happy resolution, or the sale of the house going through in such a way that everyone wins. This kind of thinking definitely primes the pump ahead of time, getting me ready in my heart and mind.
While visualization IS a really helpful practice, it also is limited to only what I can imagine, in my human experience and finite being. So how do we turn this helpful tool into a power tool? We turn it over to the Divine and Its Infinite Warehouse of Possibilities with a practice called visioning.
Visioning is a spiritual practice that you can read all about in Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith’s book Life Visioning in which he describes a sort of meditative practice that opens us up to the guidance of the Divine. Instead of visualizing what I think the best outcome would be, what would happen if I listened to the Divine Idea of that best outcome? That certainly would produce some answers that little ol’ me would have come up with!
In this meditative state, there are key questions that tend to yield powerful answers:
What is Spirit’s highest vision for my life?
What must I release for this vision to become manifest?
What must I embrace…?
Is there anything else for Spirit to share now?
One helpful adaptation includes focusing the first question on a specific topic like what is Spirit’s highest vision for my life’s work? Additional questions include: who must I become for this vision to become manifest and/or what is mine to do related to _______?
Beginning and ending this visioning session in prayer and making sure there is plenty of silent space in between questions creates the sacred space to hear the Still Small Voice within, in whatever form that voice takes. When people are visioning, they sometimes get words or phrases, images or colors, songs or physical sensations. And, sometimes they get absolutely nothing from a particular question, and that’s alright too. The biggest suggestion is not to judge it; allow and let it unfold of its own accord. Most people are very surprised down the road when that image or those words come back around in a very concrete way.
Visioning has been a power tool for me personally, for groups of people such as a board of trustees looking to create mindful strategic planning, and even for entire spiritual communities who may be in transition from one minister to the next. Anytime someone or some group wants guidance from a higher view, visioning is the right tool for the job. Then it truly is, “not my will but Thy will be done.”