Creative Visualization

Whatever you ardently desire,
Sincerely believe in,
Vividly imagine, and
Enthusiastically act upon,
Must inevitably come to pass.

- Sybil Leek, Diary of a Witch

What is Creative Visualization?

Creative visualization is the technique of using your imagination to create what you want in your life. In the past many of us have used our power of creative visualization in a relatively unconscious way. Because of our own deep-seated negative concepts about life, we have automatically and unconsciously expected and imagined lack, limitation, difficulties, and problems to be our lot in life.

It should be noted that this technique cannot be used to "control" the behavior of others or cause them to do something against their will. Whatever you try to create for another will always boomerang back to you. That includes both loving, helpful, or healing actions and negative, destructive ones.

To use creative visualization it is not necessary to believe in any metaphysical or spiritual ideas. It is not necessary to "have faith" in any power but yourself. Creative visualization is magic in the truest and highest meaning of the word.

Magic: Understanding and aligning yourself with the natural principles that govern the workings of our universe, and learning to use these principles in the most conscious and creative way.

How Creative Visualization Works

In order to understand how Creative Visualization works, it's useful to look at several interrelated principles:

• The physical universe is energy
• Energy is magnetic (like attracts like)
• Form (physical energy) follows idea (mental energy)
• Whatever you put out to the universe will be reflected back to you

Four Basic Steps for Effective Creative Visualization

• Set your goal
• Create a clear idea or picture
• Focus on it often
• Give it positive energy

Continue to work with this process until you achieve your goal, or no longer have the desire to do so. Remember that goals often change before they are realized. If you lose interest it may mean that it's time for a new look at what you want.

Affirmations

Affirmations are one of the most important elements of creative visualization. An affirmation is a strong, positive statement that something is already so. It is a way of "making firm" that which you are imaging.

The practice of doing affirmations allows us to begin replacing some of our stale, worn out, or negative mind chatter with more positive ideas and concepts. It is a powerful technique, one that can in a short time completely transform our attitudes and expectations about life, and thereby totally change what we create for ourselves.

An affirmation can be any positive statement:

Everything I need is already within me.
The universe is unfolding perfectly.
All things are now working together for good in my life.
I love and appreciate myself.

Here are some important things to remember:

Always phrase affirmations in the present tense.
Always phrase affirmations in the most positive way you can.
In general, the shorter and simpler the better.
Always use affirmations that feel totally right for you.
Always remember that you are creating something new, not trying to redo or change what already exists, which would create conflict.
Affirmations are not meant to contradict or try to change your feelings or emotions, even the so-called "negative" ones.
Temporarily suspend your doubts and hesitations, and put your full mental and emotional energy into your affirmations.

When you are coming out of the empty, grasping, manipulative condition, the first and foremost lesson to be learned is to just let go. You must relax, stop struggling, stop trying so hard, stop manipulating things and people to try to get what you want and need. In fact, just stop doing so much and have an experience of just being for awhile.

When you do this, you suddenly discover that you're really perfectly okay, just letting yourself be, and letting the world be. You begin to want to focus your energy toward the highest and most fulfilling goals that are real for you at any given moment.

Being, Doing, and Having

Often people try to live their lives backwards: They try to have more things in order to do more of what they want, so that they will be happier.

The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do in order to have what you want.

Three Necessary Elements

Desire - a clear, strong sense of purpose
Belief - that it can exist, and that it can exist for you
Acceptance - are you willing to have it completely (pro and con)?

Going With the Flow

The only effective way to use creative visualization is "going with the flow." That means that you don't have to "effort" to get where you want to go; you simply put it out clearly to the universe where you would like to go, and then patiently and harmoniously follow the flow of the river of life until it takes you there.

Going with the flow means holding onto your goals lightly (even though they may seem very important) and being willing to change them if something better comes along. Going with the flow is the balance between keeping your destination clearly in mind, and yet also enjoying all the beautiful scenes along the way, and even being willing to change your destination if life starts carrying you in a better direction. The only successful manifestation is one which brings about a change or growth in consciousness; that is, it has manifested God/dess, or revealed it more fully, as well as having manifested a form...

Accepting Your Good

In order to use creative visualization to create what you want in life, you must be willing and able to accept the best that life has to offer you - your "good." Many of us have difficulty accepting the possibility of having what we want in life. This usually stems from some basic feelings of unworthiness which we took on at a very early age. Affirmations and creative visualization are a wonderful way of creating a more positive and loving self-image. First, it lets you accept and love yourself as you are. Second, it lets you start creating yourself as you want to be.

Prosperity Programming

A very important part of the whole creative visualization process is prosperity programming. This means having the understanding, or consciously taking the point of view, that the universe is totally abundant...it is a cornucopia of everything that your heart could ever desire, both on the material plane and on emotional, mental, and spiritual planes as well. One of the most common causes of failing to get what you want is "scarcity programming." The truth about this earth is that it is an infinitely good, beautiful, nourishing place to be. The only "evil" comes from lack of understanding of this truth. Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its own, it is simple a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it - you must shine a light on it. Unless you can create a context that the world is a good place to be that can potentially work for everyone, you will experience difficulty in creating what you want in your personal life.

Outflowing

Another key principle is that of giving, or "outflowing." Once we begin to accept the goodness of the universe, we naturally want to share it as well, realizing that as we give out of our energy, we make space for more to flow into us. When through insecurity we try to hold onto what we have, we begin to cut off this wonderful flow of energy.

Energy takes many forms, such as love, affection, appreciation and recognition, material possessions, money, friendship, etc., and the principles apply equally to all these forms.

A Simple Exercise in Creative Visualization

First, think of something you would like. It might be an object you would like to have, an event you would like to happen, a situation in which you'd like to find yourself, or some circumstance in your life you'd like to improve.

Get in a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down, in a quiet place where you won't be disturbed. Relax your body completely. Breathe slowly and deeply. Count down slowly from 10 to 1, feeling yourself getting more deeply relaxed with each count.

When you feel deeply relaxed, start to imagine the thing you want exactly as you would like it. You may imagine what people are saying, or any details that make it more real to you. You may take a relatively short time or quite a few minutes to imagine this - whatever feels best for you. It should be a thoroughly enjoyable experience, like a child daydreaming.

Now keeping the idea or image still in your mid, mentally make some very positive, affirmative statement about it. Always end your visualization with a firm statement to yourself:

This, or something better, now manifests for me in totally satisfying and harmonious ways, for the highest good of all concerned.

This leaves room for something different and even better than you originally envisioned to happen, and serves as a reminder to you that this process only functions for the mutual benefit of all.

If doubts or contradictory thoughts arise, don't resist them or try to prevent them. This will tend to give them a power they don't otherwise have. Just let them flow through your consciousness and return to your positive statements and images.

It's Important to Relax

It's important to relax deeply when you are first learning to use creative visualization. When your body and mind are deeply relaxed, your brain wave pattern actually changes. This deeper, slower level is commonly called alpha level, which has been found to be a very healthful state of consciousness. It has also been found to be far more effective than the more active beta level in creating real changes in the so-called objective world, through the use of visualization.

It is especially good to do creative visualization at night just before sleeping, or in the morning just after awakening, because at those times the mind and body are often already deeply relaxed and receptive. In addition, a short period of relaxation and creative visualization done at mid-day will relax and renew you, and cause your day to flow more smoothly.

Discovering Our Higher Purpose

A basic need of all human beings is to make a positive contribution to the world and to our fellow beings, as well as to improve and enjoy our personal lives. We all have a great deal to offer the world and to each other, each in our own special and unique way. To a great degree, our own personal sense of well being is a function of how much we are expressing this.

We each have a significant contribution to make in this lifetime. I call this contribution our higher purpose. It always involves being yourself totally, completely, and naturally, and doing something or many things that you genuinely love to do, and that come easily to you. We all know in our hearts what our higher purpose is, but we often do not consciously acknowledge it, even to ourselves. In fact, most people seem to go to great lengths to hide it from themselves and from the world. They fear and seek to avoid the power, responsibility, and light that comes with acknowledging and expressing their true purpose in life.

You will find in using creative visualization that your ability to manifest will work to the degree that you are in alignment with your higher purpose. If you try to manifest something and it doesn't seem to work, it may not be appropriate to the underlying pattern and meaning of your life. Be patient and keep tuning into your inner guidance. In retrospect you will see that everything is unfolding perfectly.

By Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization