Three-panel Vision Solutions

While Visioning® a dream is an amazing process, collage also works when seeking solutions to daily stress. For instance, I work a full-time job, a part-time job and also care-take the ranch where I live. My life is completely opposite from my recent two-year stint as a pet-sitter. Needless to say, I've struggled to maintain balance.

I've endured shoulder, arm and hand difficulty as I've acclimated to computer work most of the week. I've learned to say “no” to many friend invitations in order to say “yes” to me. I've become bad at returning calls. While I know it is vital to create a schedule that includes  creative time, I'm struggling with time management.

Now that my body is used to my work life; thanks to my stand up desk and willingness to try a variety of keyboard, mouse, and chair combinations—my stress has taken the form of an eczema breakout. And it is no big surprise that it's happening on my shoulders and arms.

In order to accept and listen to my symptoms, my go to solution is the three-part collage. 

Image courtesy of http://youngmommymemoirs.blogspot.com

Here's how it works.

Take a large rectangle paper (18 x 24 inch) and fold it into three equal sections. (Three pages of 8 1/2 x 11 works too.) Lay the paper on the table in front of you and number them as follows:

The left section is Number 1: where you are now.

The right section is Number 2: where you want to be.

The middle section is Number 3: the solution.

Take several minutes to breathe, grab a magazine and go. The key is to work quickly, only using a few images per section depending on the amount of time you have. The process is focus on one panel at a time in number order.

Rip out a few images that grab you, trim and glue (or tape) to the page. Then work the next panel. In between each section, take a few minutes to breathe and look at the images, but don't stop to journal.

For example: I just took a break to complete a collage on 18 x 24 inch paper in 40 minutes.

Regarding the eczema question, my surprise about section 1 is that I don't have a picture of skin anywhere. Instead I have the truth-telling phrase:

“I'm aging and panicking. Where can I find peace?”

Gulp. This really is where my head has been at: I've been feeling my age in all aspects of my life.

Panel 2 depicts a sleeping woman and the phrase OWN every Sunday.

Sunday is my one day off and basically, sleeping on Sunday is exactly where I have been for the past several months.

The middle section, representing the middle path between worrying about aging yet wanting to sleep my time away is an image of two horses standing in a field with the word Soulbringer across the photo.

So. Without picking up the pen I've already discovered two things: my stress has to do with growing older and that my sleep through Sunday solution is no longer working. I have an inkling about what the horse images are, but I want to spend time gaining clarity before I share!!!

NEXT MONTH: My favorite techniques for discovering the secrets of my vision board.

If you don't want to wait that long to learn how to work with your own collage, check out Lucia's book, Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams. The chapters are loaded with journaling methods you can use to gain insights to your vision.

To purchase Lucia's book or information on her 2014 workshops, click here to go to her website.

Dorothy Segovia is a certified Visioning Coach, writer and musician who practices the art of collage in all of her creative projects. To find out more, visit her at www.writeinside.com

Visioning® 101 Q & A continued...

Lucia continues to answer questions from the Visioning® community.


Can I collage past lives?

I used to be a past life counselor. If one believes in them, the only reason to delve into past lives – as far as I can see -- is to see where we are blocked from a past life and how to remove the block. This takes some training and experience in past life work. Personally, I focus on blocks from this life which are usually the Inner Critic and outworn belief systems. There are plenty of those.

“As we move toward our dreams, old well-worn thoughts and beliefs are likely to come floating to the surface of the mind like so much debris. As you find wonderful images of your heart's desire, a little voice may come in and start editing. It usually says things like: 'You can't afford that.' 'This is totally impossible.' 'Who do you think you are wishing for something that outrageous?' 'That's completely impractical. It'll never happen.' 'Don't choose that picture. You'll just be disappointed when it doesn't materialize.' I speak from experience, for I've heard this voice a million times during my own personal Visioning sessions. Never mind that most of my dreams have actually come true...Before you've even had a chance to research the possibilities, get some training, find a mentor or a support system, the inner critic will try to shut you down.”
(Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams, page 75.)

“I am Safe from the Inner Critic” collage by Dorothy Segovia.

Can I collage an emotion or physical symptom I want to heal?

Yes, I did that before having a hip replacement. I put a thigh bone in my collage and also photos of women doing exercise (I did physical therapy after surgery and that was extremely healing.)

“Doing collages of our current self-image (and physicality) can help to heal the split between our head and our body. As long as our self-image is hidden from our own eyes, we have no choice. With greater awareness comes a wider range of options. In reflecting back to us the way in which we see ourselves, the collage acts as a mirror of our inner attitudes and beliefs. Once we see our self-image projected out onto the paper, we are free to move toward more conscious choices.”
(Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams, page 238.)


Will the collage still work if I stop doing reflective work over the summer, and then come back to it?

Not likely. One must honor the dream by looking at the collage and following the Visioning® process with journaling, etc. Why wait? Either you are serious or not. If not, then it won't manifest. Visioning® is not for the uncommitted. Commit to your dream and watch it unfold. If you don't feed it, it won't reward you.

Can I still use the exercises from your book with a collage I did from before using a different method?

I believe collages need to be current and reflect the state of your soul wishes at this time. An old collage reflects the past. Do another one. Even if the images are similar and the theme is familiar, or the focus phrase is the same, the process needs to be fresh and current.

Next month: Visioning® and dream work!

Lucia will continue to answer questions throughout her blog. If you have any to submit, please post in Comments. To purchase Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams, visit: www.visioningcoach.org

Yes you can! Visioning® Renewal

The New Year - 2009 - is a great time to start Visioning®. We have a new President and are beginning a new era in our country. Sure, we have lots of challenges, but in America you can feel change in the air. And apparently this has spread around the globe. At my website, I've received lots of good wishes from readers in different countries representing many nationalities, races and religions. They are excited and hopeful about America turning over a new leaf. But hope is not enough. Bringing about renewal is something each individual must do. That's where the Visioning® process of life design comes in.

As Walt Disney said: If you can dream it, you can do it! So let's start with you. And let's start now!

What you will need:

Visioning® begins with finding your true heart's desire and creating a photo collage to illustrate your dream. You'll need art paper or poster board (18 x 24 inches or larger), scissors, glue, magazines (and other sources of photo images and words). You will also need a bound blank book (unlined pages) for keeping a Creative Journal (preferably 9 x12 inches). I recommend a set of felt pens in 8 or more colors for writing. If you are serious about making your dreams come true, get a copy of my book Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams (Tarcher/ Putnam). It describes the process in detail, complete with photo illustrations. Set the mood for each step in the process with the musical CD, Visioning (music by recording artist, Jessie Allen Cooper (available only at LuciaC.com and coopersoundwaves.com).

You might be wondering: What's unique about Visioning®? What sets it apart from from all that other stuff like The Secret, visualization, life planning, affirmations, treasure maps, and so on? First, the 10 steps of Visioning® follow the stages that all designers, inventors, architects pass through when they create in the material world. These are the folks who designed the computer you are using, the chair you are sitting in, the desk, the floor, the room, etc., that surrounds you. Why not learn from them? These creative people are trained, skilled and experienced at taking thoughts and turning them into things? That's exactly what you do in Visioning®.You apply tried and true design principles to your life and work. Believe me, they work!

When a designer gets an idea she puts that inspiration, idea or mental picture into physical form immediately (sketches, blueprints, renderings, etc.) In Visioning® we do this by fashioning a collage - a sort of storyboard - similar to the ones filmmakers use in mapping out their story. We don't use the cartoon strip format of linear pictures, rather it's an all-at-once impression, a collage that conveys our dream. It might have words in it, too. The goal is to illustrate the heart's desire, what it would look like and feel like. It's a preview of coming attractions, how we want to feel once the dream is realized. That all shows in the Visioning® collage board. This is not about accuuilating things. It's about how we want to grow and who we want to become.

Visioning® can be done by individuals, couples, families, groups, organizations, work teams, and companies. We've used it in public schools systems (team teaching groups), corporations, hospitals, non-profit organizations, church groups, and more. Collages can be done as individual boards or posters or in group applications as a combined mural. They can also be created as individual boards all fitting together to create a shared Vision. Shared Visioning® boards are photographed and each member of the group gets a picture of the whole while keeping their own collage. Sometimes shared collage murals are displayed, as in the case of one elementary school in Texas. The teachers doing team teaching posted their group collage of the "goals for the year" on the walls outside their classrooms for themselves and their students to see. The school had high scores and great morale.

Secondly, Visioning® provides psychological tools for clearing obstacles. Creating the Visioning® board is only the beginning. Big dreams always bring out big inner blocks. It's part of the game. Inevitably, when we start reaching for new goals, the Inner Critic or Judge jumps out and chatters away in our brains. "This is stupid. How ugly. What a waste of time. You'll only be disappointed. This is a pipe dream and will never happen. Who do you think you are with these grandiose ideas? And anyway, you have more important things to do right now, like paying bills or laundry or mowing the lawn or doing your taxes or......."(you fill in the blanks)

One of the keys to success with Visioning® is the time tested technique for dealing with this universal voice of self-criticism and self doubt within. I've written whole books about this, most notably, The Power of Your Other Hand (Career Press). The Visioning® process provides journal activities for writing your way through these internal blocks of self-judgment and skepticism about the Visioning® process. If I hadn't developed this technique I would never have written 13 books. Here's how I did it.

While attempting to start my first book, The Creative Journal (Career Press/New Page), I was plagued with a crippling writer's block. I spent two to three days a week staring at white paper in the typewriter. Finally I practiced what I was teaching in my Creative Journal classes (which was the topic of the book, ironically enough). In one journal session, I cleared the block in two pages of writing. I wrote what the Inner Critic said with my dominant hand (the one I normally write with), and answered back with my non-dominant hand (the one I don't usually write with). Within two pages I was done, felt utterly liberated and energized. I rose from my journal, went to my studio and completed the book within three months by writing two or three days a week. I had a "real job" as a college instructor and art therapist while becoming an author on my own so that's all the time I could afford.

But wait, that's not all. Breaking through my block also gave me the courage to put the word out to friends (step 9 of Visioning®), get a support system around me, and find a mentor who referred me to his publisher. They said yes right away. Better yet, the book needed no editing. In spite of what my Inner Critic had said, I'd written a perfectly acceptable manuscript! Over the years, The Creative Journal has become a best seller, been published in three different editions and formed the basis of an entire method of journal therapy being used all over the world.(LuciaC.com)

Dream it and do it. I've done it, and I know you can, too. See more on VisioningCoach.org.

Visioning® the New Year

Welcome to the new year with Visioning®.

My name is Lucia Capacchione, originator of the Visioning® Method for turning dreams into reality. The method appears in my book Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams (Tarcher/Putnam, 2000).

Using Visioning® I have created the life, the house, the relationships and the career of MY dreams. You can do it, too! As Walt Disney said: "If you can dream it, you can do it."

In my first career as a graphic artist and designer, I worked for world-famous chair designer , Charles Eames, and later for Mattel and Hallmark. As a therapist and corporate consultant, I was retained for 10 years by Walt Disney Imagineering (theme park designers) to train managers and creative folks to maximize their potential. At Disney, I got to stand back analyze the design process. After observing in depth how "thoughts become things", I applied the design process to life in my practice as a life/career coach and art therapist.

You can find the "designer within" and learn the process that all designers use. It's simple, fun and powerful. It's hands-on and brings out your creativity. There are lots of methods for manifesting out there. None of them are based on solid design principles. Remember this: Designers never create by sitting around visualizing or repeating affirmations. Never! As soon as they get an idea, they start working with their hands. Combining collage with journaling, Visioning® applies the ten steps used by successful designers, architects, artists and inventors. Visioning® applies the design process to life. It works for all areas of life: career, relationships, home, health, hobbies, travel, you name it.

More importantly, with Visioning® you can learn to get out of your own way. That is another thing that makes this unique and sets it apart from other methods of manifestation. Imagining what you want is not enough. We all have an Inner Critic who rains on our parade. As soon as we want to venture out into new territory, push the envelope and reach for the sky, it stops us. Visioning® provides proven "block busters" (journal exercises) for confronting your own "inner saboteur" who prevents you from realizing the life of your dreams. These "block busters" came from my 35 years plus of work as a therapist. Believe me, they work! If they didn't I never would have been able to author 13 books (2 of them bestsellers), find the house of my dreams, travel all over the world, create an international training program with graduates from all over the globe. I could go on and on.

Using Visioning®, hundreds of people have created happy marriages, loving families, better health, weight loss, prosperity, dream houses, fulfilling careers, exciting travel and more. They have attended my workshops, used my book, and done private coaching with me or a certified Visioning® Coach. Many of these people tell their story in my book, Visioning.

In this blog, I'll share these highly effective tools for manifesting and finding your true heart's desire. I'll share my experiences as well as the stories of people who enjoyed huge success with this method. You are invited to post a question or comment. Join me in the Visioning® adventure.

Create the life of your dreams!

Lucia

For more about Visioning® go to www.VisioningCoach.org

Be sure to visit www.LuciaC.com. There you will find general information about my 13 books, a calendar of my workshops and training, CD's and other products for sale, as well as essays, picture gallery and more.

At www.LuciaC.com purchase the book, Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams, and a set of 2 CDs, Visioning, by Jessie Allen Cooper (musical accompaniment for the Visioning® process).