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

Visioning@ Your Bucket List

Re-Creating Yourself Later in Life

Beverly Staley is a therapist and graduate of the Creative Journal Expressive Arts Training Program in which we certify professionals to teach and counsel using my methods, including Visioning®. Here is a report from Beverly about a recent Visioning® workshop she conducted for life planning. Beverly writes:

"I did a small Visioning workshop with five of my networking group, two of whom were high achieving, very accomplished men in their fifties. They had very different reasons for attending the workshop.

One man had just been laid off from a very lucrative position. His collage showed the path he had been on (very small area of the collage) and a potential path for him. With the inner critic journaling he realized how much fear he had because his critic kept telling him he was too old (53) to do these things. But, in the sharing afterwards, he got support from three of us who spoke about how we started careers in our 50’s. The sharing turned out to be very helpful to him.

The second man continues to be extremely successful and told me he wanted his focus phrase to be ‘my bucket list.’ I loved that idea and so in the sharing he talked about how he had lived and taught all over the world, Africa, Europe, South America, etc. and now wanted to return to some of his favorite places and take his wife of 20-some years. I could tell he was excited to share his collage with her (he already knows that she is very interested in traveling to some of these places).

Something else that came out of sharing that was surprising was an elegant woman in her 60’s with a vision of working with gang members. When asked about that by one of the participants, she said she was a former gang member and wanted to get across the message that they could be like her. We were all very surprised.

For this little group, a lot came out in the sharing which is always my favorite part."

Beverly Staley, M.F.T., C.J.E.A. (California)
bevstaley@cox.net

For more about Creative Journal Expressive Arts certification go to my website: www.luciac.com