Visioning(R) and Intuition Road

Here's a typical detour on intuition road:

"I didn't end up walking around the grounds or into the national park as much as I planned. I could say the snow deterred me. But is seems as though I wanted to be deterred. I spent most of most of my time on that blue couch devouring self-help books about writing and creativity while my window pane frosted. I remember thinking, 'You're spending money to sit on a couch and read?' But reading seemed like the thing to do. 

Gradually I sank into the space, holed up in my womb of a cabin, in a blanket of quietness, protected by snow and thick beams of wood. I stopped fighting myself, pushing myself to walk or write or instantly settle down into my expectation of tranquility. I read and I cried and I stared at pine trees. It seemed like the thing to do....

That trip broke my spell of doubts and heaviness and the larger pattern I'd had in my life of being nice to myself only when I had succeeded at something." - Tama J. Kieves, This Time I Dance!

In this scenario we learn that life has it's way with us regardless of where we think we are headed. Tama paid for a retreat to hike and write. Instead she ended up snowed in, crying and nurturing herself. After her pricey retreat weekend, you know she felt cleansed.

Visioning(R) is yet another way our heart's guidance speaks. Let's face it, we're multi-tasking, multi-planning, goal-getting people and we need help listening. A vision collage lets our creative, intuitive voice whisper loud and clear. 

"Intuition speaks to us in dreams mental images, symbols, feelings, extra sensory perception, and artistic expression. Actually, intuition is the prompting from our creative self, speaking through the voice of the creative conscience. Our innate intuitive wisdom points toward what is going to unfold in the future. Visionaries have reported that their collage were uncannily precise. After their dream came true, pictures and phrases that appeared irrational or impossible when they made their collage turned out to have great validity. Composing your Vision collage is a great technique for strengthening your intuition, an ability that we all have, but often disregard."-- Lucia Capacchione, Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams.

If we take the time to Vision what we want in life, first...then listen with our eyes and hearts, instead of resisting action, we flow. Instead of getting wrapped up in our puny preferences, we open ourselves. Instead of pitching a fit because we can't hike outside, we hang out in a cabin and gain insights into how to take care of ourselves.

Intuition is made into a big ole something-something because when it comes down to actually following this voice, it doesn't seem all that sexy. That is, the action step is often what we've been avoiding in the first place! Call that person, now. Make that appointment, today. Did red flag number two just appear on the steps of your great new place? Better ask the tough questions before signing that lease.

I think of intuition as allowing ourselves to be led on a glorious journey. We may have to hang out in a couple of waiting rooms, but when we step off the plane in Shangri-la, hey, we're in Shangri-la!

Find out where your intuition is leading you by joining Lucia's next workshop:

Awakening Intuition, Body Mind Healing and Living From a Higher Guidance.

Sunday, October 11, Morro Bay, CA. 10am-5pm. Location given at time of Registration.

805-772-1100. $95.00. Details at: www.luciac.com

Dorothy Segovia is a Visioning(R) coach, blogger and author of My Body, My Car:How to Coach Yourself Through Life's little Accidents. Visit her at www.writeinside.com.

The Business of Visioning(R)

Lately I have felt as if I am living the manifestation of one of my past collage images. The image depicts an empty room with an expansive wood floor, a fireplace and a bank of windows. It wasn't until I set my new handwoven orange basket on the fireplace that I remembered the image. So I reviewed my collages until I found it. Turns out the orange color was in the overall warm tones of the picture. (Top image in collage below)

Vision Board 2004/2005

I know as a writer it is important to review the daily journaling I've done over the past few months. Doing so helps me know what is important to my life right now. It helps me decide if I want to continue in a particular direction or not. It tells me if there was a resolution to a problem, or if  I need to take an action step.

Reviewing my collages was an emotional journey through my Visioning(R) life. When I found the image I was looking for, it initially made me sad. I still had images of an office worker receiving recognition from her colleagues, yet that hasn't manifested in my own working life. This led to a review of inner child work 101:

Have I been giving myself the recognition I crave or am I still seeking approval from others?

On the other hand, reading the heading of my business card on that same collage made me smile. The business card phrase "move right through life's little obstacles" was the idea for the title of my book: My Body, My Car: How to Coach Your Self Through Life's little Accidents.

Here is what Lucia has to say about the business of Visioning(R).

We can talk about the magnetic power of one's heart's desire, about the nonlinear nature of the pathways of the heart, yet we must be prepared to use the left-brain process of putting one foot in front of the other. There's a place for the slow, decidedly un-magical side of life: filling out forms, scheduling the calendar, and keeping track of things in a personal day planner or computer database. If you can't handle the mundane, the chances of your dealing with the magic of creativity are going to be pretty slim. You may get your dream, but if you aren't grounded in the procedural part of things, you may not have a vessel to contain it. Before the master musician can surrender and let the creative self play its divine music through her, she has studied and practiced for years and years.

 -- Lucia Capacchione, page 152, Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams.

Prior to becoming a certified Creative Journal Expressive Arts facilitator, I was a highly creative person, but I was a kite without a string. After graduating in 2004, I began my new  relationship with accounting. Step 1 before step 2. Don't analyze the process, trust the process.
Yes, the nine-to-five sometimes makes me crazy , but I am able to finance my creative projects.

So, if you find yourself stuck at the manifestation waiting station, maybe it's time to shake up your future dreams by visiting your Visioning(R) past.

Awaken Your Intuition using Structural Constellations at Lucia's next workshop, October 11, Morro Bay, Ca. 

Dorothy Segovia is a writer, certified Visioning(R) coach and author.  Her website is www.writeinside.com. 

Visioning® Allowing Room for Chaos

Let's say you've just moved into a big new house. It's twice the size of the space you are living. There are boxes all over. Some are neatly labeled, but no matter how carefully you packed, there are a few surprises when you unpack: the measuring cups are in with the laundry detergent, your library novel got tucked into the toiletry box. Depending on your daily responsibility's, it can take a while to get things put into their proper place. It takes time to get the feel of where the pictures should hang.

In the same way we need time to recreate ourselves when we move, we need to allow the same re-creation time when we are playing with our completed vision boards. Let's face it, when we first enter our new digs, chaos happens. When it comes to manifesting our desires we are literally moving our stuck energy out of our bodies and expanding into something new. While the process is definitely exciting, stretching our psychic limbs may not always feel so good. But remember, we got a taste of the chaotic energy in Visioning® Step 5 when we learned to make order out of our messy, juicy vision.

"When we encounter chaos in the creative process, everything feels topsy-turvy. We're the Hanged man card in the tarot deck, suspended by our feet. Our linear left brains are helpless when we face the mystery of creative chaos head-on. Of course artists understand this subterranean world where new life takes shape. So do pregnant women, gardeners, shamans, and all those who have dared to participate in birthing something new. Innovators and explorers who venture off the straight and narrow path, who shun the predictable, the acceptable, and the approved live in this zone. Creative chaos is it's name and change is its game.

The challenge is that change is difficult. It's so much easier to retreat into the safety of the known and the familiar. What may be the most difficult is learning to live with the possibilities that change presents. When we change we redefine ourselves." page 104, Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams.

The Dreamer: Panel 3 of 5 part series

When I created my latest collage series, I didn't have any agenda other than to follow my heart and stand for my truth out in the world. Generally when I think of this type of creating, I think of high energy, go-go-going. It was enlightening for me to journal with The Dreamer, who felt "peacefully expansive" because "she can see ahead to where I'm going." The writing was filled with the acceptance that I am already living my dream. That's it, no forcing involved. This is good news, because lately due to my super busy schedule (I was secretly hoping The Dreamer was actually The Napper) the phrase on panel 4 feels intimidating.

Panel 4 of 5 part series

"Contributors: It's time to build the next great empire. May the gods be with you."

When I read the above phrase, my mind whirled. "The next great empire, why isn't going for another round of rewrites on my musical enough? Empire? I just want to memorize the song I wrote last September, in my room at the ranch...alone."

Giving myself time to be with The Dreamer gives me time to relax into my vision, which includes the imagery on panel 4, but I'm not there yet. It gives me time to let my truth take shape, since speaking my truth through writing IS my dream. Time gives me the freedom to sort through my old furniture and take a load of unnecessary approval-seeking and inner criticism to the garbage.

To practice the art of moving through your own obstacles to your success, visit Lucia's site: www.visioningcoach.org. Here you can purchase her book, find out about certified coaches in your area and read about Lucia's story.

Dorothy Segovia is a certified Visioning Coach® and author. Visit her at www.writeinside.com.

Trying Not to Try: The Heart of Visioning®

In an effort to make their collages images come true, many novices try too hard to bring about their vision. They notice a woman on the collage is wearing a bright yellow blouse, so they overspend on the wrong color shirt that's just a little too tight. An impulse buy: all for the anxiety of forcing their vision, rather than allowing their vision.

I'm not discounting that your fairy godmother could walk up to you with prepaid tickets to Bali for two and happens to be wearing a bright yellow blouse, but the Art of Visioning® states:

"We can rearrange the outer world forever, but if we haven't rearranged the furniture in our hearts and minds the experience of fulfillment will elude us. As we replace outworn beliefs and limiting perceptions with new pictures and a new scenario, we literally recreate ourselves." Lucia Capacchione, Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams, page 253.

In the same way I practice writing, we must also practice Visioning®. Embodying our collage images through journal writing, movement and contemplation brings our vision deep into our heart memory. As we feel our way to our vision, we make adjustments to release the inner critic's voice. We release self-sabotaging thoughts and habits.

This point is brought home in a recent article about Edward Slingerland's book, Trying Not to Try: Cultivating the Art and Science of Spontaneity.

"Our excessive focus in the modern world on the power of conscious thought and the benefits of willpower and self-control causes us to overlook the pervasive importance of what might be called “body thinking”: tacit, fast, and semiautomatic behavior that flows from the unconscious with little or no conscious interference. The result is that we too often devote ourselves to pushing harder or moving faster in areas of our life where effort and striving are, in fact, profoundly counterproductive."

"Starting Over" Collage 1 from my 5-panel series: "I Know What I Said."

After playing with my latest vision board  "Starting Over," I got an intuitive body hit to explore moving to Europe. Elated one day, panicked two days (I had just got settled), by day four I was making a plan to scram next year, and finally, I started over at peace.

Now I'm planning to take a vacation to explore several cities where I can see myself living. I bought a travel guide, borrowed language CDs from the library and filled out my passport application. In August, I'll check in with my friend who lives overseas to see what her plans are. Beyond that, I'm enjoying where I live and work now, and following my Visioning® heart.

Dorothy Segovia is a certified Vision coach and author who explores creative journaling and music in My Body, My Car: How to Coach Yourself Through Life's little Accidents. Learn more about her at www.writeinside.com.

Discover the heart of your creativity by becoming a Creative Journal Expressive Arts facilitator. Learn how to teach and coach others in a beautiful, retreat setting. Teachers, health practioners and other professionals can incorporate the Creative Journal and Visioning® methods into their own teaching. Visit Lucia's web site for details.

Visioning(R) Health Means Reclaiming the Self

"Regaining the Self.. How we see ourselves (our self-image) is reflected in how we treat ourselves and how we allow others to treat us. Our self-image also shapes our bodies and impacts our sense of health and well-being." Lucia Capacchione, Chapter 13, Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams.

I learned this lesson first hand when I set out to write this month's post. I started with a drawing of recurring pain and injury to my right shoulder and most recently, upper right arm.

 

 

This is the drawing of my throbbing right arm muscle. The next step in the process is to do a non-dominant hand dialogue with the image. 3 angry pages of non-dominant hand answers yielded the following insight: My Sad Girl was very angry because I had not lived up to my promise of allowing her creative expression. She was mad because I was not finishing my creative writing projects.The reason why is that I had yielded to the  messages from my Inner Critic.

After I acknowledged and accepted this painful truth, I then made a healing collage. The first step was to depict the Creative Self. This self depicted below is powerful enough to take on the toughest critics, inner and outer. I like how she not only defends her words, but she definitely is protecting her self.

The next step was to create the collage using I Know What I Said as the theme.Because of limited space, I used four pieces of 8 1/2 by 11 construction paper. This allows me to create a large collage, yet display only the section that I am working with. 

The following are the collage pages, or steps of how to reclaim my voice.

Start Over. Collage 1

Follow My Dream. Collage 2

Express My Self. Collage 3

Play. Collage 4

This day of healing has given me a lot of hope. Prior to this work, I was aware that I was overwhelmed with the outcome of my creative projects, not the process. While it does seem overwhelming to stand up for my truth against my Goliath-size self-talk and ingrained habits, starting over is easy. After all, I start over every day. I am relieved that I do not have to re-do, regret or try to control any of my projects. I simply need to let my voice flow.Also, I am understanding allowing my voice to flow and launching a project as a product are two different things.

Now it's time for you to trust your voice and honor your self  by drawing and visioning your own healing.

Remember: "It is very important that you follow your body's lead and give it what it needs. As mentioned earlier, the body never lies. It will tell you the truth, but you need to listen and respond accordingly." - page 238, Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams.

Participate in Lucia's upcoming Visioning(R) workshop: Giving Birth to a New You, Sunday, May 18th, in Morro Bay, California.

Certified Visioning(R) Coach Dorothy Segovia finished her latest creative project when she scanned her collages, converted the images into jpegs and then wrote this post. Find out more about her work at www.writeinside.com.

Visioning® Retirement

Lucia recently gave a presentation on Visioning® Retirement at a  retirement community in Daly City, California, called Peninsula del Rey. The next day she conducted a Visioning® Retirement workshop. Some  of those attending were individuals living in the retirement community  where the events were held, located near San Francisco. Others were  visitors from the general public who had seen ads and announcements  for the event and decided to explore their retirement options. Here are Lucia's comments about Visioning® Retirement.  NOTE: All images from the workshop.

 
In my many years of conducting workshops and lectures, my groups have been comprised of about twenty to thirty percent seniors on average.  Occasionally, as much as half of the group has been seniors. This  makes perfect sense. Retirement years lend themselves to self- reflection, hobbies, activities like art and writing (especially  memoirs family history scrapbooks) and things you want to do in the  years you have left on the planet. Long before the movie, The Bucket  List, I created a journal exercise called: What Do You Want To Be When  
You Grow Up? It appears in my first book The Creative Journal: The Art  of Finding Yourself. It was intended for all ages, but I found that  seniors really warmed up to this activity. Here's the journal prompt.

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

1) Make a list of what you wanted to be when you were a kid, no matter how wild or crazy the wish was. Write it down with your non-dominant  hand. Did you want to be an astronaut, a movie star, teacher, lawyer, athlete, singer, scientist?  

2) Check the list over to see if you  actually did any or all of the things you listed, even if it was done  as a hobby. Make a list of the things you actually did using your  dominant hand. (For example, I wanted to be a ballerina when I was a  kid. Instead, as an adult I took expressive dance classes at age 39 as  a result of doing this journal exercise. And I continued studying  
dance and movement therapy for many years after that. 

3) The last step is to make a list of all the things you want to experience during the rest of your life. Write the list with your non-dominant hand in order to access your true heart's desire via your right brain. 

4)  This list will yield a focus phrase for a "Visioning® Retirement" collage, which is the next step. You could use the whole list from  step #3 as your focus phrase. In other words, illustrate your "bucket list" with magazine photos and words.

 
I have observed that many seniors in my groups have not thought much  about what they wanted to do in their retirement years. They hadn't  really pictured what retirement would look like. They just knew they  wouldn't be working at their old jobs. When I introduced Visioning® in  my workshops in the early 90s, I heard seniors sharing their collages  and saying, "This is about what I want now that I am about to  retire."  "This is what retirement looks like for me." "These are the  things I'd still like to experience in my life." In other words, they  were creating a visual version of what we now call a "bucket list."  Some common themes in Visioning® Retirement collages have been: health  and vitality, travel and vacations, hobbies (new or continued), time  
with family and friends, gardening, scaling down and moving into a  retirement community, field trips with groups, outings to museums, spending time in nature, etc. 

So why not illustrate your "bucket list" and make it come to life.  It's never too late to have a happy childhood. Call it a second childhood, if you will, in the best sense of the term. Retirement can  definitely be time for your Inner Child to shine and lighten up your  life. Go for the fun!!! Happy Visioning®!

To attend one of Lucia's upcoming workshops or to purchase Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams visit luciac.com.

Three Panel Vision Boards: Part Two

Last month we learned how about a new vision board technique of 3-panel collages.

(Click here to catch up on Part One.)

Turns out my symptoms were telling me that I was worried about time and growing older. Where I wanted to be was to have downtime to sleep, sleep, sleep. The Solution image of the two horses symbolized embodied freedom. Non-dominant hand journaling with the images yielded these nuggets:

Left side, Panel 1: Where I am at:

Image of the woman carrying the pot.

“ I feel uncomfortable. I'd like to set this pot of stuff down and just deal with one thing at a time.”

Right side, Panel 2: Where I want to be.

Image of the woman lying down.

“I feel talented. I can experience my dead past all day long, and have it direct me home where it continues to dominate in TV watching and extreme reading and overeating.

(Auggghhhh!!!)

Middle, Panel 3: the Solution.

Phrase Soulbringer.

“Stand still with yourself and straddle the duality of being truly alive and present in this magical and temporary moment.”

I worked with the collage and insights for 2 weeks on my own before taking a Mat Work session with Lucia. In her handout for the certified coaching training classes Lucia describes the Mat Work technique.

“Mat work can be used in conjunction with Visioning®, because the method is based on structural constellations. Structural constellations involves making intuitive selections of mats and colors, choosing images from collages, identifying issues, places, people, things and also elements in dreams.

After selection the mats are placed in relation to each other in the area representing the Knowing Field, the basis of Bert Hellinger's work. This method states that we draw information not normally accessible to the left brain by using colored mats. When we place mats in the knowing field, then stand on them, the mats allow body wisdom to flow through us.”

A synopsis of my mat session with Lucia

Lucia had me select mats to represent:

Myself, the obstacle, the solution I wanted (not necessarily the solution on the collage), the bridge to the solution, resources, an image from the collage itself. I chose the larger horse from the middle panel.

I placed the mats in relation to each other in the knowing field. At Lucia's direction, I stepped onto the mat that represented myself. (I had placed the obstacle mat first, then covered it with the mat that represented me.)

I realized that when I was standing on the obstacle, my body was pulled down and it was all I could see. My head was dangling. My body was all crunched. I couldn't see my resources, and couldn't see the horse, which symbolized my outcome. I also couldn't see the bridge to the outcome.

I slowly moved through the mats at Lucia's suggestion, breathing and reporting to her how my body felt. At one point, Lucia began doing voice-dialogue with me as I stood on each of the different mats.

On the bridge mat, my body felt like crying and allowing myself to be sad. When Lucia interviewed me in this position, I said that I was sad that I was a finite human being with limitations. That the world isn't really magic. That I still had to do the work, which brings manifestation into reality.

When I was interviewed from the resources mat, I had an impatient, almost eye-rolling energy. I explained to Lucia that if “Dorothy” would just accept the obstacle she could move forward with her dreams. The obstacle itself had led her to her current 12-step support group, but now Dorothy was worried about needing a 12-step group. This energy was big, and kept waving it's arms repeating “enough with the drama about BEING in a 12-step program.”

Once I removed this obstacle, the mats re-aligned. I placed the resources mat below my Self mat. In front of me I placed the horse mat, who was pulling me to the Bridge that was next to my outcome. Now I felt as if I was being pulled naturally towards my goal, and could enjoy the ride instead of struggling and fighting for my dream.

It has been 2 weeks since my mat session. I continue to journal with the images as I am guided. At this writing, many of the images are pointing to insights that were brought up during my mat session.

As a Visioning® coach, the biggest mistake I've seen clients make is not taking the time to explore and understand their vision boards. They get bored, or become afraid of what an image may symbolize. They want to get to the dream without doing the work. If you find this happening, the added element of mat work allows complete embodiment of the images in a much deeper way.

To find out how you can get a mat work session, 

or to contact Lucia about her certified training programs visit: www.luciac.com. 

Lucia often works remotely or can direct you to a facilitator near you.

Dorothy Segovia is a certified Visioning coach, musician and author of My Body, My Car: How to Coach Yourself through Life's little Obstacles workbook and music CD. Read more of her blogs at www.writeinside.com.