Visualizing the Desired Outcome: How Does it Help?
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In the last Getting Unblocked E-zine I wrote about how positive visualization can help with the Getting Unblocked process.
I said:
Visualizing the desired outcome can help to evoke two parts of us that will need to be given company and listening on the way to a shift: the part that longs for that outcome, and the other one… often called "the part that doesn't want to."
Let's talk more about that second one, the Part the Doesn't Want To–also known as the "blocking part." If we blame it or try to wish it out of existence, we are simply perpetuating the problem. So we need to get into a friendly relationship with it that will allow us to get to know it better.
"Linda" was stuck on writing her dissertation, which was the last step in getting her life-changing PhD. She had picked a topic she was really interested in, and moved to another city away from family and friends so she could immerse herself in the dissertation writing. At first all went well; she enjoyed the research and the reading, and the writing flowed pretty easily. But then everything bogged down. She found herself looking for distractions. Her inner critic amped up its impatient messages. What could she do to get unblocked?
I suggested to Linda that she get quiet, bring awareness into her body, and invite the part of her that didn't want to work on the dissertation. After a little while, she shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "Nothing's coming."
"OK," I said. "Let's have you imagine the finished dissertation. It's all done. Really let yourself see and feel what that would be like… and invite the feel of it in your body."
Linda was quiet for a while. "Ah," she said. "I get it. The unknown. What am I going to do next? It's like this agitated feeling in my stomach area."
She was able to listen compassionately to the place in her that was scared about not knowing what she was going to do after the dissertation was done. By the end of her session, the agitated feeling had shifted to a sense of spacious calm with a hint of excitement.
Visualizing and Sensing How It Feels
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I get the impression that some people use positive visualization to try to make feelings go away. "I'm visualizing success so I don't have to be scared."
But we want our feelings; they are part of our full life process. Feelings are on their way to something. It's when they are not allowed and not felt that they don't change. When we can keep company with how we feel, sensing freshly what that feels like (dropping down below old concepts), the process is alive and it moves to its next step. YOUR next step!
So one purpose of visualizing a positive outcome is so that you can evoke or stir up that part of you that doesn't want that, that objects to it for some reason. The more vividly you can picture the outcome, the more strongly you can feel the part of you that objects to it.
Once that part is there–as in Linda's example–you can listen gently to what it doesn't want, what it's worried about, and what it wants for you. And the whole thing can shift.
And there's one more reason for visualizing a positive outcome–we'll say more about that next time.
