Thanks for visiting this page. This writing reflects my experiences, and my desire to share them with others on this journey.

It is an innate human experience to want. We want happiness, good friends, affection, adventure, health, fulfilling work, a nice place to live, ...and so on. Some of us appear lucky enough to get what we wish from our lives. For others, it's a challenge and an often frustrating experience resulting in varying degrees of depression or hopelessness. Some consider committing suicide.

People seem to have always turned to various sources for inspiration: family, friends, books, religion, sports, philosophy, exercise, meditation, tv, music, the movies, now the internet, and other avenues. I'm writing this page to share a discovery I made - which has been known through all of time, I guess - which has helped me...and could help someone else.

Since graduating from college in Florida in 1995, I've worked different jobs - television production, sales, marketing... and now web development and multimedia in New York City.  I've had three stretches of unemployment in the past five years.

I'm the average person with similar dreams and hopes as most people. I was struggling in my work and in aspects of my life. During the past 14 months, I found myself in a couple of desperate situations with expenses and housing. I have pets and I was very concerned about their well-being. Then some apparent 'miracles' pulled me out of the hole. After kneeling and fervently thanking this cosmic assistance, I slowly began to understand the power of visualization.  
 

What is Visualization?

It's one of our natural abilities. Seeing images or movies in your mind - daydreaming; imagination - is visualization.

And when you see in your mind what you desire or enjoy, and feel good about what you see, you are practicing the positive visualization technique. Inspiration is another face to visualization. When you are inspired by a book, a poem, a painting, a sculpture, a film, a person, nature, wildlife...your senses for visualization are heightened.

Visualization is as natural as breathing or sleeping - we all visualize. The only difference is some of us are aware of it, and others not - at least not yet.

How does it work?

Think back to a time when you got what you wanted. You might have been amazed that your wish came true. If you break down the process, from the time you had a dream to the time you achieved it, you may notice one or more of these stages:

You had a pretty clear idea of what you wanted.
You saw the daydream quite vividly, as if it were real.
You enjoyed this happy vision, without being negative or passing judgment.
You gave your wish the initial momentum, through either just thought or even some action.

This is powerful. Successful visualization actually helps you unconsciously move from negative thinking to positive thinking. And within this is part of the secret to 'miracles'...other parts to the secret are acceptance and gratitude as you will read later.

The Power of Thought

We are usually negative because we're afraid to dream of success or joy. Why? Most likely, we don't want to be disappointed so we simply tell ourselves not to believe in our dreams. Sometimes it hurts to dream of happiness when we are not experiencing that happiness. We may even fear that the joy we want so much may be lost after we attain it. Or, our attitude could be learned behavior, the result of negativity we saw around us growing up.

Fear, worry and doubt are negative thoughts and they create negative emotions.  Tranquility, joy and determination are examples of positive thinking, and create positive emotions. Thoughts, and then emotions -- fear, worry, doubt, tranquility, joy, determination and on -- are all symptoms of our mental landscape.

Our mental landscape is our picture of life. It usually has self-assumed boundaries - structures we have built in our minds within which our life is encompassed.  Many boundries are of  impossibility -- we can't be something, we can't have something, we can't do something. We can't be self-employed, we can't have the house we saw in the magazine, we can't play a musical instrument. "Good things will never happen to me."

When we project our mental landscape through our thoughts, daydreams or visions, we emanate focused energy and emotion, and we then realize how powerful this is in creating an external reflection of our internal landscape.

Negative thought and emotion (from our mental landscape) result in negative living. Positive thought and emotion result in positive living. Your thoughts and visions transform energy to matter. Wow!  I don't have any explanation for this, but I like to think of it this way:

We know from science that sound and light are energy forms. Your voice travels through the air and can be recorded by a machine, and played back. The energy of your voice was captured by a device and by the atomic particles that reside on a piece of tape. If you said "This is a bright sunshiny day", your words were more than a breath from your vocal chords; they were energy whose characteristics were being captured authentically. As incredible are photographs and movies. We are giving off energy just by standing, walking, just by being. This energy, light energy, is captured by film and played back.

In the same way, one can imagine, thoughts, imagery, and emotions are also energy that are played back. If they are negative, the capturing device - your universe - will play them back authentically - as negative. When thoughts and visions are positive, the playback is positive.
 

We do some of the best visualization when we are desperate. Completely backed up to a wall, with nowhere to turn, we wish strongly for a certain outcome. Our need is so dire, our situation so overpowering, we don't have the luxury to be negative. We seem to surrender to a higher power and use our last reserves of energy to simply wish with a sincere heart of a safer place. We expand the possibilities - push the boundaries - of our mental landscape. This is how I chanced upon the awareness of visualization.

How to Visualize

In the fall of 2000 I was going through a stressful time having to move from my previous home and having lost my job at the same time. I also wanted to be closer to Manhattan to spend more time in the city.

During my search for a place, I saw in my mind's eye a small cottage with a backyard for my pets and a stone wall to keep them protected. While I didn't see this cottage in specific detail such as color, shape, number of rooms and such, I saw a broad vision of a cottage with a backyard. I could see my pets playing in the grass in the backyard with a big tiled stone wall in the background. I enjoy sunsets, and saw a grand view of a sunset from this cottage in my daydream.  Without being aware of it, I was 'visualizing'.  I didn't think much about my daydream, just that it was a lovely image, and went about my business.

Of course, I was looking for any kind of dwelling that would accept my pets and I. I called a bunch of realtors and brokers but had little luck. In the last few days of my lease and with time running out, I saw a newspaper listing, on the internet, and called the broker praying that the rental was still open. He said sure, come have a look. I drove out to see it...it was a cottage with a backyard and a stone wall. It sits in a hilltop community facing westward looking over a vast valley...the sun sets beautifully over the distant hills. 

How in the world!  Now that I've had time to understand it, I can explain it.  I had lived and felt a thought. I had expanded my mental landscape by dreaming. I had created a house in my mind.  It existed, if in my mind. I hadn't put a spin on it... will I get it? will I not get it?  Just that it was there, and my pets and I were living in it.  My mind had assembled particles at lightning speed that morphed into a house, creating a feeling of contentment as I saw myself relaxing with my pets in the backyard. And since this house existed in my inner visual dimension, as I earnestly began my search for a house it soon appeared in my outer physically visual perception.

Existed?  Yes. I could see this same house anytime I wanted in my mind. Then, my thoughts and my action of looking for a house had started a momentum in space and time that made such a house available to me. I had desired something; I had seen it; I had felt the joy of it. My desire, my imagery, and my emotions were all positive.

Since then I have seen other results of visualization in my life. For instance, I saw myself doing creative work in a casual environment and keeping 'odd' hours...just as I like it. And that's what I'm doing.  I visualized racing forward in my learning of new multimedia software...and such an environment for learning manifested in my life. Sometimes when I'm really probing a subject in my mind, it shows up on TV... I was thinking of how some wealthy people could do wonderful things for wildlife, and there appears a story on TV of how actor Harrison Ford and some powerful entrepreneurs from around the world have begun to do just that. Looking back on all my years before, I can now see many instances of how I consciously or sub-consciously manifested the the good and the not-so-good in my life.

Be aware of your thoughts, imagery and emotions, and you'll become aware of visualization. Notice yourself visualizing the next time you're driving. Visualization is natural. Avoid making it a task...then it becomes work. Since thoughts and emotions emanate from your mental landscape, daydream with confidence and with enjoyment, and your landscape will show new vistas. Liken it to watching a nature documentary on Discovery or Animal Planet. Notice how the sight of unusual creatures you had never even imagined completely blows away your assumptions of what exists on our planet.

Believe in your dreams, have no fear.  This can be hard to do, especially when faced with challenges, but gradually becomes a transforming experience. If you have fears, use them to understand yourself better and free yourself. Fears are actually nature's wonderfully mysterious way of indicating doors you haven't opened yet, pointing the way to new experiences.

Instead of imagining the worst, imagine the best.  Instead of playing out the worst scenarios in your mind, play out the happiest. And go about your daily business...with a lighter heart.  Once you come out of your daydream, remain happy.  Avoid worrying about the future or fervently 'hoping' that your dream comes true.  Just begin to let yourself experience joy in the images you see in your mind.

If you're faced with a crisis or challenge, accept it. You will have taken the first step towards moving ahead. This means: accept that the event has happened, rather than resist it. Accept the moment. Then visualize where you would rather be, and act if you wish, instead of giving the event more of your negative emotion. If you got a parking ticket which you felt was unfair, first accept that a ticket was written - you can't change that event, so keep your cool over it. Then calmly decide to present it to your city department - with confidence that a courteous city employee will correct it. 

Life is your friend, not your enemy. When you believe in yourself and your dreams, and stay positive and calm, you'll be able to accept the turns in life with grace, all the while knowing that the events in your life - the good, the bad, and the sad - are all perfect pieces of the mosaic that will complete your unique journey. Acceptance of, and gratitude for, the flow of your life will change your living experience.

Acceptance and gratitude together are probably the hardest lesson to understand and practice in this human life. This is best experienced rather than taught, and then becomes a transformative awareness. If you look at a blessing in your life today, say the love of your child or your pet, you will understand that all the 'bad' things in your life earlier, which you probably railed against, were the ingredients of your life path that brought you to the day you had your child or adopted your pet. And then it'll suddenly dawn on you, gosh the time I was mad that I had that long travel delay, was just the time space that was essential to the chronology of my life as I later met my future partner and had a baby (or found a pet). Had even one moment been out of place, my life path would have looked different.

Thus you not only begin to accept, you learn to in fact embrace the moment for whatever it is. And you then realize that wanting to - needing to - control your life is unnecessary. Life has a flow. The more you embrace it, the less you'll need to want to control it, and the more effortless your journey will become. The two things that have come into my consciousness again and again - and which crystallize all other concepts - are acceptance and gratitude. Once you get this, you'll also begin to see people, who interact with your life, for the important messengers that they are on your journey even if their interaction with you is tumultuous.

There are a number of sites on the Internet that discuss visualization exercises, ranging from meditation to color imagery. My simple suggestion is to be aware of your natural experience of thoughts, imagination, and feelings. If you wish, use the following exercise as a general guide.  Avoid getting weighed down in the details of whether you're following the steps exactly as suggested.  It's fun, not a chore.

Just relax, let your inner consciousness guide you in your desire to live the life you want. A positive desire - or, wonderfully, a burning desire - with your inner compass as your guide, will create your outer landscape.

All you have to do consciously is remain positive in your everyday life and walk in the direction of your dreams. Nature will do the rest, and the outside world will reflect the world of your thoughts and feelings.

Action, in as much as it is meant as a controlling endeavor to achieve our objective, is unnecessary. Action, as part of the momentum leading up to the manifestation of our desire, will seem natural. You will feel an inner urge to do something. You may suddenly feel this driving inspiration to buy a digital SLR camera and set off to explore your surroundings or other countries. You are driven to do something from passion, rather than from fear of what will happen to you if you don't act. You create with your mental landscape - action is the sweet physicality you will get to enjoy as you manifest your dreams. Let nature unfold in its wonder - the nature that's inside of you, and nature that's outside of you - rather than control it to meet your terms.

A Visualization Exercise

Let's take an example.  Say, you are not happy with your job, or with some other aspect of your life. Your end objective is to be happy in your work, or in another aspect of your life.
 

Positive visualization - positive thought - thus changes your mental landscape of possibilities or impossibilities.  If you believed that you could never have a life where you worked doing what you enjoyed  - for example, you believed that you had to be employed by a company and had to commute everyday to a job you didn't like - then simply enjoying a daydream of doing something you're passionate about, expands your mental landscape...creates new vistas.  And this reflects in your living experience.

Notice that you are not fighting yourself or your existing mindset.  That can be frustrating, and certainly not any fun. You are simply enjoying happy visualizations of a good life.  Such emotion automatically helps your mind's eye imagine new things.  Old limiting assumptions and boundries seem to dissolve away quietly without your having to expend energy on them. However, if you are able to identify limiting beliefs, by all means challenge them.

There are no rules.  The only rules there are, exist only in your head and they are as real or as false as you believe them to be. You are the painter of your landscape.

And Beyond

Remain humble. As you create your living experience, you will begin to wish for the world around you. You will gradually become secure in the knowledge that you'll be okay, and that you can now use your energy to visualize greater things.  

Once you become cognizant of conscious creation, your mind will know no boundaries.  You will gradually move beyond manifesting wants, to creating visions.  You will unleash your creativity.

And you may find that love, compassion, and generosity towards all will create a joyous environment for you and for others in your life.
 

What about a higher power?

If visualization can create "miracles", where does a higher power come in?

People have their own framework of a divine power, or absence thereof. Some view it in their particular religious setting, some in a personal belief, others in a universal spirituality, and some are either agnostic or atheist.

Sayings or depictions in different world religions or beliefs are really metaphors of the transcendent. Many people, however, take these metaphors literally. Such an interpretation of metaphor can create fear, confusion and prejudice in many, rather than an understanding that religion, if interpreted in the spirit in which it was created, can be a support structure for navigating life and that religious texts can be handy user's manuals in life's journey. It's still wonderful to experience life firsthand as well.

As I reflect on events in my life, such as chance meetings with people that have enriched or changed the course of my life, I wonder who or what orchestrates such complexity. When I'm not consciously visualizing a wish, important and far-reaching events are still occurring in my life. In fact, I'm the one that is consciously or subconsciously composing my life. However, where is my compositional energy coming from? It is all around us. It is what makes a flower bloom, a tree grow, a puppy play, the wind blow, the oceans move, a sea anemone exist, the planets revolve, atomic particles vibrate. It is us. We are part of the life energy of the universe... manifestations or extensions of it.

Some cultures bow their heads slightly and fold their hands in prayer position when they greet you. They are recognizing our wellspring of energy source inside another, even if most of them may be just doing it by way of tradition. They pay similar regard to the elements of nature, such as the sun. Vegetarianism in some cultures follows from the same recognition.  For native Americans, across the Americas, feeling the flow of energy through them and their surroundings like the land, trees, water, wind, animals, was second nature. This is not to say that these belief systems are better than others; just that at least this component of these cultures allows them to see how everything in our world is connected.  Here in the west, all we have to do is watch a nature documentary on TV to see how indeed everything in our world is connected.

Societal mores somehow make people think that a divine power is up there, removed from us. We forget that this omnipresence is transcendent of our constructs. We differentiate amongst each other based on our 'symbols' of the transcendent. We are completely a part of this universal energy, not removed from it...so the power to create your living experience is with you. Quite a responsibility! Thankfully, the bonus is that energy force - God, the universe, whatever your belief - will align itself with you to manifest your moment.

I've come to see that even when I've visualized something, certain events happen that at first seem contrary to the realization of my dreams. I have learned now not to question these events, but to thank them. Does this mean there's a higher power that knows better than I the course of my life? This is where people venture off into heated arguments over divinity or the absence thereof. My understanding, for whatever it's worth, is this: my physical existence is just one portion of my non-physical dimension (a dimension where say thoughts come from, since thoughts are non-physical). In my physical life path I will get to where I'm going anyway... my choice is whether I wish to enjoy - and be grateful for - the journey or punish myself along the way. I see visualization as a path to making the choice to enjoy this journey by expanding my mental landscape. And I feel loved and protected. If you are religious, you can call this a divine power looking over me and managing my life path in ways greater than I can comprehend. If you are not religious, you can see this as a dynamic propulsive dimension of the self.  It behooves us to accept each other and spend our days in gratitude of our own lives rather than in anger and hatred of others in how they live theirs.

We're an infinitesimally small representation of the energy of the universe ...evidenced by the variety of life, life forms and other energy forms around us. That in itself should humble us. If it doesn't, we'll have revelations and humbling experiences... not as 'punishment' from some external force, but really a self-induced experience for our own growth and an understanding of our creative self. Perhaps that is the way of energy - you can invoke its strength since you're a part of it, but not destroy its balance and harmony without consequence. Some may call this a higher power, others may study it as particle and quantum physics, yet it transcends our comprehension.

The belief in a divine power has deep meaning for a lot of people. If such faith makes life meaningful - whether divinity lives above or within - it's wonderful. Prayer is also a form of visualization.

If you're going through a hard time in your life, try and visualize life as you want it to be...and go with the flow of life. If you have struggled upstream for long, try floating downstream for a bit.
 

Wonderful sayings

After reading this page, these quotes should make sense, if they didn't before.

"Dream big".

"Follow your bliss". - Joseph Campbell

"You are the maker of your own destiny".

"Stop worrying, start living".

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." - Albert Einstein

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Gandhi

Quite Simply

All these words on this page ... a passage to one realization :

 
Your life is a reflection of your mental landscape and the thoughts, emotions and actions that emanate from this landscape.  Let your life itself be your roadmap to why you are where you are. 

Expand your mental landscape through positive thoughts, and you will see the manifestation of your dreams.  This is an ongoing process for all of us, including me. At the same time, accept and embrace every moment, no matter how painful. You will know you are practicing resistance - rather than acceptance - when you feel stressed, fearful, angry, hateful, ungrateful and other such negative emotions towards any moment or situation in your life. As soon as you step back and recognize the turmoil you're putting yourself through, you have the opportunity to let go and accept the moment. Appropriately, you will suddenly feel peaceful - like a burden has come off your chest. Your higher self always walks with you ...smile, feel loved.

Give out your best positive thoughts, and you will be returned sheer brilliance ... beyond your human comprehension, and that 'beyond' is the realm of divinity, metaphysics, philosophy, and thought based on your beliefs.
 

Written January 2002 and updated periodically.

Some updates:

On Love and Death

You can hear messages from many sources about life and death. About acceptance. About 'this too shall pass'. But you ask yourself at the deepest levels of your physical and emotional nature - "but what about this pain that I'm feeling?".

For me, the realization that life is an experience, precedes the adoption of acceptance. If life is an experience, then the elements of life - people, places, things, love - are also experiences. If I'm a bit distanced from an 'attachment' to these elements in their physicality, then I'm allowing myself the freedom to swim in the experiences as they unfold in their wonder.

If I've loved my little cat so dearly since he was a baby, and then lose him to a physical condition that he couldn't beat, do I accept his passing? Well, first I feel pain. Tremendous pain. Then I feel love. Great love. Pure love. A love that drives me over distances to Sedona Arizona to stand atop BellRock to feel his presence. Then I swim in the experience...of his life and his absence. Then I accept. For who is to say that this love that I experienced, was bound in finality in its physical existence. My cat was an experience...he helped me - forced me - to transcend locking my experiences in the physical. I thank him for coming into my life.

On moving to California

In 2003 my appendix ruptured after many months of undiagnosed abdominal tightness and pain. My buddies took me to the Emergency and of course I was operated on to save my life.
 
Since I had already experientially become aware of visualization, I wondered after my surgery why or how this near fatal incident occured in my life.

I was living in the NYC metro area back then. I had been visualizing California with all the joy and imagery in my mind and heart. I wanted to live on the ocean with my pets and enjoy the California sunshine in many ways including driving a fast convertible. My health incident was part of the process that brought me to California just months after my surgery (long story).

I love the ocean. The sight of it, the sound of it, a swim in it, a run along its shore, a long bike ride along it's bike path. I had moved to Venice Beach and had been living near, but not on, the beach. While I liked Venice, I kept visualizing a home on a hill overlooking the ocean, with a yard for my cats.

July 4th weekend 2006 my older brother visited me and I drove him around some hills overlooking the ocean and said to him:  "This is how I want to live, in a home with an ocean view on a hill".  He smiled and said  "So it's a pipe dream".  And I asked "Why's it a pipe dream?".  He replied "Because these are multimillion dollar homes".  And I said  "I can see it. I feel the pleasure of it. Aah, the ocean. The vista. My pets. It's something I have held dear for some time".

Just two weeks later, the property I had been living in in Venice seemed about to get sold, and my wonderful and very cool landlord said apologetically to me: "Andy, I'm sorry to do this to you, but the sooner you can move out the better. As you know I've been trying to sell the place for six months with no luck and suddenly I have this totally interested buyer."  I replied:  "Hey it's all good. I really appreciate the chance you gave me to live here the past few years. Nature has a way of pushing us on to the next stage in our life. I'm ready for it. I'm excited. Really, thank you".

I started looking for a place to live. Within a few days I saw a listing for a place near the ocean. I went to meet the owner. It's a small studio home on a hill overlooking the ocean, with a yard for my cats. It's wonderful. And when I invited some friends to visit and enjoy the expansive ocean view, my previous landlord and his wife partook in this happiness and in this vista that belongs to all of us. And I said to him, "We're all connected. Your life and the events in it, such as getting married and selling your house when you did, made my dreams of living on a hill on the ocean come true." He looked at me, then at the ocean, and said simply "This view is unbelievable".

Today I live as I had seen the imagery in my California dreamin' back when I was living on the east coast. I accept the physical pain and the surgery I experienced then. I thank it. Two great lessons in my life: Acceptance and Gratitude.

(And my sports convertible puts out great power and torque in this sun drenched, ocean hugging landscape!)

Readers' Contributions

Some links

I did a search and came up with many interesting sites which discuss visualization. Here are a few I visited.

Spirituality and Healing for Life    Visualizations coupled with affirmations.

Seeing is Believing   Describes the visualization process and how to use crises as catalysts for positive transformation.

Holistic Online   Discusses imagery, our senses, and techniques for visualization.

Color Visualization   Exercises using color for visualization.

Send a message to the author.

Visualize what you want in your life and you will make it a Reality

© andy  at  www.blisscanvas.com