More about Visioning
From the Passion & Possibilities Blog:
Many of you have heard of “visualization,” and some of you may have heard of “visioning”.
They are related, yet very different ways to generate greater possibilities and performance in your life.
Here are some basic questions and answers related to visioning, which I gathered during the many years I’ve been working with visioning in my own life and with my clients.
Please share any other ideas, comments, or questions on visioning and how it’s helped you create the life you want to live! Happy Passioneering.
Q. What is visioning?
Answer: In visioning you are calling forth, without any preconceived ideas, the perfect “good” for a particular situation. That is, you’re tapping into a universal pattern of divine perfection that is the realm of what you don’t know…and what you don’t know that you don’t know: the realm of infinite possibilities.
It’s a whole brain, sensorial approach that requires letting go of analyzing, doing, censoring, and control. Brainstorming, visualizing, and most creativity techniques, on the other hand, are based on your brain’s existing database of facts and information even though these techniques do sometimes result in innovations.
There are several ways to vision, and the one technique that I’ve found to be most powerful and that embraces mind, body, and spiritual principles, is Rev. Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith’s approach, as described in his audio book, Life Visioning.
Rev. Michael used visioning as the foundation for the Agape International Spiritual Center, and I it was the basis for my roles as a visioning facilitator for the Centers for Spiritual Living, as founder of a spiritual community in Olympia, WA, and as program manager for many projects.
Visioning is very versatile: You can use it for a project, situation, event, activity, product, or other venture in your personal or professional life.
Q. How does visioning differ from visualization?
Answer: When you visualize a picture, place, or thing, you’re using your sense of sight to create an image based upon prior information. For example, if you’re playing basketball, you might visualize yourself making a perfect free throw from the baseline. You imagine, in your mind’s eye, all the steps and motions in making the free throw, including the ball going through the hoop. Everything that you see in visualization is based upon what you already know about basketball and how it works. Visioning, on the other hand, calls forth information that is NOT already available. With visioning, you calm your mind and turn down the thinking process. What arises from visioning are ideas and concepts from what you might call your higher power (e.g., intuition, God, universe, etc.).
Q. How does the visioning process work?
Answer: Visioning is a step by step process in which you:
a) Move into a centered, meditative space.
b) Are guided in answering the following questions (or similar ones):
What is the highest good for this situation? What does it look like? Feel like? Sound like? Smell like? Taste like?
What must I become to realize this highest good? What must I embrace?
What must I release to realize this highest good?
What else must I know about this highest good?
c) Give thanks for any experience or messages that arose.
d) Write down (if you wish) what you experienced, without judgment, censorship, or interpretation. You’ll include the images and other sensations.
Q. What do I do with the information I get from visioning?
Answer: Visioning is a way to “catch” a glimpse of the bigger picture for your life or a particular situation. So it’s a state of vibrational being that informs your planning and actions, yet there’s nothing that you need to DO with what you experience in visioning. Some of my visioning clients have gotten frustrated because they wanted to immediately run out after a visioning session and make the vision happen. It’s simply not the way it works. However, when you start vibrating at a frequency of possibilities, you put the universal law of attraction into motion. What happens going forward is unpredictable and mysterious; however, it IS the creative process unfolding in your own life. Some might say that visioning is a way that God creates good in your life.
Q. How often should I vision?
Answer: You can vision as often as you like. Some individuals and groups vision regularly (e.g., weekly, monthly, quarterly), while others do it on an ad hoc basis. There is no right or wrong way to vision.
Q. Can I vision alone?
Answer: Yes, although it’s fun and engaging to include others in the visioning process. The easiest way to vision alone is by recording the visioning questions or purchasing a visioning audio program, which is easier than trying to remember and ask yourself the visioning questions during the exercise.
Q. How can I use visioning with groups?
Answer: Visioning is an excellent tool for small or very large groups to call forth a bigger picture for an event, project, new offering, or other venture. Group visioning requires that all participants move through the guided experience at the same time and then share their experiences with the rest of the group or in subgroups. Group visioning can occur in person, by teleconference or even video conference.
Q. I don’t like to draw, can I still use visioning?
Answer: Absolutely. Many individuals get words instead of images during a visioning session. The invitation is to simply allow the images, words, and other sensations to come through uninterrupted and without judgment.
Q. What supplies or tools do I need to vision?
Answer: You’ll want paper, a pen or pencil (or even crayons/markers!) to capture the visioning downloads. You’ll also want an audio or video player if you’re using a recording. When working with groups, you’ll probably want to use flip charts so that participants can share and see the results.
Q. Visioning sounds kind of “woo woo”. How practical is it?
Answer: Visioning relies upon your higher power or intuition, which is available to each person at any time. Although the results may seem a little unpractical, the power of visioning is in how it moves beyond current information into the realm of pure potential and possibilities. When you use visioning as a basis of a strategic or tactical plan, you’re bringing greater power, creativity, and synergy to the process.
Q. How can I use visioning on a day-to-day basis?
Answer: There are many ways to use visioning on a daily basis. You might, for example, start each day with a brief, 10-minute visioning, asking the question: “What is the highest good for my day?” I’ve used it to begin board meetings and other important events. You might also use it when confronted with a problem or difficult situation that seems insurmountable. Visioning is a great way to call forth solutions that you might not have otherwise considered.
Thanks to Passion & Possibilities Blog