Beware, this is not about these new years resolutions that will disappear into thin air. I'm talking about those things than light your fire, that make you feel alive and move forward in life, which make you smile when you think about the future.
Well, smile when you think about the future. In some cases, it's obvious, comes without saying, the future is bright, smiling right back at us!
But in other cases, it's far from obvious. It might even seem unreal. Disease, financial trouble, family issues, feelings of hopelessness, feeling stuck in every area of your life.. why bother looking into the future and making up plans based on thin air?
Well, why not then?
Every single realisation of humanity started with a dream. A dream that sounded crazy. But also a dream that ended up sprouting into reality, with persistence, or sometimes easily enough. There has been crazy dreams of health, such as the stories I mentioned yesterday, of the ones you might remember me discussing before such as Jean Claude Gruau and all those who, like him, healed their bladder cancer, avoiding surgical removal of their organ, just by exploring the medical benefits of fasting, or Norman Cousins who escaped the paralysis resulting from an Ankylosing Spondylitis by laughing his way out of it (and a few other discoveries).
Other crazy dreams turned reality include freedom from the burden of sexual abuse for Sue and many others. Incredible dreams of financial success, family re-unions... What ARE your dreams?
Today, I'm suggesting that you follow Antoine de Saint Exupéry's advice : “Future. You don't have to plan for it, just allow it to be.”
Could you find 10 things that you would like to allow in your future?
How to write your list:
There are many ways to look at this exercise. Your dreams might be so vivid for you that you only need to put pen to paper and it will write on its own.
Or you might not even dare writing them down, because they seem too improbable, too crazy. If this is your case, you can use more “acceptable” sentences, such as “I'm opening up to the possibility that...” or “I wonder how I would feel if...”
Or you might not even have one dream coming to mind at all. I felt that way that during depression. But if you are reading this, somewhere at the bottom of your heart, there is a small light of hope. What about opening the door to it? Here is one way for you to write that list: take a piece of paper, and split it in 2 columns. On the left, list 10 aspects of your life that don't suit you, such as :
- fatigue or symptoms from a disease - a situation in your family - a financial situation, and so on...
On the right, write down a positive version of that situation. E.g.
- “ I have no energy to run my daily life” might become “Everyday I feel more and more energetic!” - “I can't cope anymore with this situation with X.” might become “The situation with X is solved to every concerned person's benefit”. - “I'm fed-up carrying all this weight around” might become “my body is naturally reaching its balance and I love the feeling that I am at my ideal weight”.
Here's your list!
What to do with your list?
You “only” need to tap now!
There again, you have several options.
- use one point per dream. Tap, read your choice and ask ONE opening question such as “I'm wondering which action I could take to get a tiny bit closer to my dream?”. If no answer is coming out, no worries, the question has been asked, the answer will come in its own time.
- if you have a bit more time available, you could tap a full round or more per dream, and describe your dream in details, what your life would be like if this dream became true, what you would feel in your body, what you would see around you... Don't you sometimes watch funny or touching movies which make you feel good? This is the same, except YOU are the director!
So enjoy your directing job, and I'll see you tomorrow for step 4.