Day 3: Month Theme Vision Walk

Now that you have some ideas about your priorities for the month, let's try to access your deeper, intuitive mind again with another vision walk. This week you will get a glimpse of what you are moving towards, an image of the near future that will help you to see the possibilities.

Visualization is a scientifically proven technique for performance improvement, based on the idea that "seeing is believing". It also helps with relaxation and self-confidence. It works because brain neurons interpret imagery as equivalent to reality. Visualization creates new neural pathways, just like a memory or a learned behavior.

Prepare by setting out your journal, and your list of month priority goals. Begin by putting yourself in a relaxed, trance-like state. Seek a leading of the spirit with an open mind and heart:

• Set the mood: Light a candle and dim the lights, and let's try this with silence this time.

• Craft a clear intention: Say something like, "Today I call on the Spirit of Love to bring me clarity and open my eyes to the possibilities of this next month."

• Relax, breathe, walk or float: With each breath, allow your awareness to deepen and become softer. No stress. No rush. Walk or float in an imaginary void (or you might feel the need to stand and walk around your actual space).

• Go through a door: When you feel ready, see yourself moving through a doorway or opening into another space. This time you are moving onto a mountain top - a sun-drenched ridge above the tree line. Find a safe spot to sit, with your back against a warm rock, and take in the view.

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  View from South Sister - Photo by Carrie Mack

• Open to messages and gifts: Gaze down at the panorama of your month ahead, the whole of it, spread out like a map from today to the end of the month. You have the eyes of an eagle: Begin to picture your month's activities, accomplishments, events, and each of your priority goals and ideas. Give just enough time to each one to see it clearly.

You might get a message or insight, even just a little detail that you don't want to forget, so quickly make a note in your journal and return to the mountain.

• Before you leave the mountain, ask yourself, "If this month were a story, poem, song, or painting, what would be its name?"

• Give thanks and return: Saying thanks out loud is how you acknowledge the reality of the gift. Then, turn around and exit the way you came in.

• Journal: Write (or draw) in your journal the images and thoughts that came to you, without editing or judging. Pick a theme word or phrase to describe the coming month and distill it down to its essence, something evocative and poetic, like "Month of Adventuring Out of My Shell", or something simple but inspirational, like "Month of Being True".

• If any new priority goals for this month are clear to you now, add them to your chart.

• Extra Effort: Write your theme out in big letters on paper or card, and add relevant doodles. Post this where you can see it throughout the day.