Revisiting your vision
Remember that vision you created toward the end of 2021, or the beginning of this year? Maybe you remember your own whimsical, happy, eagerly expectant vision? If you haven’t yet created it, see the post here. While you are there, it may be helpful to go back to an even older post which provides instructions on how to create a vision board.
Maybe you did complete the vision exercise, if so, go back and read what you wrote, or conjure the memory of what you had been thinking. All the better if you created a vision board and it has been front and center! Even with vision boards, and reminder backgrounds on our phones; sometimes we loose the feeling and intention behind what we wanted to occur in our lives.
For example, in my word of the year post, I pieced together my vision for 2022 with 5 focus areas and listed the intentions behind them. My intentions were as follows:
- Live a balanced life
- Be present in every moment
- Continuously work on myself
- Give myself grace
- Enjoy life everyday
- Learning new things
Deciding on how you want to feel
Deciding on how you want to feel. Let’s get real for a second. Typically, our goals, dreams, and even material objects have nothing to do with the actual gaining or achievement. Instead, those desires have to do with how it would we would FEEL if we had them. In this way, over the years it has become more obvious to me that this human experience we have is all about feeling. If it wasn’t for our five senses and emotional states, we wouldn’t be alive.
Allowing ourselves to feel more deeply almost always also makes us feel more alive.
Therefore, today’s post is meant to remind you to revisit your vision from a feeling state and recreate that excited feeling you had when you put something on your list.
Personal reflections to inspire your own thought process
That being said, I will go through my own intentions and why I added them to my list. Both from a spirit of being more vulnerable with my audience and wanting to provide inspiration. So, below are my intentions and what they mean to me from the perspective of either the five senses, or emotionally how I’d like to feel.
Live a balanced life
Previously, I was living only on one side of the see-saw. Only once in awhile was I using my legs to push myself up and see things from a different perspective. But also, I was hyper focused on career growth and financial independence. Of course, in moderation, I believe these two things are responsible and worthy things to focus on. However, balance between having a social life, having fun and doing enjoying activities was lacking.
This is on my intentions list so that I start to feel more joy from success by using it as inspiration and financial backing toward things I love. In a nutshell what this means to me is: Enjoying more activities or get better at my existing hobbies; I’d like to eat better food and savor every bite; resting as much as needed to be in better condition. Not to mention, becoming mentally ready for anything and waking up each day with a more optimistic frame of mind.
Be present in every moment
Next is being present in every moment. Too often, I found myself off in a thought bubble that was not only unproductive, but also not even close to being near the location I was physically in. I can remember being out to dinner one evening and being so lost in some ridiculous thought the person next to me may have been physically able to see the thought bubbles emerging from my head. Okay okay… maybe that is just a slight exaggeration.
Yet, when I think about how I want this intention to play out in my life, I think back to the garden scene from my flourishing post. As present as I can be in the imaginary scenes playing out in my mind, is the same level of presence I want to feel even as I write this blog post for you. In basic terms, I want to be present to the 5 senses and my emotional state; and to have enough awareness that I can easily recall the entire scene in the future.
Let’s practice
In this moment, the sun is shining through my window in a very warm, early morning way. Bianca is snuggly with her blankets on her favorite chair, taking in the sun. Every glance I take of her, she briefly opens her eyes seemingly expectant for me to ask her if she’d like to go outside. I am sitting on the floor in crisscross applesauce; let’s not get into ergonomics please.
In my typical spot, at my coffee table , which is filled with the books I’m reading, my journal and habit tracker nearby. A vase full of coloring pencils and calligraphy pens sits next to my brainstorming and other scribbles. Wearing my favorite hoodie, leggings and my favorite cozy socks, hair in a messy bun. Sipping on coffee, which is just right today; listening to airplanes fly by and watching the breeze in the trees. On this particular occasion, I do not have music in the background, which is rare for me. Instead, the sound of my typing and my own breathing are all that can be heard inside my little condo.
Feeling rather content, and happy. Gratitude for the sunlight, for my dog and for the time and energy to write fills my heart.
Alright, how is that for living in this moment? As you were reading were you transported to my living room? I hope so. And I hope you will try this out for yourself.
Continuously work on myself
Oddly, as I wrote this, I started to feel almost too vulnerable to share about this intention. Therefore, I will be brief. I suppose to work on oneself, first the admission of fault must occur. Funny enough, one of the biggest things I want to work on is being less self-critical. However, being self-aware and reflecting on areas of improvement is so important for growth. Therefore, I will continuously measure how I show up everyday and work on myself in the areas I think need the most improvement. While, at the same time recognizing where I am making progress.
Give myself grace
Wow, that last one felt strange… but leads us right into giving myself grace. This intention is one I added to my list after realizing that beating myself up over mistakes wasn’t helping.
You may remember a post I made toward the end of last year. In it, I talked about self-loathing and my personal disappointments in myself. Holding myself to a high standard is something which makes me me. However, overdoing it to the point of self-hate is not healthy and rather mentally toxic. This is why I added this intention to my list for 2022. How I see this playing out is to be aware of my mistakes and immediately see them as launch points for change. The feeling this evokes in me is one of empowerment. One of victory over my own faults and one of growth. Hopefully, resulting in greater positive emotion toward myself. Another piece of this is intention is to continuously grow my ability to extend grace to others.
Enjoy life everyday
Awhile ago I talked about creating your perfect day. It came with a little this or that check-list. The general idea behind this intention is similar. Everyday, I want to be able to look back and know that I was intentional about enjoying the day. It could be as simple as having a conversation with a stranger on the plane, or enjoying the first sip of coffee in the morning. Or cuddling my little Bianca. And sometimes, this could mean bigger events, going to see the symphony and relishing in the music; or going to watch my favorite sport and enjoying a cold beer and cheering loudly. No matter the grandeur or simplicity of the day, I want to feel relaxed, content and full of joy. I want to be able to tear up in appreciation for another’s talent or giggle until my tummy hurts.
Learning new things
Ah yes, we have come to the last intention on my list: learning new things. Having this one on my list feels like I am spoiling myself. There isn’t much in life I love more than learning something new. I don’t even need to become good at it… I just want to experience new things. This one comes most natural to me and is the result of all the other intentions I’ve listed here combined. When I’m learning something new, facts or activity, it fills me with a feeling of elation and excitement. The best way I can describe it is on the first few seconds of riding a roller coaster.
Challenge
With that thought, I leave you to your own vision. Today’s challenge is to revisit your vision. Go through your intentions, explore them and decide why and what you want to feel as a result of putting them on your list. Please share as much or as little as you’d like in the comments below.
