Visioning

I learned an awful lot about myself this afternoon as I attended a visioning workshop at the Bodhi Spiritual Center in Chicago.  It was a challenge to each of the participants to set goals for 2010.

At first it seemed a little hokie.  First we thought (to ourselves) about questions like:

What is the highest vision of my life this year?  Walking with confidence, understanding, and acceptance.

What must I release?  The idea that there is a solution.  Self-consciousness.

What must I embrace?  The idea that I am unique.

What else do I need to know?  The medical possibilities and limits.

Next we worked on a vision board, finding words, phrases, and pictures in magazines that appealed to us.  I have always like projects that involved cutting and pasting, so this part was fun.



I paid little attention to how I arranged my clippings on my poster board.  Was it just chance that “a break” ended up in the middle?  Most everything else evolved around appreciating life, working on fitness, growing old with grace, travel, and even a good glass of wine.

I searched in vain for the word “acceptance”, but never found it.  I could only conclude that maybe I’m supposed to move beyond acceptance to something greater.

After each creating our own “board”, we broke into small groups and did something called a “future pull” in which we imagined the successful completion of our vision with the support of the others in the group.

It was a very positive experience.  It really served to make my goals more concrete.  I hope by this time next year to be able to say at least part of my vision was fulfilled.