Stop, Look, and Listen: Taking our holiday vision back

In a previous post called, “Unwrapping Your Presence,” I talked about the importance of having presence, everywhere you go and with every person you encounter—family, friends, and even strangers. When you have presence, the visionary inside you is wide awake and calling the shots. You embody that visionary and inspire others to awaken their own.

Many of us have embodied this unique presence before, but even the greatest visionaries  have to work to renew and sustain it. We all teeter off center and temporarily fall out of sync, especially in uncertain, challenging times. Even when we know that responding is the best course, we all fall back into reacting—to emergencies, upsets, losses. Our presence can slip away when the holiday rush is our default. Even just playing to the max, partying during the holidays, can throw us out of whack. Whatever the reason for our disconnect, we need to take the time to get back in touch with ourselves, to reawaken the visionary and once again embody her voice.

But how do you go about doing this? The answer isn’t simply a matter of doing A and getting B. In fact, the answers aren’t nearly as important as the questions.

Some of the first questions you must ask yourself are these: What matters most to me? What does the world need? And especially, Where do they intersect? It is at the intersection of your soul’s purpose and what the world needs that you will find your vision, or refine it with renewed clarity and focus.

Of course, there are many other questions you must ask yourself, some of them questions we all need to ask and some of them questions that are specific to you. Most of us need guides to get outside our own heads and figure out what these are. But for now, let’s keep it simple. Put the above questions out there, but—and this is important—don’t rush just yet to answer them. Let possible answers flow through your mind, your soul, your body, but resist the urge to grab one just to satisfy that part of you that needs to have the answer, that needs certainty. Right now, uncertainty is where you need to live inside if you are to find a true vision instead of just another goal disguised as a vision.

To discover your vision and move into the field of possibilities, embracing myriad alternative futures, you need to stop that voice in your head that wants to tell you all the answers, because all too often, that voice is so loud we don’t even hear our visionary when she speaks. Now is the time to simply listen. Listen and wait for inner voices and outer symbols and messengers.

These messengers come in all sorts of guises if we are open to the message. Although you don’t control what they are or when they show up, you can start now preparing yourself to recognize them and listen to what they have to say. Being in the presence of others who are in touch with their own visionary is perhaps the most powerful way to awaken your own. Someone who can guide you through meditation, in-body experiences, Shaktipat, guided imagery, or the expressive arts is invaluable at this stage. Even without a guide, you can create conduits for this inner voice and outer symbols and messengers: meditating, music, being in nature and connecting with something bigger than yourself, writing . . . trying something new in and of itself can shake up your perspective and open you to new ideas. Try asking your inner dream-maker to bring forth your visionary voice or something you need to know at this time, and keep a dream journal to record the messages you receive.

Regardless of how you go about it, don’t give in to the temptation to rush or skip this step. In fact, this isn’t even a step so much as it is an ongoing process, an undercurrent to keep you in touch with your inner world and open to messengers even after you’ve started grounding your vision in the outer world. [bctt tweet=”When you are truly listening, your presence will speak volumes.”]

What matters most to you? What does the world need? Where do they intersect?

Karen Sands, MCC, BCC

Phone: 203.266.1100
Email: karen@karensands.com
Website: www.karensands.com
Address: PO Box 43 Roxbury, CT 06783-0043