Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Dr. Lucia Capacchione, Ph.D., A.T.R., is an art therapist, artist, author, popular workshop leader, and corporate consultant who has worked for Hallmark, Mattel, and the Walt Disney Company. She lives near Big Sur, California.

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Visioning

Jeremy P. Tarcher

Chapter One

The Designer Within

THINKING WITH YOUR HEART

Visioning is purposeful daydreaming applied to everyday life. It isabout thinking with your heart and allowing your true wishes tobecome reality. A Visionary's language is images and wordsfrom the heart. Deep within the heart we find the creative self. This creativeself is home to the practical visionary within, our unlimited potential,our spiritual DNA, or life's purpose.

    This creative self is our silent partner. It is always ready and willingto help us express our true desires in the world. The lover of books whospends hours browsing in bookstores, the amateur gardener who losesherself weeding and planting, the hiking enthusiast who can't seem toget enough of nature's beauty. These are ordinary people honoring theimpulse of the creative self in daily life. For although it is our silent partner,it does have a voice. It speaks in images, in daydreams and nightdreams. It sends messages through the body. Sometimes the creative selfexpresses through music, poetry, or art. It often comes through loud andclear in meditation and prayer.

    The voice of the creative self is our creative conscience. It keeps uson track when we:

    · ignore or forget our heart's desires

    · sell out to the demands of others

    · shelve our dream in order to get someone's approval

    · get stuck in a mindless and boring rut

    Without the guidance of the creative conscience it's easy to getoverworked, addicted, exhausted, or sick (or all of the above). When thathappens you know your heart and soul are starving to death. Your creativeconscience must resort to pain and discomfort to get your attention.The pain is there for a reason. You need to do something about it.Veer too far off the path of the heart and you get a pebble in your soul.Life hits you over the head with one of those big lessons: illness, an autoaccident, bankruptcy, the relationship that ends painfully.

    Some of life's catastrophes are preventable, some are not. Indulgingin self-destructive behavior, like addictions or abusive relationships, canbe reversed. But what about circumstances beyond your control? Howcan you predict that your company is going to downsize you out of a job?Or that an earthquake or flood will leave you homeless? Or that yourspouse will die? Whether you are facing a crisis of your own making orone that was thrust upon you, Visioning works. Acquiring the habit oflistening to your heart and giving voice to your creative conscience is agreat survival strategy, enabling you to design and build the life you wantwith the pieces that life has given you.

WHAT IS DESIGN?

Visioning is rooted in the idea that you can design your own life, that it iswithin your power to:

    · take charge of your own imagination

    · become a purposeful dreamer

    · design the life of your dreams

    · Vision your dream into reality

    Visioning begins by naming your heart's desire and translating itinto pictures and words on paper. It is the same process designers, architects,and engineers use when they get an idea and create sketches,models, and blueprints. They know the alchemy of turning thoughtsinto things. There's nothing mysterious about it. It's the process knownas design. And you can learn it, too, by designing from your heart's desires.In fact, in my dictionary, the word desideratum immediately precedesthe words pertaining to design.

DESIDERATUM?something desired as essential or needed.

And the words following design are desirable, desire, and desirous.

Desire and design. Side by side in the dictionary. A perfect verbal road map for the adventure of designing your life. Knowing what you truly desire, you can create your life with intention and make it a work of art.

    My favorite definitions for design from the dictionary are:

· to conceive and plan out in the mind
in Visioning you'll do this through mental imagery

· to intend
setting the intention is the first step in Visioning

· to conceive and draw the plans for
your collage is your plan or blueprint

· a particular purpose
your heart's desire is your purpose

· an underlying scheme that governs functioning, developing, or unfolding
that's Visioning

    As a Visionary, you qualify as a designer according to the dictionarydefinition:

· one who creates plans for a project or structure
the project is your life, the plan is your vision collage

    Now let's explore the dictionary definitions of desirable anddesire and see what they have to do with Visioning.

· a strong wish, longing
Visioning helps you know and honor your wishes

· an expressed wish
your collage and journaling are the expression of your strongest wish

· eagerly wishing
the passion you feel will create a magnet for opportunity

    The dictionary definitions of the word vision are also worthexploring.

· something seen otherwise than by ordinary sight
this is the "wish your heart makes"

· a vivid picture created by the imagination
these are the mental images you'll portray in your collage

· the act or power of imagination
you'll be developing this power through Visioning

· unusual wisdom in foreseeing what is going to happen
collages have an uncanny way of showing you things before they happen, tapping into your innate intuition

THINKING IN PICTURES

Practical visionaries in any field often say that they think in pictures. Visualthinking is second nature for artists, designers, and architects whohave developed this innate ability as part of their craft. Filmmakers andtheme park designers create storyboards (cartoonlike panels telling thehighlights of their story in captioned pictures). Successful executives,business entrepreneurs, scientists, writers, athletes, and just plain folksuse mental imagery every day to "design in the mind" what they want toaccomplish in the world. This has been true in the field of competitivesports for many years, in methods such as the inner game of tennis orgolf.

    Your Visioning collage will be a kind of storyboard or blueprint ofthe life you want to create. I say "kind of"...