Predict Your Own Future by Creating It!

As you survey what you see around you, literally and figuratively, do you like what you see? If your apartment’s cramped and cluttered, if your job is a humdrum, humiliating, waste of time, or if your love life has all the joy of getting a root canal – you may need to make some changes.

If you’re waiting for things to change, things simply won’t get better on their own. This is your one and only life. It’s not a dress rehearsal; sadly you don’t get a ‘do-over’ because things aren’t to your liking.

So, what to do? And how to do it?

The answer is surprisingly simple. Use focused daily visualization to create something new and wonderful for yourself. There are some wonderful books out there on visualization if you want to study this in depth, but there’s a great deal you can accomplish on your own.

Start by choosing one area of your life. It’s best to focus your energy on changing one thing at a time, which will give you the confidence to tackle more complicated projects. For the sake of this exercise, we’ll choose to work on the apartment.

First, take stock of the problems.
Write down everything that is a problem, and everything that needs to change. Make a complete list. Be really honest with yourself, are you attached to an outdated idea of yourself, as evidenced through your apartment? Sometimes an apartment screams: perpetual student; party pad; waiting ’til I get married studio? Maybe you’ve outgrown your ‘charming’ East Village apartment featuring a bathtub in the kitchen and cockroaches. Maybe the buckled bookshelves have had their time. Don’t worry about being ‘practical.’ You may not at the moment have the ready cash to change everything, nonetheless it’s important to get a handle on the scope of the problem.

Next, sit down where you won’t be bothered for five minutes.
Find somewhere quiet, and comfortable, where you can be alone and undisturbed for at least five minutes. Sit comfortably with your back supported, and do a progressive relaxation. Relax your face, your neck, and your shoulders; move down your body releasing and relaxing each area with each deep breath you take. Once you’ve relaxed down to the tips of your toes, imagine the perfect apartment. Create as much detail as possible – sights, sounds, fragrance, furniture, appliances, sunlight, and so on…

When you’ve got a clear image in your mind, wrap one hand around your wrist. Give the wrist a gentle squeeze and “lock” the image in this gesture. Whenever you look around your apartment as it is with despair, grab your wrist and pull the image of your new apartment into your mind. With time, this image will become as real as your current situation and it will help ‘magnetize’ this new reality for you.

Then gather some magazines and make a scrapbook, paste down images that are close to your visualized apartment. Anything goes, as long as it’s in keeping with what you want. Have fun with this Dream Book and go for as much detail as you can muster.

Also, write a note to yourself with a coded reference to your dream, for example, “Brownstone.” Post these where you’ll see them everyday, on your mirror in the bathroom, on your alarm clock, on your computer at work. When you glance at them bring the image of your new apartment to mind. This will help it become part of your consciousness and will help bring it to manifestation.

Now, you’ll need to make a daily practice of repeating the visualization
Add more detail every time you do this. Don’t allow yourself to turn this into a chore, keep it light, keep it fun and keep doing it. The more often you do it, the more you’ll attract the energy to change.
Remember to seize opportunity. After a week of visualization, let’s say you walk past a store window and see a bowl very much like one you’d dreamed up. Don’t pass by telling yourself that it would be too expensive. Go look at it, pick it up, and handle it. Inquire as to the price; if it’s too much, add to your visualization a scene of finding the bowl on sale, at a price you can afford. And if the bowl is already at a price you can afford, buy it. Do every little thing you can do to make it clear to yourself that you’re moving towards your new dream apartment step by step.

Be sure to give it time, but don’t give up. Some people have the ability to concentrate and to follow through more naturally than others, but all of us have the ability to visualize and all of us can improve through practice.

Finally, keep practicing
Soon you’ll have something quite closely resembling your dream. Remember to allow room for the ‘universe’ to surprise you with something even better. So if and when you don’t get what you wanted, allow yourself to see this setback as an opportunity in disguise. This will keep the flow between you and your dream open.

Once you’ve got what you wanted, turn your attention to the next area of your life that you want to work on and repeat the process. You’ll be delighted with the results, as you make your own dreams come true.