If you perused the previous entries in this series, or not, it’s not a big deal. What’s most important is that whatever change you’re trying to make in your life, or whatever intention you’re trying to hold for yourself, or whatever vision of the future you wish to hold in your mind, that it be clear and meaningful to YOU. That’s why I such a huge fan of Symbolism. It’s all about how we EACH make associations in our minds. The more clarity behind the reason for you change the better. It’s vital that we explore what it is that makes US tick. We’re the only ones in our lives who can make change. Direct change. Lasting change.
Speaking along the lines of a VISION, this leads us to Part3’s theme of VISUAL cues. This is me. This is my jam. MOST of the cues I rely upon are visualized symbols of changes I wanted to make. (Is this you too?!) Visualization practices and Visual cues/reminders have been the FUEL that’s progressed me the farthest and most consistently. When I would lose focus on an aim/endeavor I was pursuing or an intention I was setting, or lose steam toward an aim/endeavor I was pursing, visualizations would be what got me back in the saddle toward my vision of something better. So here are just some of the various Visual Change Aids I’ve used and found helpful.
Vision Board Alternatives
Don’t worry. I’m not suggesting vision boards, because we all know they take hours/days to create and will only end up behind a desk or dresser, or in the back of a closet a month later. I know I gave up on them after doing 2 and finding them behind a desk or in my closet a year later. Am I right!?) I would completely forget about them until the next New Years Resolution needed made. To counter that reality, I offer two alternative approaches:
— Digital Vision Boards: These are best used when set to be your computer’s background/wallpaper! Simply create a collage of images and words that capture best what your intentions are. It will definitely help you, seeing it each and every time you’re on your laptop.
— CML Method: Another option that’s similar but different may be a good fit for you. Vision boards help with getting a “vision” but a Life Cairn is like a more near-term MAP toward that vision. It’s best-suited to people who know they struggle to say no to others, people who struggle hard to stay focused on anything for long, or those who even struggle to prioritize anything ever (Me!). I really never knew what was important to ME until I created my first Cairn and saw visually that I only had a finite amount of time, and energy to spread my focus on! So, you can either use the Cairn method as a “1ST STEP” to doing the Digital Vision Board above, OR you can take a photo of you Life Cairn once you create it, and use it *as* your computer or phone’s background. The order doesn’t matter, what matters is that you set aside the couple hours it takes to create your Life Cairn. Why? Because short of hiring a life coach, it has been the one thing that has propeled my own personal growth, and achieving my goals of my CML Shop & Blog. Seeing that thing every time I opened my laptop is similar to a flower receiving slow-release fertilizer over time vs. receiving a one-time dose that’s used up and gone in a week! I won’t take over this post about all of its many benefits and various uses. You can just CLICK HERE if you want to read more about it and learn more of how it can help you — WAY more than a typical vision board. If it it helps you to think of it this way, it’s more of a “Values Board” or “Priorities Board” if anything.
Journaling
Like I briefly mentioned in the last article (Part 2), journaling can be done about ANY aspect you want to track, observe, improve, or simply document. But, I’ll stick to offering just __ types here, for now.
- Another approach to visually journalling is most easily explained by the popularized “gratitude journal”. The concept that makes GJs successful in the brain is the Amygdala, and how it decides for us what is safe/unsafe in our environment and tells us what to pay attention to. The practice is simply that you list or log what you notice that is _______, so you learn to pay attention to and/or focus upon whatever it is you want to grow more of. So, if it’s peace you wish to notice, you call it a Peace Journal, and you log the things each day that made you feel at peace (and leave a side note when you notice anything that day that robbed you of your peace). If it’s more TRUTH in your life, you enter the things that feel TRUE to you in your life and make you feel secure (and make a side note in your journal of any things/people that are not truthful). I call this approach a NorthStar or Focus Journal, because ultimately you’re giving your mind something to FOCUS it’s sights upon and FIND these items in your day.
Tangible/Symbolic Items (from Part 1)
Revisiting this option is relevant here because if you’re a visual person, then the objects that surround you can greatly help you stay focused on your goals/intentions. So go back HERE to Part 1 and revisit those Tangible items mentioned there. After you select your tangible/physical cues, do realize though that for some of us there is a risk that these carry as well. The risk of DISTRACTION from our intention instead of focus upon it! Sometimes the people who also allow objects to hold significance in their lives, or allow objects to carry emotional meaning to us, are often capable of getting caught up in the memory of who owned it before them, or what thrift shop they bought it at, and so one, and they forget entirely about the INTENTION it’s supposed to be linked to. So for those people it’s best to purchase something NEW, that’s specifically and solely ONLY for the purpose of intention/goal setting! You might find something in the CML Shop that helps you with this, or you could still thrift but go Thrifting for ONLY that object, so the intention is the memory that your mind associates with the object.
Now, if you are also an HSP (You can take the Quiz HERE), then your amygdala logs ALL of that visual input, and it can get very cluttered, leading quickly to an overload (_______which is different than Overwhelm or Shutdown; read more HERE about those and how the 3 differ from eachother________).
Selecting items and how best to USE them is another point here: Selecting a symbolic tangible item is best to avoid these pitfalls. A story for example of my point: Instead of saying “I’m gonna wear this old ring of my grandmother’s that I haven’t worn in a while to remind me to make my bed every morning like she did.” Instead maybe make the ring into a pull chain on your bedroom lamp, or hang it off the switch, so that each day when you go to turn off the light, it’ll cue you to ask yourself: “Wait, did I make the bed like grandma always did?”. That way you’re not wearing it all day and remembering stories of your grandmother and the ring loses it’s symbolism faster, making it a weaker Change Aid.
So bottom line, visually-oriented people can benefit greatly from using tangible/physical objects, but be certain that it links quickly to the INTENTION you’ve linked it with, and ONLY when you want it to so you don’t get distracted by the other sensory stimuli of the item, like: the feel of the Mindset Mug in your hands, or the warmth of the beverage and how soothing it feels, or the shape of the handle and what it reminds you of. Use the tangible item solely as the Change Aid it’s meant to be 🙂 If you’ve tried a couple of these tangible objects to shift patterns of behavior in the past and still need help, maybe email in and we can offer a suggestion or idea of how to tweak it to work better for you!
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I wanna hear from you…what do YOU journal about? How would you use such “visual” cues in your life to create positive changes and improvements in how you experience/do life?! Reach out to me at ReadersRespond@CairnMyLife.com
