When we were growing up, we were taught to dream less because dreams belong to the realm of the non-existent and no one in their right mind would choose dreamland over reality.
Humans were blessed by nature with the natural ability to dream (or daydream); it is unfortunate the cynicism of society doesn’t encourage this activity anymore. Little do people know that daydreaming can actually help a person improve his life from within so that he would be more prepared to handle the challenges of the real world.
The following NLP exercise will help you rediscover the potency of dreams and mental play and will also reintroduce you to the idea of mapping out your future through visualization:
1. The first thing that you need to do is to identify a lifelong desire or goal. Go crazy with this goal or desire. Imagine that you have a genie in a magic lamp. Visualize that you have every resource imaginable to make your desire or goal a reality. Are you ready with that great desire or goal? Picture that goal clearly in your mind and proceed to the next step.
2. Now that you have a goal in mind, list down all of the reasons why you have this desire or goal in the first place. If you have thirty reasons why you want this goal to be accomplished, write them all down. Examine the list that you have created. Were you expecting all of these reasons at all? Are you somewhat surprised at all of these core values that you thought you never had?
3. After listing down all of the reasons and values that you associate with the lifelong goal, visualize that you are floating and you are flying to a not too distant future where your lifelong goal has finally come true.
4. Float into the picture and try to animate everything around you. Ask yourself questions like how does it feel to be in that distant time? What are the sights and sounds? What are you wearing? How does the air feel in this distant time?
5. As you visualize the distant time, I want you to turn up the details. Make every detail as vibrant and bright as possible. If you smell something, make the smell so strong that you could almost feel the scent permeating your nose. If you are wearing a new dress or a new suit in the visualization, imagine how the cloth feels on your skin and heighten that feeling as well.
6. When the visualization is as strong and vibrant as possible, I want you to start observing your surroundings more closely. Try to pick up important details that you think would help you achieve this lifelong goal.
No detail is too small. If something appeared in your visualization that means your mind is trying to tell you something. Absorb everything in your daydream. Write down all of the important and interesting details that you have picked up later on.
7. When you are done observing, bid farewell to that sweet time in the future and come back. When you are fully refreshed from your dream, begin the journey that will make your dream come true!
Important Note:
Daydreaming is actually the subconscious mind’s way of reminding us how to get things done. It will continually remind us through the use of images and symbols until we finally understand what it’s trying to say.