Activate Your Highest Vision, Part 1

by Emma Laurence

This is part one in a blog series on how to activate the highest vision of your life.

If the highest and best vision for your life (or your business) were to be fully realized now, what would it look like?

Watch how this question opens a door to the specific dream currently living in your imagination. Be brave. Enter this new room by letting yourself explore the sights, sounds, and feelings of your highest ideal or greatest passion, fully realized.

Now, you have full permission to be creative in this process. Write or paint your vision, sing or dance it. For creative people, even the sky isn’t a limit—and dreams do come true.

How dreams come true is the focus of this blog series. So, let’s begin.

If You Can Picture It, It’s Here Now

If you’re ready to enjoy the freedom and accept the responsibility of creating your own world, there’s a key principle to embody:

The present moment is the only one in which dreams are made or broken.

Similarly, fears are overcome or given into in this moment. Life is either fully lived or denied—one moment at a time.

So, how does this principle play out when activating your vision?

If you can picture what you’d love to create, it already exists now. If you can imagine the sights, sounds, and feelings, it’s already here. You might say, yeah, but it’s just in my imagination. True. And which, of all the inventions in human history, hasn’t first begun in someone’s imagination?

Therefore, holding the vision in this moment of what you believe possible means it already exists somewhere. Think of it as dwelling in a parallel universe, if you like. Or, in “the future,” if that helps. Don’t let the mind get too concerned about where or when. Just be willing to entertain the possibility that your vision is, relatively speaking, real.

How ‘Activate Your Highest Vision’ Works

The word activate is powerful. It involves action, here and now, that brings the power of potential into reality.

Let’s take a simple example. You go hiking with friends, and at the summit, you all lean in for a selfie. And you’re not surprised when, less than a second later, you’re looking at that same image on your screen.

The activation of a dream works the same way. It just takes more time.

For example, back up to when you first decide you want to go hiking. You have a vision of you, your dog, and a couple of friends piling into your Honda, heading out of town on Saturday morning. You can see the group hitting the trailhead, laughing as you walk up the path, stopping to snack at a waterfall, and enjoying an amazing landscape view at the top.

Wouldn’t that be fun? Yes! You can almost feel that joy right now.

While it may take days, and certain preparations, for you to have the hiking experience, you’ve actually set up the image in your mind in much the same way as you used your phone.

So, frame the shot, do the work—image realized.

What Form Does ‘Activate Your Highest Vision’ Take?

The real question most people bring to coaching when they want to activate their vision is, how will this take shape in my everyday life?

Honestly, by the time a client gets to me, the manifestation or how is already taking form. It’s happening! When you’re in transition, it’s difficult to get the overview. But, the beginnings of a new life are already present—or you wouldn’t even be seeking help to make a change.

So, what’s already showing up? And, how will your dream take form in daily life?

The rest of the blogs in this series will address the form of your journey. I’ve identified five different rhythms that you naturally use to activate your highest and best—without even realizing you’re doing it! These rhythms are like forms in motion.

Learning your natural rhythm is a huge gift! You get to relax. You recognize your own genius. And you gain confidence to bring your vision into physical reality, one action at a time.

So, keep reading! See if one of the rhythms—linear, cyclical, serpentine, figure 8, or universal—makes sense for you. You can stop “reaching to achieve” your goal. Instead, begin to activate your highest vision, now.

Photo by Peter Conlan on Unsplash

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When Life Brings More Than You Expect!

by Emma Laurence

Meet Zoey.  We adopted her a month ago after my husband spotted her picture in an online listing. I was making breakfast one morning when I heard him say Oh…in that two-tone descending pitch that means someone just stole my heart.  I stepped over to peer at his laptop screen as soon as I could leave the stove.

Oh, my… Yep, that’s her, I thought, as we read Zoey’s story.  She looked intelligent, petite and sweet.  She was just under a year old; the owners were moving and had to rehome her asap. 

We’d been scanning photos for months, during which time we’d met two cats that were not a match.  We wondered when our cat (or small dog) would appear.  That afternoon, honoring social distancing with the humans, we picked Zoey up and brought her home. 

Zoey needed a few days to get used to us, but she never hid in fear.  She loved the sliding glass doors to the backyard and the many windows of our townhome.  We played laser light tag with her and provided plenty of space/time to adjust.  After a few weeks, she made a habit of jumping onto my lap every time I sat on the couch.

Then an unexpected development unfolded.  I had occasion to lift Zoey off a forbidden piece of furniture when I noticed she seemed heavier than before.  She’d been eating plenty in the transition from dry to canned food.  Yet she carried this extra weight in her lower belly, and I got the distinct impression she was pregnant. 

I texted the previous owner, is it even possible that… was she perhaps in contact with…?  Answers came back with a sincere apology.  Yes, it was “possible.”  There had been a male cat in the household at one time, but they’d had no idea.  Did we want help finding a new home, or did we want to return her? 

Nope.  We just wanted to know whether to follow through.

With the current pandemic, Dr. Ricci was only seeing urgent cases, but she agreed to an office visit so we could confirm.  While she couldn’t feel individual kittens yet, she was 90% sure we’d have a houseful in three weeks.

Oh, what a perfect spiritual set up.  From the moment we laid eyes on Zoey, we knew she was part of our family.  We just didn’t know she’d bring a whole family with her! And though we didn’t ask for kittens (as my brother-in-law said, say goodbye to 2am), we’re excited.  It’s an ideal time for hilarity and joy that we could never have planned.

Zoey expands our hearts’ capacity and stretches our ability to flow with life’s unexpected surprises.  Life will have Its way.  True and wise abundance brings gifts in all forms that we can trust are just right for us, right now. 

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Lie Low to the Wall

by Emma Laurence

The deep and far-reaching impact of our planet’s pandemic drove itself into my mind and emotions these last two weeks—boring holes into old traumatic tissue. 

Have you ever experienced a kind of loneliness in which you crave compassion?

I simply wanted to know that another human being, at any point in history, experienced a similar suffering.  During this painful process, I sought uplifting, comforting words. 

As often happens, Life provided an unexpected gift.  A poem by John O’Donohue, 20th century Irish poet, philosopher, priest, and Celtic spiritualist, entered my email box via someone I don’t even know.  It read:

This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.

These words shook my world with profound relief.  They gave me permission to lie low, arrested my heart-scraping self-talk, allowed me to remember who I am, and invited me to accept my own hesitant light.  They supported my generosity. 

I remembered the feeling of new beginnings, fresh air, hope and promise.

Shortly thereafter, pressures lightened a bit.  I found myself able to enjoy cleaning my home, something I’d previously had no motivation to do.  I rearranged my office, cleared my desk, and finally put up the acupressure poster that had lain curled up in a corner. 

I slowly began to release torturous self-judgments and to re-engage what I believe to be true—that everything is happening just the way it should. 

It’s essential to note that tending tasks was now done very, very slowly.  I moved in slow motion, breathing deeply as I worked, paying attention to my body, surrendering the need to think, letting the emotions rest. 

In essence, I was lying low to the wall and in gentle motion, at the same time. 

I’m finding this way of “working” so pleasurable.  It is low stress and invites ease.  It’s inclusive and accepting.  It feels both effortless and fulfilling.

While I, like many who want to serve in these times, may not know what steps to take to be more available and helpful, there is an ever-so-slight fragrance in the air, as if a sweetness is coming soon.

I welcome the changes we’re creating, even now, to unite us in new ways for the good of all. Many kindnesses will rebuild the fabric of our community in bolder colors. 

I choose to embrace the new harmonic resonance that’s calling us to be the best we can, to do the best we can, and to love the gift of life, truly.

photo by Pixabay

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The Compassionate Camera

by Emma Laurence

When Minnesota went into lockdown, my husband joked that self-quarantine and living in our small town was redundant.  For those of us who work at home, this wasn’t too much of a change.  We have an established routine.  We’re used to less outer stimulation.  We’re more familiar with quiet than most.

But for many, the disconnect from work and social environments can be particularly disconcerting.  Especially those living alone.  After all, isolation is used as a means of punishment in such practices as solitary confinement.  Or, if you truly want to hurt someone, ignore him.

What is it that makes isolation so distressing?  And how can we come to terms with—even gain from—a situationally imposed silence? 

I would offer, keep compassionate company with ourselves.

How does this work?

Silence requires that we face ourselves.  There’s nowhere to hide, no distractions to prevent our attention from going down the self-judgment swirly bowl.  We may have a habit of shaming ourselves for every perceived mistake, inventing ridiculous expectations, believing our lives are unimpactful to the world at large, and tipping the scales towards the ugly.

Keeping compassionate company with ourselves means that we’re willing to embrace all parts, those we label “good” and “bad.”   Acceptance is a key ingredient in unconditional love—a skill we can master given the opportunity. In granting ourselves an abundance of kindness, forgiveness and understanding during tough times, we practice this skill.

In stillness and silence we can also discover our higher nature, which could never be labeled as “good” or a “bad.”  After all, how can we judge a being of pure light?

From even as far back as Jesus’s time, the message love your neighbor as yourself implies that humans need to learn to love—first ourselves, then others.  For years I wondered, who was loving whom?  Am I split in two?

Sort of.  I found that my higher nature, Soul, functions more like a compassionate camera, watching dispassionately the choices my human self makes in life.  This viewpoint is the source from which I can give higher love to myself and others. 

Stillness provides keen training in Soul skills such as honing intuition, exploring and decoding dreams, and experiencing the eternal connection with loved ones at a distance.  From this place, I’m an eagle flying free over a rich mountain landscape, fulfilled in simply being alive. 

The pain that comes in waves, threatening to pull my human mind and emotions under, can be calmed by the sound of my own voice, like a lullaby.  In essence, I “sing” to the part of me that needs healing or company.

During world crises, I feel the weight of struggling masses and an almost desperate desire to serve.  Silence has shown me that, when I can’t be on the front lines physically, I can hold others in the most loving space, in a heart that’s as empty as it is full.

Photo by Ani Kolleshi on Unsplash

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Wake Up Your Wisdom

by Emma Laurence

During challenging times, we often learn most about ourselves and our world.  If we anchor that learning, the wisdom gained lasts forever.

I started a journal last year called “perceptions on the edge of consciousness.”  I did so because I noticed some of the most important learning in my life was just barely registering in my conscious awareness.  If I could catch these subtle messages, these wisps of wisdom, and anchor them, I’d be integrating more of Life’s great teachings.

Concurrent with awakening and reeling in this inner wisdom came another realization. The most uplifting moments in my outer daily life could also pass by, barely noticed. 

As an example, my husband and I took a walk in our neighborhood this week.  We met a mom with her two young children on bikes with training wheels. We were drawn to them by their beautiful, rust-colored Cavapoo.  The dog was a magnet.  The family agreed that “Leo” was well loved.  Mom was shining with happiness, clearly relishing her parental role.

That evening, as I acknowledged the day’s gift moments, this meeting in the park landed at the top of the list.  Petting the beautiful dog and conversing with a loving family fed my heart.

My mind could easily have forgotten the brief encounter, or judged it as insignificant in the overall scheme of things.  Especially so if I had a list of tasks to accomplish that appeared to be the most important focus of the day.  It would be so easy to pass by. 

I track gift moments because they feed my spirit.  They show me how Life is coaching, guiding and supporting me.  They teach me that my path crosses with others not in a random and chaotic manner, but in a pattern that supports my service.  Maybe this occurs because I put service and love as my first priority (and I’ve learned to include caring for myself as service).  Or maybe, it’s happening to us all, if we awaken to the possibility.

We’ve all unearthed profound life lessons from difficult times. Wisdom is born of experience.  If we anchor that wisdom by consciously recognizing the moments that would otherwise be tossed aside, by bringing what’s just at the brink of our awareness into the human world, could we enter a state in which goodness becomes perpetually visible?  I’m beginning to see this possibility.

This is not a Pollyanna approach or rose-colored glasses denial.  This is waking up to inner wisdom and outer gifts amidst the full array of life experiences.  It’s a way to keep the heart open and the spirit in flight—two keys to serving all Life with greater ease.

[I’m offering a free Wake Up Your Wisdom group coaching class on Saturday, March 28th for those who’d like to share what they’re learning from this challenging time. Contact me at [email protected] for an invitation.]

Photo by Tim Foster on Unsplash

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How Social Distancing Can Bring Us Closer

by Emma Laurence

This week, as I ventured out for essential errands, I noticed a phenomenon caused by social distancing.  People may be staying six feet away, but they’re looking me in the eyes. 

Have you noticed this, too?

I often hear within this mutual recognition of a smile or nod, I’m OK.  You OK? Good.  We’re both good. Sometimes the look says, This is wild, right?

The recognition of one another as alive and well is a welcome shift.  There’s a feeling that we’re all in this together, and we’ll get through this, even though it may get more challenging before it gets easier.

My husband and I chatted with a woman from North Dakota as she helped us custom order a gluten-free pizza at the deli.  She reminisced of the days when kids were simply thrown out the back door to go play in the dirt.  Now when her grandkids visit, they say to her, We know, Nana.  Where’s the basket… where they leave all electronic devices at the door.  They run out back to play beanbag toss, or do art projects and baking indoors.  By the time the visit is over, they don’t want to go home. 

Let the kids eat some dirt and worms, she added.  Then they’ll be healthy.

We haven’t had a crisis like this in nearly twenty years—the kind that touches the whole world and changes daily life.  Long lasting changes will come from this, too.  Perhaps more of our freedoms will be taken away in name of safety, security and health.  Maybe more of us will get involved with democracy rather than assuming the government will take care of us.  Or we may awaken to the reality that we’re all connected and begin to take more responsibility for ourselves, more stewardship of other life forms on the planet.  We’ll see.

But we do have an unprecedented opportunity to trade in entitlement for gratitude.  What a shift that would be in our country if gratitude took hold. 

A pandemic can help us be grateful for the time we do have in the company of family and friends, grateful for the hugs in greeting that we used to take for granted, grateful for any occasion to gather in one place at one time.  Meanwhile, there’s an opportunity to see one another in the virtual landscape.  It’s not the same, vibrationally speaking—anyone who has Skyped with a spouse overseas or a grandchild across the country knows that—but it is being together in time. 

We will each experience this period of history in our own way.  We have choice in how we respond.  We can be an uplifting presence no matter the circumstances, draw our loved ones closer in our hearts, and give more charity to all.

(Illustration: Ari Saperstein for LAist)

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This Gift Moment

by Emma Laurence

I stood casually in the lobby of my Temple chatting with friends before an evening event.

All of us had moved to Minneapolis within the last couple of years from various places on the American map.  One couple had relocated only last week.

How did we get to this moment? I wondered with awe, knowing each of us had a powerful story that brought us to the precise place of standing in that lobby. 

In fact, the chances that we’d all be in the same place at the same time were incalculable given the miracles that had to occur for the moment to exist.  These were major miracles like financial windfall, marital reinvention, a rare real estate opportunity. 

Some dreamed of this moment.  Some never saw it coming.

Earlier that day, my sister shared moments of grace and protection—being able to say goodbye to someone who’s in Hospice, being helped by cheerful doctors and nurses who tended an injury she’d sustained in the kitchen.

A friend texted to thank me for referring her to a health care practitioner and another friend saying she had a special experience to share when I had time. 

My husband and I considered an overseas adventure trip while, outside the front window, our next door neighbor walked her dog quickly in subzero temperatures.

This movement of people and places, beginnings and endings, all in motion as if part of one large dance fascinates me.

If we could see from above, what would the pattern look like? 

I believe it would be mind-blowing.

We make choices based on the intention we set for our lives.  And Life responds by bringing us people, pets, experiences and opportunities in alignment with that intention.

Our ability to perceive the gift of this moment is all we can truly lay claim to in this life.  The future doesn’t exist; the past is a whisper.  But the present breath is alive.  Are we?

The next time you’re casually standing with friends in a parking lot or strangers in a grocery store line, gathered with co-workers at a meeting or with family at a dinner table, you may want to take a moment to breathe in the gift.  This is Life. 

P.S.  As an aside, I was challenged to find a photo of people taken from above to accompany this blog.  Aerial shots of landscapes are plentiful, but not of people. 

What does that say about the viewpoint from which we see ourselves?  And what could we learn by getting above to look upon our lives below?

Photo by Fritz Olenberger

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The Real Power of Unsolicited Advice

by Emma Laurence

Have you ever doubted yourself based on someone else’s unsolicited advice? 

When I moved to Minneapolis, I considered getting a small dog for the first time in my life.  I’d always lived with cats.  But my heart—and even my husband—was open to the possibility. 

Since I’m a walker, I began interacting right away with neighborhood dogs out with their owners.  I got excited for the prospect of a new companion.

Then I happened to mention to a longtime acquaintance that I might get a small dog.  “Oh no!” he exclaimed, inches from my face. “You don’t want a dog in Minnesota!  You have to take them out in the freezing cold.  Minnesota is not a place to have a dog.  Believe me—get cats!” 

Wow.  The thing is, I thought I did want a dog.  Yet somehow his words stuck to me like Velcro.  I expect he was trying to be helpful, to spare me a negative experience. I responded differently. 

It actually took six months for me to see the ludicrousness of such a remark.  How could anyone know whether or not I want a dog? 

Now I had to address the anger and blame I felt, and forgive myself for allowing this strongly expressed opinion to influence me for so long.  But as I struggled to release this “helpful” advice, I rediscovered the truth.  

Yes, it’s a big step.  Yes, I’ll need to find a dog sitter on occasion.  Yes, it’s more responsibility—and yes, I’ll have to go out in the cold. 

But what about the love I’m missing?

Today I’m watching the blizzard outside, playing with the image of a small dog next to me on the couch.  I look out the window and think, I would go out there with my little friend.  I don’t mind the cold so much; I grew up in a similar climate.  I’m the rare one who prefers below zero temperatures to those in the 20’s—that clean, clear deep-cold air, the silence of frigid nights filled with stars.   

As long as I have a fireplace to return to, I’m good.

Many gifts appeared to outfit me for cold, including boots on sale proven effective to -25 degrees, handmade mittens from my surrogate mom, a second-hand Italian designer down coat (midi-length), and a fur hat brought back to me all the way from Russia.  I have silks and scarves, and I even got Christmas gifts of alpaca socks and a headscarf that covers my face. 

The comment tested my heart’s resolve.  As I re-explore canine companionship, I’m more aware of my commitment and more grateful for all gifts I’ve been given to prepare me for a new, exciting opportunity.

I may also be wiser the next time someone offers an opinion so emphatically.  I may keep silent about personal matters.  Or maybe I’ll catch myself giving unrequested advice—telling someone else what their reality is—and stop myself in time. 

3 Tips for Holiday Healing

by Emma Laurence

The emotional challenges that we face at this time of year fill my heart with compassion.  May these healing tips inspire a new viewpoint, breakthrough, or hopeful spirit as you address your own.

TIP #1:  Clear away the FOG:  Fear, Obligation and Guilt.

Ever since I first heard of FOG, I’ve been more aware when that cloud enters my consciousness.  And I learn how to protect myself.

In Mary Carroll Moore’s book How to Master Change in Your Life, she cites an imaginative exercise called The Fear Room.  Here’s a brief version:

Picture looking into a dark room with fog so dense that you can’t see.  A truck arrives with workers who wheel a machine up to a hole in the outside wall, and they vacuum out the fog.  Now, as you enter the clean, clear space, air and light bound, as well as a pleasing sound and fragrance.  You can open five large window shades to flood the room with sunlight.

What remains when FOG is gone? 

For me, visualization often works miracles in shifting to playfulness, clarity and right action.  

TIP #2:  Missing someone is integrating their memory.

I first came across this intriguing idea in The Presence Process by Michael Brown. 

I observed what happened inside me when I missed someone, especially one who’d already passed on.  There was a physical tugging in my chest with an accompanying painful grief.  This could also be true with a person at a distance or a lost dream that never manifested.

I wondered, what would it be like to integrate a memory, person or dream into my heart fully?  Could I accept the gift—allowing its essence to become such a part of me that we would never be separate again? 

TIP #3:  Become entirely ready to let go of the past

Years ago, someone approached me at a spiritual seminar, shook me gently by the shoulders and said, “You have got to learn to let go!”

Ya think?  The comment felt supremely unhelpful because I already knew that about myself.  What I didn’t know was how to let go. 

Step 6 in any 12-step program addresses the concept of being entirely ready.  After admitting the nature of your wrongs and before humbly asking for your shortcomings to be removed, you prepare yourself for the detachment process.

This intermediate step of becoming entirely ready for anything enlightened me.  My question morphed into how do I prepare to let go?

When dealing with past trauma, I ask myself:  What would it feel like to be entirely ready to release the past for this present moment?

*     *     *

If you have other tips to share, please comment below.  We can all benefit by learning from one another’s experiences, and I welcome your wisdom in this holiday season.

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash