The Art of Imagining a Beautiful Future
Letting your imagination run freely and lightly over inspiring details is a fun yet powerful way of manifesting a more beautiful future.
Back when I had two young children under five and lived on a farm in Italy, we decided to find an au-pair who would come and take the pressure off me, so that I could help more on the farm and have a bit more time to myself.
I visited the agency in Florence, scoured the books and picked a young Icelandic woman with a friendly face, who was willing to live out in the sticks. As I drove the winding roads home, my heart lifted to think of the freedom that was surely coming my way.
The only information I had was that she spoke English and was musical. I let my imagination fly. The children would adore her. Maybe she was a singer? Perhaps she and I might even sing together! An image came to me of the two of us singing duets at the piano, with the sun streaming through the window like some golden scene in a Hollywood film. I gripped the steering wheel more tightly and grinned to myself. I knew it was a bit over the top, but I couldn’t wait!
What if as well as enjoying playing games with the children she just loves to sew? I wondered, warming to my subject. She might want to make beautiful clothes for them!
I forgot these flights of my imagination until a couple of weeks after she had arrived when she asked me if I had a sewing machine. It turned out her mother was a seamstress and she was missing using her machine. Within days she ran up velvet outfits with matching headbands for each of my young daughters. (Bear in mind this was the early 90’s!)
Not long after this she asked me if I’d like to try singing the Barcarolle duet by Offenbach with her. I learnt my part and she accompanied us at the piano. As her beautiful soprano voice intertwined with my own inexperienced one, I was overcome with joy. Not only did the girls adore her, not only did she free up my time, but these specific and delightful details had manifested.
Did I actually dream her up?
Synchronicities like this are mysterious and who knows how they actually work, but I have a hunch that because my fantasy was playful and delightful, and because I wasn’t overly attached to the outcome, it helped it come to pass.
One of the tools I use with coaching clients is inviting them to imagine their ideal day at some point in the future. The client pictures an ideal yet ordinary day in all its details. What do the sheets feel like when they wake up? What sounds do they hear? What do they have for breakfast? I accompany them through their day, as they describe the kind of work they see themselves doing, and everyone who matters to them, encouraging them to let their imagination fly, enjoying the details as much as possible, right up until the moment they go to bed at night.
Picturing an ideal day is a way of discovering clues about the life your essential self wants you to live. Of course, practical and manageable steps must be identified and made to happen, one by one, but it’s also good to allow for some magic!
That there is tremendous suffering in the world is undeniable. That at moments we seem on the verge of apocalypse I don’t deny. I do wonder though what might happen collectively if more of us, enough of us spent less time worrying and ruminating about potential disastrous outcomes and more time imagining, enjoying and creating the details of a beautiful future.
PHOTO: BRET SAYLE
Listen to the pros sing that song here…