Our third installment of What Can Coaching Do is about creativity and how we can use it to our advantage through creative visualization. The creative tools I employ with my clients offer them a variety of opportunities for further introspection, while simultaneously supporting their goals and desires through positivity and dynamic expression.
Every client I see differs, so what I take out of my toolbox varies from person to person. I use at least one form of creative visualization with every client, but those I coach will usually experience all that I have to share. I like using a combination of skills, and eventually all clients will experience at least one of the following items: Vision Statements, Guided Meditations, and/or Vision Boards, as well as tasks centered on creative vocabulary replacement.
Vision Statements
One thing I use for all of my coaching clients is a personalized motivational tool known as a Vision Statement. This is based on the clients own words, but flipped over to be statements about the present, rather than wants, desires, or wishes for the future.
The goals and desires laid out my by clients during our initial session together are the backbone of the Vision Statement, and offers each individual an opportunity to see what life would look like when their goals are fulfilled. We call it “playing the movie forward”, telling them their story from a future view of what had already transpired.
This is a very effective and powerful motivational tool. Every client I’ve worked with who reviews the vision statement as recommended in their personal coaching program have reported that they’ve noticed an immediate shift in their thinking from negative to positive, and and remain excited and focused on pursuing their goals over the long haul.
The best part about the vision statement is that, as we continue through their coaching programs, we can make revisions to the vision statement at any time in order to ensure it reflects the future they are working toward. Changeable, yet retainable – I love seeing how quickly my clients blossom as they see their own words inspire them more and more over time.
Guided Meditation
I use guided meditation with pretty much every client, even if it’s only a very short meditation. There are countless applications for guided meditation, from overcoming an anxious moment or feeling to seeing oneself in different roles to describing the details of ultimate goal fulfillment – the list is endless.
During Reiki sessions, I encourage my clients to use creative language and virtualization to describe their perceptions and sensations during the experience. For instance, for pain treatment, I might ask them to describe the shape, texture, or color of the pain they perceive in their mind. The method and questions obviously change with each individual in accordance to their reason for seeking Reiki healing, and I find it to be a very effective mode of communication during sessions.
Guided meditation, alone or in groups, is also a wonderful way to target one issue at a time. One day at lunch you may wish to have a quick 20 minute “power nap” guided meditation designed to refresh and revive for the rest of the day. Another day, you may want a guided meditation to inspire positive feelings, or to quit smoking, or relaxation, etc. Many people find it to be an effective and essential part of their daily routine.
Vision Boards
Some of you might remember a time in our youth when we had to make art projects with post board and glue sticks and pictures from magazines. Maybe you made them for your room with pictures of celebrity crushes, or friends, or whatever theme struck your fancy. Perhaps you made a scrapbook or two in this manner. The point is, you put your inspiration up on display to see it every day, and it probably brought smile on your face, just thinking back on it, even now as you read this. That is how powerful imagery can be.
That being said, a vision board is just like that, but with direction. Whatever your goal or impassioned subject is, there is imagery of that subject. However, it isn’t as simple as just pasting pictures of one thing over and over that makes a vision board effective.
In my class, I help clients see not just their goal, but also all of the work and action steps required to realize that goal. The pattern and style is as varied as the individual human mind. I’ll elaborate.
One of my first class attendees actually cut her board into a circle, put a picture to represent her goal in the center, then put in images of the action steps spiraling in and decorated with some of the art supplies I had brought in. Without any prompting, she thought of the idea on the spot, and it looked amazing. All of the other projects were equally impressive in their own right, but seeing such diverse creativity in one group was wonderful.
In the same class, some will glue on a series of images covering every visible part of the board itself from edge to edge, others will use only a few large images and write words or use smaller images or art to draw the eye to their main focus. The important part is that they feel excited for their goal whenever they look at the vision board. And it works!
The more we see what we wish to attain, the more we are able to gauge our progress through completed phases or actions, the more likely it is we will see success. Creative visualisation is probably the most important component to success in any endeavor.
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