The Quarantine Chronicles: Day 13

Hello, Dear One.

So glad you are here!

Today's creativity prompt is about creating a secure future.

"What?" you ask.

"Secure future?!

Who can offer any certainty in this global pandemic?"

Well...hang on.

I am not trying to play God or make you any false promises. But I do want to share some information that, I hope, will offer a perspective shift.

And a perspective shift is a powerful and priceless commodity these days, in my humble opinion.

Inspired again by Johann Hari's book Lost Connections, I was curious about his chapter on 'Disconnection from a Secure Future' as a reason why people are more prone to depression.

His book is full of fascinating research and stories and offers a wide range of wisdom suggesting ways we can experience mental health.

I was especially curious about why the future was important.

He writes about several fascinating studies having to do with this topic and I would like to include some of them in the upcoming creativity prompts perhaps but the basic conclusion that scientists have proven is that people who are depressed find it difficult to think about the future.

Also, what was proven is that people who cannot imagine that there lives will get better in the foreseeable future become depressed.

It may sound a bit like a 'chicken and egg' situation...what comes first? And I, unfortunately, do not have the answer to that question but it's not important for today.

Today, I just want to encourage you to imagine your ideal future. What are your dreams? For yourself, for your family, for your relationships, for your career, for travel and fun experiences, for your art, for where you want to live, for your community, the kind of car you'd want to drive...

ALL

THE

THINGS!!!

There are several ways you can go about creating this and imagining with yourself. One of my favorite ways is to write from a specific time in the future - a year from now, five years from now, ten - and write as if all of your dreams for that amount of time have already come true. Let yourself really just be as BIG and BOLD and frivolous in your mind as you possibly can imagine. Paint your future story with bright, beautiful colors. 

Another way you could do this is to do a vision board or dream board. Collect magazine pictures and words that you want in your future and make a collage. Or go to Pinterest and start a future board and pin a bunch of pictures onto a page there so that you can visually see the things that represent to you what you are dreaming about.

And my favorite way to do this is to make it a game that you play with others. I've done this one-on-one with friends, with groups of friends, with my sisters, with my coaching groups, and it is SO much fun!

Pretend you are going to meet see each other at some point in the future. The first time I ever played this game, my friend Paula Laurel and I decided we would pretend to meet three months from that day, in that same café. In my coaching group, we decided we were all going to do a retreat together in the Alps a year from that day.

Pick a time in the future, whenever you want, and a place you want to meet and then really talk to each other as if you truly have experienced all the things you are dreaming about and tell your friends all the wonderful things that have happened in your life!

The great thing about doing this with friends who know you well is that they can chime in and help you imagine even greater things for your future!

The conversation can go something like this..."Ohhhhh Paula! It's so amazing to be here with you in the Caribbean! I'm so glad we decided to go on vacation together!"

And then maybe Paula says something like, "Ah, yes! I mean, it's all because of that amazing HUGE promotion you got so unexpectedly! Otherwise maybe we wouldn't have had the idea?!"

I know this may be a stretch for some people. Not everyone can do this kind of exercise. I find people either love it or they hate it. And a lot of people find it to be a challenging thing to really continue talking as if you are seeing each other again in the future but if you can really give it an honest try, I believe it can be HUGELY impactful.

You can also even just do it on your own. Make an audio recording of yourself as a voice memo on your phone as if you're leaving a message on someone's voice mail telling them all the great things that have happened to you in the last (next) five years. Or pretend you're being interviewed by someone! The possibilities are endless and so is the potential joy. I've done this exercise countless times over the last 11 years and I have never not had fun while doing it.  

Being able to see yourself in the future gives you perspective…it helps you say, okay I may be having a lousy day or a lousy life at the moment but it will get better…it always can get better. 

Is it secure? Well, according to Eleanor Roosevelt...that is a question of faith.

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt