Imagination
and the Art of
SoulCollage

When was the last time you let
your imagination run away with you?

I’ve always been very creative, so the answer for me is: just about every day! Right now, I’m imagining hundreds of people coming to this website every week and being touched by the gift of SoulCollage®. Yesterday I visualized everything I needed to do today to get ready for our summer vacation. And Sunday night I made six new SoulCollage cards!

Remember the Rogers and Hammerstein movie, Cinderella? Near the beginning, she sings

In my own little corner, in my own little chair
I can be whatever I want to be.
On the wings of my fancy I can fly anywhere,
and the world will open its arms to me.

I adored that song when I was little, immediately resonating with its deeper message- that the imagination is a powerful, friendly presence in all of our lives. It can be used for good, for change, for peace, and for the healing of unhappy situations.

This John Lennon song asserts the same message. Listen and remember:

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger,
a brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
sharing all the world…
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one.
I hope some day you’ll join us
and the world will live as one.

John Lennon strongly believed that if everyone simply imagined world peace, we could achieve it. Thus is the power of imagination.

Caren, my yoga teacher, often encourages us to "just imagine your body in this position" if it's not something we're quite ready for. There's a lot of truth to this practice. The first time she led us in the Tree Posture, which involves a good deal of balance, I simply couldn't do it without falling over. So I heeded her advice and imagined myself in the position instead of beating myself up because I couldn't do it. Eventually it became easier and easier. Sometimes I still lose my balance when I attempt this pose, but if I slow my mind down enough to imagine it, I can usually do it.

What is imagination?

Ahhhh…now it makes sense. When we imagine something, we are seeing something in our mind’s eye that really isn’t there. This can be a very useful skill, as in the second definition, when we use our imagination to confront and deal creatively with reality.

It can also be looked upon negatively, as when Don Quixote was fighting windmills and dragons that weren't really there.

So….. when was the last time you used your imagination? I’ll bet it was not as long ago as you think!

A great way to stimulate your imagination is by watching movies......

Another great way is to visit a website that is designed to

stimulate your imagination.

Imagination and SoulCollage®

We also use imagination in a big way when we begin creating our Companion cards , one animal for each of our seven chakras . We use Guided Visualization to do this.

Guided Visualization

Try listening to this guided visualization Garden of Delights and see if you can close your eyes and be somewhere else for the span of five minutes. Once the page is loaded, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of its page and click on the words CLICK HERE in order to begin the meditation. And don't forget to turn on your speakers! (There are a few other guided mediations like this one on this site. Go ahead- try them all!)

To discover and meet one of our Companion Animals, we listen to the SoulCollage visualization that Seena Frost has written and recorded for us. We allow ourselves to be guided to think of each of our energy centers, and then we’re invited back to one of them. The gentle instructions suggest that we wait and see what animal appears. In this case, there is a definite script, but the experience is open-ended because everyone’s imagination will “see” something different.

Intrigued? Curious? Just imagine! You can learn SoulCollage® TODAY. It's so easy! Click here now to sign up for the online SoulCollage® workshop!

Guidelines for effective visualizations

Visualization for Change, by Patrick Fanning. I am including them here because they are very helpful when you are invoking your imagination to call forth one of your Companion animals.

• Close your eyes
  It is possible to practice visualization with your eyes open, but it’s much easier with them shut. Be sure you are either sitting with a straight back, or lying down in a comfortable position. Closing your eyes helps to shut out everyday stimuli that can be distracting.
• Relax
  Breathe slowly and deeply. Do a quick body scan and see which parts of your body are tense. Consciously say to each part, “relax, relax.” The body and mind truly are connected; you’ll be amazed how much easier it is for the mind to summon imagination if your body is deeply relaxed.
• Create and manipulate sense impressions
  This simply means to consciously call forth all five of your human senses while doing the visualization. If a bear appears to you in your mind’s eye, don’t just see any old bear. Look at it closely. What color is it? How big is it? Does it seem like a male or a female bear? What color are its eyes? Is it wearing anything? What is it doing? Is it making any noise? Are there any other sounds around the two of you? Can you smell anything? A forest fire? Honey? The pine trees? Rain? If the bear lets you touch her, what does her fur feel like against your skin? If she shares her dinner with you, what does it taste like? If you kiss her good-bye, what does her fur (or nose or paw) feel like beneath your lips?



• Deepen and intensify the experience
  This is also something that you can do consciously as the inner experience unfolds. If a little brown bird has appeared to you in your heart chakra, don’t just sit and stare at the bird. Shrink yourself down to its size. Talk to it. Listen carefully to what it has to tell you. Imagine that you are inside the bird’s body, looking back at yourself. How do you look? What do you want to say to yourself? You can go as deeply into this experience as you like. Remember, you are in control of everything that happens because it is your imagination that is involved!
• Suspend judgment
  This is a tricky one. You might go into the visualization expecting to see a “beautiful” animal when, lo and behold, there’s a hippopotamus or a skunk knocking at your imagination’s door! It would be all too easy to dismiss this unwanted animal and put a prettier animal there. Just try to let go of that notion for a few minutes and invite the hippo or skunk in anyway. See what they have to say. You just might be surprised.
• Practice often
  Imagination is just like any muscle in your physical body. The more you use it, the more honed and skillful it will be.
• Be patient
  I really can’t stress patience enough when it comes to practicing visualization. Sometimes you may sit down and try to do the Companion Animal visualization, and nothing will come to you. This has happened to me more than once, and I know it happens to people all the time. If this happens, just content yourself with the peacefulness of the silence, with being alone with yourself for a while. Remember the movie Field of Dreams,….If you build it, they will come? Well, in guided visualization, if you create the time and space, the animal will appear (eventually).
• Use aids if they help
  There are things that help some people with this practice. They include: music, tapes with recorded visualizations on them, incense, focusing on an image, sleep masks, ear plugs, and drumming, to name a few.
  Here is a great place
  to find supplies like this:

Using Visualization
with your SoulCollage cards

• Choose one of your cards. Hold it reverently in your hands and study it for a while. Breathe in deeply of its energy. Then close your eyes, relax, and imagine that you are sitting on a park bench with the central image on your card. Just sit there for a while, using all your senses to take in what you see and hear….etc. If you want to go deeper, begin a dialogue with him or her. Or allow the image to speak to you first. Sometimes just sitting in silence with it is enough. Sometimes it is not. You can do this several times over a few weeks, or for one long extended visualization time. There are no limits!



• Make a card entitled "The Woman (Person, Man, Adult...) I Am Becoming" You could also call it "My Future Self." This card will take some conscious planning and gathering of images. I got this idea when my coach suggested it to me. You can see the results at the right! It has been sitting on my desk ever since, a constant reminder to me that I am continually changing, and that I am the author of my own future. All I need to do is close my eyes and imagine my future self, and I am with her! I am her! I am becoming her, moment by moment, and the card is a key factor in this process.
• If you find yourself blocked and unsure of what card to make next, sit still with yourself for a few moments, close your eyes and go within. Ask your inner wisdom to show you your next steps. Try not to resist whatever comes up.
• When you pull more than one card in a reading, and you can't quite seem to "get" what message is meant for you, do a visualization in your imagination where all of the energies on the card are together with you in one room. Make them real, 3-dimensional, not just pictures on a mat board. Listen to them talking with each other. Eavesdrop, if you will, before you step in!
• Listen to this recording of one of our live Tele-Playshops. In this one, you'll be guided on two very special Magical Inner Journeys that will help you connect with the SoulCollage Process in an exciting new way!

Recommended
Guided Imagery Recordings

There are two introductory chapters about visualization- what it is, what it does, and how, why, when and where to use it. Then there are 75 actual scripts for visualizations that you can do on your own. This is so much fun!

They are categorized into the following areas: goal setting, image shining, problem solving, mental and emotional health, and physical health.

I keep my copy right beside my Quiet Time/reading chair and often turn to it when I need a lift or a boost, or a few aspirin! Ms. Wells has a few other books out like this and I find them invaluable for my imaginative journeying!

The focus of the book is on how to use visualization as a force for change and transformation in our lives. Mr. Fanning devotes a chapter to each of these areas of self-improvement: pleasure, weight loss, giving up smoking, creativity and problem solving, setting and achieving goals, improved learning, and sports performance.

In addition, he discusses using imagination as a tool for: stress reduction, building self-esteem, and reducing insomnia, shyness, depression, anxiety, and anger.

He also addresses applications for pain control and physical healing of injuries, noninfectious diseases, infectious diseases, and immune system disorders.

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