You may have heard of techniques that use visualization for health and pain management, but the true power of vision can work at a deeper level, getting to the root cause of chronic pain to support radiant health.

What is your vision of a vibrant healthy you?

If you could create anything you want in your life, what would that be?

What lights you up? What makes your heart sing?

Do you have an answer to these questions?

If not, you’re not alone. Most people spend so much time worrying that what they don’t want to happen will happen, that they can get a little stuck when they ask themselves what they do want.

But your vision (the one that lights you up and makes your heart sing) is an important way to connect to your soul and intuition and improve your health.

Using the power of visualization for health, radiance, and pain free living is important.

If you’re feeling flat, depressed, stuck, or uninspired, there’s a good chance that what’s missing is your connection to an inspired vision for your life.

The first time I experienced the power of focusing on my vision I was 27, had recently left a promising career in accounting and finance, and was moving across the country to go to massage school in Boulder, CO.

I was looking for a place to live. I must have seen over 20 places in five days – and found nowhere that I could see myself living. I had one day left before I returned home to pack up my belongings and move.

Somehow the idea to write down what I wanted came into my mind – not just the basics, but my ideal living situation, the one that felt too good to be true.

I had never done this before, and wasn’t exactly sure what to do or how to do it, but I had been learning to trust my instincts, and open up to the idea that I could ask for what I wanted and the universe would respond, so in the midst of my stress, self-doubt, worry and overwhelm, I made some time to dream big.

I took out a blank piece of paper and wrote down everything I wanted in a home for this next phase of my life, with no limits.

I described and felt in detail the breathtaking view of the mountains I would see every morning, the yard with a stone patio and garden that I would sit in with friends, and the hiking trails I could access right outside my door. I saw myself waking up and walking out the door and into the mountains feeling joyful and grateful to be alive!

I had zero attachment that writing this down would actually do anything. I was just playing with “what if”. Inside I was mostly resigned to living in a somewhat depressing apartment near a strip mall or aborting my plans altogether. Even so, allowing myself to dream felt good. When I was done I put down the paper and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up, grabbed a cup of coffee and opened the newspaper to find a new listing for a room in a 3 bedroom house.

An hour later I was standing in front of a newly renovated brick house, one half block away from Boulder’s Chautauqua Park, with a big beautiful backyard (with a stone patio) that literally bumped up against access to miles of hiking trails. The available room, in the house with two other 20-something women, was not only big enough for a queen size bed, desk, massage table and yoga practice, it had a private attached bathroom (complete with a bathtub), and two big corner windows with a view of the Flatirons!

I would wake up to the most beautiful mountain view in Boulder every morning. Exactly what I had imagined the night before.

As an added bonus, the wallpaper in the bathroom was the same Laura Ashley print as my sheets! A little confirmation, in case there was any doubt, that this place was for me and an answer to my vision the night before.

I have many happy memories of the days I spent living in that house. The good friends I made and the hundreds of hours I spent exploring those trails.

Since that experience, I have made it a regular practice to write down my vision of what I want to create….but over these 26 years, my use of visioning has evolved from something I use to magically bring things into my life to something I do for my well being.

Visualization for health and pain relief is far more than a technique for pain management.

“You can live comfortably, joyfully, resiliently, and healthfully as long as you have desire that summons life through you.” ~ Abraham-Hicks

What I see in my work to help women relieve pelvic and sexual pain, anxiety, depression, and other chronic health issues is that they have invariably buried their desires. This may have been a conscious decision, or simply the result of life circumstances. Whatever the reason, they stopped giving themselves permission to dream.

They’ve lost access to the magic of their vision – not only for living a joyful life, but for their own health and energy. They have stopped summoning life force energy into the cells of their body.

As women, we have learned in countless ways that our calling, our vision, or what truly lights us up is wrong, inappropriate, selfish, impossible, too big, dangerous, shameful, impractical, or unreasonable.

Is it any surprise that we’ve buried our vision and heart’s desire?

I believe that buried, suppressed, and unexplored vision is a health hazard, and an underlying cause of all kinds of chronic pain and illness for millions of women who have decided to settle, not take up too much space, and be kind and accommodating to everyone else.

We have forgotten that what we truly desire matters. It matters for our health. It matters for our families. It matters for the world.

When it comes to incorporating visualization for health, here are a few of the amazing benefits of focusing on your vision…

1) Fun!

Focusing on what you want feels good! It is fun, and fun is a much better use of your time than worrying about what you don’t want. When you are visioning for the pure joy of it you are activating the relaxation response in your body and all the good feeling health enhancing hormones and neurotransmitters that go along with that.

2) Self-discovery and Creating

Your vision is a powerful way to connect with your authentic self and discover your soul’s path. It increases self understanding and awareness which makes it much easier to hear your inner wisdom and make good decisions. It also opens up unlimited possibility in your mind body system, creating an opening for what you want to come into your life.

3) More life force energy and aliveness in your body.

Focusing on your vision and desires calls life force energy into your body, and allows it to move. It also helps to free up emotional energy that has been stuck or suppressed and is causing pain. The freed up energy not only creates a sense of freedom in your body, it keeps you feeling young, energetic and alive!

Visualization for health is so much more than a mind trick to get through the moment. Exploring your big vision and desire is a health building practice!

Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Choose what you want to focus on. You can write a vision for your life or focus more specifically in any area of your life.

• A specific experience or day
• Your life’s work/career
• Sex and pleasure
• Relationships
• Your body and health
• Your home
• Travel

You can create a vision about anything…..from a parking space at the grocery store to your dream job, to feeling free, vibrant, alive and energetic in your body.

2. Create from your body not your mind. What makes your heart sing? As you brainstorm or imagine your vision, pay attention to the sensations in your body. The things that light you up and make your heart sing are the things and experiences that your soul is saying yes to. They are also the things that are accessing the most aliveness and energy for you.

3. Write it down. There is powerful magic in putting your vision into physical form – writing, drawing, painting, a vision board or box. They are all ways to direct your focus.

4. Let go of attachment. Give yourself permission to feel what it would be like to have what you want, but don’t be attached to when, if, or how it will happen. Create your vision for its own sake. Yes it activates magic, and yes it’s a doorway to call or conjure what you desire into your life, but the act of visioning itself is it’s own reward. It has an incredibly positive impact on your brain, your heart, and your body.

5. Dream big. Remember you’re feeling around for what truly lights you up, so usually the more unrealistic the better! This is not a time to be practical. Figuring out how something is going to happen is not your job, so don’t confine yourself to what seems possible. There are infinite ways things can show up in your life that you never could have imagined, and it’s your delight and joy that activates that magic…not how likely or possible something appears to be. Don’t put limits on yourself or your desires.

Your vision matters. Your desires matter. Your joy and pleasure matter. They matter for your health and they matter for bringing about positive change in your family, community, and the world.

We’ve been so conditioned to think that working hard and pushing ourselves is what creates what we want in our lives, but that’s never the case. And if you’re dealing with vulvodynia, anxiety, low energy, lack of pleasure, or other chronic health issues…I’m going to take a guess that there is already a part of you that knows that this is not working.

You can’t sacrifice yourself and your dreams and end up vibrantly healthy and living the life you want to live. It just doesn’t work that way, and frankly this cultural brainwashing doesn’t even make sense!

If you’d like more support with a practice that goes beyond typical visualization for health and pain management techniques to connecting to your big vision and using it as a tool to create freedom, connection, and joy in your body and your life… check out the Healing Female Pain program or contact me about private coaching.

I will always be a stand for you following your heart’s desires to radiant health and outrageous joy.