Visioning is a powerful coaching tool

Visioning is a powerful coaching tool. This post looks at how visioning and our perception of the here and now can be used in life coaching.

In essence, it’s looking into the future and imagining something that you want changed. We use creativity to clarify the vision, we live the vision and we feel the vision in our body. We spend a lot of time in that vision and the reasons why are outlined in this blog.

Perception

In terms of perception, it’s worth exploring this a little before we look at visioning. Perceptions about our past, present and future, are easily formed, held onto and often hidden. Sometimes the perceptions are very strong and other times vague and fleeting. Every opinion you have is based on a perception of something, be it true or false, honourable or destructive.

Why is this important? Firstly, “nobody gets to be wrong” your perceptions are your own and they shape and have shaped the decisions you make. So let me ask you this: What is your perception of the future and how is it affecting you now? You may want to take a minute or two on that one before we look at how the visioning exercise can alter your awareness, perception and being.

Future Visioning

Future visioning is a very powerful tool when life coaching. However, we sometimes tend to get trapped by the past perceptions and these easily shape our future vision, and can stop us from being able to see a path forwards. We also have perceptions of what is achievable (or not) in the future, and these can be uplifting or damaging!

The meditator inside me is shouting out that the future does not exist, something that I’ll not get into in today’s blog. So, as I dial up the life coach inside me it reminds me of the power of creativity when visioning the future. By thinking big and being creative we engage the right hemisphere in the brain. It’s like releasing small minded perceptions and opening up to the word view where the whole picture emerges in a creative process. This actually balances the hemispheres in the brain and allows us to literally use more brain power. For more on this, I recommend reading Dr. Iain McGilchrist’s ‘The Master and His Emissary’.

Letting go

When visioning we first have to let go of preconceptions that are holding us back. Then, we can dive into the ideal future. We make that vision BIG, clear, vivid and embodied. The ‘realisation of our goals’ creates a physical change in our bodies, we start to assimilate our vision. We release ‘feel good’ hormones such as dopamine (which has positive health benefits) and my clients change! Some become calm and relaxed, others elated and happy, there is often tears of joy and laughter in a strong visioning exercise.

Being in the present

When we return back to the present our bodies still have the physical sensations of the vision and we can tap into the wisdom of the body and bring forth actions that are not constrained by our perceptions, the past, or a left hemisphere dominated brain. The wisdom is new to our present situation and based on how we are when in the vision. Afterall, the brain can’t actually differentiate between past, present and future so when we spend that positive time in our vision our deeper brain believes it is happening right now.

Although the physical changes do not last for long, the actions that come out of them are powerful and new. The trick to coaching is capturing those actions, aligning them with the big picture for the client and creating accountability. On that, one challenge is that after a few days, the physical sensations have long dissipated and the conditioning of the past is all the more present. This might make the actions seem a little redundant and worthless, they are being reconditioned based on past conditioning, perceptions and habits. The best life coaches make the actions meaningful, immediate and realistically achievable so that they happen, and the happen with momentum.