Visions and Dreams: Your Choice

Chatting with people recently and listening to their stories and their aspirations, one trend I’ve noticed is a kind of restlessness about the perceived need to have a dream, to have something concrete and tangible to aim for, and the sadness amongst some of those who believe they don’t have a dream.

Whilst downshifting or aspiring to live more sustainably can seem on the surface to be like a dream, in reality what I, and many of my clients, find is that it’s more of an interesting journey than a dream to be achieved. So, ironically, even striving towards the goal of a “sustainable living dream” can be counter productive. What guides us on the right path of our journey I would call a vision rather than a dream.

When we feel that we don’t have something tangible to aim for, that our future holds little in a material sense for us to obtain, what is really happening is that we are encountering obstacles on our journey that are obscuring our view of our vision.

What are the obstacles to envisioning a future?

1. Being in the rat race and having no time for quiet reflection.
2. Feeling too stressed out, tired, or ill for contemplation.
3. Believing that we have to bow to pressure from others – loved ones, friends, work colleagues so that we fail to contemplate what we’d actually like for ourselves.
4. Believing that we have no choice.
5. Being in uncontrolled debt (which is in effect another form of point 3.)
6. Living in fear.

What happens when we clear the obstacles on our route is that we start to take responsibility for the way in which we experience the circumstances of our lives and a vision starts to emerge of the path we’re already on.

In practice, my clients and I have found the following to be helpful:

1. Spending a day or longer away from the computer.
2. Having a complete break from the media (T.V., newspapers and magazines, internet, mobile phones etc)
3. Having some time alone, away from other people and in a peaceful environment.
4. Honouring our bodies through quietly eating nourishing food and taking gentle, enjoyable exercise.
5. Practising gratitude. Finding some time each day to silently, or openly, appreciate the people, events, circumstances, environments that we are grateful for in our lives.
6. Remembering to include a regular dose of inspiration in our week, through reading material, film, poetry, music or whatever works for us.
7. Establishing a regular, committed, spiritual practice e.g. meditation, Tai Chi, Qigong, prayer, Yoga.

What happens when we remove the obstacles?

We create some space in our lives for the truth, our vision of our future, to break through and make itself apparent. We know when this happens because we feel on course, more balanced and clear and quite possibly a sense of relief and ease.

Downshifting, or voluntary simplicity is all about clearing obstacles from our natural path, rather than striving for something material. In the rat race we have money, success, winning, meeting budgets and deadlines that are supposed to motivate us. They don’t of course, past scaring us into submission and depleting our energy. A more sustainable way of living favours happiness, health, community, meaning and fulfilment as part of our vision for the future. These are qualities that we each have a conscious choice in, in terms of how we choose to experience and act on what we are given. This therefore leads to us feeling more empowered, valued and energised.

A Paradox?

You might have spotted that the practical ideas for getting us back on track to a simpler, less stressful way of life are much more about living in the present than making things happen in the future. Is this at odds with engaging in any planning?   Actually, I would suggest that it isn’t. Living in the present is necessary in order to enjoy each moment, cope with crisis, make wise decisions, cultivate peace of mind and serenity. We do need to plan for the future too otherwise we are like a ship without a compass. If we think of the future as being a collection of successive moments in time, then we can actually do both – plan and enjoy the present -  by making wise choices in every moment whilst being aware of the principles we prefer to live by. This is what I mean by having a vision rather than striving towards a dream. This is why unearthing a vision can be more satisfying than setting goals. Having goals tends to lead us into establishing some kind of dependence on the outcome of our decisions and our actions. Having a vision frees us to live for each moment, to aspire to “be” a certain way rather than to achieve a particular, materialistic goal.

Our path is then defined by the choices we make and the vision we hold in each moment.

Enjoy the journey!