Wisdom Journey Method: Visioning for people who can’t see their vision.
Imagine you’re lost alone in the wilderness. There is fog all around you. You want to get out but don’t know where to turn or which direction to head. There’s no GPS to help you. You have to navigate this wilderness on your own.
What if, instead of panicking, you knew you could navigate the wilderness? If you had a deep sense of trust in your own ability, and a deep understanding that you were being guided and supported by Infinite Intelligence every step of the way?
The “Wisdom Journey Method” is your internal GPS guiding you step by step towards your future. Your internal GPS is connected to the Infinite Intelligence, whether you call that God, Spirit, Source, or the Universe. Learning to work with this internal GPS allows us to create from a space of trust, confident there is a path through the fog, a path that will surprise and delight us in its variety and complexity, co-creating our future with the Infinite Intelligence.
Often our route is made of many smaller trips, yet visioning and dreaming workshops ask us to find the ultimate destination. If you don’t know the ultimate destination -- the big dream – you remain stuck where you are. The “Wisdom Journey Method” lets you evaluate step by step so you’re making forward progress and not stuck in a loop of “I don’t know.”
The usual visioning process asks you to imagine your Big Vision with as much detail as possible. Where are you? What are you doing? Who are you with? However, this process is limited by your current perception. You dream of things you have already seen or can imagine.
What happens if the dream calling you is outside of your current understanding? Bigger than you can imagine right now? Taking you down roads you cannot yet see? When you try to “see” the ultimate destination, all you see is fog and the usual visioning processes create a sense of frustration and self-doubt.
The visioning/dreaming processes you learned work for many, but they’re just not the right processes for YOU. You need something tailored to someone whose big dream is illusive, a process that builds on how YOUR intuition works and how YOU receive guidance from the Divine.
There are 3 pillars to the Wisdom Journey Method:
Body is the Observer and provides your location
Mind is the Interpreter and provides your orientation (which way you’re pointed)
Spirit is the Guide and provides your direction, whether that is the next step, the next small milestone or a glimpse at the bigger picture.
Your Body is the observer of your experience and provides your location. If you were lost in the wilderness you would have to take time to find your bearings before you set out in a direction. You do that by noticing things – experiencing through your senses to figure out where you are. What do you see, hear, smell, sense, and feel? Your emotions are the best and most reliable indicator of what’s going on inside you. Observing your emotional reactions gives you insight into what you want (often by telling you what you don’t want).
Your Body lets you put the “You are Here” dot on the map.
But that “You are Here” dot doesn’t show you which way you’re facing. Your Mind interprets the signals from the body and becomes your compass, thus showing you the direction you’re pointed.
For example: I grew up outside of Washington, DC just as the subway system was expanding and becoming part of the everyday life of the city. Even now if I come up from the subway onto a city street, I know where I am (15th and K, for example), but I don’t know which way I’m facing. So I have my location but don’t know where to go from there. I have to look at the buildings, the street signs, and maps for clues. I scour my memory as to whether the McDonald’s I’m looking at is south or north from the subway stop. My mind actively works, yet I sometimes head in the wrong direction before I “recalibrate my compass” and interpret the information I’m receiving correctly.
The Mind is the interpreter of your experience and decodes the information provided by the Body. The Mind notices your emotion and figures out the story behind that emotion, the stories we create about what happens to us that may or may not be true. The Mind remembers the past and uses the past as a data point for what to do next. The Mind calculates the risks of going down certain paths and evaluates multiple alternatives.
If the Mind has been running the show for a long time, the “compass” may need to be recalibrated such that the Mind can work in partnership with Body and Spirit. Only in partnership can the Mind work effectively. But the Mind can only see and understand so far, even if your compass is working perfectly.
That’s where Spirit comes in. Spirit works with the Body and Mind to set the direction. The Body feels into the different options and provides input with emotions, the Mind organizes the different options, but Spirit ultimately chooses. By slowing down and learning to listen to Spirit, we can connect to the Infinite Intelligence, which has a perspective greater than we could ever see or understand.
For example, when hiking in an unfamiliar area of isolated woods several years ago, my now-husband and I came upon a little worn path. We both got an intuitive hit to turn left and take this path. Within a short distance the path opened up and we saw a grove of tall trees, gorgeously arrayed in the bright green leaves of June, surrounding a mossy path. There was green everywhere. It was breathtaking and had a sacred quality to it so we nicknamed the spot the “Green Cathedral.” If we had been focused on our original path we would have missed it. We had to slow down enough and be tuned in enough to our intuition to hear the call to take that turn. It was unexpected and full of awe.
The Wisdom Journey Method is an ongoing process. The Body decodes our environment constantly. The Mind evaluates options automatically. The goal is a partnership between these three pillars, such that the information is flowing freely back and forth. Your next step becomes crystal clear, whether that is one step or multiple steps getting you to the next point where you can rest and reassess.