Episode 116

In my early years of parenting and homeschooling, I found feelings of empowerment and positivity SO lacking and I often felt SO anxious. I didn’t know how to bring a sense of positive momentum into my days with my children. And I didn’t know how to envision my homeschooling journey.

In today’s episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast, I’m talking all about how to visualize what you want, as a parent, a homeschooler, and a human being. There’s no real mystery to visualizing and manifesting your desires and dreams. There’s even science to describe how visualization works.

Our mindset and personal growth provide the soil in which our children grow and thrive. This inner work is such a big part of homeschooling because it all really starts with you, dear homeschooling parent.

In this episode, you’ll hear some practical techniques to visualize what you want, inspiration to try it, and some great resources to explore more.

What is Visualization and Why It Works

Visualization is quite literally the formation of an image in your mind. And we can use this creatively to imagine what we hope for, dream about, or desire in the future.

When you sit quietly and imagine or visualize a certain situation or outcome, picturing it with all your senses, this helps to train your brain, to practice for experiencing whatever it is you want in your life. It’s like a mental dress rehearsal. Our brain has selective attention, so we have the ability to tell it what to focus on.

The more you focus on something, the more likely you are to see it in your life.

All that we are is a result of what we have thought.
The mind is everything. What we think, we become.
~buddha

Check out this Test Your Awareness video to see how this works. It will make you smile!

How to Visualize What You Want: A Simple Exercise

Below are the simple steps to a visualization exercise called the Best Self Exercise.

Researchers conducted a meta-analysis of this exercise and concluded that there “was a small but measurable increase in positive affect and optimism.”

Try this simple two-step Best Self Exercise:

Step One:

Find a quiet place to sit for a few minutes, undisturbed.
Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to help you relax and settle in.
Begin to picture yourself in a situation in you want in your life.. Visualize how you want that situation to turn out. Identify how you feel. Think about is as clearly as possible with every details that you can imagine.
Begin to think about the outcome, object, or situation that you want in your life. Think about it as clearly as possible with every detail that you can imagine.

Step Two:

Spend 10 minutes writing it down.

Visualize What You Want for Your Homeschool Journey

With homeschooling, as with life, the power of visualization comes from not holding too tightly to your vision. But rather from allowing what you envision to boost your optimism and positive outlook. Which therefore manifests more positivity!

You can hold space for your homeschool journey to unfold as it will, while neither sitting idly by nor needing to force your vision to unfold in one particular way.

This is true empowerment, trust, and faith!

You are not obligated to complete the work,
but neither are you free to desist from it.
~teaching from judaism

When exploring the power of visualizing your homeschool, also keep in mind that the child is seen as being on his or her own path as well. As parents and educators, we may serve as guides for our children, but they are becoming their own selves. And learning to accept our children (and our partners) for who they are and who they are becoming without judgement or trying to change them requires a huge amount of faith and trust.

Waldorf education assumes the existence of a higher power
and acknowledges that humans have a spiritual nature.
As teachers, we guide our students along a path that allows them
to establish their moral compass and eventually find their own destiny.
~jamie York, “the essense of waldorf education”

This requires radical self-acceptance. And over time, you’ll come to see that your job as a homeschooling parent is to hold your vision and then let it unfold.

When you visualize what you want, you allow that vision to infuse your home and family atmosphere and to generate connection, acceptance, and trust.

This is how to hold the space and gather the light!

If you’re not quite back in the swing of things after the holidays or find you’re missing a feeling of inspiration in your life and homeschooling, come join me for a beautiful 5-day online experience called Gathering the Light. This is happening inside the Inspired at Home membership and we start on January 23rd. Gathering the Light will be simple, doable, and nourishing. Promise!

Mantras & Manifestos

Visualization goes hand in hand with the power of mantras and manifestos.

A mantra can retrain your brain to focus on the positive. Remember that what you focus on, grows. And homeschooling mantras can provide the positive mindset and optimism needed to make big shifts in your homeschool.

Manifestos take the idea of how to visualize what you want, along with the power of writing, to create a declaration of your values. Getting in touch with your values and living from your values can be the foundation for powerful envisioning.

As you explore these ideas, it can be helpful to see some examples and to gather words or phrases that resonate with you. Below, you’ll find three suggestions to explore more:

Mother’s Day Manifesto for Homeschooling Moms

Also, my Mother’s Day Manifesto for Homeschooling Moms can be found there!

Visualize What You Want & Design a Homeschool Life You Love

The power in all of these processes lies in the fact that when you use visualization, recite a mantra, or write a manifesto, you are creating neural patterns in your brain the same way as if you had actually done the activity or experienced the outcome. You are training your brain to see the world the way you want to.

You might choose to write a one-sentence manifesto. Or visualize the coming day as you fall asleep at night. Or post a mantra on your fridge. But whatever you do, I encourage you to get in touch with your desires and visualize your best homeschooling life.

More to Explore from the Art of Homeschooling

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