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Think Green: Despair or Dream for the New Year?

January 1, 2009 at 12:30 am Leave a comment

As we enter a new year in the shadows of global economic upheaval and wide-spread political violence, it may seem a rather difficult time in which to consider your own, deeply-held dreams and how you might go about realizing those aspirations amidst so much discord and doubt. What will it take to have you allow yourself to entertain your dreams?

Are you waiting for world peace or the end of the financial crisis? The reality is that NOW is the perfect time to carefully imagine the life you’ve truly been waiting to live and the person you’ve longed to become. Indeed, this is not the time for despairing but for dreaming… and dreaming BIG! Without first conceiving what you want mentally, how will it ever become reality? I believe that it is, in fact, our collective duty to dream ourselves into something better, something more authentic and lasting. It’s a matter of recognizing that as a civilization, we can no longer afford to go about living our lives while our dreams may be dying in the process. So, what can you do to give your dreams the life-giving energy they require if they are ever to become a reality?

Well, if you’re like most people, you may already be running full speed ahead and the thought of doing more in hopes of reaching your goal only lends itself to your sense of overwhelm. That scenario is typical of the cycle of negative thinking that’s common in our mutli-tasking society.

Such cycles begin with a feeling of OVERWHELM which is a symptom of scarcity consciousness that expresses itself as “I cannot do enough, be enough, or accomplish enough”. The busyness of life perpetuates the belief that, when you have satisfied others and when you have completed your endless incompletions, that your energy and focus will be redirected toward your dreams. It begins with recognizing that that is not so, and never will be.

If what I’m describing to you rings a bell, it suggests that you have a significant chance to prevent discouragement from turning into the hopelessness related to our growing epidemic of depression. This is an opportunity you definitely do NOT want to miss. Feeling hopeless is just that, a feeling based on your interpretation of circumstances. It’s not to say that HOPE doesn’t exist for you, but only that your awareness is out of alignment with what’s actually possible for your life.

In fact, optimism is a perspective which is critical to keep in mind once you understand that your dreams will either live or die by your own choosing. So, why choose hopelessness when it has such grave consequences?

A study by the American Heart Association shows the direct effects of psychological well-being on our bodies. It identifies hopelessness as “a strong, independent predictor of cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality in American populations”. Heart disease, as you know, is a leading cause of death in the U.S. Having said that, you can see that keeping your dreams alive may indeed keep YOU alive! 

So, you ask, what medicine will cure the dying dream? Imagination of course! It’s time to return to envisioning your future. Dreams have been described as Sleeping Visions. But dreaming is best accomplished not in a passive way, as while sleeping, but in an active and proactive fashion.  It’s what I call Dynamic Dreaming.

So, let’s do some dynamic dreaming right here and now by taking the following quiz:

1. “Where have your dreams gone?”
Begin by considering the distinction between vacancy and dormancy. That dreams die altogether is an illusion. In other words, you may have allowed them to fade into the invisible realm yet there remain countless opportunities to re-vive your dreams by breathing them back to life. Breathing life into anything is the definition of inspiration. It’s a matter of identifying and incorporating those inspirational sources, such a people, books, poetry and art, that literally energize you and your dreams.

2. “How have you been willing to compromise your dreams?”
What priorities have you been living by? And how have those priorities served you? When answering these questions, it may be helpful to hold your wish list against a list of what you deeply value and notice if there are any apparent contradictions.

3. “What dream do you now choose to resurrect?”
Start with a single dream. If you’re unclear, think first about what you presently desire as old dreams may no longer be valid in your current life. Make certain these dreams originate from you, and not from others whom you wish to please.

4. “Where does your desire come from?”
Understanding the origin of your aspirations will provide you a stronger grasp of how to bring them to fruition. In truth, it’s about getting really intimate with what you desire in a way that forms a never-ending relationship between you and the future experiences you long for. The origins of the word desire (to “long for or wish for”) are inspiring all by themselves. They point to an 11th century Latin phrase meaning “to await what the stars will bring”. What a beautiful image to hold as you look skyward and reconnect with what longs to be alive in you.

5. “Will you let yourself DESIRE again?”
Desire is the quiet song of hope that never completely fades. It’s an underlying yet powerful force that motivates you day after day, even when your actions don’t answer that desire directly. It’s that sound you hear at night, lying in the dark; the voice that, when ignored, begins to hassle and haunt you to take action towards conceiving and eventually birthing what will never be if you don’t first choose to it to be.

In the words of former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt:

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered with failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat.”

Until next time, I wish a very Happy 2009!

Entry filed under: Living Green, Think Green. Tags: Living Green, new year resolution, new year's goal, Think Green.