I’ve been talking about seeing the vision of yourself in the future having what you want right now. It can be a relationship, it can be weight loss, it could be a certain amount of money – whatever you want today that seems hard to achieve. Having a vision of you already having what you want is a strong way to make you plan the steps so it can happen.

This morning I was doing some journaling about an upcoming family reunion. We are getting together after not seeing each other for a year and I am so excited to get to see my kids and grandkids. I started thinking about all of us being together and how much I want to enjoy my grandchildren, to listen to them and play with them.

I realized that here was a simple example of how I could use being able to picture my future to make plans for our reunion. When I picture us together I want to have unhurried time with each grandchild, I want to be able to relax and visit with my kids and their spouses. I was particularly focusing on one evening where we are going to celebrate my husbands upcoming retirement.

Creating the vision helped my realize that I want our meal together to be so simple that no one has to spend much time in the kitchen preparing it. I planned a menu so that I can prepare ahead parts of it and buy everything else.

All this thinking and seeing the vision came together in just a few minutes this morning. I created a menu for the party and some simple activities. It didn’t take long, but it was powerful for me because I realized the tools I use to make big things happen can also make small things happen, I can go to my reunion focusing on the things that are most important to me and not get caught up in things that don’t matter as much.  

I didn’t share much about the Sunflower Celebration today, I won’t forget garden updates in my future videos.

In my coaching practice, I work with women from the LDS faith who have adult kids who have left the church. These women have given their time, love and energy to raising children and when they leave, some of the moms feel like they have failed. They feel like their identity and value was all tied up in their children living according to the values that the mom taught them. Some mother’s feel like they did something wrong that caused their children to leave. Others are ashamed and embarrassed to talk about their kids at church.

In the coaching program that I designed for these mothers who are in pain because they failed at motherhood, I teach women three truths, love yourself, love God and love others – especially your children. I start with loving yourself because often in the hustle and bustle of everyday child rearing, you (the mom) lose some of your identity. You forget who you are and what you are good at. I help you remember and re-discover the true you. Once you can love, accept and forgive yourself we move on to talking about your relationship with God. I find that women who can’t accept themselves often believe that God won’t accept them either. Armed with love, we start learning how to love those around us in a whole-hearted way.

As a matter of fact, that’s what I call my program – The Whole-Hearted Woman. We learn to love and accept our whole heart, all parts of our heart, even the broken heart. Whole hearted women are not afraid to share their stories, especially with their families. In the video I recorded today I talk about how I owned a Scrapbook Store for 14 years and taught women how to share their family stories. I believe that once we have healed our hearts and started to share our stories, especially with our families, we can heal their hearts as well.