This could potentially raise a lot of money for the charity — and would be a gift that keeps on giving, as I could then sell high-quality Giclee prints of the painting, with a portion of the proceeds going to the charity, and the charity could do the same. For years.)

Can you recommend a good charity for this purpose? I don’t want it to be political, but rather something that brings hope to people (kids?) who have been without it. Also it should be a fairly big charity with a proven track record…

All ideas are welcome!

(I am already looking at doing something similar with the Dalai Llama, to benefit Free Tibet and the Dalai Lama’s North American seat, Namgyal Monastery. The monks and Board of the monastery are discussing my offer Thursday…)

Thanks,

Pamela

What makes pictures so powerful? Visual images evoke strong feelings and influence our thoughts and behavior even when we aren’t aware of it; they work on us on a level deeper than rational thought.

That’s because images are the language of dreams.

So imagine if you knew how to use images’ power to influence your thoughts, feelings, and behavior — intentionally. You could use that power to overcome your own barriers and create everything you want in life!

Images — the language of dreams — can truly help you fulfill your dreams and live an extraordinary life.

One of the most popular ways to do this is to make a vision board (also known as a “vision collage” or “treasure map”).

A vision board is a collage of images and words cut from magazines (or taken off the Internet); it’s a vivid reminder of what you want for your future, and an essential tool for creating and attracting what you want.

Many prominent people have used vision boards to fulfill their dreams, for example:

* Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, whose online campaign manager created this vision board at the start of the Democratic nomination campaign:

* recent Olympic gold-medal gymnast Nastia Liukin, who even researched the actual medals to be awarded in Beijing and put photos of them prominently on her board;* author and motivational speaker Lisa Nichols, who made a vision board showing herself as a guest on Oprah — and then showed it to Oprah and her audience when she got on Oprah’s show;

* author and motivational speaker Lisa Nichols, who made a vision board showing herself as a guest on Oprah — and then showed it to Oprah and her audience when she got on Oprah’s show;

* visionary CEO Walt Disney, who made a vision board for Disneyland years before anyone had heard of theme parks (or vision boards!).

How do vision boards work?

People use vision boards to start a new business or change careers, find a soul mate, achieve their ideal weight, realize a dream project – to fulfill any goal that matters to them.

To illustrate, I’m going to share with you how a woman in one of my collage visioning workshops created a vision board and used it to achieve everything she wanted — in less than a year.

When Mary created this vision board, she was recently divorced after 22 years of marriage, and experiencing poverty and high stress on herself and her four kids. She used her vision board to start over and create the life of her dreams.

Her goals included going back to college to complete her undergraduate degree and getting funding for graduate school; losing a lot of weight and getting in shape; finding romance and enjoying life again; and taking care of her family and helping her kids to fulfill their dreams.

None of these seemed possible – she had no money for tuition or even necessities; she was overweight and had serious health issues; and romance seemed highly unlikely for a fat, middle-aged divorcé with four stressed-out kids and no money.

Yet within year of creating this vision board, Mary had it all:

* she graduated with highest honors from a private college and won a full scholarship for graduate studies in well-paying new profession;

* she lost 68 pounds, ran a half marathon, and now is often mistaken for her 21 year-old daughter’s sister;

* she helped her kids fulfill their dreams — her oldest daughter finished college and moved cross-country to a dream job; her next oldest auditioned for and got into music school; her son won track races on a national level; and she moved her family to a great new home.

* she was courted by number of men, found lasting romance and started really enjoying life for the first time in years: she traveled, started playing the piano again, took up drawing, joined a women’s group, enjoyed plays and concerts for free (she ushered), and capped it all off by flying an airplane — an old dream — for her 40th birthday.

How did Mary’s vision board help her accomplish all this?

1. It helped her clarify her vision and values — what’s most important to her and how she wants to be:
* rooted, confident and strong (the tree)
* able to take care of herself and find comfort, satisfaction & beauty in aging (the hands)
* fit and attractive (exercise images)
* able to keep things light and enjoy life (fairies, raspberries)
* experiencing romance (the hearts)

2. The vision board helped Mary focus on what’s really important — which could get lost in all the “stuff” she was busy doing. She hung her vision board by her bed, so she saw it every morning and evening. It reminded her daily of what she was creating in her life.

3. Mary’s vision board helped her reframe her image of herself, so it’s positive and optimistic. Whenever Mary looked at her vision collage, she saw herself already fit, already confident and strong, already taking care of her family, already enjoying romance – already being the person she wants to be.

4. It kept her inspired to take new actions to fulfill her vision. Every time Mary looked at her vision board, she experienced what would be like to actually achieve her vision; this gave her daily inspiration to take new actions, meet new people, and have new conversations – naturally and without effort. These new actions and conversations are what caused her vision to be fulfilled (often in ways she wasn’t expecting!).

Mary’s vision board was an extraordinarily effective tool; it helped her transform her whole life in less than a year!

You can use the same powerful process that Mary used before collaging her vision board: get clear about what “lights you up” with my free handbook, Seeing Your Light.

I also offer a downloadable “Collage Your Light Workshop-in-a-Box,” which includes everything you need to make a vision board of your own.

Here’s to your dreams fulfilled!

Toward the end of class last Friday I was increasingly frustrated, stopped, and finally overwhelmed with grief. I cried and cried while a coach worked worked with me… I was experiencing for the first time how very, very lonely it is to always be pretending that I know the answer, and to live life as though I must always have it all together and be an example for others. (Yuck!).

It especially sucks in my marriage of 24 years. “I know the answer” shows up as my husband Brian “doesn’t get it” because he says the spirituality I rediscovered 4 years ago is utterly alien to him.  Clearly this must mean Brian is spiritually deficient — I know the answer and he doesn’t — and I have to alternately try to fix him (and criticize him behind his back) or struggle to accept him as he is (and repress my resignation and sadness).  Plus ever since I rediscovered my spirituality, I’ve been wondering what it’d be like to have a soul mate, a man with whom I could share my spiritual journey….

I finished my blitz coaching session — I had to leave class early to catch a bus — with me creating the possibility of being vulnerable and contributed to. Then I hurried off for the last bus back to Ithaca. (With my nose bright red and eyes puffy from crying… had to smile at how immediately life called me to practice being vulnerable and give up looking good.)

On the bus home, my tears kept coming.  But now they were about how much I love, adore, respect, and desire my husband Brian, and my recognition that he feels exactly the same way about me. And always has.

So as you might imagine, we had an amazing conversation once the kids were in bed.

I told Brian all this, and created the possibility of being vulnerable with him and letting him contribute to me. I promised that “next time I’m feeling sad or anxious or upset, I won’t try to hide it; I’ll come to you and ask you to put your strong arms around me and tell me you love me.” (For some reason we almost never say ‘I love you’ to each other, even though we say it to the kids every day.)  He promised he’d do that.  And he it did it right then. :-)

Then I asked him to forgive me for making him wrong for so long, and told him “I’m creating you as the man of my dreams!”

In the conversation that followed, I heard clearly for the first time that Brian and I actually share the same spiritual focus, we just use different language to express it. There is no deficiency in him or gap between us; I made that up. I can always speak to his listening and count on him understanding. He really IS the man of my dreams.

My soul mate has been here all along…

– Pamela

My parents and their 40+ guests, aged 7 to 83, found it surprisingly fun — most of them had never done anything like this before — as well as quite moving. It was so cool to see all these very different people willing to spontaneously do something “weird” and heart-opening to honor my folks. (My dad had been sure that only “the kids” would want to make collages.) And they had a great time!

I’m putting all the lovely collages the guests made, and their written acknowledgements, into a scrapbook for my folks. Friends and relatives from all over are also sending theirs in. Some of them are people my parents haven’t talked with in ages, and it’s so gratifying to see the pleasure these far-flung folks have anyway in acknowledging who my parents have been for them.

I think the best part for me was when my mom was looking over the pile of collages and writings afterwards. There was wonder in her voice as she noted, “all these different people keep saying how loving and creative and generous I am!” (She has it that she’s not appreciated or really known and doesn’t have any friends… and there was 40 pages of powerful evidence to the contrary.)

It’s rare for women from all sectors of society to get together to celebrate and connect.

Yet there’s an opportunity to do just that on March 28th in Ithaca NY. If you’re a woman within driving distance of Ithaca, I encourage you to join me at:

The 4th Annual Sister Friends Luncheon
in honor of Women’s History Month
3/28/08 11:00am - 3:00pm
Clarion Hotel, Ithaca NY

I’ll be displaying a couple of my “possibility portraits” at this wonderful, exciting event that celebrates women of all ages, sizes, religions, ethnicities and cultures.

The women’s market is open from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m; the luncheon begins at 11:30 a.m. and the program at 12:15 p.m. This is an amazing multicultural, multi-generational, women-bonding event.

The cost is only $15.00, and tickets are available from GIAC (the Greater Ithaca Activities Center) at 318 N. Albany Street in Ithaca and at the Multicultural Resource Center in the Cornell Cooperative Extension building, 615 Willow Ave (off Rt.13) in Ithaca. This popular annual event will sell out, so get your tickets soon…

For tickets or more information call Audrey J. Cooper 272-2292, ext. 135 or email her at ajc3@cornell.edu.

I was invited to assist, and jumped at the chance to get some high-level leadership training — for free!

So I was disappointed — to put it mildly — to be assigned to the “leader support team” (making coffee, picking up take-out meal orders, preparing the dining area, cleaning the kitchen, running errands) instead of the “production team” who got to stay in the room throughout the training. I requested to switch to Production, but they “needed me more” on Leader Support.

I put up with it all day Saturday, getting crankier and crankier:
“I’m missing everything! Grrr grrr. They say leader support is about ‘being of service,’ but I don’t WANT to ‘be of service’ — I’ve had plenty of that being a mom. I want to get trained to be a leader. I want to learn something, goddammit!”

By Sat. night I decided “I will finish this but I am never assisting again.” (It didn’t help that my feet were killing me — I’d stupidly worn high-heeled boots and was on my feel from 7:30 AM until 10:30 PM with only brief breaks.)

Sunday morning, I arrived 15 minutes late. The course supervisor asked me why I was late, and after I gave my excuse, she asked, “OK. Why else are you late?” I admitted that I was resisting the whole idea of “being of service” and didn’t want to be on the Leader Support Team.

She replied,”well guess what, you are. And your team has had one breakdown after another this morning; they really need you. So are you going to be part of this team, and provide service to these leaders so they can do their jobs, or not?”

I decided right then that I would. And I had the most amazing day!

I discovered, really for the first time in my life, the joy of being of service — anticipating people’s needs, providing what they want with efficiency and grace, making their problems magically disappear, being generous and loving and calm if they feel harried, and accomplishing big tasks with ease as part of a supportive, loving team.

I felt completely lit up, so happy and peaceful, as I floated from task to task. (I also got to spend time in the seminar leaders training, and every piece I heard went directly to my heart.) I couldn’t stop smiling and feeling moved to tears, even while looking at myself in the mirror as I brushed my teeth before bed. (Kinda messy… :-) )

By the end of the weekend, my idea of “leadership” was transformed from something like “showing off and being smarter than others” to the joy of being of service. My intention for the weekend was fulfilled in a way I never could have anticipated.

And now I see people being of service everywhere.

For example, take my husband, the original “Pushover Daddy.” I’ve always resented his “laxness” with our girls — surely he was spoiling them with his willingness to pick up after them, wait on them, anticipate their every need, and give up what he wants so they can have what they want. (Sure made me look like the bad guy, anyway, since I had no intention of doing any of this…)

Now I see this as his exceptional generosity and willingness to be of service. And this desire of his to serve our daughters in every way possible hasn’t hurt them at all: in fact they’re remarkably kind, generous, and respectful teens, not the monsters you might expect.

Hmmm… maybe having someone provide service to you on such a deep level unconsciously assures you that you’re profoundly loved and valued. Maybe if everyone had this experience, the world would be a much happier place…

All I know is, I’ll never look at humble tasks like cleaning and care-taking the same way. And I have a whole new way to be when I lead a “Collage Your Self” workshop this Sunday, and another “Treasure Mapping” workshop on February 17.

I’ve always loved this time of year. Yet it challenges me: how to increase the moments of magic and connection the season can bring, and decrease the stress of my To Do list with its trend towards over-consumption and hectic activity?

This year our extended family decided to cut waaay back on the big gift exchange, and that’s certainly helped with my To Do list and sense of waste.

But what about the moments of magic and connection that I treasure? How to get more of them?

Well, there is a gift that my husband, kids, extended family, friends, and even strangers really appreciate, and it costs nothing at all: the gift of my full attention and compassionate listening.

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Being fully present like this is a present we rarely give people.
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Yet it’s one of those presents that makes both recipient and giver feel wonderful.

I invite you to join me and practice giving “the present of being present” this holiday season.

Let’s see if we can catch ourselves being judgmental, or not listening, or feeling too busy for someone – and then let it go, so we can see the actual person in this moment and listen to them with an open heart.

Maybe being willing to give our full, non-judgmental attention to another human being might create a sense of connection between us. Hmmm….

Maybe giving this present to our loved ones, the people we think we know everything about, might even lead to new discoveries and deepen our bond.

Sounds like magic to me…

I’m on a journey of discovery, and I invite you to travel with me.  Let’s share the ride…