According to Shari Just, a writer and psychotherapist, and Carolyn Flynn, editor of SAGE Magazine, creative visualization is the technique of using your imagination to envision what you want your life to be; by directing positive energy to that mental picture, you can make that vision a reality. Shakti Gawain pioneered this self-improvement technique in 1978 and many have followed in her train with books, workshops, and treatises on the subject; most recently Eckhart Tolle and Wayne Dyer.
Creative visualization consists of five essential components: imagination, focus, belief, consciousness, and affirmation. Making the most of creative visualization involves spiritual self-knowledge. It also means being authentic and living in the now.
Just and Flynn explore the out-of-the-ordinary and creative uses of visualization in chapters on involving your hands in the process, imagery and dreams, sport sight, and using visualizations for love, prosperity, healing, and imagining a better world. The chapter on visionary leaps of consciousness is especially interesting.
