A little over four years ago, before my granddaughter was born, I made a commitment to myself to add more meditation into my life to help reduce stress and worry as part of my self-care regimen . I wanted to take care of myself not only physically but mentally, too, so I could enjoy every moment with my little Marlo. But through the years I’ve come to find the benefits of meditation go far beyond simply just stress reduction. One of the most powerful meditations I’ve ever done was a recent Chelsea Pottenger future self meditation on my Insight Timer app.
As I am walking down the beach I see someone walking towards me and it is me 12 months from now. I met my future self and we went over all the things that happened in the last year. She told me she was so proud of me. Life is great. Yes, there were some not so good things that happened but overall I made so much progress in my relationships, health, spirituality, career, and legacy.
I could see my future self so clearly and the meditation was so powerful it brought tears to my eyes. Engaging in a future self visualization practice has so many benefits. It can help build self-confidence, lesson anxiety about the future, and it can aid in goal setting, to name a few.
Here are 5 Reasons I Think You Should Try this Future Self Meditation
Your future self will no longer be a “stranger”
Research has shown that our brains view our future selves as strangers that we are somewhat familiar with, similar to how we “know” a celebrity. Because you don’t see your future self as YOU, you aren’t as invested in her. Sometimes you make choices that are instantly gratifying and fill a certain need, but that choice is not in alignment with the person you want to become.
Because you are only visualizing YOU a year from now in this guided meditation, you are less apt to see that person as a stranger and you will be more motivated to achieve the short-term goals you set for her. Small steps in your relationship, career, health goals etc. can lead to some pretty big changes in your life. Believe me, I’ve know.
You will set a clear vision for who you want to be in a year.
This self-guided meditation urges you to envision yourself in the future in regards to your health, your relationships, finances, charitable activities, career, education, and even has you visualize what you are doing for fun.
Because this meditation is so specific, you can really dive into the things you want to do. Getting specific about what you want for yourself will make it easier to set clear, meaningful, goals for the year ahead.
You attract what you project and this meditation urges you to envision the best version of yourself in the future.
Our BALANCE Inner Circle recently read Gabby Bernstein’s “Super Attractor,” an entire book devoted to this topic. If you project negative energy into the world, you will most likely receive negativity in return. Likewise positive thoughts and actions attract positive experiences and people. If you envision a healthy, happy, productive future self who is living a purpose-driven life, what is the likelihood of attracting people and opportunities into your life that support that vision? My guess would be pretty darn good.
This meditation forces you to begin changing your mindset
Mindset, mindset, mindset. You’ve heard it from me. Countless books have been written about it. Life coaches shout it from the hilltops. Change your mindset, change your life. It is one of the key reasons I start my BALANCE Program off discussing mindset and one of the major reasons I urge you to give this meditation a try. If you can visualize a better version of yourself one year from now as well as the steps you are taking to get there, then you are one step closer to a mindset that will move you forward to the person you want to become. You will believe these changes are possible.
You now know the steps to reach your “future self” goals
The most difficult part of making lasting changes in our lives (besides taking the steps to do so), is actually knowing what steps to take. Chelsea encourages you to really look at the future YOU and ask her what she is doing to look so fit and healthy? What are you doing that is making your hair shine? Your skin glow? Your smile gleam? Yes, she gets that specific.
After this meditation take a few minutes to journal about your conversation with your future self. What were your responses to the questions you asked her? What did this future you look like? What steps did she take to get fit? What is she doing to learn new things? What is she loving about her career, her life, her relationships?
Once you have your answers you’ll have the steps mapped out to become the 2023 version of you. All you need is a little help following through with them … and I’m here to help you with that.
Other Future Self Meditations
- Calling on Yourself by Tara Branch
- Guided Mediation for Meeting Your Future Self with Michael Sealey and Jason Stephenson
- Best Possible Future Self Visualization
