4.4 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 16 June 2022
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Visualize your best possible self and tap into your inherent enough-ness with this guided meditation by Justin Michael Williams.
How to Do This Practice:
Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and visualize your ideal future self, the person of your dreams you’ve always wanted to be. Try noticing as many details as you can: What color are you wearing, how do you feel, what are you doing, is anyone with you?
Answer this question in your mind with 1-3 words: As you look at this future version of you, what energy do you need to cultivate more of in your life now, today, to become closer to being that person you see in your vision?
Breathe in deeply, and as you do imagine yourself breathing in that energy. As you exhale, imagine that energy spreading throughout your body and energy field.
Open your eyes. Remember, you have what you need to become that which you want to become. We are enough to start stepping into the life of our dreams.
Today’s Happiness Break host:
Justin Michael Williams works at the intersection of social justice, mindfulness, and personal growth — with a touch of music that brings it all to life.
Learn More About Justin’s work: https://www.justinmichaelwilliams.com/
Listen to Justin’s debut album: https://www.justinmichaelwilliams.com/music
Order Justin’s book, Stay Woke: A Meditation Guide For the Rest of Us: https://tinyurl.com/2p8xu6hx
Follow Justin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wejustwill
Follow Justin on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wejustwill/
More resources from The Greater Good Science Center:
Take our Purpose in Life Quiz: https://tinyurl.com/3uh8jjdv
Try Imagining Your Best Possible Life: https://tinyurl.com/bdekum2v
What to Do When You Never Feel Good Enough: https://tinyurl.com/kpy9b44t
How Strong is Your Sense of Purpose in Life? https://tinyurl.com/2p9h7rm5
How Thinking About the Future Makes Life More Meaningful: https://tinyurl.com/2p83y2n5
Listen to The Science of Happiness episode featuring comedian Margaret Cho visualizing her best possible self: https://tinyurl.com/s2s7rdpn
Tell us about your experience visualizing your best possible self by emailing us at [email protected] or using the hashtag #happinesspod.
Find us on Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/28hcdfsd
Find behind-the-scenes material behind this podcast on Pocket, Mozilla’s save-for-later and content discovery app: https://getpocket.com/collections/how-to-access-your-best-possible-self-start-with-your-imagination
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0:00.0 | In the future, I'm not going to worry about the future. |
0:10.6 | My future self will be so content in moment and knowing that everything is okay. |
0:20.0 | A few years ago, comedian Margaret Cho tried to practice for us on the signs of happiness. |
0:24.6 | She imagined her best possible future self. |
0:27.9 | My future self will be free from worry, from concern, for plotting. |
0:34.1 | I have everything that everything is already here. |
0:44.4 | Today we're going to take a short break together and try and envision our best selves, like |
0:49.5 | a lunch break or a coffee break, but a happiness break. |
0:54.3 | I'm Dacker Keltner, welcome to Happiness Break, a series by the Science of Happiness. |
1:00.3 | On each episode, we guide you through research-backed practices to bring more happiness into |
1:04.2 | your life, and then we learn about the science behind each exercise, and we guide you through |
1:09.3 | it, all in under 10 minutes. |
1:12.6 | Today, Justin Michael Williams, a dear colleague of mine who's a mindfulness teacher and amazing |
1:17.4 | musician, is going to lead us in a happiness break where we're going to visualize our best |
1:22.9 | possible selves. |
1:24.8 | The literature shows that spending time thinking about and writing about our best selves |
1:29.2 | can motivate us to work towards our goals, and make us happier in the present moment, |
1:33.7 | right now. |
1:35.7 | Ken Sheldon at the University of Missouri and Sonya Libromersky at UC Riverside and Madeline |
1:40.4 | Peter at Maustricht University have all done work showing this simple break of imagining |
1:45.6 | our best possible selves in the future, elevates our well-being for some time, increases |
1:50.6 | our social connection, and even can reduce levels of cortisol in our bloodstream, which |
... |
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