We’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t know the story of Helen Keller. At just 19 months old, due to an illness, she lost her eyesight and hearing and was extremely limited in her ability to speak. Yet she accomplished more than most individuals with full sensory abilities ever dream of accomplishing:
- Unseeing, she learned to read using braille and to lip read using her fingers
- She was the first blind/deaf person to earn a bachelor’s degree
- She graduated Cum Laude from Radcliffe in 4 years’ time
- She published 12 books and became a world-renowned speaker
- She was a political and social activist
- She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
- She is considered one of the most influential people of the 20th century
Clearly, she was a person without physical vision who had a massive amount of internal vision.
We might ask of ourselves, after listing her accomplishments, “What is my excuse?” Helen Keller would ask us the same question. She once said,
“The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no vision.”
What exactly is Vision?
Let’s start with what it is NOT:
- Vision is not vague,
- it is not an idle dream or hope.
- It is not a picture of your current state of affairs
- It is not the same as the mental goals or objectives that we set
Vision is:
- seeing beyond current facts and impressions to something greater
- anticipating what will or may come to be
- a mental picture of real results of real efforts – the results a person wants to achieve
- future-focused and it energizes the present
- produced by the heart, not the head
- dreaming and imagining
- seeing and feeling what does not yet exist
How does having a powerful vision impact us and others?
The science of Neuroplasticity tells us the brain has the ability to rewire itself. It automatically strengthens pathways between neurons that are exercised and used while weakening connections between cellular pathways that are not used or retrieved.
Our brains see and respond to our perceptions of our reality and to our expectations. So, what we perceive and expect is what we get!
Sports teams often use this to their advantage. Studies show that basketball players who practice free throws by envisioning the ball going through the hoop improve their shooting percentage almost as much as those who physically throw the ball. They harness the power of the brain to help them achieve their goals.
We can do the same. As we take time to dream and imagine ourselves where we want to be – seeing, tasting, touching, hearing, smelling – i.e., EXPERIENCING our vision, our brains respond accordingly. The rewiring process takes place. We might not sense it at the time, but we are literally being changed below the surface.
At the same time, we become aware of positive emotions that arise within us. This is due to the release of the happiness hormones dopamine and serotonin. These hormones strengthen our communication and creativity and allow us to be more present, loving, and compassionate.
With their release, we experience hope, joy, and excitement. It has been proven that these positive emotions provide very powerful motivation. They encourage playfulness and the willingness to experiment while enabling us to access our resources, understand our strengths and experience maximum creativity.
Science seems to prove what Proverbs 23:7 points out:
“As a man thinks, so he is.”
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