FLASHBACK:

The next time, Jim was actually excited to go to detention. He hoped Miss Lawrence would be there; he could not get his mind to stop thinking about her question.

In fact, that first time round, it wasn't anything serious he did that landed him in detention. He was just trying out his first cigarette, though stupidly on school grounds of course, and then got himself got caught by a teacher. It was just bad luck.

After that, he ended up in detention on several other occasions, simply because he was standing around and following the crowd. Obviously the wrong one, come to think of it now. Jim swirled his chair around to look at the group, and to his surprise, found the Fernandez twins there again. He wondered why Angela could be in the group since she was a really good student; they shared a few classes and she always scored top grades.

Miss Lawrence came in, and this time she was carrying a stack of magazines and a bag of stationery. Jim jumped to help her and she smiled and said thank you to him.

"Jim, can you help me put some of these magazines on those tables? We are going to have to share them. Magazines, scissors, glue and more drawing paper."

And again the same question “Create the life you want” was written on the whiteboard. This time though, Ms Lawrence started by sharing her own creation. It was a piece of paper decorated with pictures from magazines. You could make out a time line by looking at it from left to right, and see her entire life story thus far: the university emblem, a home on a street which looked almost exactly like the street near where Jim lived in town, pictures of two children, and so on. Were the children her own or magazine models? Jim wasn't sure. 

Miss Lawrence told them how she started this when she was around their age –this board of dreams...

She felt like a loser when she moved to a new town in the middle of the school year. Her mother left them one night without a word and never returned. Her father, desperate and not sure how to raise his own kids – her and her brother – brought them to his elder sister. That period of time was a difficult point in her childhood, because her new classmates mocked the siblings' predicament and refused to play with them.

Making the decision to stand on her own ground, Miss Lawrence decided to create her own world and reality. So she started her board of dreams and she put in a lot of effort to making it work. Although she didn’t get all she wanted, she got more than she could ever imagine. After her story, Miss Lawrence told them to begin on their board of dreams.

To the students, she was not one of those attractive women, but when she spoke, she came alive. Her eyes shone and the students knew that she was listening to every single thing they were saying. So they listened to her too. Not just in detention class but outside in the corridors as well.

That day Jim asked Miss Lawrence what she meant by “Is that all you want?” And she asked him how he felt when he started drawing. She explained that it was this feeling which made these things possible, and not the other way around.

Some of the students grew closer to her, and each other, as they journey through their school life together.

In fact, Alex and Angela became Jim’s his closest friends.

It was Angela who introduced Jim to Mandy and who was the maid of honor at their wedding, with Alex as their best man. Last year when they celebrated their 35th birthdays they made a toast to Miss Lawrence.

A toast for bringing them together and a toast for what she had taught them and how they had used that to attain great success in their lives.

Reflection

Miss Lawrence's story, although not one of fame and glory, was a personal and inspiring one. One about how she made it through her own challenges as a student and daughter, and now, as a young mother and teacher.

Do you have a Miss Lawrence in your life? What life lesson did he or she teach you?

What lessons have served you so far?

Do you know you can, and should, design your life?

Where have you consciously done so?

Where have you felt a victim or unable to consciously create the life you want?

Do you know why?

Learning Lesson 2: The Visualization Tool

Visualization is a compelling mind tool and strategy. Studies show that the subconscious mind is unable to differentiate between legitimate events and imagined ones. Due to this, images created by visualization can greatly impact the mind.

Why did Miss Lawrence passed the detention students magazines and stationery to "create their life"?

By getting it down to hands-on with the magazines, glue, drawing paper and so on, the students are essentially "visualizing" with their own hands and manifesting it in the physical form, which is one of the most powerful tools to use for success creation.

But can visualization only be achieved through the hands-on way?

Nope!

Visualization can also be manifested through the mental imagery way i.e. using the imagination to make the change in the mind.

This is even more powerful because visualization fundamentally changes the way we think and positively re-routes the neural network in our brain.

Here's how you can use the visualization technique to your advantage:

• Sit or lie down comfortably. Engage in slow breathing, with eyes closed.

• Imagine achieving or having the life you want. Use your all five senses (hearing, sight, smell taste and touch) to experience it. Too many people visualize from their heads and not with their entire body. The more you can own it as if the life has already begun, the more confident you feel about having it.

• Hold that image. Visualize the pleasure of the moment. Enjoy the whole range of blissful sensations from that.

• As you become more comfortable and relaxed, gradually withdraw yourself from that state and return to reality.

The more realistic your imagination is, the more you will "live" the life you create. The brain cannot tell the difference between a vision and reality and so will shape reality to fit the vision you created.

It will look for opportunities to make the new life the real life.

Chapter 3 : Mentor From The Past (II) - "The Amazing You" by Marion Neubronner

Get https://www.theamazingyou.com/marion/

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