265 - Create Your Vision

Jul 24

265 - Create Your Vision

Listeners, this week we're back with a solo episode. Pam shows up today with a thoughtful episode where she shares why it is important to have a vision and a why.

Enjoy this episode introduced by Producer Nancy while Pam is away taking care of her family and her mental health.

Hello everyone. This is Nancy, de Café con Pam, the bilingual podcast that features Latina and people of the global majority who breaks barriers, change lives, and make this world a better place. Welcome to episode 265 of Café con Pam. Of course you are noticing that this isn't Pam, and I know some of you might know me because Pam talks about the team that makes Cafe con Pam possible. And this time she couldn't record a new episode for you, but we always want to leave you with something and we thought that gifting you some of her Power Sister's material will be interesting. So here I am letting you know that this week you'll have a sneak peek at Power Sisters, and Pam will be back soon and give you all an update on everything. I hope you like this and sin más, here is the class, Create Your Vision.
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Hello everyone. Welcome to Creating Your Vision Month. Today we are going to talk about all the things creating your vision, and I'm so excited you are here and I hope this is beneficial and I cannot wait to hear and see and read your visions when you share them.
To start, always I want to honor the land that I'm currently standing on. I'm teaching this from the land of the Kumeyaay, and I always invite you to check out where it is that you are standing on. What is the land that holds you and who owns that land? Who is the people that have taken care of it past, present, and future? Because the truth is that we are standing on stolen land, and it's important to honor those who have lived in it forever and continue to do it. I also honor my blood lineage. I want to start every call honoring those who I come from, the women that I come from as far as I can find their names. I am Pam, the daughter of Leticia, the granddaughter of Carmen and Ofelia, and the great granddaughter of Juanita, Amparo, Apolonia and Concepción. And those are my mother, my grandmothers, and my great-grandmothers. All of the women in my lineage. And this is an invitation to also call in your blood lineage, and if you don't have maybe a connection with your blood lineage or you don't feel that connected, you can also call in the lineage of the women whom you've learned from, because sometimes that happens. So this is important for all of us to acknowledge. Let's take a deep breath, and the next piece is, as you are watching this recording, check in with yourself. What are you grateful for in this moment? Could you think of something that you've won recently? What is something that you could celebrate? What's a win that currently you can say, you know what? Maybe this week has been rough, or maybe this week has been great and this is a win that you can find. And a win could be look, I got up at the time that I said I was gonna get up. As minuscule as it might feel, a win is still a win. And a lesson what is something that you recently learned that you now know better? Or what is something that is going to help you in the future when it comes to maybe making a decision or taking a different course of action? Take some time to think about this, journal it if you can, if you have a place to do so. And it's important sometimes to check in where we are.
So this actually the whole class, I kind of intuitively came up with it. And so I don't have specific lineage other than frankly the etymology dictionary that I use. That is the lineage for today. And the rest of it, it came from my inner voice and it came from inspiration from talking to you. It came from also, I mean, not just came from me, of course it came from my teachers, my past teachers, my coaching training, and the previous knowledge that I've had. But I don't have a specific pinpoint into where I learned this from, because I kinda came up with it.
So let's talk about vision. The definition of vision is something seen in the imagination or in the supernatural, and this is the current definition of vision. However, as you know, I love words and I love linguistics and etymology, and so I went into an exploration of where does vision really come from? Well, vision comes from the Latin visionem. And the meaning of this word means act of seeing, sight or thing seen. And then if we break down the word, because when I took my etymology class in high school, it was one of my favorite classes, and what my teacher taught me or taught us to do was to break the words by the root of it, because every word has a root.
And then the additions that have been added to the word, and I forget now the technical terms, but the root of the word is always what we look for to really get to the definition of it. And so from vision, visio, which comes from the Greek weid or I don't, I actually don't know the Greek pronunciation, but weid [pronounced "wade"] maybe this is the root of the word, which means to see or to get to know. Which is fascinating. And then if we go a little bit deeper or even more deep into the word, then this word, it has a deeper root, which comes from the Sanskrit, which is a very ancient language. The Sanskrit word veda. And that means or translates roughly into "I know". And so what we can conclude from looking at the root of the word is that vision is the action of seeing because it's knowing and it's seeing. And so visioning or vision as a verb, then, the verb, it means, it's an action, which in turn, it's the action of seeing, that is what is a vision. So as we work on the month of creating your vision, then what actions are you taking into what you are seeing that your future could become or what you want it to become? So in order to create our vision, I want to remind you about the Consciousness Triangle because if we are working on our action of seeing what we want in the future, let's remember that every thought that we have comes first in our head. So this is why I believe it's a triangle. So this is the way that I kind of witness it in my, cuz I think in pictures, this is the way that my brain just kind of illustrates it. So it comes in a thought in your head, and then if we don't grab that thought, if we allow that thought to continue to exist, then it drops into a feeling, which then we get to the heart. Once it's a feeling, then we no longer have control because it's in our body now. It has dropped into our body and we are feeling it. There's a big difference between, I'm thinking and I am feeling. There's a big difference when you say, I'm thinking my life is a mess versus I am feeling overwhelmed. You know, I love words and I love the way that, especially the English language, because from my experience from speaking Spanish and learning Spanish first, I think that English has less words that allow us to express our feelings. And so a lot of our thoughts come through sometimes as feelings when in reality there's still thoughts. Me thinking that I've had a rough week. It's a thought. The feeling is anxiousness, the feeling from this thought. If the thought is I've had a rough week, then the feeling, once I drop into my body and I think about what it is that this thought makes me feel. If the thought is I've had a rough week, the feeling is overwhelmed. The, the feeling is maybe despair, the feeling is a little bit of sadness. And so once that feeling is sunk into my body, then it's already in there. And once it's in there, then it becomes an action. Because then once it's in our body, it becomes part of us.
It becomes part of our identity. And once something is part of our identity, then we do as we are. So that's why I want to remind us always, with the consciousness triangle to catch the thoughts when we can catch them, because the thoughts are not dropped into yourself yet, the thoughts are still in your head, and we can say, Okay, this is what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that I can get this action done. I'm thinking that this class, I'm going to watch it all the way through. That's what I'm thinking. And I'm also thinking that I have other things to do. So what feelings are coming up when I'm thinking these thoughts? Well, maybe the feelings that are coming up are that I might actually not have time to watch this whole class through, but it's still a thought. Do you see?
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I want you to be careful about catching the thoughts and really almost analyzing, to see if they are actually feelings, because we tend to say, I feel, I feel, I feel, when in reality they're thoughts, thoughts, thoughts. And once we feel the feelings, then that's when we risk them becoming actions because they have become part of our identity and we don't want that. Because if we think about someone who's always complaining, let's say then their feelings of things not being the way that they want them to be, and I don't have the exact word, then that's part of their identity now, and therefore the actions are to always complain about whatever it is. Okay. Now that we are aware of what the Consciousness Triangle tells us, let's kind of clear those thoughts if we can. And now let's step into exploring where are we? Where are we now? And you've seen this before. I've shared it before in other classes. I'm sure some of you took the Tapping for Goals class. I talk about the Life Wheel in there. This is a great, great tool that allows you to see where you are in this moment. You can also use a pen and paper and a notebook and create it in a list type of format. That's how I've done like really quick ones, sometimes if I am thinking that things are kind of outta place and then I get feelings of confusion perhaps, or I get feelings of maybe spaciousness, I don't feel like I'm thinking clearly or I don't think I'm thinking clearly., sometimes I do a quick list, Okay, where are we? Where does it feel disconnected? And you can make it like this on a notebook. And then 1 to 10, 1 meaning this is not where I want it to be. This is not in the best place possible. 10 meaning this is the best that I've ever seen and I'm 100% confident on it.
I am satisfied with the way that this piece is going in my life. One thing to note here, we are not aiming for perfection. We're not aiming to get a perfect 10 for all of them because that is impossible. Our humanity doesn't allow us, the lifestyle that we are currently doing, doesn't allow us to have everything perfect, but the exercise is to really check in and see where we are in this moment. No judgment. Do it from a very neutral place, if you can.
So once we have figured where we are now, takes some time to do this. Sometimes, you know, it takes a few days. Actually at the beginning of 2022, my wheel took me three days to finish because I was like, Ooh, I don't like where I'm going. I did kinda like three slices and then I did a little bit more, and then by the third day I finished it, revised some of them. And so give yourself some time. We're not going against the clock to complete this. Once you have completed your life wheel and you know where you are, it's time to figure out where our baseline is. And one thing that I've noticed, and this actually this exercise came in from witnessing the responses of me telling lots of folks and asking them, where do you wanna go? What is the vision for your life? And a lot of times, a lot of folks would get frozen. They would be like, I, I can't see past tomorrow. And after conversations and explorations, I believe and I think the reason why it's challenging for folks to see themselves in the future, it's because we've lived really challenging times in the last three years. We can't really predict. We've learned that the world can change literally in an instant. I remember March, 2020 when it was a Friday, and I went to work to the office, very nonchalant, like very "normal", like it had happened in the past, you know? And then at the end of the day I got an email saying, the office is closing. San Diego's closing. We're going into full lockdown. And things changed very quickly. And so I think because of what we've lived in the past couple of years, we have realized that we can't truly, it's trauma also that figuring out what we want, it's like, well, our inner reaction it's like, well, what if things change like they just did and they continue to do still to this day. So the exercise to avoid, hopefully, so much resistance that the body has is to explore your own life, is to really look past others, look past what we see on TV, look past what systemically we've seen from privileged folks that they are able to do, but to really create a baseline of where we are, where we've been, and then we can see, okay, where do we wanna go?
So the first step on this exercise is to look at the past. What is it that you have accomplished? Give yourself permission to look at the past and say, Okay, things were hard. So in my case, for example, I finished college and I put myself through college. I worked full time while I was going to college full time. So that's a great accomplishment that I can celebrate, and that's something that I would write in the past. Also, when I was 21, I bought a house. That's another thing that I've accomplished. And our brain is gonna come back and say, things were hard. It's gonna remind you that wasn't an easy thing, and that's great. Write it down. All of those things are valid because these are things that you have accomplished. So once you've completed the past, then we move into the now what is it that we have accomplished now? Whatever your present is, it could be this year, it could be last year. Whatever comes to you that you can say, I can celebrate this. Put it in the now. This is your baseline. Think about your wheel. Think about every single aspect of your life wheel that you could add. What is something that you can celebrate now in your mental health and wellness? Maybe you could say, I prioritize my mental health now. If we look at our romance, maybe I prioritize date night. If we look at our family, maybe I set some boundaries if necessary. Maybe I've had hard conversations with my family. This is the now. And then once you're able to see where you are, we look at our past experiences, then it is that you can say, Okay. I can do hard things. I've done all of this before. I'm currently dealing with this and I'm doing it. You've done it and you're continuing to do it. You've built resiliency. You've built strength. Then we can move in to say, Okay, what kind of life do I want to continue to build? Knowing that there's been growth, there's been lots of growth. How do I want to continue this growth in our vision? And this is where I want to invite you think big if you can, because now you can see that you can do hard things. Use yourself as an example to continue that vision of what you wanna do. Think of smells, think of what do you want your life to look like, think of what do you want to drive, think of where do you wanna live, all the things.
Because once you look at this, you'll be like, Oh, there's been some changes. There's been some fun changes, there's been some challenges, of course. And celebrate your strengths. And then we're gonna date it. What is today's date? What is our starting point from our vision? And I wanna remind you to not judge yourself, allow yourself to go through this process because this, I don't think we can do in one day. I don't think we can do even in, you know, a couple of hours. This is something that maybe you sit down on a Sunday morning, put some time aside and reflect on this and then let us sit on it, come back to it, then reflect on the present. Let us sit on it. Go sleep on it. Ask your dreams. What is it that you can build based on all the things? I wanna make sure that the expectation is clear, that there isn't an expectation to when you are going to finish this. Now, the commitment to you completing it is why we are dating it. So you can say, Okay, this is when I'm starting. And maybe by looking at the dates, you can say, Okay, I would like to get this finished maybe in a week. I don't know. You take the time because also remember that what is time? Allow yourself to go at your own pace.
Now, once you've created your vision, the next step is your brain is gonna come up with a lot of obstacles and roadblocks that you're gonna receive because, if you allow yourself to go big in this one, then your brain is gonna be like, Hm, what about this? And what about this, and what about this? And so this is the place where you write that down. So if the vision, let's say that the vision is to live in a farm with, I don't know, chickens and horses, the obstacles and the roadblocks that could come into your brain it would be what about the money? To buy such farm. What about taking care of the animals? I don't know how to take care of animals. That could be an obstacle in a roadblock. Write all of them down. Allow yourself to just go and write 'em all. And then once you've written them, and again, this is something that will take days, perhaps, it's not gonna just come to you right away, but then we want to explore and say, Okay, if the money is one of the issues, then what is the solution to it? Maybe I can save, maybe I can create something that will bring it. Maybe I can make a plan. As we're allowing ourselves to be open to writing all of the obstacles and roadblocks, then we want to allow ourselves to also be creative when it comes to our solutions. Why not? This is where I want you to give yourself permission to say, okay, maybe one of the obstacle and a roadblock is perhaps something that you know absolutely that you cannot do. Let's say that you wanna build a bookshelf for whatever it is. Well, I'm not a carpenter, so the solution would be to hire a carpenter. Right. So this is where you give yourself permission to ask for help, because also, another thing that we want to dismantle is the idea that we need to solve everything by ourselves. We don't. You can arrive at the obstacles by yourself. You could get a little bit stuck here into bringing up the solutions. Ask for help either in your solution and your creative solution process, and in your solution creation as well. Meet up with a friend. Meet with your Power Sister. Present your obstacles. Ask the community. That's the point of co-creation because we're not supposed to do everything by ourselves. Let's remember that. And then once we have created the solutions, then we can step into, okay, what are the big steps to arrive at that vision that we say we want to create? What big, huge steps that feel kind of scary, almost unattainable. Allow yourself to write them here. Why not? I'll give you a real example. For me, one of my intentions for my vision is to do more corporate workshops, and one of the big steps is to get hired at X, Y, Z company. That's a big step that requires a lot of tiny steps, right? And so what we're going to do is allow yourself to write the big steps, and then we're going to choose one and then make them tiny. So how could we create tiny steps for that big step? Well, we'll make it as easy as possible. What can we do today to make something happen? For one of these, you could pick three. Your top three, let's say. What could you do today for your top three? So you can write them down. What could you do this week? What could you do next month? And what could you do next year? What would you like to have done by next year? I know next year probably doesn't feel as tiny, but having next year there, it's helping with the vision that you are building. Because we're already looking ahead. And so the big steps allow you to look at the big, big kind of eagle's eye picture. And then the tiny steps allow you to go get a little bit more granular and more actionable with more attainable tasks that you can get done as soon as possible.
And that's it. I hope you have lots of fun creating your vision. Thinking out loud, brainstorming with yourself and with others, and really making sure that you do and create what it is that you, your heart desires because it's possible and you deserve it, and you are worth creating everything that you want. Stay shining!