Visualizing a Great Year

With the new school year right around the corner for some and already here for others, how can you work to ensure this is a wonderful year for your family? Why not try visualizing that ideal year/school/experience!

Visualization, a mental technique that uses the imagination to make dreams and goals come true, has proven a powerful tool in fostering growth and success. Physiologist Edmund Jacobson, for example, conducted research on the impact of visualization on athletes, showing how the mental technique can impact physical performance, and Natan Sharansky, a computer specialist who spent nine years in prison in the USSR after being accused of spying for US, employed visualization to practice chess while imprisoned, becoming the world champion after his release in 1996.

Visualization also has deep roots in Judaism and is infused throughout Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), with the Kuzari (work by medieval Spanish Jewish philosopher and poet Judah Halevi, completed around 1140) teaching about the power of having complete control over one’s mind, and Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein (1885-1974) stating a true tzadik (righteous person) is someone who can visualize things and events in the mind as vividly as if they are real.

So as we enter a new school year, consider (or visualize) some of the following questions:

• What do you think about the current status of education, and where do you see it headed?

• What does the “ideal” school look like for your kids?

• What are your hopes and dreams for your kids this year?

• What would a great year look like for your kids?

• What do you hope your kids will come home saying? What do you hope to hear from the teachers?