Cassandra "Caz" Stark

Imagined Future is one of my favorite BeMo Extra topics from the BeMo Pocket Guide. Just as the BeMo Guide describes, Imagined Future is about something you want to experience in the future. Imagined Future journal entries are in the present tense. The reason we write these extra topics with presence is purely psychological.  

The human brain won’t allow you to put something on paper that feels wrong or deceiving. The very act of giving a sense of permanency to words through writing challenges us to consider the promises we make to ourselves.  

How It Works

The Imagined Future practice challenges you to see your future, write it as it is, as if it were right here and right now, and describe it fully. On the surface, when you think about your future to yourself, it may be as simple as, “I want a career with [Amazing Company]” or “I want to be in a relationship with [Someone].” As you do this, that surface desire starts to take shape. You find it is beyond [Amazing Company] and [Someone]. Suddenly, your desire for a new job or a relationship is so, so, so much more than that.  

You may be dreaming about something very vivid and perhaps even particular. The particulars surface as you write it down, allowing you to realize it is far more about the feeling of a new career or relationship. Thankfully life’s feel and texture are easier to look for, has broader possibilities, and therefore are within grasp. As if by magic, by writing it with presence, you begin to do the work to manifest the feelings behind what you described as your ideal. Subconsciously, you start to look for and recognize those feelings mixed with your dreams and desires. Perhaps this looks like feelings of safety, recognition, like-mindedness, drive, and motivating challenge. Your Imagined Future practice will show you the way.

When To Use It

Tapping into this important BeMo Extra topic is excellent for pivotal points in life (birthdays, New Year, a loss of something, or a desire to gain something else). It can be wildly effective when you challenge yourself in the most detrimental, frustrating moments to imagine what you actually want.  

Imagined Future Helps To Identify Needs At The Core Of Desire.

The Imagined Future practice is a great way to reverse-analyze your needs. After you’ve written your Imagined Future journal entry, you’ll be able to look back at it with what you Know about yourself from your FUNCK practice over time. Instantly, you’ll be able to peg the Needs written throughout the page. If you need help, you can compare what you’ve written to the Needs Wheel in your BeMo Journal or Pocket Guide. Once you understand what needs exist for you even in the future, you’ll be able to work on self-fulfilling those needs.  

As a result of writing this entry, what you really desire for your future begins to manifest here in your life. And if it doesn’t, you get to analyze how your needs or desires have changed, what work you want to put into grasping a whole new future, or a little exposure therapy to dealing with change or lack of change that isn’t entirely in your control.  

As we grow up, too many kill off their desires and imagination as a misperceived need to survive.  Growing up with a lack of imagination means we likely learned at a young age that when we are happy, laughing, and playing out our imagined future, we are vulnerable, unsafe, and threatened by the caregivers around us. So, we shut it down. When we shut it down, we turn into adults that wonder why we can’t fully enjoy a vacation or be satisfied sitting in a room without technology to distract us. We can’t enjoy the happiness of the here and now because we stopped allowing ourselves to expect positivity through imagination. We killed off the wrong need to survive something about our upbringing. At eight years old, it is easier to stop imagining your life as a firefighter and instead perceive that the fire cannot be contained – so dismiss it, avoid it, or sit anxiously worried it will get the best of you and nobody sees it as you do. That there are attachment styles at play.  

Check Your Need-Ing

So, before we begin imagining the future and putting this necessary, playful need back into our lives, let’s pause here for a checkpoint. Jump over here to this reminder post to ensure you aren’t woulda/shoulda/coulda gaslighting yourself with your perception of Needs.

When you’re ready, here are some examples of Imagined Future in use:

• Imagined Future as a New Year’s Ritual