Welcome,
Go ahead and take a few moments to disconnect from what's going on around you.
Let your surroundings fade so you can fully direct your attention to this visualization.
Relax your body.
Take a deep breath or two and drop your gaze or close your eyes,
Whichever feels better for you.
Today's visualization is about releasing perfection as you breathe deeply,
Settling into the comfort of your own body in this moment.
Contemplate for a moment the adage,
Done is better than perfect.
Sometimes we strive so hard for perfection that it creates an inability to move forward.
We become frozen with fear that what we're doing might not be good enough.
But my invitation to you in this visualization is to accept your imperfections.
Accept imperfections in others and release any expectation you have around being perfect.
Lower that bar so what you can achieve is attainable.
This doesn't mean that you suddenly become a slacker.
It means that you have the ability to feel good about what you have accomplished.
So let's imagine that we're sitting on a beautiful beach.
No one's around.
The sun is shining.
The water is warm.
And the sand is perfect for making sandcastles.
You settle yourself onto the sand and begin building a sandcastle.
You don't have a structure in mind.
You're just beginning to build.
And you like what you see.
Turret by turret,
Your sandcastle grows.
You've created a moat.
You've created a solid foundation of the base of the castle.
You've created a bridge,
Even though it can't be a drawbridge.
You've created walls.
And the structure comes together nicely.
What you've created is so beautiful and you're doing it without too much thought.
It just naturally flows through you and you're having a wonderful time.
Time passes.
You haven't even noticed.
And as you draw near to the completion of this perfect sandcastle,
A rogue ripple comes up the beach and floods into your moat.
You hadn't even realized that the tide had come back in.
As you watch,
Your castle stays strong and the moat is filled,
Almost as if it's perfect.
And another wave comes up as the tide moves closer.
And your perfect sandcastle begins to melt as the waves of the water lap away at the foundations.
At this stage,
You have two paths.
You can either be sorrowful that this wonderful creation that you've made is falling back down to the beach,
Being subsumed by the water.
Or you can watch with a sense of peace,
Knowing that what you built was perfect in that moment,
Even if it's not long lasting.
Hold these two opposites in mind.
And which one feels better to you?
Knowing that you enjoyed time well spent or feeling distressed that you can't hang on to what you created forever?
Let's follow the path of being content with time well spent.
Notice how relaxed you are.
You've just spent hours building this sandcastle,
Doing something organic in the flow,
Without a plan.
It was wonderful to take the time to just create something.
And you have the ability to detach from the long-term outcome.
It's a sandcastle on the beach you knew eventually the tide would come.
And that doesn't take away from the joy of having created something wonderful.
Notice that peace that you feel in your body and your spirit and your mind as you recognize that you enjoyed yourself,
Even if the outcome is not long-term.
Now imagine bringing that sense of ease to a different project that you're working on in your ordinary life.
As you work on that project,
Dive into the flow.
Enjoy what you're doing.
Appreciate the creative process.
And when it's done,
Admire it,
Even if it's not perfect,
Even if it's not going to last forever,
Even if someone else may sometime criticize it.
Appreciate knowing that you've done well enough.
And as you sit with this idea that done is better than perfect,
Notice how relaxed you are in your body.
You're not afraid of anyone else's words.
You're not worried about what other people think.
You are at peace knowing that you have done your best.
So release all of this imagery and for a moment,
Just go back to the breath.
Remember how you felt in the process of creating that sandcastle.
And as you move into the rest of your day,
Also remember that done is better than perfect and that if you've done your best,
You can be at peace.
