What If The Future Is Brighter Than You Can Imagine?
I make no apology for starting 2025 with the classic ‘New Year, New Start’ theme. A new year offers a natural time for optimism—a chance to reset and repurpose. It’s a season of hope, intertwined with anxiety as we ponder the endless possibilities ahead.
Meditation has been the most transformative practice of my life. As I enter my fifth year of daily practice, guided by Insight Timer, I reflect on how it’s helped me quiet the negative dialogue that once consumed me. For years, my internal world was dominated by catastrophising thoughts—a stark contrast to the positive, upbeat exterior I wore with pride.
This week, Lucy Love’s guided meditation, What If, hit home in a profound way. Her questions stopped me in my tracks, reminding me of the power of imagining not just problems, but possibilities.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been plagued by what is often the most monstrously negative internal dialogue. This is in stark contrast to an enduringly positive and vigorously upbeat external mask I’ve worn with fraudulent pride for at least the last 15 years.
That negative internal monkey was not my natural default. Well into my twenties, I lived wholeheartedly with an unflinching belief that no matter what, everything would be alright. And it was. Often more than alright. For the longest time, I was a very lucky boy, as it turns out ill-equipped for the inevitable time when the proverbial hit the fan. Of course, circumstances change you. Particularly gut-wrenchingly transformative ones that made this historic narrative impossible to believe. Hence meditation. It’s been instrumental in helping me rediscover exactly that internal message of hope.
Lucy, in her infinite wisdom and with no little inspiration, got me to think of the beauty of the What If mindset. The truth is if we can imagine into reality the myriad of possible catastrophes that pass through our minds on a daily basis, then surely we can realise the positive possibilities too?
Our fight-or-flight mechanisms, while vital for survival, can hijack our modern minds. Instead of protecting us from sabre-tooth tigers, they keep us trapped in cycles of worry and catastrophising. But what if we could use that same energy to imagine joy and possibility? That’s where Lucy’s perspective changed everything for me.
Her questions brought that very perspective crashing into my world with a sense of joy and happiness and hope and excitement.
What if everything got better for you from today onward? Imagine how it would feel to wake tomorrow feeling lighter, happier, freer.
In deference to Lucy, I’ll share those questions with you. I feel selfish keeping them to myself given the sense of excitement for the year ahead they provoked in me. How wonderful it is to feel the possibilities instead of trying to rationalise or solve them logically!
What if…
What if all is well?
What if everything worked out even better than I imagined?
What if only good things lie ahead of me?
What if there is no problem?
What if everything is working out for me in my highest good?
What if I experienced endless satisfaction in my life? What would that be like?
What if everything just got better and better for me in a permanent way from this day forward?
What if I am a highly blessed person?
What if the future is brighter than I can imagine?
What if there is nothing to be afraid of and I’m completely safe and always will be no matter what?
What if this moment is the beginning of something really truly wonderful?
What if things just got better and better?
What if I unlocked a whole new level of living and happiness that never went away? What would that be like?
So, what if you asked yourself these questions today? Take a moment to feel their answers, not with logic but with your heart. Let’s make 2025 the year we embrace possibility, starting right now.