Imagine waking up to the news that climate change is solved. Feel the weight lift, the tension release. Longing opens the heart, ignites creativity, and guides us. In meditation, let your desires bloom and visualize a future where dreams become reality. Dare to dream, and let's build it together.
It’s a day like any other. You wake up, get out of bed, use the bathroom, and make your morning cup of coffee. As you sit down to enjoy it, you open the news app and see the headline in big, capital font: CLIMATE DISASTER SOLVED: WORLD LEADERS AND SCIENTISTS SUCCESSFULLY COLLABORATE TO ENSURE ALL INHABITANTS ARE SAFE AND EXISTENCE WILL CONTINUE IN HARMONY WITH THE EARTH FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS.
How do you feel? What happens in your body? Perhaps you are shocked, incredulous, guarded. This must be a prank. This can’t be true. And yet, for the purposes of this exercise, stay with the vision — the idea — that it is true. This has happened. How do you feel in your body?
For me, my shoulders fall about three inches. I immediately feel like crying, in a good way. Tension and fear I didn’t even realize I was carrying in my neck, belly, and back releases. Everything cramped and constricted softens. My heart fills with gratitude and relief. Images of my children and someday-grandchildren flash behind my closed eyes. Safe safe safe, I think. Oh my god, safe.
As I stay with the vision, I become aware of how much longing I’ve been holding for a different reality than the one we live in. When I open my eyes, I feel a wave of sadness that this was just imagination — but strangely, I also feel better. Even though nothing has changed outside, my body doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo. My heart feels open and tender. My shoulders stay relaxed. Instead of my normal low-burn anxiety buzzing underneath everything, I feel more energy and clarity from living just that short time inside the vision of a solved climate crisis.
In times of grief, fear, and chaos like the one we’re living through, we need many things. We need organizing frameworks so we act wisely. We need community care. We need ways to regulate our nervous systems and breathe through fear and despair.
We also need to open to our desires and longings, even when they feel vulnerable to admit. We need visions of the future, even if they feel light years away. Why? Because unlike anxiety, longing is generative. It opens the heart and body. It creates a groove in the brain that says life can be otherwise. It fires up creativity and clarifies where we want to go.
Longing can cause trouble when it tips into grasping — I must have that or I won’t be okay. But if we soften our grip on outcomes while leaning into the physical feeling of desire itself, we can use our dreams and hopes to guide us forward and give the mind a break from nonstop anxiety and rage.
How do we open to longing?
Ask yourself, What do I really want? What do I long for? Then listen. Don’t judge what comes up, even if it feels selfish, superficial, or impossible. Let the desire bloom. If it feels like there’s something deeper underneath, gently ask, Is there another desire below this one?
Usually this leads to a small number of very human desires: to belong, to be loved, to matter, to be safe.
Next, imagine the thing you desire actually comes to pass. Don’t worry if it’s unlikely. For the length of this meditation, let it be true. What do you feel? What do you see, smell, taste? Where do sensations arise in your body? Can you dwell there and let your body taste the pleasure of the vision?
Elite athletes have known the power of this practice for years. Research shows that when athletes visualize themselves making baskets or landing difficult moves, performance improves. When they imagine success, they create neural pathways for the body to follow.
Similarly, the best-selling science fiction writer Octavia Butler wrote diary entries describing her successes as if they had already happened: “I am a bestselling writer.” “Both books and stories win prizes and awards.” And indeed, she was, and they did.
Of course, dreams and longings aren’t enough on their own to win medals, publish books, or create a just world. Fantasizing isn’t a substitute for action. But without regularly touching into our longings, we risk burning out or tuning out in the face of the overwhelming challenges of our lives and our world.
What do you most want for yourself? For your loved ones? For our world?
May we all have the courage to dream it up and then build it into existence.
Yael Shy is the Founder and CEO of Sefira Wellness. She can be found on instagram at @yaelshy1.
