I came across this quote by the late Wayne Dyer recently in his book The Power of Intention. The book had been on my bookshelf for decades and it had been a long time since I had picked it up. But there it was asking me to give it another read. As I read his words again, I realized I had spent the past two years manifesting using drawing with deliberate intent to change situations in my life.
The global pandemic has touched all our lives in every way and forced us to find new ways of dealing with the chaos we find ourselves in. Through my own experiences these past two years, I have found drawing or doodling to be a powerful visual tools that can strengthen a thought or an intention on a physical, mental, emotional and energetic level.
According to Dr. Deepak Chopra, “intention is the starting point of every dream”. Wayne Dyer describes intention “as a force in the universe that allows the act of creation to take place”. Much has been written about the principle of intention and how to apply it and there is strong evidence that art can heal by unlocking insights, imagination, and creating a calm state for both the “artist” and the viewer of art through modalities such as art therapy. However, there seems to be very little on the use of freehand drawing and doodling to support co-creating with deliberate intent. Through my own experiences, I have found that combining the visual element of drawing or doodling with intention increased the power to manifest.
My work with visuals has been focused on drawing for communication (specifically for teaching business). But when I broke my dominant arm in early 2020, I discovered the potential of drawing for healing. Using my non-dominant hand, I drew multiple images of my broken arm as if it was already healed. People who successfully manifest their desired outcomes using intention, ‘think from the end’ – they live as if it has already occurred. By changing the way I saw my arm through drawings, I was able to speed up the process of healing.
I had the opportunity to test the power of intentional drawing a year later when my cat suffered a life-threatening head injury and was not able to walk. By deliberately drawing her as if she was healthy – climbing trees and catching mice – I was able to ‘see’ her damaged body through my new drawings of hope and possibility, rather than fear and despair. I believe she sensed this and soon regained her strength and vitality (to the amazement of all).
Since then, I have tested the effectiveness of intentional drawing for a variety of situations I wished to change. I’m not proposing that intentionally drawing preferred outcomes is all that is needed to resolve challenges, but my experiences have shown me that it does support thoughts and emotions associated with visualizing positive outcomes both in the one doing the drawing and the recipient of the drawing.
Esther and Jerry Hicks write in their book The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent: “It is not important whether it is true or not, but whether or not you want to experience the truth of it in your experience. Anything focused upon long enough must become truth! It is law!” When you draw your intention, it focuses you on the thing that you wish to experience in a way that thought alone is not able to.
I believe that “drawing from the end” when added to “thinking from the end” is a powerful manifestation tool. When you change the way you look at things, and strengthen it with a visual drawing or doodle, the things you look at will change. I believe there is potential for everyone to benefit from this visual tool, especially during these challenging times.