What's your vision for your future?
And have you ever made a vision board to try to bring it into focus?
“Energy flows where attention goes”
I am a big fan of bringing your dreams into the real world—making them manifest, really—by writing them down. You take the words out of your head and commit them to paper, and something that was just an idea now physically exists in the real world. That action has tremendous power.
Another action that has tremendous power is creating a vision board. You can make one on poster board, a piece of paper, inside a notebook or folder . . . No matter where you choose to paste things down, you make one by finding images and words that resonate with you and that represent your wishes, ideas, and vision for the future.
My personal vision board for 2016.
Since making this vision board, the following things have come to pass: I learned to knit. We got a deeper, soaking tub installed in our home. We visited Santorini (pictured with the blue domes) during a cruise. We visited Rome and saw the Trevi fountain (though we didn’t use a scooter), we visited Venice, I created an art business for myself, I found clearer focus on what I wanted to do with my life and begin life coaching, I established a regular meditation and exercise practice, and I started setting boundaries and stopped caring so much what other people think (reflecting the sass of the older woman near the center).
Would all of those things have happened if I hadn’t put them on my vision board? It’s really hard to know. But having those goals pasted down and posted somewhere I could see them and think about them and picture them being real sure seems likely to have helped, don’t you think?
What you see above are two other vision boards I created. The one on the left is a vision board that was created when I was envisioning having a home studio. It had to do with what the studio would be like, how it would feel, and what sort of art I’d make in it. The board is largely set up using the feng shui bagua, a nine-zone grid that can be applied over any space, each of the nine zones representing a particular thing, such as health & wellness (center), or love and romance (back, or top, right).
The vision board on the right is specific to health and energy, and includes feng shui elements for the health center, such as the color yellow, and images of abundance, such as the mass of yellow flowers in the center. When I get my shit together, I hope to make a Vision Board Course for you that includes a complete description of what zones are what, and what sorts of things to put there. In the meantime, here are some pointers if you want to make your own vision board ahead of the new decade.
To make your own vision board
Get something to use as a base. It could be a piece of foam board, poster board, card stock, copier paper, construction paper, a folder, or whatever else you like.
Collect up images and words that reflect your dreams and wishes. I am fond of using magazines for this, and have a HUMONGOUS bin full of them waiting for me to actually create a course on this. If you don’t have a stash of magazines handy, you might be able to score some at a library sale. I especially like REAL SIMPLE Magazine and O Magazine, which tend to have really great titles and images, and even the ads in those tend to have uplifting messages and images.
Remember that you can have a general board (for all your dreams and visions) or a more specialized one for a particular area, such as relationships, family, health, wealth, and more.
Arrange the images and words on the base and paste them down. I am fond of a good, old-fashioned Elmer’s glue stick for this, but you can use dual-side adhesive, tape, or other glue.
Once your vision board is created, put it somewhere you can see it every day.
If you need help figuring out what your dreams and visions for the future are, please get in touch. It’s one of the things I’m really good at, and it’s totally something I can help you with!
