Our minds are attracted to stories with pictures and emotions. Experts in manifestation have found that creating a vision board can help draw our goals closer to reality than leaving them to our wishful thinking.
Do you have goals you are striving to achieve in your life? Have you considered going after the career of your dreams, going on an international adventure, finding your soul mate, committing to daily self-care, losing weight, eating healthier and saving for retirement?
Do any of these goals resonate with you? You’re not alone.
Most of us can identify with them and probably have had these goals for years and have only made mild progress toward achieving them. The reason may lie in the way our mind captures and connects to information.
What Are Vision Boards?
A vision board is a collage of photos, words or illustrations that represent our goals. Essentially, they create a new story that becomes part of our belief system.
“When you can create a new story, we bring those new stories to our everyday life. It is a way to expand from our comfort zone so when opportunities arise we can jump on it,” says Linda Richichi, a South Florida artist and vision board facilitator who offers classes online.
Vision boards serve to focus our attention on our goals, expand our vision to what is possible, to inspire and motivate us toward those goals, and to remind us of the steps we must take each day to achieve them.
“You can create a clear visual representation of what you want in your life. It’s important that when you look at this vision, you embody it fully as already being fulfilled—as if it’s already a reality,” says Louise Bartlett, E-RYT-500, a yoga instructor who also leads vision board workshops online.
It is easy to forget our goals or push them to the back of our minds when we are focused on our day-to-day routine. That’s where vision boards shine. They bring those goals to life. Vision board experts recommend placing the boards in a location in our home or office that we are in regularly. By doing so we are gently reminded of them even if it is on a subconscious level.
“Have you ever noticed that when you’re shopping for a car, you see that car everywhere? It is because it is something that you are constantly thinking about. It’s in your consciousness. You didn’t notice it before but now everyone drives that car.
Vision boards work the same way. It is something that brings the reality closer to you because you can see it,” says Christine Tauer, LMT, a certified BodyMind Coach and owner of Honu Coaching + BodyWork in Shoreview, Minneapolis.
Benefits of Vision Boards
The power behind vision boards is unique and pragmatic in that it takes what is in our minds and gives it form. It becomes something we can see, hear, smell, touch and feel. And when our vision is powered by sensations and our sensations by emotions it is a breath away from being part of our reality. The more we see it the more we will believe it.
“Vision boards help us to see what is possible and to be really clear. In my classes, I help people be clear about who they want to become, what they desire, how they want to feel, what they want to have in their life. If you’ve never done one before, it helps you believe that you can have that goal and work toward it,” says Tauer.
Vision boards work by helping us sort through all the ideas we have in our heads and know what it is that we truly want and how that would make us feel.
Questions to Get Started
Part of creating a vision board is taking time to ask ourselves deep questions like these:
• Where do I want to be in two years, five years, 10 years?
• What are my career goals?
• What are my financial goals?
• How do I want to feel?
• What are the things that bring joy to my life?
• What do I need to nourish within myself?
• What new skills do I want to learn?
• What qualities does my ideal partner have?
• What is the ideal work-life balance for me?
What we want may not be what we need at the moment. Richichi suggests asking what is best for me. “For instance, having a big house may not be best for you because then you get the big bills and it’s more work. Our higher self or our why self helps us to put the images down so that we can actually see what is best for us,” says Richichi.
Digging deep helps us uncover our passions, find direction and notice the areas in our lives that need more attention. A vision board gives a visual representation of our goals. It allows us to connect with them through our senses and empower them with our emotions. They serve as daily reminders of the passions we have and motivate us to move toward them by taking steps in that direction in our everyday lives.
Tauer recommends creating a vision board at the beginning or end of the year and then doing a six-month check-in. “You can add to your board throughout the year, as you get more clear about your goals,” says Tauer.
Create a Vision Board
There are many ways to create a vision board. Some like to draw on their intuition and place images on their board as they find them. Others like to create sections on their board with the different aspects of their life and the goals they have for each. Our experts shared these tips.
1. Gather your supplies. You’ll need a blank poster board, scissors, glue or tape, and images from magazines.
2. Prepare your board. Make a list of the areas in your life that you want to work on and section them out on your poster board. Ideally, you’ll want to work on four to six areas. This can include career, financial, family life, relationship, health, travel, fun, happiness, hobbies, education or community. You can also follow your intuition and let your vision board take on a life of its own, as Richichi guides her students to do in her workshops.
3. Inner prep work. The next step in creating a vision board is taking our responses to those deep questions we spoke about and narrowing down those goals. A vision board can be created for goals that are short-term or long-term. So if you are working on a vision board for goals for the end of the quarter, focus on that. Six months to year-long goals also work well.
4. Get crafty. Start cutting out images, words, illustrations or colors that call to you from your collection of magazines, newspapers or newsletters. If you don’t have any, print inspiring images or memes from the internet. Next, glue them on the board in the areas that they represent for your goals.
5. Hang up your board. Once you are done with the creative process find a place in your home or office that you will walk by regularly and hang up your vision board there. You want it to be visible since it will serve as an inspiration to you for the days and weeks ahead.
Be Free and Have Fun
Making a vision board is a creative process. Let yourself be free and have fun with it, say our experts. Play some music, say affirmations, and let yourself dream big. Make it special in your own unique way.
“It’s a fun way to get clear on your goals, open your eyes to possibilities and imagine a life of your dreams, and then take steps to make it happen,” says Bartlett.
About the Author:
Aiyana Fraley, LMT, is a freelance writer and health care professional with more than 18 years of experience in the massage field. She teaches yoga and offers sessions in massage, Reiki, sound healing and essential oils. Her articles for massagemag.com include “The Massage Therapist’s Guide to Assisted Stretching Techniques” and “Will Touch in Long-Term Care Facilities be Changed Forever by COVID-19?”
Vision Board photos courtesy of Louise Bartlett.