Vision Boards

So what exactly is a vision board and how do you use it? Vision Boards are a planning tool that helps you to manifest an outcome. The help give solidity to your goals. How so? Because it gives you something to focus on. And it provides a way to plan out the details of your aspirations. And you choose the topic of your vision! You could make a vision board for the way you want your year to work out, you could break it down by the quarter or even by the month. Instead of one big board you might want to do separate boards for your individual goals for body image, financial gains, career advancements, relationships… You might even have a far off dream that you want to keep in sight, or a wish that includes the whole world; whatever you have a vision for can be put on a board.

Pretty cool right? Now, on to making one. It’s actually pretty easy, all you need is poster board, magazines, and time.

1.	The first thing I do is take some quiet time and envision what I want (no phone, TV, pets, or other distractions). I’ll use my blog for example – I want a blog that focuses on Food, Fitness, and Faith. I want to share healthy, plant-based recipes; I want a place to give fitness tips, share home workouts, and post yoga videos; and, honestly, I think all people could stand to be more in touch with their intuitions, outside of the influence of religion and social structure, and this blog gives me a platform to encourage people to do just that. So I think about how I want the blog to look. I think about all of my creatively lucrative ideas and how people will partake. I think about how successful and helpful my blog will be to people I don’t even know. And most important, I BELIEVE those thoughts.
2.	Next, I do an outline of how I would like my vision board to look. There are lots of different layouts you can use. You can have just an array of pictures, you could set it up like a timeline, you could divide it into categories – it’s your board, do what is most inspiring to you.
3.	Now the work begins. Time to flip through those magazines and get to cutting! The point here is just to find images that go along with the general idea of your vision. They don’t have to be your exact picture, just close enough that when you see it, your idea pops into your mind. Once you have your images, start gluing!

And voilà! Your vision board is now complete!

But if you don’t have poster board or magazines or the time and patience for all of that, then use a journal! A special journal that you have dedicated to use only for your vision and goals. And then get to writing! There is something that is both grounding and concretizing about putting your thoughts on paper. So be as detailed as possible. And when you meditate, read over all you wrote and see those words coming to life.

Actually it’s probably a good idea to have a journal anyway, because then you have a way to actually track your progress and see your work. Write in the journal every time you do something that brings you closer to the goal (and you should be doing something every day) and update your journal every week regardless of what you’ve done or still have left to do, so that you can stay on track.

And if that is still a lot, then make a Pinterest board! Just make sure you stay on track with searching for pinning things that only pertain to your vision board! And when you meditate, only look at what you’ve pinned. Do Not Deviate!

When the whole thing is finally finished, and I’ve put all of my tools away, and thrown all the scraps in the garbage, I like to take some quiet time to myself and meditate on the board. I usually make some tea, put the main lights out, and light a few candles. I’m always lighting some taper or tealight candles. Something about candlelight just seems to focus my thoughts and keep me zoned in.

So I sip my tea and focus on my board. While I’m doing that, I imagine all my goals being reached, believing that they will happen, and in my mind, going through whatever process it will take to achieve them (buying a new, and much needed laptop; sitting at my table writing posts; making food and sharing recipes; doing workouts and talking to the camera as I record, etc.). And every time I do my vision board meditation, at least once a week, I light my candle and sip my tea and see myself accomplishing my goals.