This year I did something that helped me get more in touch with what I wanted in life—I made a vision board. The picture at the top of this post shows my new vision board—it’s small and took only about an hour to make. I made this one right after a firewalk ritual on new years day. (I’ll tell you more about the firewalking soon. Promise.)
Making vision boards can be done any season, but for me there’s just something about intention setting at the beginning of a new year that is potent for me and the activity seems to just flow easily.
A vision board is a personal exercise for contemplating on what makes you feel good about yourself and what you want out of life. It then becomes a tool to help you manifest these things. Basically your vision board helps you become YOU!
Basic Materials:
- A large sheet of paper or board.
- Magazines (or printouts of things you like)
- glue
- scissors
- markers
Steps:
- Set the mood. Play music—rock, classical or meditative—whatever puts you in a feel-good mood. If you want, light a candle, burn incense and/or put lavender oil on a tissue for some aromatherapy.
- Start with the base of your vision board. Write the date somewhere. Then think up your best-est intention for your life and write it down. This will be the back of your vision board. I found a good example shown below.
- Now get to your magazines. Start ripping out whole pages and make a pile… pull pages that have pictures and words that make you feel good about life in general… what you admire in other people… want for your self… what you already like about yourself. This becomes a contemplative time when you get in touch with feelings and ideas that light up your life… make you come alive.
Don’t get distracted. Don’t start reading the articles in the magazines. Focus on your vision. This exercise is about you getting to know what you want out of life, about who you are becoming… or who you already are! - Choose and gather your elements. When you feel like you have more than enough pages to start with—begin to carefully cut or rip out the words and pictures you like from these pages. Be sure to look on both sides so you cut around instead of cutting through something you want to put on your board! If you do, just puzzle it back together and glue them side by side on the board, or use tape on the back side.
- Start assembling. Flip the base to the blank side then, without touching the glue yet, choose your key word/phrase and/or picture and put it in center. Then assemble the rest of the elements around it. No need to make everything fit perfectly inside the shape of the base, let some pieces float partially off the base.
Once you like what you see, then start glueing. Clean up as you go along, throwing away pieces that don’t have things you like. - Make up what you can’t find in the magazines. Draw or write them down with markers, print them out or make them. Have fun, be creative and crafty!
- Finish up your board. And clean up your mess.
- Time to view your vision board. Big tip: Begin to think and act as if what you want is already true! Take in all that your vision board evokes for you. Get inspiration from it throughout the year and years to come.
Optional Materials:
- glitter glue
- colored paper
- fabric
- gift wrapping paper
- trimmings
- colored markers or felt pens
- calligraphy pen or marker
- tape
- other small items you are attracted to: beads, ribbon, stones, etc
Above is my board made in 2008 during a group activity with my goddess girlfriends. It’s gigantic and full of little details. This one took me 12 hours to make!!! The base is wrapped in cloth and has beaded trim atop. We each glued small firecrackers that symbolize explosions igniting our vision. As time passed, I found other things meaningful to me and tacked them on, even if they overlapped off the sides. Think out of the box!
See my post complete with detailed pictures at Pinay.com>
I would say that vision boards work!!
Seven years later, a friend asked me about my old vision board on instagram:
iiingridish:
That’s awesome! Did everything fall into place after 7 years?
iiingridish! hehehe, good question. In a way, I did start working from home, even if I didn’t quit my day job at a financial corporation. Actually, come to think of it, many good things came about since this board—I co-founded CFBS with Leny, Letty and Baylan… started up Pinay.com, refreshed my bagongpinay blog and a handful of my other sites, created the Babaylan Mandalas, started the Bahala Na meditation blog, painted the buwaya painting, did 2 book covers, started making glass art, changed my diet and stopped dyeing my hair. I even got a rain barrel installed by my husband as a Christmas gift years later in 2013—I jumped up and down when I saw it!
Updates:
8 years later, I found a job that allowed me to work from home! I’ve done more creative work, online workshops and started life and creativity coaching.
10 years later, I still have this big vision board hanging in my home, and I can still see things coming to fruition. Make your vision board, hang it up, and start feeling the feelings you would have if the visions on the board were already come true.
Also published on Medium.
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