Introduction
Let’s get started. Have you read this post here? You may want to do journaling, etc., before your Vision Board to get more clear, or perhaps you want to do it the other way around or just not do it at all. You get to choose. This is you and your creation, and this is where you have total control. Go for it.
I’m going to write this from the perspective of a person who read some about Vision Boards and then just went and did one (well, after about two weeks of thinking about it and working through what kept me in the ‘just thinking’ stage). It took a bit for me to warm up to the actual Vision Board creation, as I described in Part I, but once I had done my warm up, I plunged in.
Let me just start for the reasons for doing a Vision Board. I was continually reading or hearing about Vision Boards, and one of the big things they provide is a personal vision of one’s future. Since I wanted to have a positive one rather than being trapped focusing on the past, that was a major benefit that I saw. No woo-woo new ageyness to that reason. And that’s a good enough reason for a lot of us. A visual representation of hope for the future.
Another reason that people argue for the vision board is that it activates “The Law of Attraction”. The very popular how-to postings by Christine Kane here is more oriented toward that rationale, as is her other one. Some of us will buy into this and some of us will not. Hopefully at least the first reason I’ve listed suffices if you are a person who does not.
Martha Beck suggests that Vision Boards work because that which we put our attention on is that which we experience more of. She says it’s as if we are now selectively paying attention to these things more. This rationale reminds me of one of the experiments of Dr. Richard Weisman in his book Quirkology. He had people read through newspapers and count the ads. In the middle of the paper, there was a big notice that told the subject that if he or she saw what was written, he or she would get a monetary reward. Almost none of the subjects saw that- they were too focused on counting ads. So here’s the question that comes up for me…Do I want to spend most of my life counting ads? Or should I be focusing on what I want more of in my life that’s positive and wonderful?
How I Did It
Finding Pictures
I don’t think I need to totally re-create the wheel here and tell you all the different ideas that the posting by Christine and one by Pamela Sims (on Martha Beck’s blog) do. They have a lot of neat and different ideas. What I’m going to do is tell you the process I used and any thoughts I had before during and after.
As I mentioned in my Part I posting “How to Move Forward By Being Clear About Your Desires”, I had trouble just moving forward. It took some journal work to get me to the point of the Vision Board (which is really what I wanted to start with- it seemed so fun).
So, once I got my head around what I wanted my life to be like, I knew I was ready. I had saved a bunch my magazines for about a year and I just sat down with them and started looking at the pages and just impulsively doing a very artistic- “I really like it!” “It really pulls me” or “Nah” kind of selection. I’m going to admit that even though I had moved through the resistance to get to this point, I was still encountering enough resistance that I did this with the TV on- half watching and half creating. Probably not something most experts would recommend, but I don’t feel it interfered with my purpose.
In my head I had some of the most crucial areas picked out that I was looking for pictures for- career, relationship, emotional feeling… And I found pictures for those, although amusingly, because my magazines were marketed mostly at lifestyle for women, they didn’t have a huge number of pictures with men in them. I found that I was drawn to some pictures about spirituality and dogs… I hadn’t been thinking about those so much, but I ended cutting out two dog pictures and perhaps five related to spirituality. Food for thought, pun intended!
It was fun cutting out the pictures and I was a little surprised at some of the pictures that I just had a “absolute yes” about. The picture of the chateau in France where Brad & Angelina stayed… A picture of someone getting a massage on the beach at a spa in Mexico- who knew? Although, I surely would like more massage in my life 🙂 !
So the cutting pictures out pictures was fun. I spent about three hours doing it. I was very happy doing it too, which is a benefit in itself. Then I had to put the pictures aside to save for the next time that I had time.
I was able to choose pictures really easily- perhaps because I’m used to exercising my creative and intuitive bones. For those who aren’t, you may want to try a version of this technique or the ones listed in the two other blogs I’ve mentioned to pick out pictures.
Putting It Together
There’s a chance that the backing board for the Vision Board that I chose was too small. I got it in the art section of a local office supplies store that also had a huge art supplies section (yum!). It’s about a foot and a half wide and two feet tall. Having now seen the gigantimundo Vision Board of Martha Beck on the Pamela Sim’s posting, perhaps my next vision board will mutate in that direction!
However, I don’t see why you couldn’t use just any piece of cardboard or side of a box that came in handy. You can overlap all your pictures or just deal with the brown or white between them. As I started pasting on my pictures (the experts recommend glue stick as the best choice- I picked up a glue stick for a buck), I felt like grouping them according to theme- family, work, spirituality, etc. Some didn’t really stay in the cluster, but it was fine. I ended up with some small white space in different places and a few leftover pictures that I didn’t place at the beginning as I placed the pictures on from most strongly felt to least. I also was being kind of artisty and balancing things out with putting in the bigger pictures first and spacing the more colorful ones. I think you could place everything on first and then glue it, but that’s not how I did it.
Interestingly, I only ended up with one relationship picture, so I went back to the magazines and found one more. I know I’m not ready to be in one yet, but I’d like to have the vision and positivity about it.
Results
Well, it’s early in the game, but I already DO see results. First of all, as soon as I saw my finished Vision Board, my heart lifted. Feeling a little bit better is NEVER to be scoffed at- and this made me just feel good and light- more than a little better. I was proud of myself too for fighting through the resistance to the product. I keep on wanting to look at the Vision Board, so it’s in my bedroom, and it’s going up on the wall.
Second, I’ve already started taking actual steps toward those visions and these steps seem to be coming a lot more easily than they did before the board (so that’s B.V.B. vs. A.V.B.). There is definitely FOCUS on the visions in the pictures A.V.B.– I notice opportunities for spiritual activities that I want—as well as ACTION that is taking me tiny step by step towards those and other visions on the board.
Finally, I can say that each time I look at my Vision Board, it again lifts me a little. And I enjoy looking at the pictures.
Conclusion
Let me just finish by adding a few points from my reading on Vision Boards that I thought were pretty key. First, don’t overthink it. Let your not-rational nonthinking side pick the pictures. Really. This is a tip from Martha Beck (who thinks we “think” too much and it holds us back sometimes because we are not tapping our unconscious) by way of Pamela Sims.
If you cannot find an image of something that is really important to you- draw a picture of it or check out a free public picture-sharing place like photobucket. (For those of you less technically inclined, you can right click on the mouse, choose copy, and then open up your “Paint” program- under “Accessories” which is under “Programs”, and then click paste- voila!)
Another idea which I missed the first time I read all these articles was to take a picture of the board and put it on your electronic gadgets– cell phone, computer, etc. Such a great idea!
Finally, Christine Kane suggests that it is optional but powerful to paste a picture of yourself in the middle of your board. I haven’t done that yet, but I can see the potential! Let me just print this one out here…
Good luck!
P.S. I’d like to thank my good friend A.W. for talking about this- her mention sent me marching in this direction. And about all the great support and wonderfulness she brings into my life.
[…] Original post by Finding Serenity […]
I stumbled across the idea of vision boards years ago when I read Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain but for whatever reason, never gave it a try.
Then this year I came across Morning Coach on Itunes which led me to their website. Interestingly, they have an area for creating dream boards (same idea as vision boards). I’ve since created two, one geared towards my life and another one focuses on my business. I find it’s a great tool for staying focused on what you want and they’re a lot of fun to create.
Great article!
Denise
http://www.successforrealpeople.com
They are fun, aren’t they? Remembrances of elementary school!
On a similar note, one of my friends who teaches elementary school told me she does an activity where children cut out a magazine image to represent themselves. It never suprises her anymore that the children who seem to have some internal trouble cut out things like black bats.
Serenity/BeClear:
I just wanted to share with you that one New Year’s Day, a friend and I did create our own vision boards – it took us 5 hours to complete them – and that’s with each of us having done picture hunting days before we got together!
It was so much fun and interesting to go through the picture selection process, and just as you wrote, I found myself being drawn emotionally to the “right” pictures.
In fact, I found I had way too many pictures to fit on my piece of poster board. And because once I had a chance to really look at all the pictures, I realized I had many pictures of the same themes, so I didn’t end up using all of them. Instead I selected the ones that spoke to my soul the most. And I must say my finished product is just heavenly!
Like you, I have mine now proudly hanging in my bedroom and just the sight of it makes my heart sing. I hadn’t thought about adding it to my electronic gadgets, but think I just may do that now – especially as wallpaper on my computer at my new job come Monday.
Thanks again for sharing your experience with vision boards with me weeks ago on GPYP. It was just another gentle shove I needed to get myself moving with this tool.
Hugs,
SmilingAngel
Oops – that should have been “on New Year’s…” not “one New Year’s”… sorry about that!
Also, not sure where that avatar came from. Certainly isn’t one I chose…
Smiling Angel,
I’m glad you got to do this, and what good timing hey? I now have made a second one, as I felt my first was too small and lacking in the relationship area and the success area. I actually used the side of a big box, and it worked great!
It’s also great to hear how it lifts your spirits! Woo hoo!
sserenity:
Thanks! Yes, it definitely was Divine timing 🙂
That is cool about making a second one. I too felt like mine was too small – a full piece of poster board – but had never considered making a second one – I’m definitely one who finds herself still living “can’t see the forest for the trees” every now and again. So creating another vision board sounds like a great activity for my “me time” this weekend – thanks for the inspiration 🙂
BTW, have you noticed any difference in how you feel or what your experiencing since you created them?