Vision boarding is a fun, practical, and magical tool to help you set intentions and create a life guided by your sacred visions. A life that’s aligned with Spirit and your highest good. What better time to create a vision board than right before the New Year?
A vision board is a visual aid that employs our imagination to help us create & manifest – like a blueprint for your soul’s longings. Creating a vision board inspires and motivates us to create a life that is based on our deepest dreams. The feelings and experiences we want to have, rather than just the physical things we want to acquire.
When you make a dream board or vision board with intention, your subconscious mind goes to work for you. You are easily able to align with your vision for the future and begin looking for opportunities, decisions, and pathways to take you toward your dreams.
My husband and I do a vision board every year. And a few years ago, I learned just how powerful vision boarding can be in creating our desires when I accidentally got EXACTLY what I asked for on my vision board – two very different houses at the same time.
Create a vision board with mindfulness & curiosity
At the time, we were living in Sedona, Arizona, and had no plans to move any time soon. My husband and I sat down for our yearly vision boarding session. We pulled out our magazines and glue sticks and started picking out images and words that spoke to us. Some people like to make digital vision boards, but we do ours old school on particle board!
As I sat picking out images to add to my board, I was attracted to two different photos of houses. One was similar to our current home in the desert, and the other was a classic, New England-style home. I couldn’t choose which I liked more, so I just added them both!
Fast forward a few months and our little pomeranian became abruptly very sick. It turned out we needed to move away from the desert and be close to the sea where she could breathe easily. We packed up our bags and headed to New Hampshire. ( yes we moved across the country for a 5-pound dog). The home we found there was just like the one on my vision board!
Our plan was to sublet our Sedona home, but after we had already moved, and the new tenants were about to move in at the last minute our subleasers pulled out of the agreement and we were left with not one but TWO wonderful homes. A desert one and a New England one, just like the images on my vision board. Now, it was only for a few months as they did find a new tenant but wow what a lesson.
This experience was a great reminder of two things: One, be mindful of what you put on your vision board! It just might come true ( and you’ll be paying for more than you can afford!). And two, remember to approach this exercise with curiosity and a sense of humor. Our intuition and the Universe can work in funny and mysterious ways. If you choose an image for your board and you don’t know why you chose it, trust your gut. You never know why something is ending up on your vision board.
How to create a vision board
As the year comes to a close, it’s a wonderful time to use this practice and visualization tool to create the future you desire. Here are a few things you need to make a perfect 2022 vision board:
1. A list of your intentions for the New Year
What is a vision board exactly? It’s essentially a collection of images and words you put together that represent the things you desire to manifest and create in your life. If you can learn one thing from my vision board story about the two houses, it’s that clarity is essential in this process.
If you begin making a vision board without thinking through in advance what you want, you never know what you’ll get! It’s easiest to begin this process with a list. Simply write out your intentions for the New Year. Anything you desire to manifest, create, or work on in the coming months can be added to your list. When you create a vision board, it’s most effective to create it with clarity and clear intention, and affirming it as if it’s already happened.
2. A journal to help you get crystal clear
Once you’ve written out your list of intentions, take some time to reflect more deeply on them. Oftentimes we think we know what we want, but the ideas aren’t really formed and fleshed out. Use your journal to reflect on each of the intentions you wrote on your list.
Consider what they mean to you, and any other specifics that are important. The reason why vision boards work isn’t just about the images themselves, it’s about the mental images and stories we create around them. We become the ones to have the experience. Our subconscious mind works with these stories to help us align with, and attract what we are rehearsing. Focus less on the physical things you want and more about how these images represent the feelings and experiences you’re desiring. This isn’t a goal board, it’s more of a dream board.
3. A prayer to say over your vision board
Anything you create and manifest with your 2022 vision board is a co-creation between you and the Divine. Trusting and strengthening your relationship with your Higher Power is a part of the manifesting process – with or without a vision board.
Are you clear on your role in creating the things you want and the function of your Higher Power? Spend some time reflecting on this relationship and come up with a prayer you can use to bless your board and turn the outcomes over to Spirit.
4. Your vision boarding materials (digital or physical)
Once you’ve done all of the planning and prep to get clarity on your board, it’s time to start creating! Decide whether you want to create a digital vision board or a physical one. Then start gathering the images, words, and materials you want to use for your board.
If you choose to create your board by hand, you might enjoy having a 14k gold marker and a big black sharpie to write on words and things you want to attract. You can decide whether you want to make your board about one specific theme – for example, calling in a partner or your business – or if it will be about your year ahead in general.
Then, begin creating!
5. Your imagination and visualization
No vision board is complete without your imagination and the visualizations you hold about your desires and the images you choose. Remember, the board is just a physical representation of what lives in you, what you are. Your mind and heart are the containers for the dreams you put on your board.
As you create, allow yourself to dream up a future that makes you want to get up in the morning and excites you to be part of life. Let the images be your guide and choose them intuitively, but ground them in your imagination with the clarity of exactly what you intend to create. Allow these dreams to go beyond the things you will accomplish or accumulate. Instead, focus on the ways you will contribute, the ways you’ll feel love and compassion, and the creativity you can bring into your life. Allow your vision board to be a visual representation of the full and flourishing life you’re creating.
Still wondering how to make a vision board that inspires you and helps you manifest abundance? I’m hosting a FREE 7-Day Vision Board Challenge from January 6th-12th, and I’d love to see you there! Think of it like an in-depth vision board workshop meets vision board party. Join me to learn how to create a vision board that aligns you with your highest good and allows you to co-create your visions with Spirit. Click here to save your spot!
