My favorite ritual every new year is sitting down with a cup of coffee and some good music and creating a vision board. In fact, it’s not strictly a new year’s goal-setting board but a collection of inspirational snippets that symbolize my big life dreams. There are pictures of destinations I want to visit, photographs that remind me of good times, pictures of yoga poses I’ve always wanted to nail, quotes that inspire me, little keepsakes I’ve collected, and lot of pictures of surfing and the ocean. It’s a visual illustration of all the things that make me happy and that remind me of my core values and life goals.
Visualization is one of the most powerful and effective tools to manifest the life you want. According to the law of attraction, anything you can imagine in your mind you can also manifest in real life. By imagining a future in which you have accomplished your biggest goals, you set the tone for their actual manifestation. Athletes have been using visualization techniques for decades to improve their performance in competitions and challenges. The principle of this mental programming is to imagine the outcome of a situation as if it were already reality. By creating an image of that outcome inside the mind, the brain will follow suit and begin to program itself to make that image become a reality.
But these techniques do not only work for physical challenges. You can utilize visualization to manifest your personal dreams and goals, too. A wonderful way to do this is by creating a vision board, a collage of images that support you in visualizing your goal. Pictures serve a special purpose in this context. They speak to your subconscious mind and condition it to believe that your vision will become reality. While the conscious brain is primarily focused on fact-based information the subconscious mind responds mainly to visual stimuli such as pictures, colors and expressions. In short: What you visualize, you attract into your life.
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paolo Coelho, The Alchemist
A vision board is a collection of images that inspire you and represent your ideal life. And not only is it an excellent way to consciously create the future of your dreams, it is also a very fun and rewarding DIY project. You can either create a vision board for a specific life goal or one that unites all the aspects of yourself you want to cultivate and strengthen that together form your dream life. All you need is some sort of board – you can use a cork board, a blank canvas, or even a pretty picture frame with a fitting piece of blank paper inside.
Before you start, set some time aside to meditate and get clear about your goals and wishes. Create your vision inside your head, as vividly and colorful as you can, and focus on how you want to feel when you’ve reached your goals. And then start collecting images that represent your vision. For example, if you envision living in your dream house, find a picture that comes as close as possible to your ideal house. Or if you dream of writing a book, find a picture that symbolizes the feeling you have when it is published.
Get out your photo box and pick your favorite pictures, preferably those that remind and transport you back to special moments. Browse magazines you like and cut out snippets you associate with a certain feeling, a certain mindset. Handwritten quotes, personal mantras and affirmations, letters and postcards from loved ones, your sankalpa (your highest intention), inspiring pictures, drawings, travel goals, snippets from journals and magazines that evoke a certain feeling, keepsakes dear to your heart – anything that helps you bring life into your vision counts.
Depending on the type of board surface you chose, pin, glue or stick your vision snippets to your board create a big, colorful collage. Again, there are no rules. You can arrange them side by side or overlapping, in any order and as many as you like. Take your time and enjoy the process of bringing your vision to life and infusing it with good energy with every piece you add.
Energy flows where intention goes.
The more attention you send into your vision, the more you support its manifestation. In other words: you can feed your vision by just looking at your board and subconsciously program your mind to work towards its manifestation. So put your vision board in a place where you can see it every day. Hang it above your work desk or in your personal feel-good space at home. Meditate or do your yoga practice in front of it. You can also combine it with daily affirmations or mantras that reinforce its message. Repeat it in your mind whenever you look at your board or walk past it, and concentrate on your vision becoming reality.
Personally, I like to place my mala beads close to my board when I’m not using them so they can soak up the vibes of my vision and become sort of a talisman of my intention. You can do this with any lucky charm you like. With time it will be charged with the energy of your vision and remind you of your intention throughout the day.
With time, as your goals start to manifest, make sure to come back to your vision board and practice gratitude. Change or remove snippets that have already become reality, and add new ones. Experiment with the power of visualization, and, most importantly, enjoy the process of consciously manifesting the life of your dreams.
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