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How to Make a Vision Board
By Erica | May 26, 2010
A week ago I moved back into my parent’s house. To fully understand the tragedy of this situation, let me further explain: I’m 23 & have lived on my own, miles & miles away from the parentals, for 5 years. Needless to say, the adjustment to being back under “THEIR roof” has been a little daunting. I love my parents (& the obvious perks of living at home!), but it’s just…different.
When I first moved to college, my parents decided to let my brother move into my spacious basement room (complete with violet walls!). At the time I didn’t mind, since I rarely visited home & had my own space to call home (er, call “dorm”) & was perfectly content to claim our old guest room when I visited on weekends & breaks.
Let’s just say that living in the guest room is ONLY okay when you’re actually the guest. Now that the guest room is my permanent place of residence, I HAVE to make a few adjustments–& quick!
Enter my plan to make a vision board. I’ve been interested in vision boards for months, but I felt like I never really had the time to devote to making one. Now that I’m home–& basically completely directionless–it seemed like the perfect time to devote a day to my board (& figuring out my life).
If you’re unsure or have never heard of vision boards, a vision board is a (poster board, journal, online document) that reflects YOUR IDEAL LIFE. It is a collection of words, images, artwork, magazine clippings, glitter, ribbons, sequins, etc. that you create in order to help manifest your ideal life–everything from who you want in it, how you want to feel, items you’d like to own, etc. Sounds pretty idealistic, I know. But vision boards work just like the Law of Attraction (aka The Secret), mantras or anything else you repeatedly look at or think about. Many cognitive behavioral therapies also employ this same strategy when they encourage patients to read rational statements & repeat them.
Anything you think about (positive OR negative!) you unconsciously bring into your life
The way I see it, life is basically one big self-fulfilling prophecy. Activities like mantras & vision boards are simply ways to ensure that you are self-fulfilling a good prophecy. Think about it: If you have a vision board on your wall (or at your desk at work, or online) that you look at every day & consciously think about for a few minutes, your brain has no choice but to start to believe, think about & (In turn) help you bring the things you’re thinking about into your life! And at this point in my life, I’m willing to try basically anything to get it together.
So, last night, I finally began my vision board adventure. Here’s my how-to guide (& behind-the-scenes look) at the process:
Before you start your vision board:
FAQs:
What’s the difference between a vision board & an inspiration board? Inspiration boards are another common creative-type tool. Inspiration boards, however, can include ANYTHING that you find that inspires you. I’m often inspired by pictures of “dark” things–burlesque/S&M, demons, creepy photos of old houses, etc.–but I definitely don’t want to bring those things into my life! That’s where a vision board & inspiration board differ. A vision board is a place to specifically showcase images & text that represent what you want out of life. This can include everything from items you’d like to own, images that represent the way you’d like to feel inside (peaceful images, large open fields, people practicing yoga) or the place you’d like to live. But, your vision board should obviously inspire you, too!
Brainstorm:
Brainstorming is the first & perhaps most important step in the vision-board process. Remember that you’ll be looking at your board every day, so you should take serious time to plan it out. It should be something special & should really speak to and express your inner desires. Singer/songwriter & seasoned vision-boarder Christine Kane recommends (in her free e-book about vision boards–available here!) sitting down with three pieces of paper & labeling each: DO, BE, HAVE. Under each column, she suggests listing anything you can think of doing, being & having in your ideal life. Let your imagination run wild! I did this before I started to flip through my magazines & felt that the lists gave me a much clearer idea of what I wanted to put on my board (& in my life!). I was able to refer back to them when I was getting a little lost in all the images.
Gather your supplies:
♥ Magazines. you don’t mind cutting up (I used lots of images from Artful Blogging which is perhaps the coolest, most visually-appealing magazine I’ve ever seen/read!) Don’t just stick with GLAMOUR or Cosmo, or you’re board will end up looking like an advertisement! Try art magazines (I like JUXTAPOZ) & non-traditional pubs like Yoga Journal, venuszine or BUST.
♥ Scissors.
♥ Poster board. (I used a half-size one, but you can use any size you want!)
♥ Extra supplies–glitter, sequins, paint, ribbons, craft paper, etc.
How To Make Your Board:
♥ Search. I recommend starting your search by flipping through each magazine & folding down page corners or ripping out entire pages with images you like on them. After you’ve created a good size stack of torn out pages or folded corners, go back & pick your favorite images. Believe me–it’s easy to get really excited at first & think you every picture you see is perfect, only to change your mind about it when you take a second look.
♥ Cut. Or rip. Use your teeth. Whatever!
♥ Design. Arrange your photos/images on the poster board. This was the most fun, but also most taxing, part of the process for me. I immediately knew which images spoke to me, but being a huge perfectionist, I kept rearranging them on the page! I created mine like a collage, but yours definitely doesn’t have to be one. I suggest creating your board to look like whatever you want your ideal life to be. If you have a lot of peaceful images, consider spreading them out across the posterboard to give the impression of calm & space. Make a design out of them. If you’re after a zen, structured life, use few images & line them up perfectly straight. Blank spaces on the page can also leave room for painting or other decoration. You get the idea.
♥ Paste. Once you’ve found the perfect places to paste your images, get to it!
♥ Add extras. Paint, pour glitter over your creation, put on red lipstick & kiss the white spaces, etc. You can even add a photo of yourself right in the middle in order to remind yourself that this is YOUR ideal life.
♥ Admire. Take a moment to congratulate yourself!
♥ Use it. Creating the board is only half the battle. The other half involves USING your board to create the life you want. It involves ACTION. If you really want the life you created on your board, you can’t look at it every day & expect results. I used a clipping that said “Time to get started” near the middle of board to remind myself that if I want the life on the board, I need to work toward creating it every day. But vision boards can be VERY powerful from what I’ve heard–so I’m excited to see what I’m able to create out of it!
Some alternatives to the traditional vision board:
♥ Use Evernote. Evernote is a super easy to use program that enables you to “clip” or “capture” anything you find on the web that you’d like to keep. It’s free, it can be accessed from anywhere (you are given an Evernote user name & password) & it’s now even available as an iPhone app!
♥ Vision Journal If you’re a writer or a little more secretive about your deepest wishes, try a vision journal. This ongoing project can include writings about your ideal life & any images that you find over the months that are part of your vision for your future.
♥ Use Google Docs As you probably know from my post on gratitude journals, I’m a sucker for Google Docs. I think it’s perfect for basically, well, everything. If you’re a tech-nerd like me, you’ll probably enjoy that Google Docs is available from any computer–so if you find inspiration while in your university’s library, you can instantly copy the photo/passage & insert it into Google Docs with ease.
Tips & Reminders:
♥ I used a glue stick–but I know others recommend rubber cement. Use whatever you find easier to work with! Just keep in mind that glue often dries quickly, but cement can be a little drippy!
♥ The point of a vision board is to aid you in manifesting your ideal life. The only way to do this is through ACTION! Although a pretty collage on your wall is nice to look at, it doesn’t possess magical powers. YOU are the one who can make your ideal life come true. The vision board just serves as a beautiful, daily reminder of what it is you really crave.
My Finished Product
:
WARNING: I ended up with multiple magazine clippings glued to my legs. Just sayin’.
Your Turn:
Have you ever made a vision board? Have you had success with them or the Law of Attraction? If you make your own vision board, PLEASE share a link to a photo in the comments. I’d love to see what you come up with!
xoxo erica lee
Topics: How to | 6 Comments »
May 26th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
One of the steps you might want to add before you make your next vision board or your RE-Vision — si to add the ancient art of visioning before worrying about what to put on the board and to help detemine your power words and defining images for 2010 that come from your essence. See a free chapter (actually 65 pages) of the best-selling book THE VISION BOARD at http://tinyurl.com/seeinsidebook If u want a review copy I can have Harper Collins Publishing send you one
May 26th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Joyce – Sounds interesting! I’d love to learn more, I’m a newbie. Can you e-mail me (ericaleexo@gmail.com)?
May 27th, 2010 at 11:06 am
[...] How To: Make a Vision Board | [...]
June 26th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
[...] “sex-obsessed”? Oh, you know. It means you’re an American. ♥ I wrote about vision boards here a few weeks ago. This week CollegeFashion focuses on How to Create a Fashion Vision Board. [...]
September 15th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
I’m going to do this tonight!
August 4th, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Hi Joyce,
I hope it’s not to late. I’m so interested as well. Can you please email as well. (yohanis.mj@gmail.com). I would love to be more informed on the subjects.
Thanks in advance for the information you provided.