As a result of making that vision board, I am reminded that Coronavirus is just for now…it is not forever! My vision board hangs on the wall, portraying my vision of how I want to be in my future, and things I want to do, inspiring me to move forward.
What Is Visioning?
Visioning is an intentional and creative process where we purposely collaborate with our subconscious mind. We expand our conscious “thinking” to consider more than what is normally available to us. This will help us reach personal, professional and therapeutic goals.
The subconscious is the world of dreams and imagination. Our dreams speak to us while we are sleeping as well as when we are awake. They provide us with clues to our heart’s desires, passions, and future plans. In visioning, we take it a step further and imagine it as if it is already real. Visioning may include guided imageries, prayer, and meditation.
Consider:
- When you are quiet as you exercise or maybe meditate, what are the thoughts that come into your mind?
- When you are driving or walking around, what do you notice?
- What daydreams regularly pop up about what you might like to do?
- What are these thoughts telling you about what you want, fear, hope for, and desire?
- What pain is needing to be addressed?
- What have you always talked about doing?
- What vision do you want to bring to life?
Purposely Connecting to Our Subconscious
Let’s explore why this works.
Where attention goes, energy flows. It is a known fact that what we think about and talk about is what we bring about.
Have you noticed when you think of things, your emotions follow. We set “energy in motion” when we feel this emotional connection to our thoughts. The subconscious takes it and runs!
It is a generative process. Visions create new neural pathways. When we use our conscious mind to imagine or envision what we want in as much detail as possible…the smells, the sounds, the colors…the sub-conscious records these imagined experiences as if they were real. It cannot tell the difference between what we vividly imagine and a real experience.
Professional athletes have successfully used visioning to repeatedly imagine how they will play and improve their performance.
I had this experience in college playing golf at our season’s last match that could qualify us for the national competition. We gathered in a hotel room and each of us imagined and felt our emotions as we played each hole, imagining the direction of the wind, the slant of the greens, what club to use for each distance…we felt the excitement, anticipation, and satisfaction as we successfully completed each golf hole. And the next day, I successfully played my best 18-hole golf score…and we qualified as a team for nationals.
Physical World/Reality. We begin to act as if our imagined “memories” are real and our outer world begins to reflect this new reality.
Creating Vision Boards
You do not have to be an artist to create a vision board. There is no right or wrong…it is all perfect! It is all about following your emotional energy and what attracts you to help you more clearly represent the future you want.
There are many, many online resources available…youtube videos, blogs, apps to help you create blogs using online images, etc.
- Use Magazines, photos, ribbons, colored paper, calendars, Pinterest images, greeting cards, product labels, paint, color, draw, write, print, download an app to help you create from online images, etc
- Choose what evokes desired feelings, attracts, and appeals
- Paste onto a poster board, burlap sack, or the paper inside a frame
- Send image created using an app to Costco to print on a canvas
- https://www.developgoodhabits.com/vision-board-ideas/
Stretch yourself! Get creative. Gather items symbolizing your future and place them together on a workspace.
During the gathering process, as you look through images, words, phrases, or things, allow your intentions and desires to jump out at you. Look for items you relate to or are strongly attracted to, even if they do not make sense! At the end of creating your vision board, these items will most likely help you see your vision with more clarity.
Another ideas is to take a picture of a collage of items that inspire you and save to your computer desktop or phone background.
Summary
If you would like to see how this works, here are the steps to take:
- Practice visioning. Listen to guided meditations, daydream about what you want, invite your sleep dreams to give you guidance. You might write notes about your visioning experiences. Here is a guided imagery my clients like:
- Create a vision board…something that makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning. Create in whatever fashion feels most fun and supportive to you to bring your visioning into something tangible.
Next Steps
“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” – Joel A. Barker
- Engage with and take time to connect with your vision board. Looking at the board, answer the following questions: What stands out to you? What excites you? What is the next step you want to take to make this vision a reality?
- Set SMART goals. For more help writing your goals, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-SvuFIQjK8
- Specific. What exactly will you do?
- Measurable. How will you know if you did it?
- Attainable. Can you do this?
- Realistic/Relevant. Can you realistically do this? Does it make sense?
- Time-based. When exactly do you want to accomplish it?
- Share your vision board and goals with at least one other person and request to be held accountable.
- Get to work and live this new future by visioning it on a daily basis and taking action on the goals you defined above. You might hang the vision board, hide it or do whatever feels most inspiring. Some people like to write a description of what their future life is like and tape it to the back of the image. Others hide the vision board and then pull it out at a future date to see what has become reality. And still others release and transform the energy of their vision board by burning it in a fire.
Have fun and feel the exciting energy of choosing to invest your time and energy into the future you envision!
I have found the visioning and vision board process is fun and empowering for individuals, partners, families, and small teams.
If you want support setting goals, encouragement, and can benefit from being held accountable, give me a call!
