Before becoming a wellness coach and wellness expert, I spent many years in marketing and public relations. I worked ridiculously hard and believed my exhaustion was a badge of honor. I grinded – and would run myself into the ground on a regular basis. All of that had a lot to do with my upbringing. My mom was a single mom, raising three kids while working three jobs. I have a hard work ethic and a little scrappiness is built into my DNA. Deep inside of me, I felt I had to work in order to overcome the idea that I have to really hustle and grind to get what I want. There was always this thought that there should be a sense of unhappiness in that hustle.
Identity Crisis
When I had a reckoning, stopped working full time in marketing and public relations, and decided to stay home with my kids, I really had an identity crisis. Who was I without my job? Then I read the book New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and it changed my perspective.
- I started meditating
- Get a sense of being present
- Understand the difference between my thoughts and what was true
It has led me down this amazing path. I’m setting visions and really working on my subconscious mind. I now have control over it instead of it having control over me.
Why create a Vision Board
A vision board is a feel-good exercise. Anything that really feels good to your soul is a sign that it is something you should be doing more of. Setting a vision, putting words, images, and ideas down visually on a piece of paper or on a screen gives you a roadmap for where you want to go. It also gives your brain a filtering mechanism and guidelines on what you want it to focus on. It helps you prioritize, and it really sets the tone for the whole year. Ideally, you start the vision board in January, but any day is a good day to start!
What is the reticular activating system?
The reticular activating system sits on your brainstem and acts like a Google filter for your brain. It filters out the things that we think are important or not important. If your child yells mom in a crowded room, you can hear them, because it’s your brain filtering what it finds to be the most important work.
How does our brain decide what’s important and not important?
We have to tell it and that’s what the vision board does. It sets the tone for your brain:
- These are the things I’m focused on this year
- These are the things I am going to make happen this year
We are going to seek out ideas and experiences that prove these things to be true. The universe is waiting to give you everything you want, and you have to be in a vibrational energetic space to receive it.
The vision board is one of the best ways to do that.
Empowering vs. disempowering questions
For a vision board, we use empowering questions such as
- What good do I want to come into my world?
- What is waiting to be received?
- What good is going to happen to me today?
Instead of disempowering questions:
- Why does this always happen to me?
- Why are things always like this?
13 Questions for your Vision Board
In order to do the vision board, we need to answer some questions first that will reveal to us our wants, hopes, dreams, and desires. Once you’ve completed the exercise, look at the words you’ve written down and circle, highlight, and underline everything that really resonates with you. Those are your words to start with your inspiration!
- What are you grateful for?
- What do you want more of in your life?
- What is the challenge you want to overcome this year?
- What do you want to do more of this year?
- What do you want to do less of this year?
- What do you want to let go of? This might be a story you’re telling yourself. A job you don’t want, people that aren’t supporting your dreams.
- What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
- What is most important to you? Don’t overthink it.
- What is a dream you have? If there’s a dream in your heart, it’s there for a reason.
- If money wasn’t an issue, how would you spend your day?
- What are you working towards?
- What are you passionate about and want to spend more time doing?
- What does the world need more of?
Creating your Vision Board
There are two ways you can bring your vision board to life.
- Grab a bunch of magazines, tear out pages, find pictures that resonate with you and start a collage.
- Do it online via Canva. You can find images through Google, Pinterest, or unsplash.
The process of creating the vision board is the same, be it a paper or digital version. You copy the words that resonated with you from the 13 Questions and add images related to them.
Let me know if you have any questions and I would love to see some of your vision boards! You can find me on Instagram and on Facebook.
