Something I find helpful when visioning is to create a vision board. Every year, I make a vision board of my intentions for that year. We sometimes make this a family activity and everyone makes their own. I have discovered that when we make one for the family, it's not as powerful. When it's a joint vision it gives your brain permission to say it's not really your vision. It is not only a great family activity, but it truly primes the subconscious mind to attract that vision. The reason vision boards are so powerful (and affirmations for that matter) is related to the way our brains are wired.
My vision board for our homeschool
We each have a loose network of neurons in our brains called the reticular activating system (RAS). The RAS alters information so your senses do not become overloaded and helps bring relevant information to your attention. For example, you might be driving on the highway and pass several speed limit signs but not notice any of them at all. When you pass a police officer and want to make sure you are driving the speed limit, you start to notice them every mile. This is your RAS at work. Advertisers keenly play to this system in their marketing. So, what if you created the perfect advertisement for the life you want and consciously programmed your mind through your RAS to help attract it? That is exactly what a vision board is, an advertisement for your ideal life!
Tyler's first vision board (age 7)
Creating a vision board is simple, even a kid can do it. All you have to do is gather up some magazines, cut out the images that speak to your heart and paste them onto your board. If you lack clarity of vision, it can be fun to let the universe select your images for you. Clear your mind with a meditation then let a page number come to mind. Turn to that page and cut out whatever speaks to you to include on your board. It’s okay to include material things on a vision board, but I’d advise you to let this be more about who you want to become and the experiences you want to have than what you want to own. The things we own can sometimes start to own us, and you can’t take them with you in the end anyway. Try to tap into the emotions or the symbolism behind the images more than the literal interpretation of them. In Tyler's vision board, he had a lot of "stuff" he wanted. For example, I asked him about the M & M's. He said it was all the candy he wanted to get for Halloween (a very age appropriate answer). I encouraged him to "reframe" the candy to be a quality he'd like to posses such as abundance or sweetness/ kindness. I also asked him about the piggy bank and he said he wanted to be rich, so I asked him what he'd do with that money? I invited him to think about all the problems he could solve with that money to get him to think about what kind of contribution he wants to make in the world.
I'd like to tell you a story of how I manifested our dream house using a visioning process. In 2011, Mike and I decided it was time to move from our small townhouse to a bigger house with a yard for the dogs and more rooms so we could expand our family. Our townhouse sold in 2 weeks, so we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment while we searched for our dream house. Four months later we were still living in that apartment and growing frustrated with the search. My coach, Jenai Lane of Spirit Coach Training, encouraged me to draw our dream house "from Spirit." She invited me to tap into the feelings the house would bring me and had me "see" some symbols that would represent the qualities of the home. In my mind's eye, I saw a 3-tiered fountain, so when I drew my house, I added that feature.
Mike and I decided we needed a break from our search, so we went to visit some friends in Colorado. While we were there, I decided to jump online to see if there were any new listings. To my surprise, the first house I looked at had a picture of a 3-tiered fountain! I called Mike in to look at the house and he liked it too. We immediately called our realtor and asked him to go look at it for us. Later that day, he confirmed that this may be the house we were looking for. We asked him to put in an offer for us (sight unseen) because we knew the house would not last (the house was priced under market value). The seller accepted our offer and we were officially homeowners!
Our first stop when we returned from CO was "the new house." As soon as we walked in the front door, I felt at home and I knew we had made a good decision. We moved in March 2012 and as we were unpacking, I came across a vision board from 2011. To my amazement, in the top right-hand corner was a 3-tiered fountain. Somewhere in my subconscious, I had been storing that image and the qualities of peace that attracted me to that photo in the first place. It just took a purposeful visioning process to bring that image back into my conscious mind to help me find the perfect house for our family. The only thing the house didn't have was a fence for the dogs (which was pretty easy to add) and a great entertaining space. We ended up moving the fountain outside to the garden and renovated that (pretty much useless) room to create a welcoming space to entertain family and friends.
I'm grateful for the power of my subconscious mind and the way vision boards have helped me harness that power to create the life of my dreams. I'm grateful for my coach Jenai and the guidance she has given me over the years. I'm grateful for our home and the many memories we have created there. I'm grateful for you and would love to hear your experiences with vision boards. Please visit us in our Facebook Community to join the conversation.
In Gratitude,
Lindsay