Also known as a motivation board, vision boards can help clearly frame goals in a creative manner. They have risen in popularity in recent years thanks to celebrities like Oprah and Katy Perry and social media influencers who swear by them.
So, what is all the hype?
Along with weight loss vision board ideas and other concepts, learn the psychology behind them and how to forge the perfect one to grow and evolve a desired life.
What Is a Vision Board?
Vision boards are similar to inspirational collages and are basically physical or digital representations of goals. The process of creating one involves collecting images, objects, and/or words from magazines, photographs, and the internet that essentially portray the desired future.
Once collected, vision boarding consists of arranging items on a tangible surface like a poster, corkboard, or book. The board could also be created and live in a digital space like Canva, PowerPoint, or Illustrator. It then serves as an aesthetically pleasing reminder of the concrete visions.
People tout it as a powerful way to get to know yourself, what you want to achieve, and potential pathways to get there. Without clear direction and a constant reminder, it’s easy to become distracted with other fruitless pursuits or allow others to impose their opinions. Thus, vision boarding ensures one is manifesting the life they truly desire.
Psychology of a Vision Board
Supporters of vision boarding exclaim that aesthetic boards engage the subconscious mind and trigger the law of attraction quicker and easier. The law of attraction holds the idea that people attract a life they do or don’t desire based on intentional thoughts and actions. Thus, the process of creating a board tells the subconscious mind how to focus to achieve desires and goals.
Overall, vision boards essentially provide direction for the mind to make decisions that support reaching the coveted visions and form boundaries around behaviors that don’t align with the goals. They likewise help people align with their authentic goals and encourage them to take necessary action to accomplish the feats.
On the other hand, it’s reiterated that positive thinking, imagining, or daydreaming alone will not accomplish much. While it’s certainly helpful and fosters an optimistic environment, creating a desired reality undoubtedly requires taking deliberate action.
How to Create a Vision Board
To determine goals and desires that will eventually become reality, utilize the following vision board checklist.
1. Brain Dump
Consider important areas of life such as relationships, finances, health, hobbies, wellbeing, or careers and intentions. Specifics might include connecting with family members better, purchasing a new laundry machine, or eating more mindfully.
Feel free to be as broad or specific as desired and then circle the top priorities.
2. Define the Goals
After the brain dump, refine the ideas into tangible goals.
An example of a defined goal is, "I will run my first 5K run by the age 35." A broader goal is, "I want to start running."
3. Create Board Structure
This step is optional but tends to work well for those who do not consider themselves creative or artsy. It could look like:
• Dividing the board into sections and listing the aforementioned, abbreviated goals
• Visualizing the actual layout of the design
• Creating color schemes
• Writing out the type of item (picture, word, or object) to fill in the space.
This step helps provide a framework for the board and ensures the major goals and desires have room for inclusion.
4. Find Inspiration
Look for motivational quotes, images, or objects that represent and align with the identified goals. Commonly found in the home, lifestyle, health and wellness and nature magazines, inspiration can also be derived from the internet, individual photo albums, stickers, postcards, catalogs, and generally any arts and craft item!
Consider the colors, patterns, textures, vibe, and imagery that resonate with the intentional goals.
5. Gather Further Design Items
If making a physical vision board, gather the necessary items such as the tangible board of choice, scissors, glue sticks, tape, markers, pens, paint, fabric, stickers, leaves, flowers, gems, and sequins. The options are truly endless!
If making a digital vision board, simply decide the place of creation (Canva is a good FREE option). Also choose where to find images such as Google, Splash, Canva, photo albums on a computer, etc.
6. Build the Board
Finally, it is time for creation to commence! Bring the board to life by placing and pasting the design items onto the board.
Pay close attention to how the different items complement each other, embody similar or differing intentions and to the general vibe that the board emits. It certainly does not need to be perfectly designed and can look as polished or disheveled as desired.
7. Make the Board Visible
Many other vision boarding instructions end at the above step. However, it is vital to embody the vision board by placing it in a convenient spot that constantly reminds you to take actionable steps. Whether this means hanging it on the fridge, making it a phone background, placing it on the bedside table, or adorning it as a living room decoration, make sure the board is clearly and readily visible.
Along these lines, it can also be helpful to create a practice of intentionally utilizing the vision board via meditation, journaling, or simply looking at it for one minute on a daily basis.
8. Update As Needed
Goals, dreams, and desires constantly evolve and change. Thus, update the board as needed. Achieve this by pasting over a current board, creating a new board each month, year or five years, or rearranging items of importance on a digital board.
Vision Board Ideas 2021
For those who still want further direction or want to create a different one for multiple areas of life, consider these vision board ideas for 2021. But no matter the specific type of board, the process is similar.
1. Consider words and imagery that describe the specific area of life.
2. Think about the steps and pathways required to achieve goals in those specific areas.
3. Find images and/or objects that resemble the goals.
Some typical vision board ideas include:
• Weight loss
• Abundance
• Positivity and gratitude
• Financial
• Dream house
• Relationships
• Family
• Career
• Creative pursuit
• Nature connection
• Spirituality or religious vision board
• Travel vision board
• Inner peace vision board
• Olympic pursuit vision board
• Mastery vision board
The Takeaway of Vision Boarding
All-in-all, vision boards provide a creative and aesthetic blueprint for defining and manifesting goals, dreams, and desires. Their purpose is to inspire and provide direction to achieve these ambitions and intentions and they’re a powerful way to ignite the Law of Attraction.
Whereas physical boards used to be the norm and offer more creative outlets, digital ones are becoming more popular and are easier to update as goals and dreams evolve.
Finally, visualizing the board and actually creating it are productive manifestation techniques. Engaging with the vision boards regularly and taking intentional action to ensure and expedite truly manifest your unique dreams.
References:
Bartlett L. A Beginner's Guide to Creating Your Perfect Vision Board. Louise Bartlett. Published October 26, 2020. www.louisebartlett.com/new-blog/2018/2/1/a-beginners-guide-to-creating-the-perfect-vision-board.
Christianson M. Engage the Law of Attraction by Creating A Vision Board. Empowered Coaching, LLC. Published December 18, 2019. www.empoweredcoaching.com/bet-on-yourself-and-win-blog/2019/12/13/engage-the-law-of-attraction-by-creating-a-vision-board.
Regan S. How Vision Boards Work & How To Make A Powerful One For Yourself. Mindbodygreen. Updated January 11, 2021. www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/how-to-make-a-vision-board.
Van't Hul J. How to Make a Vision Board That Works in 10 Simple Steps. The Artful Parent. Published December 31, 2014. artfulparent.com/make-vision-board-works-10-steps/.
