Why Vision Boards Work Wonders And How To Create Yours

If you think vision boards are bogus, the joke’s on you. A vision board is a visualization tool that contains a collage of words and images that represent your goals and dreams.

Creating a sacred space that displays what you want actually does bring it to life. What we focus on expands. When you create a vision board and place it in a space where you see it often, you essentially end up doing short visualization exercises throughout the day.

Visualization is one of the most powerful mind exercises you can do. According to the popular book The Secret, “The law of attraction is forming your entire life experience and it is doing that through your thoughts. When you are visualizing, you are emitting a powerful frequency out into the Universe.”

Whether you believe that or not, we know that visualization works. Olympic athletes have been using it for decades to improve performance, and Psychology Today reported that the brain patterns activated when a weightlifter lifts heavy weights are also similarly activated when the lifter just imagined (visualized) lifting weights.

How to Create a Vision Board that Depicts the Future You Wish to Create

Find pictures that represent or symbolize the experiences, feelings, and possessions you want to attract into your life, and place them in your board. Have fun with the process! Use photographs, magazine cutouts, pictures from the Internet–whatever inspires you. Be creative. Include not only pictures, but anything that speaks to you.

Consider including a picture of yourself on your board. If you do, choose one that was taken in a happy moment. You will also want to post your affirmations, inspirational words, quotations, and thoughts here. Choose words and images that inspire you and make you feel good.

6-Step Process for Making Empowering Dream Boards:

1) Create a list of goals you’d like to achieve in the next year

In order to visualize your goals, first you need to know what they are. Spend some time getting clear on exactly what you want your ideal life to look like, and what you need to accomplish in the next 12 months to launch you closer to your goals.

2) Collect a bundle of old magazines with beautiful pictures

If you’re not a magazine reader or currently don’t have any magazines at home, ask your friends to give you any they no longer want. You should also be able to pick some up for just a dollar or two per magazine at your local thrift store. Or you could check out your local recycling depot. Ours has a “free stuff” corner where you can pick up all the magazines you could ever want at zero cost. Maybe yours does, too?

3) Find pictures that represent your goals and inspire you

Schedule a couple hours one evening or weekend to go through the magazines and cut out pictures that represent your goals and speak to your heart in some meaningful way.  Fun tip: The last time my staff and I made vision boards at my office, we turned up the radio and had a little musical party going on as we cut out our images, which made it a very vibrant, fun setting to visualize our goals!

When looking for images in the magazines, look for those that immediately make you say, “Yes! That is what I want in my life!” They don’t have to be physical objects or literal interpretations of what you want in your life. Instead, focus on how the images make you FEEL.

For example, if you’d like to move to a home with waterfront property, don’t worry if you can’t find a picture of your perfect “dream home.” Perhaps a picture of an idyllic ocean sunset will be enough to inspire you. Or if you’d like to attract a new romantic partner into your life, instead of hunting for a picture of a man or woman who meets your physical ideal, find a picture that represents love to you – an image of two people holding hands, or even a picture of a heart, for example.

4) Make a collage out of your photos

Once you have collected enough photos, it’s time to make your vision board! Go to your local craft or dollar store and buy a large piece of construction or poster paper. A corkboard or large piece of paper would work as well. Then glue, tack, or tape your pictures to the paper or corkboard in an arrangement that is visually pleasing to you.

5) Add motivational “affirmation words” that represent how you want to FEEL

Your vision of your ideal life shouldn’t be focused on “stuff” so much as on how you want to FEEL. For this reason, I like to add words to my vision board that describe how I want to feel on a daily basis – such as: “joyful,” “abundant,” “powerful,” “fearless,” “loved,” “strong,” “healthy,” “loving,” and “financially free.”

Take some time to create a list of words that describe how YOU want to feel. You can either search for these words in your magazines or write them yourself. Then add them to your vision board in a visually attractive way.

6) Take a few moments to contemplate your vision board every day

To get the full benefit from your vision board, it’s important for you to place it somewhere you can see it every day. I recommend you take a few minutes to look over your vision board at least once or twice a day. I like to review my vision board right before I do a guided visualization, so my goals are top of mind as I train my mind to attract what I truly want into my life. I also like to review it every night before I go to sleep, in order to prompt my sub-conscious mind to come up with new ideas while I’m sleeping on how to achieve my goals. That way, I wake up in the morning bursting with motivation to succeed – and am far more likely to notice and act on opportunities that will bring me closer to my goals.

How to Use Your Dream Board

Try keeping your vision board on the nightstand next to your bed. Leave it standing in an open position as often as you are comfortable with, and spend time each morning and evening visualizing, affirming, believing, and internalizing your goals.

The time you spend visualizing in the evening just before bed is especially powerful. The thoughts and images that are present in your mind during the last forty-five minutes before going to sleep are the ones that will replay themselves repeatedly in your subconscious mind through¬out the night, and the thoughts and images that you begin each day with will help you to create a vibrational match for the future you desire.

It’s a good idea to create a new inspiration board each year.  As you continue to grow, evolve and expand, your dreams will too. Your vision board is meant to be kept and cherished. They chronicle not only your dreams, but your growth and achievements.

Final thoughts on using your completed vision board:

• Look at your dream board often and feel the inspiration it provides.
• Hold it in your hands and really internalize the future it represents.
• Read your affirmations and inspirational words aloud.
• See yourself living in that manner.
• Feel yourself in the future you have designed.
• Believe it is already yours.
• Be grateful for the good that is already present in your life.
• Acknowledge any goals you have already achieved.
• Acknowledge the changes you have seen and felt.
• Acknowledge the presence of God in your life.
• Acknowledge the Law of Attraction at work in your life.
• Look at it just before going to bed and first thing upon rising.

What do you think? Will you create a vision board if you don’t have one already? I hope the answer is yes.

Video Courtesy: Jack Canfield