Vision Boards - A Great Way to Nurture Your Creativity and Have Fun with Scissors and Glue
Back in the real world after a wonderful weekend away with my writing buddies from The Writers' Dozen. We spent hours talking about the ups and downs of writing, the opportunities offered by self publishing and e-publishing, brainstorming plots and titles and setting our goals for 2012. If you have a writing group or a few writing companions and haven't been away for your own mini-retreat yet, start planning now!
One of the "activities" we did was making individual vision boards. A vision board is a collage of images and words (optional) that expresses your innermost wants, needs and desires. It's a manifestation of your deepest aspirations, a way of visualising what it is you really want from life. It's not about wishing you were rich or drop-dead gorgeous or married to George Clooney (although any of those things might appear on your board!) but more about uncovering the direction you want your life to take and the people, places, events and things that will help bring that about. According to Martha Beck, to really work, a vision board has to come not from your culture but from your primordial, nonsocial self—the genetically unique animal/angel that contains your innate preferences. (Read more: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/How-to-Make-a-Vision-Board-Find-Your-Life-Ambition-Martha-Beck/2#ixzz1kuOwyVfx)
Besides ending up with a collection of gorgeous images the process is fun and playful - as creative pursuits should be. And creating your vision board while chatting with like-minded friends and sipping a glass of wine is a true delight.There's three other things you need to know about vision boards:
- Your desires won't come to fruition on their own. The universe will more than likely not wave some magical wand to make all your dreams come true. The key is to follow up with action. If you want to have your book published work hard at writing, stay open to all possibilities, network. Be determined. You've expressed your desire to the universe through your images now get to work.
- Once your board is complete put it away or hang it somewhere out of your direct line of vision and try to avoid studying it at regular intervals. Sitting in front of it and hoping won't make anything happen but discipline and positivity will.
- Your vision board is yours and nobody else's. Don't feel compelled to conform with the images others are cutting and pasting and don't judge or censor. This is an exercise in following your intuition without judgement. If something grabs your attention even if you don't know why, don't question it, just cut. The same goes for the arranging of the images and phrases on your board - go with whatever order, or lack of order, seems right for you.
My vision board revealed a need to reconnect with nature and the spiritual along with creating success, inspiring and being inspired. There was also a curious repetition of gate imagery, the meaning of which I'll have to wait to discover.After I've done the leg work.Have you done a vision board? Would love to hear your thoughts on the process.