Creating a vision board is a fun, inspiring and easy practice that can help you identify what you'd like to move toward and what your soul craves most, and the board itself can serve as a daily reminder of these intentions and powerful tool in manifesting. Here, I share how to make one at home and the benefits of doing so!
I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions, likely as they are to produce more pressure and guilt and, as studies show, typically fail. But a practice I DO love annually is creating a vision board: a gentle, inspiring, creative way to identify what we'd like to move toward
Vision boards are free-form collages typically made from magazine scraps. Before making one, we may have some ideas of what kind of elements or even specific words we might want to include, but the process becomes more intuitive and soul-led as we get underway, leafing mindfully through pages and seeing what pings.
Maybe a word like "ease," "freedom" or "joy" sparkles. Or a certain phrase resonates deeply. Maybe an image perfectly conveys a feeling we'd like to cultivate more, or an experience we'd like to have.
I'm always surprised at what I think will be on my vision board before the process and what comprises the finished product. For example, two years ago the words and phrases that kept speaking to me were all about community and gathering after the isolating years of the pandemic. I thought similar themes would arise last year, but my final board (pictured above) was so quiet and personal, and focused on continued healing and self-care. This felt like a message my soul really needed my conscious brain to hear.
I've both made my own boards annually for several years now and offered workshops, and not only do I find the process incredibly powerful myself; it's one of my students' favorite offerings as well and one they often ask about months in advance.
So if you're interested in exploring, below I share the benefits of vision boarding and how to make your own at home!
BENEFITS OF CREATING A VISION BOARD:
Helps you identify what you'd like to call into your life
Engages mind, body and spirit and helps them synergize
Reminds us we don't need to be "good at art" to create something with our hands—there's no right or wrong, good or bad here!
Allows our soul to share messages our conscious brain may not be picking up on
If placed somewhere prominent like next to your desk or bathroom mirror or screenshot onto your computer desktop, re-roots you daily in your intentions and the bigger picture beyond our busy daily grind
Serves as a powerful manifestation tool; the first step to calling something into your life is creating space and time for yourself to really see and feel it and "what if"!
HOW TO MAKE A VISION BOARD:
Grab a selection of old magazines, ideally that you know will light you up. I recommend 3 or 4 well-aligned magazines (more means more options). I personally love travel and yoga magazines, and Oprah's magazine is another great one for inspiring words and images, but follow your leanings and what you have on-hand, and know that you can find gems even in random magazines. If you don't have any magazines, they're pricey these days so you might ask friends and family, or neighbors on your local Buy Nothing board or neighborhood list serv. Your doctor's, dentist's and hair stylist's offices may also be willing to give you old copies they no longer need.
Grab a piece of poster board, a glue stick and some scissors, and make sure you have a good space where you can spread out and work for an hour or two. I like 11 x 14" size poster board best as it's big enough for decent-sized magazine images but not overwhelming. My workshop participants and I work at tables, or spread out on the floor while sitting on comfy cushions. You'll definitely want some room. Folks finish their boards in anywhere from an hour to two hours.
Pause for a moment and consider how you'd like to feel, and what you'd like to cultivate and call into your life. This could mean just reflecting for a few moments, journaling, or even meditating. What matters most to you right now? What do you need more of? Where would you like go, metaphorically or geographically? New things you'd like to try, or old favorites you're craving reconnection with? Areas of your life you'd like to lean into more?
Start leafing through your first magazine and rip or cut out anything that speaks to you. Just because you tear it out doesn't mean you have to use it, so try not to overthink this part. If it speaks to you, snag it! And as a recovering perfectionist, I used to cut everything with neat edges, but had a phenomenal collage teacher who taught me just how liberating it can be to rip collage materials and let the edges be more raw and organic. So you might play around with this and see how each technique feels, mix and match, or just go with your gut.
Get creative, and supplement with your own materials! If there's an image that HAS to be on your vision board (for instance, I almost always include a family photo), you can print them out on your own. Remember if you can't find the specific word you're looking for, you can build it out of its component letters, "ransom-note" style. Some of my workshop participants enjoy hand-writing song lyrics, poems, mantras or other meaningful messages. Some add scraps of colorful tissue paper or paint in empty spaces to add brightness. Some use a layer of glitter glue atop the finished product to give things a sparkly sheen. There's no limit to how creative you can get.
I like to place all my scraps on the page and glue everything at the end, but you may prefer to work differently! I like to lay out all my pieces before gluing so I can swap out and shift things around in the process. But work in the way that feels most natural to you! If you find a perfect centerpiece image right away, maybe you glue it then. Or glue one section at a time. Again, there's no wrong way to work! Trust your gut here.
Spend a few minutes reflecting on your final board. If you've created alongside a friend or family member, you can each share about your own board and what stands out to you. If you're alone, you might look at it slowly and reflect on or journal about what came up, if anything surprised you, themes coming through, and so on. When I lead vision board workshops, we always leave time for a group sharing, and participants find it to be one of the best parts of the process: a time for integration when the vision and messages really sink in and start to gel.
Ideally, place your board someplace you'll see it daily so it can keep working its subtle magic! Mine lives on or next to my desk. Some of my colleagues like to screenshot theirs and set them as their computer desktop wallpaper. Maybe for you it's next to your bed or bathroom mirror. The beauty of seeing it frequently is that it will continually re-root you in your intentions and the bigger picture. Giving ourselves space and time to actually see and feel the things we want to manifest helps us move closer to them.
If you try making a vision board at home, I hope you enjoy the practice as much as I do, and I'd love to hear how it goes! Feel free to share your feedback in the comments form below, or DM me on Instagram.
IN THE DC AREA AND INTERESTED IN EXPLORING THIS PRACTICE IN COMMUNITY?
Join me Saturday, January 11, 2:30-4:30 p.m. EST at Mind the Mat Del Ray (just a couple spots left!), or Saturday, January 18, 12:30-2:30 p.m. EST at Bhakti Yoga DC for New Year's Vision Boarding & Visualization!
Or check out my collaboration with mental health therapist Miriam Turner, Re-Rooting in Self, an afternoon to pause and re-align with our core values (including making mini vision boards!) on Sunday, January 26, 1-3 p.m. EST at Be Hive Wellness in Tysons.