The power of vision boards to create an intentional life and how to make one!

What is a vision board?

In short, a vision board is a collage that you make with images of things you either want to feel, do, be or create in your life. The images represent what you want to become and create for yourself. It’s not a to do list, it’s more like a visual representation of what you want to manifest in your life. It resembles a mood board since aesthetics play an important part evoking a certain mood and feelings.

You don’t just want to focus on what you want to do, you want to focus on how you want to feel as well.

When to make a vision board?

You can make it once and add tweaks here and there with the passing of each year, or you can make a new one at the beginning of the year. I prefer to make one at the beginning of the year because we evolve and our wants, needs and priorities change throughout the years. Allowing yourself to change your mind and shift accordingly is an important skill that will help you to create the life you truly want in all phases of your life. You don’t necessarily need to start in January, you could start anytime or on your birthday to mark a new chapter in your life.

Creating clarity

Of course you don’t start by simply looking up cute pictures and assemble them into a collage. First, you gather your thoughts about what it is that you want and don’t want for the upcoming year. Reflect on last year, what were the things that you did that you no longer wish to do this year. Was it people pleasing? Was it refusing to listen to your body? I’m guessing you don’t want more of that for this year, right? Flip that around, maybe you want to focus more on your own life instead of on the lives of others, carve in more time for rest and relaxation, etc.

An intentional life

We rarely ever think deeply about what it is that we want for our lives. Most of us did not grow up in a society that encourages us to do so. However, if we want to create intentional lives for ourselves, lives we actually want to live, then reflecting about it, is an intricate part of it. It might even feel a bit uneasy and resistance might come up. Whatever comes up for you, allow it to be there, hold space for yourself and let it move through you.

Are you ready?

Okay here we go!

Make it cozy first!

Get yourself the cutest notebook or journal you can find or download the free printables I made for you, take your favorite pen, grab a delicious warm tea or coffee, you’ll need chocolate too of course, light a candle, have some friendly atmospheric French music playing in the background and get writing.

The writing phase

Title each page with the following:

• More

• Less

• Do

• Feel

More!

On the ‘more’ page, write down everything you want more of in your life. Everything counts, the more detailed, the better. More self-dates? Flowers? Dancing? Whatever warms your heart, gives you energy or piques your interest.

Less!

On the ‘less’ page, write down everything that you want less of in your life. Things that take up so much time and energy and that are depleting. I know that there are responsibilities that you can’t completely erase from your life but be honest with yourself. What are some of the things that you tricked yourself into believing that you have to do or have to keep?

Do!

On the ‘do’ page, write down all the things you want to do. Don’t judge yourself or worry about what others might think. This is about you and no one else. Maybe you want to rent a beach house for a weekend? Make coq au vin for the very first time? Watch all Nancy Meyers’ and Nora Ephrons movies? Grow a garden? Write a book? Buy your very first pair of Sézane shoes? Go see an art exhibition? Whatever it is, write it down. The ‘more’ page and the ‘do’ page might overlap a bit but that’s okay, don’t worry too much about it.

Feel!

On the ‘feel’ page, write down the way you want to feel this year. I know, I know, life happens, hormones fluctuate, we get tired… But overall, what do you want this year to feel like? Calm? Joyous? Enriching? Inspiring etc.

If you struggle with this page a bit more, don’t worry! Simply think of the things you wrote down on the ‘more’ and ‘do’ page and describe what kind of emotions those things evoke.

For instance, a warm luxurious bubble bath surrounded by candles, flowers and soft music playing in the background, gives me a deep sense of calm, joy and gratitude. If it’s followed by good quality skin care then it makes me feel comfort and more confident about my health and appearance.

The fun phase

Once you have finished the writing phase, you can start with making your vision board. You can either choose to make a digital one with Canva, like I did, or you could collect magazines and cut out images you want to add to your vision board. The latter is more time consuming but could be a fun thing to do with your girlfriends, with your children, pups or by yourself.

When using Canva, you could look up templates for vision boards and then simply change the images and/or colors and fonts to your own liking. It’s an amazing website that allows you to make the most beautiful things. For my board, I used images from Canva and from Pinterest.

Make it visible!

Once you have finished your board, print it out and frame it so you can put it in a place that captures your attention every day. And that’s it!

Will you let me know how it goes?

Good luck and have some fun!

Love,

Wendy