Halfway into 2013 and I’m starting to think that the resolutions I made for myself aren’t really sticking. Along with those there are other things in my life that I am eager to accomplish–. I know I won’t be able to cross them all off my list this year, but if I can at least start the building blocks of achieving them, I’m hoping that they will snowball into what I want in life.

Vision Board:  A collage of images and words that represent your dreams and desires–the things that you want to attract to your life. Also known as a “dream board” or “treasure map”.

I’ve heard about vision boards before, but it isn’t until recently that I actually researched the theory behind them as a manifestation power tool. The basic idea behind a vision board is that if you surround yourself with images and pictures of things that you want to achieve for yourself, your mode of thinking will change by the new focus, and the universe will let things come into your life more easiely. This is the base thinking behind the law of attraction–you attract to your life whatever thoughts you put out, whether positive or negative.

I’ve browsed through The Secret back when the book came out in 2006 (thanks to Oprah), but didn’t fully put the law of attraction into practice (it’s hard to think positive sometimes). Recently, after hearing more about clarity, clearing and how to manifest your soulmate from author/speaker Arielle Ford, I decided to expand my “wish list” to beyond a romantic relationships and use a vision board as a catalyst for my dreams and desires.

Are you interested in creating your own vision board? Here’s what you need:

• Bristol board/Poster board
• Magazines
• Scissors
• Glue
• Markers (optional)

1. Before you even start gluing words and images on your sheet, you have to really think about what you want in your life. It may be helpful if you decide on a particular theme (e.g. health, romance, career).
2. Browse through the magazines (I was lucky enough to get a variety of recent ones from work), and cut out anything that strikes you. Think about things you’d like to do, places you’d like to go, people you want to be with, and also material things you desire. You want to cut out images that represent things you want to manifest in your life (e.g. a photo of happy couple, a fit body, healthy food, a car, a home, etc.), and words that inspire you (such as “success”, “happiness” , “beautiful” or “love”). You can even choose to print out images from the Internet.
3. Once you have a good stack of images/words/phrases cut out, lay them out on your poster board in a way that makes sense to you. If you have more than one theme, you can have a different part of your board dedicated to each one. You can even choose to have a nice photo of yourself smack dab in the center to personalize it a bit more.
4. When everything is organized you can start to glue your cutouts to the board. If you want use colourful markers (or even paint) to add some more depth to your vision board by writing personal affirmations.
5. Make sure you mount your vision board in a place you’ll see it daily (e.g. beside your bed so that you’ll see it every morning). Focus on the objects on your board when you see them so that you’ll be able to manifest these desires into your life. To shy to have it displayed in the open? Perhaps having a smaller version of your vision board that can fit in a 3-ring binder would work better for you (and you can tuck it away when necessary).

Some of the items I’m using to create my vision board (foam board used as backing).

It’s important to remember that what you want might change over the course of time. In that case, you’ll be able to create a new vision board for yourself. Handy with a computer? Well, you can even try your hand at digital vision boarding by cutting and pasting images from the web into a program like Photoshop.

So will this vision board I’m eagerly working on help me turn my dreams into reality? There’s only one way to find out. I sure did have a lot of fun browsing through old magazines and cutting out words and images… felt like my old elementary school art class!

Have you made a vision board in the past? Any successes? When it comes down to it it doesn’t hurt to create something tangible to help inspire you with your goals.