For me, April has always been a time of beginnings. The ground is beginning to soften, the rain is coming down and it is the perfect time to plant seeds. To shed skin. To clean out the corners of my life both physically and metaphorically. I go through my closets and drawers and let go of what has had its time. I reevaluate relationships in my life. I add something new to my work out routines and meditation time. I make my plans for the summer. I start dreaming of what I would really like to manifest in my life. And I create a vision board. A vision board is a powerful tool for creation in your life and if you have never had the pleasure of creating one, I can guarantee once you do and you see its amazing results you will be making them for many a season to come.
The Vision board is exactly what the name implies. It is, simply put, a board that contains your visions. Constructed from images from magazines, books and your own personal photos glued onto thick poster board and then displayed prominently in your life for inspiration as well as a way to “lock in” your intentions, wants and desires for the future. I know many of you may be rolling your eyes at this point thinking.. what is this new age mumbo jumbo.. but I am here to shout from the rooftops that the vision board WORKS and it always send chills up my spine when I look through my vision board from past seasons and see I have manifested literally every image on there. There is a scientific reason for this that author Tristan Loo so eloquently explains:
What exactly is the law of attraction? The law of attraction states that we attract into our lives anything that we give attention to, regardless whether it be positive or negative. From a psychological view, the law of attraction can be best explained by the information filtering system of the brain known as the reticular activating system (RAS). Vision boards serve the role of programming the RAS to tune into external stimuli that can help us move closer towards our intentions.
At the base of the human brain stem, in between the medulla oblongata and the mesencephalon, there is a small finger-sized control center called the reticular activating system (RAS) that sorts and evaluates incoming data.[3] Your RAS is responsible for filtering all the incoming information that your brain receives and it also acts as receiver for information that is tagged as important.
According to Hans Morvec, the principal research scientist at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, the human brain can handle up to 100 trillion bits of information at any given time.[4] With all that information coming in, how does your RAS know what to filter? Your RAS is naturally programmed to prioritize information that is necessary for survival, like listening for a the particular sound of an oncoming vehicle when walking close to a street. The RAS can’t distinguish between a real event and a contrived reality, however, and we can exploit this weakness to program it to seek out stimuli in our environment that resonate with our goals. The process of creating a vision board is one of the best ways to program the RAS. It programs the RAS to pay attention to certain things in your environment that are in frequency with your goal or vision, in much the same way as you are able to pick up your name being mentioned in a conversation on the other side of a room while talking to others. This selective attention filter makes you aware of daily things that can help you achieve your goal and it’s your job to take action on those opportunities when they present themselves.
So how does on begin this process of creating the Vision Board ? It’s as easy as going to your local arts and crafts store, picking up some white stick glue, thick poster board and sitting down with your stack of magazine and gettin’ busy !! Choose images that resonate with you on an emotional level.. thoughts propelled by emotion are the most powerful because they have energy behind them and will be sure to stir things up..what do you envision for your self..what does it look like, smell like, taste like, feel like..engage all of your senses..
There is also a great book out there called The Vision Board: The Secret to an Extraordinary Life by Joyce Shwarz that leads you through the entire process. Joyce has done amazing things for work with the vision board and she even teaches workshops on the process to high level executives in big corporations. She also does private groups so if you want to organize a group in your area you can have Joyce all to yourselves. Click here for more info.
So what are you waiting for ? Get busy with that Vision Board !! You’ll be glad you did !! and so will I as I write this blog from my villa in the South of France… ahhh, now THAT is a vision…
Happy Vision Boarding !!