Creating A Vision Board

If you are up for a challenge or feeling a little bored or stuck in your life, you may want to try making a vision board for your life. It only requires a piece of poster board or art paper and some markers. This is a fun tool for getting you thinking creatively again about your life, your activities, and keeping yourself challenged and growing.

I had heard of this idea years ago, but only in the past few months as a friend shared that pretty much everything she had put on her vision board a year ago has actually manifested, did I get in gear and make one up for myself. It's a fun project that can be added to over several weeks, and may cause you to think more in daily life about what you really want to create in your life now. It's powerful, and motivating.

If it's an inside job for each person to develop themselves, become multi-dimensional, and keep yourself thriving and interesting, then we need ways to visualize the life we want. Too often, people drift through daily life, and don't set personal goals for how they wish to develop themselves over the next year.

Having a blank piece of art board and hanging it somewhere prominent in your bedroom, bathroom, or front of your closet where you will see it each day is a great way to keep yourself on track and motivated. How will your actions today help you step further toward your goals?

You don't have to draw well to do this project. There are no grades! It's just for your own use. Several of my patients have also added pictures from magazines.

Think about the fact that we all live in a box. We can grow personally by taking steps out of our comfort zone in many different directions. It will make you feel more alive, inspired and energized!

Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

Where would you most like to travel to this next year? Why don't you start to research, budget, and plan it? If not now, when?

Would you like to learn a new sport or skill? Take a class to learn something you haven't ever had time to study? Find out where you can start. Learning something new makes you really feel that you are pushing your edges.

What positive change would you like to see in your body or physical health? (Put it on the vision board like it as already happened. seeing your goal daily in this area may help encourage you to take positive steps today towards your goal for your physical health.)

Do you have a relationship goal? Would you like to make your marriage more fun or closer? Add a few more friends? Start dating? Become a better parent? Develop your patience or ability to communicate well about difficult things? Become more assertive? A good therapist can get you headed in the right direction in any of these relational areas in a couple of sessions, and give you suggestions of ways to move ahead in your personal life.

What is your work goal? Would you like to develop your work skills further, or get additional skills? If you are not excited about work, consider meeting with a career counselor about getting vocational testing. Finding a new option for your work might help you find your passion again. Recent studies show that as we live longer, most of us will have several different careers in our lifetime.
Here are some other ideas for your vision board:

Would you like to set a goal for monthly savings? Pay off your car early? Get rid of debt so you feel lighter?

Develop yourself more by volunteering for a cause you care about?

Identify ways to be more connected to your faith or spirituality?

Perhaps you'd like to improve your living environment? Get rid of the old couch you hate, and find something you love? Redo the backyard? Create a serene office space for yourself at home?

Have you always wanted to get over your fear of public speaking?

Have you always wanted to drive a race car, join a book group, or learn to surf?

Have you always wanted to go back and finish your degree? Why not now?

Would you like to add more color to your wardrobe?

Let yourself have some fun with your vision board. It's an enjoyable and creative way to bring your hidden or repressed dreams and desires into your conscious awareness and help them be realized. You're worth it! This is the only life we know for certain that you get, so get the most out of it and live boldly. It will make you a more developed, vital, and interesting person and partner. A vision board may be a secret weapon for taking back your passion from the repetitiveness of daily life.

Creating A Conscious Holiday Season

If Halloween stores have popped up all over, then the rest of the holidays can't be far behind! Time to begin rethinking Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years. Check your gut reaction to thinking about the holidays approaching. Do you feel dread? Overwhelmed? Tired? Time for a proactive first strike.

Time to think outside of the box about the holidays. Make a list of all the things you normally do to prepare or celebrate a holiday. Next, mark off things that you do out of tradition, or routine, but don't enjoy doing. Poll the members of your family about who really cares about what, and what each person really finds meaningful or enjoyable. Think creatively about what will work for your family NOW. For this reason, sending holiday cards has fallen off many people's list of holiday to do's, but going to church together or decorating the tree may be really important. Lots of holiday baking may not make sense when we are all watching our cholesterol, but watching "It's a wonderful life" as a family, or bundling up to see the December Newport Beach boat parade may really get you in the spirit.

Spreading tasks out, starting with the things that can be done earlier, can help reduce the stress. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Get everyone involved. If you lower your standards enough, your children can help with gift wrapping.(Just buy lots of tape!)I personally love Christmas trees that have been decorated by the children of the house. You can tell because all the ornaments are at their height or lower! Children and teens can feel proud of baking a favorite family dessert for the holiday, with a little help from you. Hold a family meeting with you, your partner, and the rest of the family, to see who can help with what tasks. This will help everyone sharing the joy of bringing the holidays home, rather than being something else mom organizes late at night instead of sleeping. Each person will enjoy it more if they invest in creating the holiday.

Don't be a perfectionist about the holiday season. You being relaxed and in a good mood is probably the most important thing. Rumor has it Martha Stewart has help, anyway. When there have been big changes in the family this year, and you are now a single parent, or newly divorced, or the family is coping with a seriously ill family member, it is time to rethink what makes sense in your changing situation. Consider a gathering where eveyone brings a dish to share, or you bring food in, or meet out someplace fun for a festive meal instead of a big ordeal. Don't hog all the 'fun' for yourself!

Now is the time to begin the conversation with the people closest to you about the upcoming holiday season. Empower yourself to think creatively. Imagine YOU enjoying the holidays, feeling relaxed, not overspending or overdoing. This could be fun. You are the choreographer of your best holiday season possible. Think consciously about your holidays, and pass it on! Don't be a holiday victim; speak up and shape the holiday you are needing this year.You can be a holday role model for others! 'Tis the season to engage your options and create some new traditions. I'm thinking pizza is red and green!