“The starting point of all achievement is desire.”
Napoleon Hill
The average person may be exposed to over 5000 ads in one day. It is everywhere – clothes, labels, packages, phones, news sites, social media, email, T.V., music, billboards, websites, buses, trains, planes, cars, subway, games, sports and events. It is difficult to escape. Each piece of media imprints itself in your subconscious mind in some way shape or form. This is not always a bad thing, it just is, in our society. And since this is so, I have decided to use it to my advantage. How? By creating a vision board around the things I want to manifest in my life.
According to Wikipedia: A vision board or dream board is a collage of images, pictures, and affirmations of one’s dreams and desires, designed to serve as a source of inspiration and motivation, and to use the law of attraction to attain goals.
I have been using vision boards for as long as I can remember. My first one came in the form of the Sears “Wish Book”. The Wish Book was an annual catalogue that Sears printed from 1933 until 2011 and one final one in 2017. It contained pictures of toys and other holiday related merchandise. When I was growing up, the Wish Book would arrive in August or September and there was usually a fight in the house to see who would get it first. I would spend hours going through the catalog circling what I wished for. Amazingly enough, I always seemed to get my number one wish. I had forgotten about the wish book.
Until about ten years ago, I rediscovered the art of using pictures to create Vision Boards in order to manifest my desires. And ever since, I have been using them to my advantage. Something on my journey of self-awareness led me to reading about the Law of Attraction and how our subconscious mind can work in creating all we want in life. Intrigued by this law, I started a dream book and cut out pictures of things I wanted to manifest. Then I moved to making a large Vision Board in my home office and started a daily practice of looking at my board. Sometimes my desires happened so quickly that I needed to change the pictures often. I realized that there was something about using a vision board on a daily basis that worked. As a result, I would like to share with you the three components of the Vision Board that will help manifest your desires: Ask Believe & Receive.
Ask
I start by taking an inventory of where I am in each area of my life and where I want to go. I structure my Vision Board around eight areas: health, mind, family, friends, finances, career, adventure/lifestyle and legacy. I get very clear of where I want to go in each area. I have a vision and then I set specific goals. I make sure my goals are measurable, specific and time bound. And then through my vision board, I dream about getting there. Sometimes when I am not sure of where I want to go, I go back to my inventory or I write a list of 50 things I want to do, be and have in each area of life. And then I get to work cutting out pictures of my desires. I have a very large Vison Board in my home office with a picture of myself in the middle and the other eight areas all around me.
In the area of health my goal was to lose 20 pounds by a specific date. After setting my goal, I wrote an affirmation to go along with my goal, for example, “I am fit and great at 138 (choose whatever number you want, but end in 8 because it rhymes with great). I use short jingles for all my affirmations so that I can easily remember them and say them often thoughout the day. I use action words and write them in the present tense.
Then, I get to work and cut out pictures and place them on the board to match the goal. For my health vision, I have pictures of healthy foods, glasses of water and gym equipment and a woman with a slim body. Every morning when I read my affirmation, I look at the picture on the board. I also bring other senses into the picture. I visualize what my healthy body looks and feels like. I see myself eating healthy foods and drinking plenty of water. I also see myself working out at the gym or participating in other activities like walking or hiking. I smell the fresh air while walking along a beach with a slim body. I spend a few minutes allowing my brain to completely welcome these experiences. I do this for all areas of my life. To start, I would recommend one area.
What is happening in the brain is that the pictures activate the reticular activating system (RAS) and your subconscious mind goes to work on figuring out a way to get your desires immediately. Have you ever noticed that when you pay attention to something it magically appears all around you. For example, if you break a bone, then all of a sudden you notice others who have broken bones or when you purchase a specific type of car, all of sudden you notice the same car all over on the road. Did all of a sudden everyone break a bone or purchase the same car? No, it is our RAS that goes to work alerting us to what is already out there. That is the power of a Vision Board and your subconscious mind. The next step is to believe that it is possible.
Believe
This is a crucial area. We need to align ourselves with a vibrational match for our desires. Sometimes desires are sabotaged by limiting beliefs that live in our subconscious mind. A limiting belief is a belief that constrains us in some way. For example, if the phrase “money is the roof of all evil” was repeated often during childhood, it is possible that that message can sabotage your later financial success and financial abundance. Limiting beliefs may come from early childhood programing or other traumatic events in your life. If your vision on your board is not manifesting, take some time to reflect what your beliefs are around your desire. Unconscious limiting beliefs can interfere and block us from receiving what we want. Work on changing your beliefs into thoughts of deserving, worthy, and good enough to manifest all of your desires.
Once you are in full alignment of your desire, take action everyday in order to move you closer to your desires. There are two types of action – obvious action and inspired action. An obvious action for my weight loss goal would be to set up a meal plan, buy the foods necessary to eat a healthy diet and exercise on a regular basis. An example of inspired action would be if I was at the gym and I noticed someone working out with a personal trainer, I might consider hiring that personal trainer to help me with my goal. Or, if I met someone at the gym who was on the same journey as myself, I may consider becoming friends with them so that we could be accountable and help each other along the way. These are examples of the universe sending you the people, resources and opportunities you need in order to reach your desires.
Receive
The next step is to receive. The universe wants you to win. There is so much abundance in the world. Consistent use of your daily affirmations, visualizing, taking action, and believing it is possible will help manifest these desires. Record your daily wins and start a gratitude practice where you take note of your blessings. You will be amazed at the synchronous events that happen every day.
I use this practice in all areas of my life and so many wonderful experiences have manifested. Once I had a picture of myself kissing a dolphin in the center of my board. I had to remove it because every time I went on a trip, I ended up swimming with dolphins and kissing them. As much as I enjoyed this experience, I needed to change that picture. However, that one picture did convince me that the power of a Vison Board is a true hidden secret of success. Oh, and by the way, I shred the 20 pounds and it has not come back!
