Vision Boards - Something to Regain Focus

1. Buy a large piece of foam board...poster board is okay too...but the foam board is more substantial and you can eventually frame your Vision Board more easily this way.
2. Pull out all your old Oprah, MORE, Vogue, Glamour, Cosmo and magazines with your hobbies and interests.
3. You will need scissors and a glue stick.

Set aside some quiet time and start clipping pictures, quotes, poems, words that fit the way you're feeling, where you want to go. The pictures can be just pretty one's or one's that visually show your dreams, desires, hobbies, the things you love or things you don't. Place your pictures in an envelope. You do not have to do your vision board in one sitting. I collect pictures, words and quotes all the time and place them in my collage envelope for my next vision board. I have created about four vision boards over the past 13 years. The changes that occurred within me and where I have come from are displayed in these collages...it is amazing at times to look at them again. In one of my vision boards I can see where my MLC actually began...it was about ten years ago...the picture I placed in the middle was one of a door knob with a "Do Not Disturb: Wife and Mother of 5 currently Regaining Sanity" ...all around this picture were pictures of women pulling their hair out, holding their heads and then with big letters above these pictures the statement "MOM TIRED AGAIN". Growing out of this main piece of the collage was all the things I wanted my life to be.
So this is where you start...find a main picture or statement that shows where you are at the very moment that you are creating this collage. Break the collage down into sections or categories...like your state of mind, your family, your beliefs, your children, your husband ( not one of my vision boards before my most recent ever had a section for my H...hmmmm...do you think I was telling myself something even way back when?), your dreams, your hearts desire, your goals for the next five years. You can start gluing immediately or just save up the pictures till you have the time to spend in creating your collage. I save them up because I find putting it all together at once is very therapeutic.
The vision board is on the same line as what I told you about when you write things down...but this time it is one visual picture when it is all completed.
This is my most recent vision board:

If you would like to see closer pictures of this vision board I will be more than happy to post them. Even if you are not artistic or creative this is a simple assignment that can bring great results...if not allowing you to focus or pinpoint the direction you are going or where you are stuck. Surprisingly enough I placed a picture right near the middle, right under the words "the gift" that represents my H and myself...the poem is fantastic also. The whole left side is the direction I want my book to go, underneath are my goals, the upper right hand corner is the celebration of my 50th birthday, which I have not really done yet...but will. On a whole the vision board is a statement of the direction I am taking. My H framed this vision board and it hangs in my office to remind me every day that I can not stop working on my hearts desires....in fact that is the name of this collage..."Heart's Desire".

If you have any questions, please ask...try this...it is fun and helpful...AND...in the end you have a great art piece. When I made this vision board...I did it with my 8 year old daughter. We both had great pieces of art...hers is hanging in her bedroom....doing this together was filled with great bonding moments for she and I....because she asked me questions about the pictures and the words and I got to show a side of me that she had not seen before. I cherish this time we spent together...and even now she stands in front of my board and says "Mommy, tell me about the Gold Dress Gala again" or "Tell me about why you like Audrey Hepburn again" or most importantly the other day she said "That lady in the purple dress...I want to be that lady one day with all those words that are next to her." I hope and pray now that my MLC is pretty much over...that I can help her to become the lady in the purple dress.

Shepherdess