New Year, New You Vision Board

VISION BOARDS!

Let's get a couple of things clear, right at the start.

1. THERE IS NO WRONG WAY TO MAKE A VISION BOARD.

2. THIS IS NOT SCIENCE. You believe that putting pieces of pretty paper on another piece of paper calls into your life your deepest hopes and dreams, then you believe it with all your heart and soul. These are inspirational devices, not architectural blueprints.
   

   Ok, now that we have some caveats taken care of, the briefest of background before we get to the supplies and instructions (OH MY GOD THIS IS WHY THE ONLINE RECIPE BLOGS ARE LIKE THIS)

   I've been making vision boards consistently every year for my birthday (ish, usually on the new moon closest to my actual natal day) for a decade and before that on and off since college. I've always considered paper art as my chosen visual artistic medium, so vision boards were right up my manifestation alley. At one point in my life I wanted to work in magazine publishing (scratch that, I still do) so buying and keeping pretty magazines has been part of my rhythm since high school. I loved making collage art so vision boards were a natural outgrowth to my artistic practice.
   
   

   

   My 2021 board

   
   

   But that brings us to you! So you want to have fun playing with pictures, words, and paper. Cool. Let's get started.

   Gather Your Supplies: I'm going to write a list that you could go to your local drugstore and get everything. If you want to make this but super fancy, by all means go to the office supply, craft store, and Barnes&Noble (or other magazine purveyor).

   --a largeish piece of heavyweight paper or posterboard (but not thick! this isn't a school science project display). color does not matter. I've done white, I've done neon, I've done black.

   --a pair of scissors

   --glue of some kind (stick/dots/bottle)

   --a writing implement

   --a stack of magazines. get a WIDE VARIETY OF OPTIONS, stuff you might not normally buy. if you are a home magazine kind of reader, pick up a business title. if you usually get women's titles, grab GQ and Esquire. that kind of thing. you want to give yourself as many opportunities to find interesting visuals as possible.

   
   Time Container: Give yourself a good 1.5-2 hrs for this project. There's the "tearing out pictures" portion and the "sticking them to the paper" portion. You'll probably need a beverage, but not necessarily a snack. 

   Note: if you have cats, expect to have to move them at least twice from the pile on the table. They may not know vision boards, but they absolutely understand being the middle of a project. Dogs may be nearby but probably not on your papers.

   
   Instructions:

   1. Take everything out of the bags. Stack the magazines in front of you. Take the scissors out of the package. Set the heavy paper and glue aside for the moment.

   2. Close your eyes and take a deep breath in. Ask yourself, "what does my next highest and best life look like?" Breathe out. Repeat x3. Open your eyes.

   3. Open the top magazine and flip quick-but-not-fast through the pages. The speed you want is being able to read the large words and recognize pictures but not get bogged down by actual articles or fine print. This is a visual exercise, not a written one.

   4. Ok, here's the important part: when you see something you like, tear or cut it out. "we listen and we don't judge." Do not judge yourself. Leave your brain out of this. In fact, if music helps silence that inner critic, please have some on. You want to be listening to your emotional or sacral authority on this. Did you see a picture and your heart went "awww"? Did you read a phrase in an ad and your gut went "please!" That's what you're looking for. This is why a wide variety of options is important. 

   5. Go through as many magazines as you can in about an hour. That should give you a nice stack of torn/cut out paper to play with.

   6. Stand up. Stretch. Wiggle your butt a little. Roll those shoulders.

   7. If you bought a full-size piece of poster board, take your scissors and cut it down a little, no less than 11x14, no more than half-size. Once you have your finished size, put it on the table in front of you in whatever orientation is pleasing (landscape or portrait).

   8. OPTIONAL: If you are familiar with Feng Shui, you can compartmentalize your vision board using your writing implement. Mark off sections for "home," "career," "love," "adventure," etc. 

   9. Shuffle through your stack so that you start with the larger pictures first, placing one on the board at a time. NO, PUT THE GLUE DOWN. You're just getting an idea about where you want these pictures to go. If you find you no longer need an entire picture or phrase, tear or cut what you want to keep on the board. And don't feel like you need to get every piece on there. Again, listen to that embodied response. Keep what is intriguing or makes you smile wistfully or think "one day." 

   10. Once you've finished the stack and you are happy with the way the board looks, now you can start to glue the bits down.

   11. Sign & date the board with your writing implement.

       Congratulations! You've made a vision board. Put it up somewhere you can look at it regularly for inspiration.
       
       I do know that some people do these digitally, but I've never done one that way, and I also think there is magic in the actual physical nature of paper and scissors. Using our hands and our hearts to make things means there is extra emotion infused in the end product. And manifestation, after all, is amped up by emotion.