Envisioning with Optimism
To start off 2013 I am focusing on envisioning a life full of art and optimism. My first creative project was to make my own vision board – it was so much fun to create something just for me. I sat down with my mother and my daughter and we enjoyed time together looking through magazines and talking about some of our life plans, hopes and goals. You discover a lot about each other in this casual atmosphere. It was fun to freely look through magazines, tear, cut and I was honestly surprised at what I ended up with. The images that caught my attention. Besides a lot of images that represent art, faith, family, children, travel, selling my home, being active and more, I also have words that are meaningful like: optimism, tradition, healing, calm, love, thrive, happiness, peace, faith, be strong, create…and so on. The meaning of my board is personal to me and is placed right above my computer screen to keep me on track. A vision board can be many things, my vision board symbolizes my hopes and dreams with layers of images and words.
To make a visionboard, gather together a posterboard, magazines, scissors, “Yes” glue or rubber cement (Elmer’s Glue or Glue Sticks can wrinkle). Start looking through magazines without a plan and start tearing out images. Once you have a good pile of images, start laying them out on your posterboard, when you are happy with your design start glueing things down. You will discover you will want additional images and words and may seek those out, adding and layering until you are happy with the final product. Remember it’s just for you, it doesn’t have to be shown to anyone.
I’ve heard interesting stories about vision boards. How at the time they were completed certain images didn’t have meaning, but later on they do. My cousin, Creative Coach, Carol Harrison did a vision book with 50 pages. A powerful fact – 45 of those pages have come true. We all have goals or intentions – yet how many of us follow through? I believe a vision board, a list of intentions, with focused action can help us achieve almost anything. We can’t remain neutral and hope it will happen- if you stay in neutral you’ll end up rolling backward. Striving forward, I am envisioning with optimism a more artful life filled with peace, hope, faith, family….
What do you envision?
Here is my Vision Board:
