“Today is the opportunity to build the tomorrow that you want”. – Ken Poirot
Visualising is a powerful thing…! …And creating a vision board for yourself is a great activity and tool to bring your visions for your future to life and bring some clarity to your goals! If you’ve never heard of them before, vision boards are quite simply a collection of images of what you want in your life. This isn’t just material things, but how you want to feel, what you would like to achieve, who you want to be, what you want your life (or an aspect of your life) to be like, etc. They’re an opportunity to dive deep, both consciously and unconsciously to explore and visualise your goals! They’re also more simply a fun way to spend a morning, afternoon, evening or weekend, an activity you can do on your own or with others…
Here at CASWA, a few members of our team LOVE vision boards and are avid “vision-boarders” in their own time. One of our Domestic Abuse Specialists who makes a board at least once a year said,
Most recently some of our vision boarders introduced vision boards to members of our team less familiar with them as a work-based self-care activity as part of a program of self-care for our team over Summer. One member of our team created a vision board to be displayed on her desk, she said:
We use vision boards as part of our support package in our work with women, children and young people. Our work at CASWA is about empowerment and supporting individuals to be in the driving seat of their lives and move on to happier, safer, brighter futures. Vision boards are a great tool to help explore life beyond abuse and support individuals to explore their dreams and goals for their future (or remember those they had before abuse) and support them to visualise these as part of their recovery from their experience. A quote from one of our Domestic Abuse Specialists from our Women’s Team sums this up well:
We’ve recently rolled out a program of virtual workshops with some of the women supported by CASWA and one of the activities central to this has been vision boards. This has been a huge success, as evidenced in feedback we received from one of the woman who has attended a group.
So you might be wondering how to go about making a vision board. Here’s the “how to…
An important thing about vision boards is there aren’t really any rules to making them – it is your life and your future you are visualising, so how you put it together is up to you. They are relatively cheap and easy to put together – all you need is:
- A piece of paper (A4 or A3 is generally best) or double pages in a notebook (if you’re a stationary fan!),
- Some glue,
- A pair of scissors,
- Some old magazines
If you don’t buy magazines, don’t worry: there’s sometimes free copies of magazines in supermarkets or chemists (or ask family and friends – they usually have some they’d be delighted to get rid off!). Alternatively, go onto Pinterest and save images to print (if you have a printer). If you are supported by us and you want to make you own vision board, please just ask us - we’ve a store cupboard full of arty, crafty materials and we’re never short of a magazine or two!
Once you’ve got what you need, the “collection” process begins. Simply collect images, words, phrases, quotes, colour palates that you’re drawn to, that “speak to you” and/or that resonate with you. The process of collecting things for your vision board doesn’t (and shouldn’t) be a conscious, planned, heavily thought out process. There is space for this, but there is also space to go with the flow, to flick and leaf through magazines and collect pieces without having to put a label on why you have picked it. Quite simply, if something speaks to you, pull it out and add it to your collection: this might indeed be where the magic lies, your vision comes alive and you get some clarity around your goals and visions for your future.
Next step is the fun bit – arranging your collected of pulled out, cut out pieces onto your vision board and gluing them in place. Again – no rules here: an opportunity to play around and be creative – you’ll know when your board feels right.
Once everything is arranged and glued into place, your board is done! Put it somewhere you’ll see it often and see where your vision board takes you…
