I love making vision boards and as we prepare for our New Year's Vision Board Party this weekend, I'm gathering my magazines to do a hands-on decoupage of images. I love paper. I love the feel, smell, and color of it, so I most often do vision boards by hand, with magazines, scissors and glue.
There IS an alternative.... I have made beautiful vision boards in the past by collecting inspired images from online and laying them out in a writing document online. What I love about it is that you can easily customize it with words and print it up on color anytime you need it.
That said, one of the greatest challenges people have in making vision boards, is not having the resource of images.
WHAT IF YOU DON'T HAVE A TON OF MAGAZINES LAYING AROUND?
Well my friend, I make a mini-vision board once a month to help clarify my energy going forward. It's a simple craft task, and I've found that my ability to manifest has gone way up since doing so. The frequency has allowed me to focus on the feeling rather than getting attached to outcomes. As a result, I spent a lot of time gathering resources. Here are my favorite places to find images:
THE BOOKSTORE: This one is obvious. About once a year, I go to a bookstore and browse the magazine stacks for 3-5 magazines that I can visually fall in love with. In this case, content is usually less of a priority because I may not even read these magazines in completion. I'm looking for images that make my heart swell. Since I do a lot of vision board work, it's worth it to get a few magazines that are drop dead gorgeous. In my case, these are usually crafting, or workspace magazines, or photography magazines. My last batch included a poetry magazine, an outdoor sports magazine, a high fashion magazine with lots of colorful ads, and a specialty magazine about alternative spirituality. I still use these magazines, a year later.
THE DENTIST: Yes, really! Medical offices often have magazine subscriptions, and they routinely toss the old magazines when the new ones come in. It may take a bit of courage, but asking the receptionist of 2 or 3 private practice offices if you can have their old magazines doesn't hurt. I used to do this in high school and people were more than happy to send me their magazine recycling. To this day, I still do it. Last year I got a box of magazines from a medical specialist. I simply told him I was doing a vision board project and needed magazines. These were great because they weren't magazines I'd normally choose for myself, but they included special genres, which expanded my vision; Travel, finance, and medical magazines can be great for images of abstract topics we never really envision.
FRIENDS: It's so easy to forget that you know a bunch of people. Try saying, "I'm doing a vision board project. Do you have 1 or 2 old magazines you don't need anymore? It would really help!" It's amazing how many people read magazines and may have one or two that they should really toss. If you ask people for a stack, they rarely have it to give, but if you ask for just one, it's easy. This can quickly expand the magazine stash you use for vision boards. The bulk of my boards revolve around 7 magazines, glitter glue, and word/affirmation cutouts.
I will add that the internet is a great resource. I love going on Pinterest and just typing in a word. That will bring up a ton of images. Here are some words I've used in order to get more clear about what kind of lifestyle I want, and you'll notice they are tailored to my general lifestyle: bohemian home, red room, luxury, spiritual art, goddess, solopreneur, office, healing office, apothecary, Badgley Mishka, rumi, love quotes, love and relationships, weight loss, wedding, family art, magic, dream vacation.
The other resource that can work for a vibe, is Unsplash. Sometimes I will go to Unsplash and simply type in a feeling: excited, sexy, peaceful, boss
To make my vision board time most efficient, I like to schedule an hour into my planner on a different day. I blast music and gather images. It's a LOT of fun. Sometimes I don't even do the board! I'll gather images and put them all in a word file. Then I can easily change the sizes if I need, and print them up as sheets of images. It saves paper and time. Then I can actually cut them out or use pieces of them when I do my boards. But the prep day is great because it feels good, and everything is then stacked and ready to go for the future!
DO YOU have special things in your vision board process that you love to do? Tell me about it below!
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DAILEY LITTLE is a healing practitioner, transformational life coach, ordained Priestess, and teacher who founded Healing Heart Reiki to help others navigate life with joy. She teaches classes in healing and mindset from a magical peaceful corner of the world in Northern California. For more info see: www.SantaRosaReiki.com