Vision Board Therapy

I’ve been running vision board workshops for a while now. At first I thought they were really fun ways to create change in our life and bring us closer to what we want to be, do and have.

Nowadays, I feel different towards vision boarding.

For those who don’t know, a vision board is essentially a collection of words and images on a board the encapsulate all we’d like to be, do and have in our life. They are used to keep us motivated, focused and on track with what’s important in our life. What I’ve discovered from my work is that they can go much deeper than this. They can speak to the hidden desires we’ve been harbouring. They can tap us in to long-forgotten dreams. They can help us to figure out the things that have been troubling us and holding us back.

How do they do this?

It seems that creative activities are increasingly being recognised as a way of coping with the increased levels of depression and anxiety found in the adult population of the UK and worldwide.

Working with our hands, getting involved in tactile work – especially work that gives us a tangible item at the end – allows us to switch off from the stress and strain of our everyday life, and has been shown to increase our level of wellbeing.

Being creative in this way allows us to access our subconscious, to calm and relax our mind and puts us in a meditative state.

Vision boards are so much more than just life design and getting you crystal clear on what you want to be, do and have. They are a simple tool you can use to zone out of your everyday stresses and strains and tap into your flow. It’s this flow that impacts your happiness.

I’ve also discovered through speaking to some women who have come to my workshops or done vision boards that they are sometimes extremely therapeutic. More and more women I speak to aren’t always aware of what part of them chose a particular word or image, that’s where we find that we have some work to do – whether that’s self-reflection and awareness through journaling or diving deeper into the whys behind our choices.

You may create a board that is not what you intended or completely different from what you thought you wanted. That is also the magic of vision boarding. It’s an incredibly insightful tool that can tell us so much about our hidden desires and hopes.

Using the board in this way can help us to overcome challenges and uncertainty in our life. I’m giving you permission to create a board that doesn’t have anything at all about your future home, career or health – one that is just an outpouring of your heart and soul on to the page. To hear the whispers of your heart and the forgotten desires of your youth. To let it all out as you would in a diary. But this isn’t all words; this is your tapping in to the unconscious or often unavailable parts of your soul.

This is deep work. Truth be told, I think it may go even deeper.

I believe that there is something huge behind this process. I believe that this is real and true for the women that decide to fully engage in this process. To use it for what it is, a method to explore their undiscovered dreams and desires. A method to deal with the past and decide for the future.

So if you have yet to experience this, I encourage you to create a vision board. Don’t over analyse it, just go with the flow. When you’ve finished, take a look at your board and see what comes up for you. Are there any images that represent something much deeper than you initially thought? Is there a part of you that has come out to create the board? What messages does your vision board give you about your life right now?

You may be surprised!