Vision Boards, Fun Planners, and Intuitively Mapping the Rhythms of Life
A vision board is a fun activity to develop goals and inspiration. The ways in which we bring those goals to life is a quest of becoming a little more each day. What that is will look different from moment to moment, day to day, and person to person.
Welcome
Let’s discover & develop your visions! Let’s bring them to life in all the ways we can! Your material and surface goals matter, but this is more about the presence in the process, the vibe of all that you are. All of those unique little details are what is actually writing the story in everything you do. When we learn how to nurture that process, we better understand our rhythms of how we show up for our world within and all around! However, creating vision boards for our outer goals can help us jump start the reflection process.
A simple vision board is a fun way to help organize and keep your goals in focus, but sometimes it can become an easy practice for our vision boards to become a background decoration or forgotten relic in the midst of things. It does not mean efforts are lost though. If you enjoyed creating it and it helped you process thoughts and feelings at the time, that’s great too!!! Plus, it was still an act, a moment of checking in and aligning your vibes and energies. That is worth celebrating too!
Root Essential thoughts and questions to help you decide how you want to start your journey:
You may find yourself wondering if vision boards can actually be of help or how are they important to the wellness journey. The answer to that question depends a lot on how much energy you invest into it. If it is something you feel is worthwhile and nurture it into your #dailyrootsandrituals and flow of life, then it may be a helpful resource. Many of us are visual and kinesthetic learners. Therefore, having visual aids and participating in creative processes can help center and ease or cognitive and nervous system rhythms to help us gain clarity in the quest for our goals. Otherwise, it may feel like our goals are there, somewhere, floating around in the fog of the mind and spirit. Some of us may not need that process and can see the goals clearly and are accepting the pathway towards it may not be clear but will unfold in time. Others of us may prefer to plan and keep track towards our goals through auditory means like listening to inspirational things or recording voice notes. There are many possibilities and processes for envisioning our lifestyles. I personally am a combo of all of the above. I also find vision boards/quest to not only be helpful for future planning but being more present with my current seasons of life, celebrating it, finding inspirational or relative resources, and rooting through some of the hard moments. It can also be a great tool for helping you see how far you have come and what you have worked through when you look back at past boards or notes. Some may amaze you and others may cause you to take a deep breath as you remind yourself it is still a work in progress and other pieces may even lead to a little sigh as it was a chapter that had to be released or maybe you discover pieces you want to revisit and try in a different time, different way. In summary, can vision boards / quest tools be helpful to your roots and rhythms of life? That answer is up to you but maybe going on this journey can help you explore it more or try a new approach to discover if it is a good flow for you.
Life Planning & Vibes
Before doing a vision board or even if you choose not to do a vision board, these may be some helpful pieces to connect to your vibes and goals.
This little doodle below is one I will eventually offer as a guided piece on #succulentsundays. It is something you can sketch in your notes and write your thoughts around it.
Keep in mind your vision board may need to be updated as life changes through the vibes, phases, seasons, and cycles of life. This practice helps me keep up with the rhythms of those changes: MY FOCUS FILE (or Go with/Create the Flow File)
Reminder: We are Life in Motion! Each moment, each day, and how we show up in it is different. Many roots may remain, but the rhythms and flow of all things are always changing. Change is the constant factor in life. Creating a focus file can help you tend to the root essentials and keep dreaming and navigating your way through the intuitive vision processes.
To help you make decisions on how to organize your focus file peep the thoughts below or you can simply get started by putting items into a folder until you find those thoughts, pieces, vibes that unlock the visions and patterns of how you would like for things to flow. This part is more of a long-term journey you can do in doses and set the pace and tone of as you discover and develop what is working for you.
If you are creating a focus file, consider if you want a physical folder, online folders, or both. I personally have multiple binders and online folders. As most of us operate in the physical world and online spaces, I would suggest doing both. Example: Your online folders (Pinterest, note apps, word documents, email, picture files, etc.) could be where you store majority of your items. Then, pull and print from those for your focus file weekly, monthly, seasonally, a rhythm of ritual best for your flow. You could also add pieces from magazines, books, etc. How is a focus file different than having folders on Pinterest or stacks of magazines, recipe books, bucket lists, and organized folders of some nature? Those can be great sources for inspiration and strategies for collecting, constructing, and sharing things, but can be a lot to search through or too stimulating for focusing our energy. Creating a focus file helps you narrow down the flooding thoughts to a calm, steady river of guidance and motivation. Pulling pieces from those bigger sources to add to your focus file a little at a time can help you start planting the seeds or taking the steps vs “I’ll get to it one day” or “where was that at again” or start out looking for something then end up on all the other paths of exploring and connecting.
If you like and thrive with planning, let’s decide how often you would like to make your focus file a ritual. It is something you can keep adjusting the timing of to discover and develop what is best for your flow in the moments. Maybe you want to start your journey by setting the intentions of making it a monthly ritual but find yourself craving a little guidance or energy work mid-week, nothing says you cannot tune into your focus file. However, it is important to set intentions of creating this as a ritual because it is one of those things that can fall by the wayside. If you are a person that needs things daily to help you stay committed, then you may want to make it an every a.m or p.m. 5-minute ritual of checking in and doing a little work with it. If you want more time to dedicate to it, maybe pick one day out of the week to focus a good 30 minutes towards it, etc. So many possibilities! I have a big focus file with a “long-term” (no timeline - as things unfold kind of thing) section I tab into when I feel called or have updates. I then have short-term sections of things more relevant or important to the present flow of things. I like to check-in with it weekly. I try to review/update it on Sunday evenings to prep for the week. It is something I am working towards a daily ritual for little 5 min a.m. / p.m. check in flow to help me connect (release/restore) my energy and focus. This can be a great strategy for family planning, helping everyone connect and keep the flow of things in mind as you navigate through all the needs of the days, weeks, months. I will elaborate on those ideas more on #succulentsundays!
If you like plans, I would suggest getting a simple binder, page protectors or folders, a hole puncher, and labels. You can prep your file by adding folders with topics/categories of content you plan to add to it. If you would like ideas for how to divide into topics, what categories may be ideal to include, and how to nurture this process as a ritual this is something I will be offering more insights on when this workshop goes live + on #succulentsundays!
If it still seems like a lot to take on or a process you are not sure about at the moment, wing it: create an online folder or physical folder and add a few things that catch your attention to it. You do not have to have a plan. Start and the plan may unfold moment by moment, day by day. No expectations. Just experiences!
Story Cards
If you are looking for more of a simple process, I love using index cards for processing my thoughts and goals. Once you have a collection you can organize them into a binder or clip them together. I personally like clipping them together by topic and putting them into a little storage container where I keep blank ones, pens, highlighters, and stickers. I also keep a few blank ones in my purse and I have a little pouch with blank cards, my current cards (reminders or references for things I’m working on), and a pen in my work briefcase.
Using multiple methods for focusing your energy with your thoughts, intentions, and goals are like using multiple tools for a project. We are multi-faceted and therefore often need multiple sources to meet the needs of the moments. Some days a resource may work better than another. You may have your go to methods that are 95% effective on most days, but some days depending on the flow of things we need less or more of something or some additional elements to not just get through or just maintain or meet the goals but thrive and rise. #rootandrise
An Example Flow of what this could look like:
-Create online mood boards a little each day or each week
-Print out a few things you want to focus on this month or this season and add to your focus file
-add progress note cards or mantra motivation cards to the page with the coordinating goal
-If it is a goal you are actively working on or trying to keep within sight you may want to add it to a bulletin board
On that note, let’s take a look at my tips for creating a vision / vibe board:
If you want to create a simple vision board now, gather pieces:
printed items
photographs
words or images from magazines or newspapers
writings or drawings on note cards
cut-outs or stickers for design
collected elements: flowers, pennies, quote cards, etc
Unleash the imagination! Goals matter! The presence matters more! What are the feelings you are trying to create? Moments over materials! What are things you can do more of each day or in smaller doses to lead you to those big dreams? What are the vibes and aesthetics you are feeling called to?
This is the part where we bring the pieces together to work towards manifesting our goals or to reflect on what we have manifested and /or the vibes we are connecting with or creating in the process. The focus file is like cultivating the land before planting a garden, the prep before the process. Creating the vision board is like planting the seeds and tending to them to see what grows. Some things may bloom. Some things may have had a hard time with the weather and conditions but were an important part of the process.
Of course, I apply the Root & Flow™ Method to this as well. Again, it helps me organize the flow of my wild, rooted energy that wants to express and experience all the things!!
This is a simple square bulletin board. For bigger projects I use bigger boards. This particular example is what I created for my goals with the Life is Succulent Project.
A behind the scenes, prep for the process: Make big piles of all your papers and pieces, spread them out, and examine what you are connecting with. Personal note: I already had the pieces for the board in a pocket in my focus file then I pulled them out to go through what I wanted to use and how. I find collecting a few pieces at a time helps me stay present in the process of creating and becoming. If it is a day where it just does not seem to be flowing or coming together, put away in the folder for another day. Sometimes sitting with things, taking our time exploring, or doing something else then coming back to it is what our intuition needed. Other times it may just seem to flow or come together like there was nothing to it. The rhythm was just the right vibe at that time. Vibes are often circumstantial, our mindsets in the moments.
The Process for the bulletin board
Step 1: (The Root phase / origins): Create your background vibe / design. Add elements from your focus file or collected pieces to set the tone.
Step 2: (The Love Phase / Inner Power): What is your main goal / message of motivation? What are some essential practices / daily rituals to help nurture that?
Step 3: (The Grow Phase / not just above the surface, also below, beyond, and in between): Add the details and other goals you would like to accompany you in this journey. We may have a lot of goals or we may still be in the process of searching for what our goals are at this time. Either scenario is okay. You can simply add pieces that help you celebrate where you are and help you to keep showing up in the best ways you can each day. You can add one element or goal at a time and focus on that for the time you need until you feel you have made it a part of your story and are ready to check it off as a part of your flow or add to / revise the vibe or details of it.
Step 4: (The Flow Phase / how to nurture thru sustainable measures): I am a “Kinesthetic” note person. I love drawing, writing, listening, and talking about things. Then I need time and space to practice and process. I like to be in the depths of it. All senses engaged to do all that I can to understand all the little fibers and nuances of it all. I added note cards to the back of my board to remind me of the messages I am trying to embody and work towards with these goals. In this phase or part of the process is where you may want to do something similar. The cards can be little messages to yourself, stories that help center you or remind you of your reasons why, it could be updates on your progress towards your goals or notes of thoughts you are processing.
The board should not be a source of pressure looming over you to get things done and keep forcing your energy to change your life or manifest all those things you always wanted. A certain amount of pressure can be healthy and working towards things that help us provide for our life are great, but we have to keep in mind the checks and balances of energy. If we are continuously forcing our energy to high expectations and states of pressure, then we may be further fulfilling and fueling cycles and systems that are actually working against our goals of how we want to experience life. The purpose of these activities are to help us brainstorm and have fun getting creative discovering and developing our art of living, how we share that with others, and how we want that for others and the flow of the world as a whole.
EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS
If the time to create a vision board is hard to come by, but you want to set some goals in an aesthetically fun way, you could go digital! Create a simple collage with a few pictures or notes! If digital is not your thing, you could do this with colorful construction paper, index cards, and stickers!
My Keep it in Focus Bulletin Board
Like we talked about in the vision board portion of this workshop, you can create little bulletin boards for specific projects or big ones for your big projects or as an overview of things you want to stay close to your thoughts and efforts.
My Big Bulletin Board is one I created in college and it moved wherever I moved and it changed when I changed. I moved and changed often but many things on that board stayed because they were of the upmost importance to me. All that ever really changed on it were the dates (until I eventually learned I had no control over time and learned how to live without timelines) and the pathway / progress updates of how they were unfolding changed often. Many of the features remained a work in progress. From time to time, I got to check some things off and that was a really great feeling. The greatest of feelings was when I finally got to put my sweet baby boy in that onsie that had it been on the board for 6+ years! Some things I decided were not meant for the board nor my journey and some things are still up on that board but closer to coming to be than they once were.
The smaller board in the pics above was a specific “project” board (another example of how you can personalize your boards to your season of life). This was my pregnancy board. I had inspo pics for maintaining my health & work, nesting ideas, and would add / change out appointment cards, reminder notes, mantras etc as needed.
My Wellness Journal
I will be sharing more stories and examples of this in the Seeds of my Soul Project. I went through a decade+ long journey of having to get to the root of my medical issues and my gosh what a rollercoaster! I had to learn how to become my own advocate on so many levels. Putting all the pieces together in a visual journal helped me make sense of it all and to be able to sit with my stories of life to process moments of heartache, grief, joy, peace, love, celebration, etc. In the midst of all that chaos is when I also started the focus file, nutrition mapping, blueprint mapping, etc. to help me catalog all the things and put together my own “reports” to “prove my cases” to get to the point that someone in the professional arenas would listen. After, the “big events / urgent moments” that required attention or when we had to relocate our life due to careers every so often, having to start the journey again, it was rare to find the right help to further examine the puzzle pieces or those willing to dig deep to get to the roots of things. I was not a textbook case, and I was tired of just settling for tests, medicines, allergic reactions, and good luck while you suffer. I was really good at hiding pain. Over the years, I had learned how to smile and remain true to my kind roots even when it felt like hell was rising. It was not easy for me to seek or express a need for help. Therefore, it was not always easy to see the answers or urgency of all that was happening. This is not to discredit the many wonderful doctors and health care professionals that did listen, rally for me, and helped me discover the answers but it is to keep bringing awareness to we clearly have healthcare problems as a collective people. This too makes it hard for the professionals to do their jobs in the ways they would like to (at least for those not taking advantage of the systems). I have also always been a fighter and not afraid of voicing my true thoughts but always did my best to do so in thoughtful ways unless something or someone crosses the line. That is why I had to keep doing the work and digging to save my life and others in my circle (when I have been in caretaker situations). Trying to understand and process all the things is a heck of a lot for any one person to try to do. Thankfully I had educational resources, a bacherlors in kinesiology, health scienes, wellness, and a masters in educational leadership to help me tune into my own needs, rhythms, issues, and how to construct systems for managing and addressing it. Even with all of that it was a process, journey, and battle after battle to work towards resolutions and discover the right connections, relationships, and resources for help. I am sharing a little more on a personal level in this feature because we are all dealing with the realities of life in some way. Vision boards / vision mapping can be great for helping us focus our energy on exciting things and we may even put a few of those hard, vulnerable pieces on there, but I wanted to highlight a process for digging deeper into those harder things when you need to. When we are in the thick of that many of us are left seeking for support and guidance. We may have our go to things that help but sometimes we need more ways for being fully engaged in the process especially when those sources of support feel far away from us. The wellness journal was a process that helped me create a map of my life, the good, the hard, the work in progress, etc. Seeing that book, holding it, writing in it, strengthened my will to …….keep writing the story.
Mood Boards / Journal Collages
These are something you can do as a daily ritual or when planning for a specific project or reflecting on a day / activity / season of life. You can do them vision board style with cutouts of pictures on a bulletin board or scrapbook or you can do collages with online tools. (The mood board pics are sourced from Pinterest and I arranged them onto a collage.)
The Full Year Planner
Add a pic and a mantra day by day, week by week, or month by month! Work towards the big things but focus on the little things!
Yep, that says 2019!!! This method from the #archives is when I offered a full year of calendar printouts with the instructions to tape a pic on each day and write a mantra or goal underneath it. It was something you could do week by week or month by month. It could be a meal or activity you wanted to try, a pic of inspiration, something you wrote or drew, or an element, a seed, a flower, a penny for vibes. The purpose was to focus more on doing the little things each day. Not always planning big goals but focusing our energy to creating more moments for the art of living. It is okay to sprinkle the big goals in there. If you were doing the monthly planning approach, I instructed to place one big thing you wanted to accomplish by the end of the month and place that picture near the end of your printout. If you did the weekly planning, I advised to include something each week that felt big but possible to you.
Simple Mantras
Sometimes a few words of importance and focus are what we need to help us nurture our energy towards our goals or the things we are trying to work through in life. Vision boards can be helpful, but so can writing a mantra and creating a few moments to be with that mantra. No matter what methods you choose for mapping your life flow, ultimately it is all about holding and creating space for learning how to be more conscious and present in the process of it all!
Write your Story in Everything you Do
Much like the wellness journal, sometimes there are matters in life beyond a vision board or a few mantras. Sometimes, when we have gone through big seasons of change and transformation, we need something that can help us reflect on all the pieces. Many of us may even have a lifetime of stories of challenges and the changes we had to endure or create to meet those or rise from the challenges. This is where the Write your Story in Everything you Do Guided Program may be of help! It is a vision board of sorts, but in a deeper way that may require a longer investment of time and energy. It is one of those adventures where it is essential to pace yourself and find your rhythm through it, little by little, moment by moment, day by day!
If you have read through or listened to all of this and are thinking “this seems like a lot of thoughts behind just creating a vision board”. Well, you are not wrong! That’s just it though. Some create a simple vision board once a year or once a lifetime then go about their life. Maybe some of the things came to be. Maybe they didn’t. Some thrive with it. Some thrive without it. Maybe this is just what someone needed to help them further connect to their thoughts and goals. Maybe not. We each have our own rythyms and flows of processing and applying our energy to life. Understanding what we need, what is working, what is not has a lot to do with our awareness and how much work we put into becoming more aware of the rhythms and flows of all things. I am a person with many vibes, many thoughts. I always put a lot of thought into everything I do. At times that pours into overthinking mode, and I have to Calm the Sea Within. I understand the roots and rhythms as to why I am that way. I have been on a long self-wellness journey for nearly two decades of dissecting all that was and is in relation to my perceptions and processes. For me, nothing just is! There is always more than just this or that, I always sense, sometimes feel, see, hear so much attached to it all, below, beyond, and in between all the surface actions, reactions, moments. There are always more details to discover, develop, process. Learning how to engage, set boundaries, function, etc. with all of that can be a lot! For those who relate to that nature of things you may really appreciate a workshop that explores a little more of the deep waters of creating vision rituals and how to Calm the Sea Within so that inspired me to create this. Sometimes it is important to keep things, simple, light, and fun but some things are meant for more exploration, time, and energy.
There are so many ways you can apply this:
-Relationship conversations
-Family activity planning
-Meal planning
-Daily Motivational mantras
-Writing an actual story
-Journaling things you want to remember etc.
-Progress reports when you accomplish goals and want to catalog them.
-Goal focus cards that you can add pictures to and keep rearranging when the order of your goals shift.
On that Note: All of these activites in this workshop can apply to many scenarios and dynamics. It may help with:
-Self Care Routines
-Healing
-Dealing with a Wellness Matter
-Career Goals or Team Building
-Classroom Activities
-Relationship Work (Partners, Family, Friends)
-Or a specific relationship, project, or goal: nutrition, exercise, meditation, etc.
-Or a specific journey: new parents, caretakers, retirement planning, new career, writing a book, etc.
In closing:
These vision board / quest ideas are something you can enjoy as a fun, simple activities or they can be great resources for helping you dig deeper into the roots of things and nurture the rhythm and flow of all the things you can in the ways you can. Start your journey where you are and go from there a little each day, moment by moment, day by day, through the phases, seasons, and cycles of life! Release expectations. Focus on experiences. Show up perfectly imperfect #wildrootedmessesandmemories. This does not mean all is okay or acceptable, we still must be conscious of our presence and connections and how experiences shaped us. We have to actively do the work to be accountable for our energy while healing the energy that struggles within us. It is always a work in progress. We are students of life. It is about showing up for who we are now and how we write our story into everything we do. There are many things that may be out of our control or feel far from us, but all the vibrations are rhythms pulsing through this Earth. We feel that pulse in the beats of our hearts. There is so much energy to process, but the more we can do so with patience and compassion, the more those movements will ripple into the currents of the rivers, streams, and bodies of water of all that we are.
Be sure to read the Life is Succulent Page for info on how to support this workshop, the next steps for applying these ideas / guided offerings on social media + thru the newsletter, blog, and membership, and other activities and insights with the Life is Succulent Project!!!
Thanks so much for tuning in!! Truly appreciate your kind presence and support! Roots of Love, Lisa