Visioning 2026: Manifest A Year That Feels Like You

In this session, recorded from an Insight Timer Live last January, I’ll guide you step-by-step through creating a 2026 vision board that feels both practical and meaningful. We’ll combine reflection, intention-setting, and gentle visualisation to help you: Gain clarity on what you want more of in 2026; Align your goals with how you want to feel; Create a vision you can return to throughout the year; Strengthen trust in your own inner direction No prior experience with vision boards is needed. This is a supportive space to slow down, reset, and intentionally design the year ahead. Bring a notebook, pen, or anything you enjoy using to reflect.

Transcript

Good morning, Good evening, Good afternoon, Wherever you may be, Whatever you may be doing, Hello and welcome to this practice, This is a recording of an Insight Timer live that i did at the beginning of 2026 to help people and myself map out their vision and their vision for the year it's a fairly long practice however i hope that it gives you a clear direction and understanding of how to go through the practice of putting a vision board together if you have any questions please do drop them in the comments or send me a dm and i'm very happy to engage with you on this all the best thank you and please let me know your thoughts not just on this but on all the other work that i do so without further ado let's jump into it and i'll stop my nattering so before we begin i want us to just begin to settle into this container into this space and i want to say one thing and that that is that this work is not about fixing yourself it's not about becoming someone new it's about remembering who you already are and outlining a year that reflects that authentic truth so let's drop into the practice and we'll drop into the practice by simply allowing everything to slow down and become present so find yourself either seated or lying down and just set the direction for your body to slow down just say that silently to yourself it's time to slow down and allow your body through your breath to just take the lead this is the first lesson in releasing control and just release it and as we do that i want us to find the spot in front of us focus in on it bring all your focus all your attention to it and i want you to identify and say it out softly gently to yourself what it is and where you are so as an example i'm looking at the top of a ruler and i'm in cape town south africa and what that does it allows us to just bring ourselves to this present moment what we're looking at where we are and it helps funnel the brain funnel the mind focus on the now the here the present what we're going to do is we're going to take a psychological sigh it's a deep breath in through the nose hold it at the top for a count to five take one gasp of air in and then an audible sigh out we'll do that twice i will lead to and on the third do it in your own time let's begin deep breath in through the nose hold it at the top gasping and side out straight away into it again inhale through the nose hold it at the top gasping and side out inhale again in your own time and with that find yourself dropping into this container of this practice leave as the song says all your worries at the door and just allow yourself that precious moment an opportunity to simply be right here right now and we'll just do one final deep breath in and then a slow exhale out we'll close our eyes and then on the exhale we'll open our eyes and we'll drop into the container and begin so close your eyes inhale through the nose and alongside and breath out open your eyes let's begin so what i'd like you to do i'd like you to think about 2026 and apologies if you don't already what you're going to need is some paper writing paper notebook printer paper pen pencils and also then access to the web or magazines magazines that kind of speak to you things that you like doing if you're a gardening person if you're a interior design person if you're a sports person grab a house and home gardener sports illustrated espn whatever it is just take some time now to just pull those things together but importantly the pen and paper i'll just give you a few moments to do that apologies i should have said that at the beginning right so 2026 what do you want to feel more of this year? Not the things that you don't want to do not what you want to have but how you want to feel how you want to feel as i said at the beginning this isn't a laundry list this is tapping into that authentic voice to give truth honesty to where you're going and perhaps it's peace that you want to feel perhaps it's enjoyment perhaps it's freedom connection groundedness there's no right answer here just really notice what arises when i ask the question what do you want to feel more of this year and write it down write it down what do you want to feel more of this year this isn't a you know an order it's really speaking to yes it is an intention and perhaps what it is that you're seeking just hasn't arisen as yet or perhaps it's just not really for you no matter how much you may want it you know perhaps the universe just has a different agenda for you i hope that makes sense so what do you want to feel more of this year just jot down no more than eight things so now once you've done that let's bring in some structure and i'm going to guide you through a few areas of life and as i name each one just notice what comes up for you you don't need to force anything just listen to your body and if it helps close your eyes place one hand on your heart one hand on your gut or wherever it is that you feel most connected to self i really feel what comes up when i go through these things so we'll start with health how do you want to feel in your body this year and i say vitality what does that feel like for you what does rest feel like just jot those down next relationships how do you want to feel with the people you love be that your family your friends your partner your spouse your husband your wife your boyfriend your girlfriend how do you want to feel with those people and what does connection feel like and a key one for me is what does being seen feel like how do you want to feel with the people you love what does connection feel like what does being seen feel like and if you want you can you know make a note for perhaps a bit later on to actually just split out who those people are maybe it's your family maybe it's your friends it's your work colleagues it's your partner whatever it is and then work and purpose how do you want to feel in your work whether that's a job whether it's a creative practice a hobby something else maybe you're building a boat redoing your house what do you want to feel like what does fulfillment feel like there what does contribution feel like how do you want to feel in your work what does fulfillment feel like and what does contribution feel like and then personal growth how do you want to feel as you move through this year how do you want to feel as you move through this year what does trust feel like when i say the word becoming what does becoming feel like strut those down and here i want to bring up something which a friend of mine spoke about i really watched 2025 and it did flow like that the seasons and themes of the seasons through the year so the first part of the year for me was about curiosity it was acceptance it was understanding i guess i closed the year with enjoyment and one just to think about is just really look at the seasons that you go through this year how do you want to feel as you move through this year what does becoming feel like now just take a moment to notice all the feelings that came up now which one really feels the most alive the most true perhaps just a single word what is the feeling that really spoke to you and that's your anchor that's your north star for 2026 you know if i just recount from my side you know to start off with i had joy connection presence love health peace curiosity openness and the north star for me is actually presence and openness openness has shown up quite a lot for me these last couple of weeks and i was listening to something i'll probably do i'm gonna talk about it openness was talking about you know what does it feel like to have an open heart and the way it was described to me was it feels like when you think about a person who you really love who you really care about partner child sibling parent that feeling that you have that's openness and i went even further to sit and say if you then look at any of the issues or the problems that you have and as you're wanting to address or think them through ponder them and go to that place in your heart and be open and see what that sounds like feels like the last question michaela was of all the feelings that came up which one feels the most alive which one feels the most true and that is your north star that's your north star for 2026 and here's the important part this feeling already exists within you it's not new okay you're not trying to create it from scratch you're not trying to become someone or something new or different you're simply remembering what it feels like to be home with self so let's move into a bit of academic here and just to kind of talk a bit about dare i call it the science of this you know i wanted to just share something with you something that neuroscience has taught us about how vision boards actually work and out there you'll probably find it there's um a talk by andrew huberman about this and you see our brains receive roughly about 11 million bits of information every second from all of our senses in our body but we can only consciously process about 50 of those bits so that's a big difference 11 million to only harnessing 50 so the question is how does the brain decide what to pay attention to and there's a part of your brain called the reticular activating system or RAS reticular activating system and that acts like a filter it simply decides what's important and what gets through to your conscious awareness and here's the key your RAS is shaped by what you focus on i'll say it again your RAS is shaped by what you focus on so a simple practical example you know if you all of a sudden not all of a sudden but if you like a certain type of car you know you see it on an ad or someone talks to you about it or you know you like a pair of jeans or trainers you'll typically notice that all of a sudden you're starting to see that color and that type of car although you know all over town you're seeing more people wearing those trainers you're seeing those jeans being worn by everybody on the street you're seeing this more often than you were before and so when you create a vision board and when you look at images that represent how you want to feel when you look at images that represent who you want to become what you want to experience you're essentially training your RAS to notice opportunities that align with that vision and you're not manifesting through magic through some dark art you're manifesting through attention and you're teaching your brain to see what is actually already there okay some of the practices that i do you know we talk about you know we started today about focusing in on something and a variation of that is to really bring intense focus and to start to see the layers that were always there in that object but you just don't see them because you know you scan a room you know you see a picture you see a bottle you see a cup with some pencils and some scissors in it but you're not picking up the detail that's RAS and this is the thing a vision board is not a wish list not about collecting images of things you want and hoping they appear it's about anchoring yourself in the feeling of your future and then taking aligned action from that place hence i spoke a lot about feeling not how much money you wanted in your bank account what car you wanted to drive i really spoke about feeling so in the next part of this practice we're going to drop into that feeling and we're going to let your body experience what 2026 feels like so that when it comes to you creating your vision board it's not abstract it's embodied let's use our breath to transition and what i want us to do is i want us to breathe in deeply through the mouth and hold and i want us to exhale long out from the mouth again so we'll inhale for four seconds and then really exhale for six and the next time we do it we're going to exhale and try to exhale for eight seconds what that does is just allows the brain to slow down some more so inhale for one two three four and a long exhale for four for one two three four five six inhale for one two three four and exhale for eight seven six five four three two one and breathe and what i'd like you to do now is to just close your eyes settle back into your body and what i typically do sometimes it's difficult to remember what comes up in a practice like this if you have another device a phone a tablet just turn your voice note on and when the questions and images that i speak about in the guided practice come up just say them out so that you can capture them so again just take a few moments to just go and set that up get another phone another device just hit record great if you're listening to me on headphones that way there won't be anything else other than your voice when it matters and let's close our eyes settle back into your body if you need to just stretch roll your neck place your hands on the inside of your knees if you're sitting down if you're lying down place them gently by your side if you're wearing glasses remove your glasses and now just feel the weight of your body feel the chair the floor the bed the mat let your shoulders drop soften your jaw and simply notice your breath notice it moving in notice it moving out notice your chest expanding feel your chest contracting now i want you to see yourself standing at the edge of a quiet lake the water is still the air is cool the air is crisp the sky is soft perhaps it's dawn perhaps it's dusk whichever one feels right for you you decide where you are you are alone here but by no stretch of the imagination are you lonely and as you stand at the edge of the lake i want you to see that the water reflects not who you are now but who you are becoming look into the water in the lake and see yourself but see yourself in 2026 allow the water to be a medium showing you what to become what do you look like how do you carry yourself what's different about your energy step into the water and as you do feel the temperature surrounding your feet coming up to your ankles up your shins to your knees it's cool it's refreshing it's grounding it's earth supported and with each step you move deeper into this version of self and as you move deeper i want you to feel into the emotion you identified earlier that anchor feeling whatever it was really bring that back and out now maybe it's peace maybe it's joy perhaps it's freedom whatever it is breathe it in so i'm going to do a brief breathing exercise and i want you to breathe in that feeling and i want you to exhale and release whatever you feel the opposite is of that feeling whatever you feel is constraining you so as an example you may inhale and say i am peace and exhale i release the need to force may inhale i am joy i release the need to perform i am free i release the need to control just take some time now to really connect with that inhale of the anchor feeling and an exhale of what doesn't feel true to that in your own time i'll watch the clock and i'll tell us and guide us through to the next day and if you just start to wrap it up last inhale and exhale with what your anchor is and what you're releasing and now as you stand in this water i want you to notice what's around you what does your life look like in 2026 and beyond see yourself in your daily life perhaps you're waking up in the morning where are you what does the light look like what's around you who's around you where are you see yourself where you're working what are you doing how does it feel as you're doing it and see yourself with your partner or with someone you love who are they what does connection with them feel like don't force the images just let them arrive and this is where i was saying just repeat to yourself out loud what it is that you're seeing see yourself in your daily life and as these images come notice how does this version of you feel the one that you're seeing in the lake how do they feel it's not just happy this version not just successful but truly how do you feel in your body do you feel light do you feel grounded do you feel expansive do you feel open breathe that feeling deeper into your body really allow it to capture let it land in your chest and let it settle in your belly let it truly sink and root in your bones from your head down to the soles of your feet really allow yourself to embody it this isn't a future feeling this is a present feeling you're not waiting for 2026 for this year to feel this way you're inviting it in now and let's take three deep breaths here and on each inhale i want you to draw this feeling deeper in and on each exhale i want you to release any doubt of it being possible so breathe in that that feeling is already yours and breathe out that you trust the process in your own time and say it out loud softly and gently to yourself so that you can hear it in your own words now let's begin to step back out of the water and as you do that carry this feeling with you you're not leaving it behind you're bringing it back into your own body back into your body into this moment into this day this week this month this year feel physically your feet on the ground wherever you are if you're lying down feel your legs against the surface that's supporting you feel the breath in your chest and feel the weight of your body i place one hand on your heart one hand on your stomach and remember that you are here you are home and bring this feeling out of this practice with you now what we'll do is we'll inhale through the nose and a gentle exhale it out through the mouth and open our eyes and bring ourselves out to meditation so inhale and a gentle exhale open your eyes bring yourselves back if you haven't already just take some time to just kind of note down jot down what came for you came to you from that practice as we move now into the final part let's just take some time now to feel and to notice how you feel perhaps you feel calm perhaps you feel present perhaps you feel open that north star that anchor feeling which we spoke about in the first part i lay that's what you feel like more now and if not whatever it is that you feel right now that is perfect and let's move into this final portion and this portion and we'll talk now about how to take this feeling that you have and anchor it into something tangible i. E. Your vision board so you can create a vision board digitally or physically but whatever it is what matters is it feels good and right and correct for you and there's no great secret or trick to this part to be totally honest we've done the hard work in terms of identifying what it is that we want now we're simply visualizing it you know the important part is that you're not choosing images of things that you want oh i want a 60 inch tv no you're choosing images that evoke the feeling you want to experience for example if your anchor feeling is peace maybe you choose an image of a quiet morning a moonlit still lake cup of tea or somebody meditating you know if your anchor feeling is connection maybe you choose an image of two people laughing walking hand in hand or simply sitting together in silence or having a meal together and if it was freedom maybe you choose an image of an open space a field just before or after harvest perhaps a person dancing freely smiling or a road stretching into the horizon the images you choose should make you feel something when you look at them not something you want to possess and don't just put images of the outcome include images of the process the daily actions the rituals if you want to focus more on your morning ritual get some of those images images of those moments that will help you get to that feeling you know if you want to feel healthier you know include an image of someone doing yoga or a salad or someone walking in nature and this just helps your brain see that the journey is just as important as the destination and to be honest from my perspective the journey is the best part for a very long time i was destination focused but i'm now most definitely journey focused and if you want you can add words or phrases that anchor you back to your intention i am enough i am open i am present i trust the process i'm home self for the capital s these act as reminders little nudges back to the feeling you're cultivating and what i would do is have that anchor feeling be the main headline for your vision board place your vision board where you will see it every single day it works if you're looking at it to put it as phone wallpaper background on your laptop in the bathroom above your desk inside your wardrobe somewhere that you'll see it every single day the more you see it the more your brain will filter the 11 million and look at the 50 which best take you to your vision this is almost a paradox once you've created your vision board you have to let it go and what i would do is do it and then the sighing exercise which we did at the beginning deep inhale through your nose hold it for five last gasp of air and an exhale do that once or as many times as you need to just leave and set that attention asail for the year you can't be attached to how it happens or when it happens you simply need to trust that by anchoring yourself in the feeling taking action staying open the universe will meet you halfway it's never about control it's about co-creation so you do your part by setting the intention and you let go and trust the process so in closing what i want you to take away from today and again thank you so much for being here and visioning is not about becoming someone new it's about coming back to who you already are and designing a year that reflects that truth the vision board is not a wish list it's a daily anchor back to yourself it's a reminder that you're not waiting for 2026 to feel the way you want it to feel you're inviting it in right now whether it's january 2nd january 3rd for you you're not chasing a future version of yourself you're becoming her him right now in this moment the last let's take one final deep breath in we'll inhale through the nose exhale through the mouth so deep inhale and an exhale deep bows to you all and thank you so much for spending this hour with me thank you for being here thank you for showing up for self thank you for trusting this process and thank you for your time i really wish you the best for this year take this feeling with you remember that remember always that you are seen the first and most important person to see you is yourself and remember that you are home