Vision Board

This podcast discusses making a vision board. Exploring the reasons and benefits of having one. Looking at building your dream life and knowing what you want. How we may never have considered what we want because of the busy world we live in and in order to achieve our dreams we need to know what they are.

Transcript

Vision board.

A vision board is a display of pictures and words that are important to you.

Making a vision board can be a game changer and I would strongly recommend that you make one.

It can be a board or book with lots of pictures stuck to it or a collage made on your computer.

Whichever format you choose,

The purpose of a vision board is the same,

To sit down and think about all the things that you value and also the things in your life that you desire.

You can use this technique to visualize your dream life.

Alternatively,

You can write a list if you do not have the time or materials to make a vision board.

Thinking about the things that are important to you also helps you to identify the things that may have little value to your life experience.

The first vision board I made was a life picture.

I thought about what my dream life would look like in a finished picture.

At the same time,

I realized that I had never previously considered my life as a priority.

I was just working,

Working,

Working and hoping to get rich like most people,

Thinking that I wanted a dream house,

Car,

Holidays along with the rest of material trappings.

When I thought about it,

I realized that even if I had several million pounds,

The dream mansion that I thought I wanted would probably be a nightmare.

I would need a gardener and a housekeeper.

There would be constant numerous maintenance jobs to organize and lots of work that I didn't want to face.

All those people and different duties would need instruction,

Payment and interaction and all for the sake of my bricks and mortar.

Because a big house screams out money,

It would be a target for burglars so I would need to hire a security firm to protect it.

Managing all these things would use up a lot of my precious time and that's not how I want to use my time at all.

Instead,

I realized that one of the most important things for me would be to see the sunrise and see the sunset from a cozy home with a fantastic view.

My family is of utmost importance to me and I wanted to work less so that I had more time to support and love them.

I wanted to travel and explore the world and even work as I traveled.

I wanted my work to be of service to others by writing books,

Teaching courses and holding talks.

This led me to realize I wanted a job that I could do while moving around and that I was currently doing work that was not in alignment with my desires.

Thinking about my life picture helped me to realize that I was living without any real direction.

I was letting life carry me downstream at will while thinking that I wanted a lifestyle that I actually had no desire for.

Creating my life picture opened my eyes and I made myself another vision board on my computer.

I went online and found photos of experiences and material things that I wanted in my life.

I used photos of words and pictures of people expressing emotions and I began a very specific collection for the life I truly envisioned for myself.

I organized the pictures into an album that I could play and even added inspirational background music to it.

I could now press play and sit back watching and enjoying the things in my dream world.

I was always saying when I get time I'm going to do.

The vision board surprised me because there were so many things I'd said I was going to do.

Things like cycling in the forest,

Something so simple and free.

It made me realize that unconscious living robs us of the simple joys in life.

I came to realize that most of the things that were really important to me were not unobtainable at all.

The biggest benefit of the vision board was helping me to see all the things in my life that I didn't want or that I needed to change.

It was so exciting to see my hopes and dreams in front of me.

It was almost as if my brain breathed a sigh of relief.

Ah,

So this is where we want to go.

The strangest thing was that I found myself taking ages on thinking about what my dream house would look like and where would it be.

I had a few imaginary million pounds to spend yet I couldn't find my house.

I was flicking past mansions saying no,

No,

No,

Next.

I had originally started with a picture of a big sprawling mansion with a pool but I changed it and I now visualized a quaint house on the edge of a forest,

Balconies off the living room and bedrooms.

The house would have a wood burning stove with gorgeous wooden floorboards.

The house would have to accommodate my elderly mum and the location would be near to where we already lived so I could easily visit family members.

This was an eye-opener.

I had been unconsciously dreaming about living in a mansion for my whole life and now I didn't even want it.

The rest of the vision board included my dream job,

How many hours I wanted to work in a week.

I also had to seriously consider how much money I would need to be happy and comfortable.

It was a serious consideration.

Excess for no reason is not good in any respect.

People who have an excess of money are often big charity givers because it feels wrong to have excess without purpose.

It brings misery.

The vision board helped me to evaluate my purpose on earth and how I would like to give my time in work.

This also helped me to see how much money I needed to achieve my dreams and it was much smaller than the amount I had imagined.

The mind-blowing magical aspect of it was that I could also see what tiny steps I could make now in the right direction.

This was not such an overwhelming task considering that my whole life had been spent being pulled from one direction to another without any real navigation taking place.

Even if I had achieved nothing,

I knew I had nothing to lose and that I was going somewhere instead of nowhere.

It was like being lost and seeing a signpost from my home county of Yorkshire and taking small steps towards that direction.

I might be 100 miles away but along the journey I might pick up a lift,

Catch a train,

Going in that direction,

Meet inspirational people and most probably arrive in Yorkshire.

The signpost is required for the destination to be met.

Without the signpost I would be heading off in all directions,

Occasionally going the right way but mainly going the wrong way.

The vision board is a signpost and without it we don't know where we are going in life.

Creating a vision board demands serious thought and I was surprised at how hard it was to make decisions about my life.

It may seem like a pointless task to look for a home when you don't have the money to buy it yet but it is not.

It clearly shows you a projection of what you desire and makes you aware of your dreams in their actuality rather than as a passing whim.

It is extremely important to know why you want the things you add to your vision board.

This clarifies that you are serious about what you are creating.

If you have put five Lamborghinis on your board without thought then you need to establish why would you really want five Lamborghinis?

When would you use them and what for?

Does owning five cars fit in with your job,

Travel adventures and family life?

Would you feel irritated if they became dusty from lack of use when you went away?

The whys help you to understand your goals more clearly.

Maybe you just want them so you can post an Instagram story telling everyone that you made your dreams come true.

If this is the reason,

Write that reason down next to the picture of the cars.

This is absolutely fine providing there is a reason that makes sense to you.

We consciously create our reality.

As creators we made the life that we have now.

Every decision we made was acceptable to us and now we are here through our own unconscious creating.

If we are creating anyway,

Why don't we do it deliberately?

Your vision board may also evolve as you change.

I found myself adding and taking things away from my board.

For example,

I originally wanted to own a canal boat and spend several months of the year living on it.

I changed this to be able to rent a canal boat whenever and wherever I wanted.

I did not find the thought of caring for and maintaining a boat joyful.

Canal boats need their bottoms treated regularly,

They have engines to service,

There are rents to pay and boating licenses to pay.

I just wanted the pleasure of living on a boat,

Not the time consuming ownership.

Of course you may be totally different and get real pleasure from lovingly caring for your boat,

But your vision board is not for anyone but you.

Your joy is unique to you and following your joy is the only path to walk.

There are many rich people on earth who own too many things and spend a large portion of their life maintaining them.

Some people own properties all over the world,

But you can only live in one place at a time.

And if when you are away your time is spent organizing care of a property and staff,

Then this is a big price to pay.

Your experiences are precious and they are yours alone.

If phone calls about staff and property fill you with dread,

Then rent the most stunning houses and pass them back to their owners when you are not there.

Wealthy people may tend to themselves last or even never,

Putting material things before themselves.

Making a vision board is brilliant whether you are a billionaire or broke.

We cannot build something that we are unclear about and the vision board needs to be unlimited.

Dream big and don't cut corners.

You will be able to learn so much about yourself and the culprits that are taking away your joy will be exposed.

What exactly would you buy if you had all the money in the world?

What would really bring you a deep level of joy and peace?

Take the time to really explore how a week in your dream life would be.

Where would you be waking up and what would be driving you to get up?

See yourself and your surroundings.

Feel which experiences you would really enjoy and imagine yourself doing them.

How would they fit in with everything else?

Can pleasure and work be tied together and can you benefit others as well as yourself?

You may want to go skiing and tie this into real quality family time with your loved ones.

As your vision board progresses,

You can see at a glance how things complement each other or whether things completely clash.

You may want to move to Thailand while your partner may want to live in France.

How would you plan your dream world and what sacrifices would you make?

As soon as you begin to do this,

There are so many questions that arise within you.

I found that I didn't enjoy going to gatherings of distant family members such as christenings just for the sake of going.

I started to politely decline invitations simply because I knew I was spending my time there waiting for the event to be over.

This does not serve you or anyone else.

If you feel like this,

You can send a beautiful gift to the event with all of your love and best wishes and gracefully bow out,

Explaining that you are not available to attend but that you are grateful and thankful for the invite.

This is a loving practice,

Yet we feel guilty about saying no.

Life is very beautiful and we are available to experience great things and we can choose the way we use our precious time.

Doing things out of duty happens all the time,

Yet our duty is ultimately to ourselves.

Creating your vision board may wipe out half of your current life events,

Or you may find that your life is largely very happy.

Whatever it may be,

A vision board can offer that truth.

Living our truth is exciting and liberating.

No one else can interfere with this vision because they do not see the world or feel it from the inside of you.

Your perception is unique and your essence is speaking within you.

If you feel joy,

Your deep sense of self is expressing approval.

If you feel miserable and a deep sense of negativity,

Your deeper self is speaking to you and telling you that you are out of harmony with your truth.

Some feel that it is selfish to want the best for themselves and I was also once part of that illusion too.

There is such a huge confusion between self-love and selfishness.

If you put yourself first,

You are equipping yourself with the feel-good energy that is desperately needed to enable you to interact positively with others.

Doing something purely for yourself and no one else is a responsible act of kindness.

How can we give ourselves to our families and our jobs if we are burnt out?

When we try to help others when we are exhausted,

We are giving with resentment and it feels like a robbery.

Imagine giving away the last of the food in your cupboard to feed a weaker person.

You will both become weak and die of starvation.

However,

If you eat the food first,

You have the energy to go out and seek food in abundance to bring back and feed the weaker one,

Making them strong too.

Teaching each other to take care of ourselves first is essential and a vision board is an instant snapshot to see the things in life that make you blossom.

If you come across someone who believes you are selfish for putting yourself first,

Then look at them with love and compassion.

Know that they are resentful of the feeling of lack within themselves.

They are waiting for someone else to give to them,

Not knowing that the only way they can fulfill that need is through themselves.

Having a vision board benefits everyone in your life because they feel your excitement and see your drive.

You will be creating an incredibly good example of how to live your life,

Which you will be able to share with others.

Conversely,

If our children see us working our fingers to the bone with very little reward,

They may learn that this is how life must be.

We all learn from the actions of others and consider that this must be a normal and acceptable form of behavior.

Establishing our dreams and taking small steps towards them is deeply satisfying.

Surprisingly,

Most people never consider what they really want in life.

Most people just settle for how things are.

We believe that change happens first and then we go with it.

But the reality is that change comes from truly desiring something and then taking tiny micro steps towards it.

Creating your dream vision board will totally change your life and eliminate things that are not serving you at all.

You don't need to tell anyone about it and it's not a good idea to ask anyone's opinion of it.

Other people cannot see your vision the same way that you do,

So they are not qualified to offer you advice.

Only you know your dreams and although you may not have started questioning what they are,

I can guarantee that your purpose is sitting there waiting for this day to come.

Talking to others about your dreams can make you doubt your ideas or allow them to imply that your dreams are too big.

But this is not the truth.

Most people look for the things that can go wrong in a situation and if past inventors listened to the naysayers in life,

We would not be taking trips on airplanes or having Skype conversations with people on the other side of the world today.

Our vision is unique and providing that we are seeking pure joy and not discounting anything for ourselves,

Then we will strike gold.

When we work towards a dream,

The journey we take from the way ends up being the true enrichment of the whole experience.

You will find that the journey enables you to meet the most extraordinary people,

Discover places and situations that you would not have found and also to personally grow and evolve.

Knowing that you are walking your own path in life is very satisfying.

I was prepared to start my own small steps by offering my work for free and that true love for my mission began to pay me back.

I appreciated the financial stability of the jobs that I had fallen into as they allowed me to follow my dreams.

Some people look at the size of the dream and just give up,

Yet it is the smallest steps which require you to take the greatest leaps.

If we aim for our dreams,

Only focusing on the future and giving no quality to the present,

Then of course we will not move forward.

We must consciously work on our dreams with the assurance that we do not need giant leaps or to have it all at once.

We do not need to cheat to get there or feel resentful of others who are doing well.

Celebrate others and know that the timing is also relevant.

The universe is opening up for you with the precise timing to serve you.

All you have to do is be allowing.

Let life flow with your intention and realize that some things may appear to go wrong,

But looking back you can see that they were necessary diversions.

Know that your dreams are coming,

But you cannot know the exact trip,

Mile by mile.

Life would be dull and worthless if we knew everything that was coming.

Instead,

Life is unpredictable and even very helpful.

You will see signs from the universe helping you out on your journey to your dreams.

Some things may materialize quickly,

Filling you with deep faith.

Some things may not materialize and then you may feel that you no longer want those things and that a change of direction is needed.

It may even come to light that you want absolutely nothing and that you feel deep joy from giving service to others.

This is the way it is for some and owning nothing can also bring a deep inner peace.

Regardless of who you are,

It is important to at least know what you want from life.

You owe yourself that knowledge.

You can also have most of the things on your vision board right now.

For example,

I wanted my forest house and balcony for the experience of being in nature.

I realized I could have the experience immediately.

Close to me there is a forest with woodland lodges,

Wood burners and balconies.

Out of season the price to rent one for a week was ridiculously cheap.

I could have my vision experience right now,

Many times a year.

I wanted to go hiking and that did not even cost money so I started hiking.

I realized it was all about experiencing instead of owning.

Working out the exact financial cost of your vision board is a major eye-opener and it has to be done.

Work out the differences between owning,

Renting and leasing things.

See what you can have immediately and have it right now.

Take it,

It's your life experience.

Whether you wake up in a mansion owning it or renting it,

Both experiences feel exactly the same.

If you drive a Porsche that you leased on the same road as a driver who owns it,

You both have the same experience.

I could visit a huge stately home and have a picnic in the grounds and while I'm there in that moment,

It is my moment,

My grounds,

My happiness.

If the cost of things is out of your budget for now,

Then at least you can work out how much money you need to generate.

The main thing to remember is that all of this will take you in the direction of a life of bliss,

Which is something we can all have.

Most people never get to see their hopes and dreams because they are just getting by.

This getting by is just running towards the grave and missing the amazing experiences of life.

You can have it all.

Reviews

Very uplifting. I've been struggling with how to go about making a Vision board and so much of what you have explained has helped me think about it differently. It now seems less daunting. Thank you for your time in giving this gift to others. 💞

Amazing talk. I have done many vision boards but her talk opened up a world of experiences that I have never thought of before. I will focus on achievement based on experiences and not possessions. NAMASTE

Thank you for your word of encouragement on how to seek what I want. Love your view on it. Vision board is a reminder that what we put to work in our thoughts can happen!

Such words of comfort and inspiration for a concrete way to build my own life happiness. Thanks Belinda!!

Very helpful & inspiring words. Thank you .

So inspiring!

Inspiring. Thank you Belinda 🙏✨

Great exploration of vision boards. I particularly enjoyed Belinda’s thoughts on ownership vs leasing or renting. The concept of experiencing things and not saving your dreams for a later time when you can afford it, was also eye opening. Time to make another vision board and ask myself essential questions (why?, how?, and what are my options?).
Thank you 🙏 ❤️

This was perfect for me. I’ve done vision boards in the past and mainly, I manifest. Sometimes I don’t even know what I want, I just want. This talk gives perspective on understanding what, why and how. Truly a good discussion that others do not venture near. This provides clarity on identifying purpose. Thank you 🙏🥰

Love this. Thank you ❤️⭐️🙏

Loved listening to this as I created my vision board!

What a wonderful talk! Wise, funny and kind. I'm inspired to start work on my vision board straight away! Thank you x

Very informative and a new perspective about vision boards I had not thought about. I recently made a vision board and now see what I have on it with a whole new vision! Thank you!

I have thought about creating a vision board of some type for many years. I only had a few items I could think of to put on it, though, and those were/are so strong and durable that I have never been concerned about forgetting them or losing my way. This talk, however, is causing me to reconsider that and once again look into creating a vision board - probably something on my phone so I can glance at it throughout the day as needed.

An interesting aspect of this talk is in calculating the financials involved. I have done this for my own dreams and plans, and while I felt it extremely important to show myself it is feasible to achieve, others have said that crunching the numbers somehow finished the "mystical quality" of the vision, or makes it mundane somehow.

But that's the point, isn't it, in a strange sort of way? People tend to discount where they are, always looking ahead. When they reach that point that used to be the horizon, they don't even notice because there is a new horizon still ahead. Calculating the cost and feasibility on one's vision is a mindful way of working towards manifesting one's dreams. It creates a positive, confident inner sense that the vision can be realized AND how to do it. Without that knowledge and active participation in creating this reality, a vision board may well forever remain a series of pretty pictures on a wall or in a file folder.

It seems to me this may well be the difference between romanticizing a vision and bringing that vision into one's own reality. Giving birth to anything is a messy, sweaty, often painful process, but it is almost always more than worth the effort afterwards. The vision board in my mind is a stage of pregnancy - it's like an ultrasound image of the life waiting to be born. The question is whether that life, that vision will be given that chance by the hard work necessary to do so or not. And if math is involved, so be it. (A hard and messy task for someone like me with learning challenges in mathematics - but I will still find a way to make it happen!)

Thank you so very much for sharing this with us here in the Insight Timer community. I see you and the light within you. 🤲🏻❤️🤲🏻

Refreshingly brilliant. Completely inspired to create my own vision board. Thank you 🙏🌸🌿

When the student is ready, the teacher appears. Thank you