Whether or not you live with mental illness and similar challenges, positive mental health improves your stress levels and allows you to maintain healthy relationships with loved ones. Taking care of your mental health helps you achieve your goals and have an overall positive outlook on life. One way to improve your mental health is by creating a vision board to help you think out loud about your feelings.
Overall, putting together a vision board can help you achieve a clear and confident mental state. This article will teach you how to create a vision board and what it can be used for.
What is a vision board?
The reasons for creating a vision board vary from person to person, since each individual has different goals and ambitions they want from life. One may choose to make a vision board to help him or her figure out what he or she wants out of a career or a relationship.
Overall, vision boards can help their makers learn how to retrain themselves emotionally. There are a number of other reasons to create one. Vision boards are specific to each individual.
A study found that a group of small business owners that made vision boards for help in achieving business and financial goals were more confident than those that didn’t. The study found that 67 percent of business owners think that seeing pictures of their goals on a daily basis helps them achieve success.
By viewing motivating images and words on a routine basis, the subconscious is trained to think a certain way about a specific goal, including improving mental health. A vision board should be full of daily affirmations to inspire and motivate an individual to attract a positive attitude and outlook on life.
Theme or Topic of Your Vision Board
Mental health issues can cause you to feel like nothing matters, confused, sad and angry, as well as cause you to retreat from the people and activities that once made you happy. If you are suffering from these feelings or other mental health issues, vision boards can be a galvanizing tool to help propel you back into your happy place.
Pick a topic or theme for your board. In this case, you may choose to pick happiness. A happiness vision board is full of all the pictures and words that put a smile on your face. Whatever the topic you choose, a vision board should reflect how you want to feel about yourself and life.
When choosing your topic, be creative. Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box. You may choose happiness as the theme for your board to help remind you to have a glass half full perspective each day, but don’t be limited by the topic you choose. Free your mind and fill it with anything that brings you happiness, not just what others think should bring you happiness.
Think about your personal and professional goals and where you see yourself in the short-term and long-term. Use those thoughts to come up with a topic for your vision board. Perhaps you are miserable at work and want to find a new job.
Create a vision board that includes all of the qualities you want out of your profession and include text, photos and images that inspire you to reach that goal. Or perhaps you’ve been stressed out by your home life and want to learn to become a more peaceful parent.
In any case, create a vision board that encompasses the traits you admire in other parents that you want to implement for yourself. Vision boards are not a one-size-fits-all approach, so looking within yourself and figuring out what’s most important to you is the best place to start.
Materials Needed to Create a Vision Board
To create a vision board, you are going to need certain materials. The board itself can be a poster board, corkboard, pinboard or tri-fold board.
If you don’t have the ways and means of getting a board or simply don’t have space for one, you can also use a sheet of paper. A smaller vision board is better for sticking to your bathroom mirror or on your kitchen backsplash by the coffee maker.
Round up your old magazines, because you’ll want to flip through each one to find any images, photos, graphics or text to add to your board. Using old magazines helps keep the cost of the project to a minimum.
In the event that you don’t have any spare magazines on hand, go to your local drug store or bookstore to buy some. A total of three to five magazines should suffice.
Aim to use a mix of magazines from different categories like fashion, travel, beauty, food, sports and news. This helps you get a nice variety of images, text and photos to design your vision board. You can also print these elements from websites online.
You also need a pair of scissors to cut from the magazines. Depending on the type of board you choose, you need tape or a glue stick to attach the paper clippings to the board. If you are using a corkboard, pick up tacks or pushpins to hold your pictures and words in place.
As you cut out the images and words that inspire you, place them into different categories before you place them on the board. Once you have all of your clippings together, think about where you want to affix them and begin to layout your dream board.
In addition to the magazine clippings, you may choose to add ribbon, stickers, glitter and other crafting materials. This adds an additional cost to the project, but can help dress up your vision board.
Pick the Right Space to Display Your Vision Board
Where you display your vision board matters. Since you are using your vision board as a tool to inspire yourself, be sure to place it in a highly-visible spot that you will see on a daily basis.
Before you hang your vision board, give it thought. What room or rooms are you most frequently in? The bathroom and bedroom are good places to start. This could be on the front of your bedroom door, in your home office, in the kitchen, on the fridge or anywhere that you interact with on a frequent basis.
The more often you come into contact with your vision board, chances are it will have a greater impact on you. If your board is relatively small, you may choose to display it on your nightstand, on your dresser or even on the backside of your front door.
Related Article: Common Misconceptions About Mental Health and Mental Illness
There is no wrong place to hang a vision board. If you are motivated to achieve your goals, place the vision board in an obvious spot. You don’t need to study your board every time you walk by it.
A quick glance as you walk by may be the only motivation you need throughout the day. If you spend the majority of your time at your job, consider bringing your vision board to your office and placing it on your desk, if it feels appropriate.
You can also make two vision boards — one for home and one for work. Remember, visualizing your goals is the first step to making a big change. The more you see it, the more effective it will be.
Track Progress on Your Vision Board
By now, your board is full of thought-provoking and meaningful imagery and phrases. The vision board can be the force that drives you to success, which is why it is important to track your progress.
Moreover, this helps you stay motivated on the days when it feels too hard. If your vision board consists of a goal that is timely, develop a calendar as a supplemental way to help you stay on course.
In case your vision board is about taking a vacation to a new destination, use a calendar to remind you to put away money each week to save for your trip, when to book your travel and when you will actually be traveling. This could be over a span of three months or however long it takes to reach your goal.
If your vision board is a less timely goal, such as working to change your outlook on life, a calendar will be a less effective way to track your progress. In addition to your vision board, start a journal. Write in your journal each day.
Writing in a journal is the best way to check in with yourself and ensure that you are staying inspired by your vision board. Mental health should be taken seriously. Allow yourself as much time as you need and talk to your doctor for additional resources.
Tracking your progress also means making adjustments as you go about your journey. This may mean taking away images and words, as well as adding new pieces along the way. Be flexible and open-minded to the change you are creating in your life.
Related Article: Beginner’s Guide to Self-Care
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