My Christmas last year was spent circling over Chicago in a plane, unable to land because of fog, and ultimately flying back directly where I came from — Memphis (Columbia Regional Airport flies to the Memphis hub).
While I was grumpily eating Burger King in the Memphis airport, I missed a very cool family moment — my sister (who managed to make it home) and my mom ended up making vision boards. Vision boards are essentially collages with visual representations — pictures of yourself where you’re healthy and happy, magazine cut-outs of places you want to visit, a snapshot of a person who possesses attributes you admire — of goals you want to accomplish and things you want to be reminded of year-round.
I was talking to my sister recently about her vision board, and she told me that most of the things she had put on her vision board had actually had come to pass. And it got me thinking:
The longer I live, the more I see that we have the power to manifest what we want in life. If we work hard, put positive energy out into the universe and trust that our lives are unfolding exactly as they should, there is no way we can be defeated, even if seemingly bad things happen to us. I don’t spend enough time appreciating the present. I have spent too much of my life brooding about the past or worrying about the future, and I refuse to do it anymore. I’ll be the first to admit it — I have played the victim card before. And it really doesn’t change anything or make me feel better. So new strategy: Anytime I want to feel sorry for myself or play victim to what is happening to me, I am now trying to see the positive in it, roll with it, and keep my eyes focused on enjoying life NOW. As a good friend said to me recently, “You could die TOMORRROW. Do you really want to spend your last days on Earth worrying?”
I can’t tell you how much happier I have been lately, just living in the present. It was incredibly hard for me to do at first — bad habits are hard to kick — but the more I try to practice this every day, the better I feel and the more natural it becomes.
I feel like a vision board might really help me not distract myself with the past or future — it will manifest positive energy while still forcing me to live in the present. Think about it– what if I created a visual representation of all that I want to accomplish, place it somewhere where I see it constantly, and every time I see it, I visualize it happening and put good energy in the universe? I see it as a very powerful tool.
So, in the next few days, I am going to create a vision board, and I am going to make sure to include elements that relate to the project I am working on. Every day I am going to remind myself what my goals are and where I want to end up… and I am going to live every day in the present, focusing on making those goals happen.
The other goal that I am starting this week and continuing through my month of creativity expands off of the idea of the vision board. This month, I am surrounding myself with inspiration. I plan on seeing as many plays, exhibits, and concerts as possible. I am going to read as many books as I can. I am finally going to put something on the walls of my house that have been empty for a year.
I’m off to a good start — I saw a Japanese dance exhibition today, and right now I’m off to see “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” which is the musical that we have been designing costumes for for the past few weeks at work (I work in a costume shop at a performing arts college).
I think one of the best ways to tackle a new goal is (as others on the message board have mentioned) to set small, managable goals that you can slowly turn into positive habits. So my mini-goal is this: surround yourself with inspiration. Anyone taking part in the experiment can do the same — invest in a fruit bowl and some new cookbooks, check out some books on meditation, or buy a new piece for your altar. I challenge you to think of a way to surround yourself with positive inspiration for whatever goal you’re tackling.
Starving Artistry 
Hi Megan,
Great post! I’ve been working with vision boards for quite some time and they do work and are so much fun to make. You might also consider an Alchemy Box, another powerful manifesting tool (described in Sonia Choquette’s Your Heart’s Desire). The key is to work at making it, look at it daily and then let the expectation go of actually receiving ‘it’–that allows for you to be in the present moment.
Come visit me when you get a chance. I’m a creativity coach, professor, yoga teacher and write a blog, ‘The Practice of Creativity’: http://micheleberger.wordpress.com/
Best,
Michele Tracy Berger
Megan, thanks for sharing. Catching up on your blog is something I look forward to. Mike and I use the “pictures on the fridge method” and it works pretty well 🙂
@Michele, your blog is very interesting as well. You convey your passion for creativity well. I wish you well.
I can relate to the challenges of living in the present. I’ve spent, and continue to spend, most of my time thinking about where I’ll be in the future. My theory is that people are rooted either in the past, present or future. ‘Past’ people lament what has passed, ‘Present’ people have no cares or worries, and we ‘future’ people spend our time plotting and planning for the someday that never comes. That’s my theory anyway.
The grass is always greener on the other side too. I hear about your exploits with traveling around the country with your belly dancing troupe, and think what an interesting life you are leading.
But then I read and see you have all the same concerns and worries as the rest of us. I guess “Deep inside we’re all the same” is really true.
To our happiness,
– You’re crazy uncle John