Beltaine – Perfect Time to Create Your Vision Board!
Part 1 – Vision Board – Printable Template and Instructions
At the bottom of this article, you can find a Printable Template for the Vision Board that I have created some years ago for our dear customers as well as Instructions on how to create one. We have used this template with great success. Think about what would you like to include in your life experience. Collect images, descriptions and other objects representative of what it is you like to manifest. Follow the instructions described on this pages and most importantly have Fun!
The Vision Board Template is created for you in accordance with Feng Shui layout.
For high-resolution images, click on the link: Spell Pages Gallery or on the Images at the end of this article.
Part 2 – How to Create a Vision Board that Actually Works (Q & A)
Q: “I made a few vision boards over a period of time, but things didn’t really appear. I think this is all mumbo-jumbo that doesn’t really work. Do you have any suggestions?”
A: There may be two reasons why your first vision boards did not succeed:
- Unrealistic Expectations and unawareness
- Lack of a clear understanding of what must be done in order to achieve your vision
Let’s look at the first reason.
If, for example, you are studying to become an IT professional, then on the Carrier sector you would place an image of the company you would like to work for. Your income section should contain a realistic salary that is applicable to your current level. In other words, you won’t put $500K if you just graduated and are applying for an entry level position. Unless you are planning to invest in real estate, stocks, etc.
Your dream home should also be in accordance with the income level that you set in the income section. You don’t want to set up an achievable income level and then have your home image in the home section be dramatically higher. You may have the chance to move into that house. But if your income will not be enough to support and sustain that home, then you will lose that house as quickly as you received it.
So, the bottom line is that your vision board sectors should be related to one another and to the lifestyle you are trying to create.
Let’s look at the second reason of why some things don’t happen.
If you want to make one million dollars in on year, then you must absolutely understand what you are willing to do in exchange for this one million dollars.
That is why you have to sit and think, imagine and visualize and only then start to work on your board.
(Note: To improve the performance of your Vision Board, please use the Vision Board Template that I have created for you in accordance with Feng Shui layout.)
Let’s take my daughter as an example: while in high school, she wanted to get into an Ivy League university. So, we made a list of things she had to do to accomplish this. She could easily get into any state college and there wasn’t really much she had to do for that.
But for an Ivy League, there was a load of things she had to do. In order to accomplish her goal she had to study a lot harder, make sure her GPA would be a 4.0 and receive at least a 2000 SAT score. She had to work some hours for a non-profit and do other things that she wouldn’t even think of doing if she was only applying to a state college. When she gave a lot of her time and energy in exchange, she received what she asked for.
And this is what I call a fail-proof vision board. Know exactly what you want, and know exactly what you want to give in exchange.
In other words, don’t put Princeton University in the education sector if you are not prepared to do what needs to be done in order to get into the university (unless of course family members are alumni, but that’s a different story).
If your board is clear and everything is accordingly set, then make sure of the following
- Don’t cling to it. Put it where you can see it, and think “this is a picture that makes me happy.”
- Don’t get frustrated that you don’t have it yet. Detach yourself from outcome as best as you can. (This is very important!)
- Take a picture of it so you can look at it outside of its physical location. You could store it on your cell phone and flash on it while in line to pay your light bill. Or you can save it on your laptop at work and view it while pretending to analyze a sales graph in a meeting. Per the points above, this is not so you can become obsessed by the images, but rather to give you a pleasant glimpse into the future that awaits you.
Q: “In the middle of collecting the images, the question popped up in my mind: ‘Isn’t this just my ego talking? How will I know if I’m honoring my deepest self? Is this intention my TRUE! LIFE! PURPOSE????’”
A: Here we go again…
Well, you can spin your wheels for years trying to discover an Academy Award-Winning Life Purpose, or wait until you’re “totally at peace.” Don’t set this trap for yourself. The simple action right in front of you is all you need to do. (And sometimes, it might be deceptively boring!)
If you can’t hear your deepest self yet, then just start somewhere. Maybe your ego’s desires will open up a deeper path.
Q: “I intend to rid myself of all of my anger and addictions and stop letting my ego run the show and never have emotions again.”
A: I hate to break it to you, this is not going to happen.
You don’t have to focus on your “stuff” just to prove that you’re not in denial.
Remember this: energy flows where attention goes. When you include your “issues” in your intentions, then you are really saying, “Let’s really give this my energy. Let’s dredge it up, shall we?”
Focus instead on the things that you DO want. That way, the obstacles, and issues will naturally come up for release at the perfect and right time.
Q: “I made my vision board, but it looks so unrealistic. With today’s economy and downfall, I am not only having constant chatting in my head about that but now every time I look at the board, the inner voice gets even stronger. Should I take the board off, work on myself and inner chatting and then put the board back?”
A: That inner chatting is never going to stop. We are constantly being bombarded by the media, friends, neighbors, family, etc. about the economic crisis around the world. And since the economy is about money and money is directly connected to our survival instinct, we will always pay attention to the economic and financial news. The bad financial news will always raise fearful emotions in us.
This fear is raised by survival instincts and, as I said, money is directly connected to it. And the level of fear, in other words, its intensity, does not depend on where you are on the financial ladder.
Constant outside bombardment, from the media and others, always pulls the trigger that starts that internal chatter. None of us are immune to it. Many of us try to fight it and, what’s worse, wait to begin new projects or endeavors until the battle is won.
However, we can never win this battle. New-age positive-thinking teachers are promising that as soon as we change our thinking and implant new thoughts into our minds, rewiring the neuro-passages in the brain, our lives will change. We will never have any problems, never feel any fear, money will be falling down from the sky, we will be perfectly healthy, and our soul mate will appear on a white horse (or white limo) just under our window.
The problem here is that as long as we are human beings we will always feel the emotion of fear, especially where it is directly connected to our survival instinct. When our survival is threatened (even a small news report about the financial crisis can be perceived as a threat), fear comes to play! Why? Because we are humans. Yes, we are conscious of ourselves, we have to become spiritual, we have to get above ourselves and blah, blah, blah.
But I have yet to see a person who is so enlightened and spiritual human that he can feel good and happy if he has a kid, an almost empty fridge, and a week and a half until he gets his paycheck. And trust me, in this case, all of his enlightenment will go straight to… guess where. And this is okay. This is not bad. Screw all of this enlightenment if we are unable to feed ourselves and our families. The survival instinct will always win. And if our brain perceives a threat to our survival, then it will send us the emotion of fear as a warning sign so that we can take care of the threat before it’s too late.
Fear is actually our friend. It helped us survive as a species.
I was discussing fear with a Princeton professor the other day. Actually, it was more like me whining about being scared of so many things. And I am curious about whether or not he thinks that we, as human beings, will ever be able to conquer fear.
“Rita,” he said, “we don’t have to get rid of fear. We’re still on this planet because of fear.”
The other day I overheard a conversation between two gentlemen, who both sounded like they were in executive positions in a financial company. The longer they spoke, the more passionate their conversation became. It was, of course, about the state of the global economy. And they were worried about future of the company, about future of their families, employees, and etc. Their passionate conversation caught my attention at first, but I tried to ignore it. Then I convinced myself that I was just curious to hear the rest of the story and continued listening. I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t react to it at all. It was just curiosity, right? Wrong! In no time at all, my inner chatter began: O, well, if those guys are panicking, then what will happen to my business? And they are in the financial world, they know better. OMG, what am I going to do? What will happen to my net worth? What will happen to me? I won’t be able to go through another financial downfall. No, not me. What am I going to do?
However, this is all a mind game. You are the center of power in that game. It is entirely up to you whether or not you want to participate. Even if the whole planet is in agreement that everything is falling apart, you can still expand. You can still generate and regenerate. You can still create and re-create. This is true wealth! You no longer look outside of yourself to define your reality. You choose your reality now. You define your wealth and abundance. You and only you decide whether to shrink or to expand.
Regardless of the economy, you will eat food; regardless of the economy, you will take your kids to school, regardless of the economy you will share your soul. Regardless of the economy you will wake up each day and decide that this is a great day. Make the decision to have more than enough. Don’t shrink and hide your light. Shine even brighter and share yourself with others. Don’t deny yourself the gifts of life. You are the one who creates flow. You are the one who generates wealth.
Always be AWARE that you are the CENTER of power in your life.
The point here is that we will never be able to prevent the emotion of fear, especially when our survival is at risk. But we have the power to catch it and stop it.
Q: “I intend to get clear about the next steps I’m taking in my life with health, lifestyle, my relationship, and career. Oh, and I also want to lose weight, make more money, move somewhere else and write a novel.”
A: I call this “Attention Splatter.” The problem with it is this that when you’re splattered, you never experience completion or success in ANYTHING.
Here is what’s wild, though. When you focus on one single intention, oftentimes the other things you want will begin to manifest effortlessly. Or you will come to realize that you no longer want all of those things!
This is why I prefer a vision board that is structured with sectors, where all of the sectors are compatible with one another.
Q: “I’m confused. I have seen some vision boards that have lots of different goals on them, but I recently heard that you should limit yourself to just one dream per board. Should I be making a different board for each of my goals and dreams?”
A: Learning how to make a vision board is a personal experience, and no way is better than another. In reality, you, like the rest of us, are probably working toward more than one dream right now. Since it is important to have each of the major goals that you are aiming for represented on your vision board, many people choose to make one board with several goals on it. This is fine, but don’t get carried away. If you put too many goals on your board you won’t be able to focus your attention on any of them long enough to make any real progress.
Q: “I didn’t read your email until a couple of days after the Beltane. Is it any other day that I can do it?”
A: – You can do it on your birthday, New Year’s Eve, or any other significant event that starts a new cycle.
– If you are working with one particular area of your life. For instance, Work & Career.
– On a New or Full Moon.
Q: “How will it happen?”
A: By engaging in the activities surrounding your vision board, you convert passive thoughts and desires into active and solid ideas and goals. By making your vision board a part of your daily life, you put movement behind those ideas and goals. Now, instead of thinking of all the things you don’t have, look at your vision board and think of all the things you will soon have. Train yourself to think positively. That is the beginning of a life destined for change.
Q: “How does science support this?”
A: At the base of the human brain stem, in between the medulla oblongata and the mesencephalon, there is a small finger-sized control center called the reticular activating system (RAS) that sorts and evaluates incoming data. Your RAS is responsible for filtering all the incoming information that your brain receives and it also acts as a receiver for information that is tagged as important.
A simple way to conceptualize the RAS is to think of it like a radio. You are surrounded by radio waves from various stations and your portable radio can pick up those channels, but only one at a time. You have to tune your radio to a specific frequency of your favorite radio station in order to receive it properly. Your RAS is not much different in this regard. Imagine you are in a meeting room talking to several people and out in the distant corner of the room you hear your name. All your focus gets diverted in the direction that you heard your name because that bit of information is tagged by the RAS as important to you. Your RAS is responsible for having the ability to sleep through the noise of traffic outside your room, but waking up suddenly at the smallest cry from your infant child. Another example of the RAS at work is when you go and buy a brand new car and then suddenly you notice much more people around your city have that exact same car.
According to Hans Morvec, the principal research scientist at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, the human brain can handle up to 100 trillion bits of information at any given time. With all that information coming in, how does your RAS know what to filter? Your RAS is naturally programmed to prioritize information that is necessary for survival, like listening for a particular sound of an oncoming vehicle when walking close to a street. The RAS can’t distinguish between a real event and a contrived reality, however, and we can exploit this weakness to program it to seek out stimuli in our environment that resonate with our goals. The process of creating a vision board is one of the best ways to program the RAS. It programs the RAS to pay attention to certain things in your environment that are in frequency with your goal or vision, in much the same way as you are able to pick up your name being mentioned in a conversation on the other side of a room while talking to others. This selective attention filter makes you aware of daily things that can help you achieve your goal and it’s your job to take action on those opportunities when they present themselves.
I hope it wasn’t THAT confusing.
Always yours,
Rita Digilova (April, 2014)
(Please click on the both images below to download them in high resolution):
