How to Make a Vision Board - An Art Therapy Activity
How to Make a Vision Board (An Art Therapy Activity)
Hello friends, today, I'll show you how to make a vision board that can set yourself up on a good path for this new year.
A vision board is usually a collage of images or words that represent what you would like to have or experience in the future. Whether you’re new to art, or you have some experience, you are welcome to try this out.
I’m Youhjung and I have been helping people through art therapy for years and I am sharing this with you so that you can make therapeutic art for your own self-care.
Make sure you're in safe, quiet place where you will not be disturbed during the creative process. Also, keep your phone on silent or turn off your notifications.
If want to watch the step by step video tutorial where I share the activity in detail you can see it here:
Materials You Need
The materials you need are:
Paper (preferably larger than 9x12”; I used this)
Magazines and printouts of photos, words, etc.
Scissors (I used this)
Glue
The Steps
Now that you are ready, here are the steps:
Pick out the images and words that represent what you would like to experience or have in your new year (or near future)
Cut and paste them onto paper, arranging the photos/words in however way you want to
There is no wrong way to do this. Have fun with it!
I love this because it's easy to do for any levels, it's fun/enjoyable, and it really works.
So why create vision boards? Here are the benefits:
Benefits of Making a Vision Board
You can visualize our life
Visualizing is a powerful tool we can use, we all have the ability to visualize or create images in our minds. This mental image influences our feelings, our thoughts, our actions. And our actions create results in our life.
Our brains cannot distinguish between what's actually happening in our lives versus what's happening in our minds. When we imagine a calm, peaceful place in our minds, our body thinks we are actually in a calm, peaceful place, even if in reality we're surrounded by chaos.
Athletes like to use this visualizing technique to perform better and achieve impossible feats. So vision boards help us visualize what we want in out life and actually make it happen. (Because our thoughts, feelings, and actions start to sync and align with what we visualize in our minds, in a subconscious way.)
You can gain clarity
Vision boards also help you gain clarity when you're stuck. A lot of the times when we're stuck, it's because we don't know what our big goals are and why we're going towards it.
So vision boards give you more motivation & inspiration because it gives us a clear picture of what it is we're going toward.
You can feel creative and feel positive
Vision boards also tap into your creative side, and improves our moods and our sense of positivity because it focuses on things in life that light us up, that gives us energy & spark.
When I created my first vision board, I was so surprised to find that a year later, almost all the things I put inside my board actually manifested in real life. I realized the power of our minds and the power of images.
I find that vision boards tend to manifest very physically - so I also want to encourage you to focus on how you want to FEEL and the experiences you want to have.
Possessing physical things can give us a good feeling. But these feelings are often short-lived.
On the other hand, experiences can have a lasting impact on us, and the good feelings we get from them are quite profound because we can tap into those feelings again in the future.
Reflective Writing
After you have finished creating your vision board, it is a good idea to reflect on your work. If you’re ready, grab a pen and journal.
You can write down your answers to these questions:
Why are these things that you included in the vision board important to you?
What’s the most important thing in your vision board?
How would you feel when these things actualize in your life? What would be different?
Even when we are getting clearer about our vision for ourselves, it's important to let go of the details about how it will happen and let go of some control.
In order to receive more good things in life, we have to open up more, release control, our tight grip, and surrender to the flow of life.
So I want to leave you with this affirmation:
"I trust in my unfolding,
I touch the inner peace within me
and feel gratitude,
knowing that everything is unfolding
for my highest good."
I hope you enjoyed this exercise. Make sure to pin this or bookmark it for whenever you need to come back to it in the future. Also, share this post with a friend or family.
If you want to go deeper with therapeutic art and actually learn how to use it to help other people, I’ve got you! I created my Therapeutic Art Facilitation School (TAFS) course for professionals (artists, coaches, therapists, etc) who want to incorporate therapeutic art to help people, without going the expensive, long, or inaccessible route of becoming an art therapist. Join me in the TAFS course and gain the skills to facilitate therapeutic art today. No specific background or degree required. I’ll teach you step by step. You can see the TAFS course details here.
Thanks for joining me today - I’ll talk to you next time!
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* This post may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of those links, you won’t pay anything more, but I’ll receive a small commission, which helps me keep making videos & writing blogs for free. Thank you!
