Why visionmaps work for me and how to create your own!
I am a fan. Of creating visionmaps. Or making drawings of our visions. Of writing thank you notes for things yet to happen. Or speaking our innermost unbelievable dreams out to a trusted friend or admitting it in a journal. I´ll get to why I am a fan…
For those of you who always wondered what those visionmaps are all about, or maybe just love to sneak peak, here´s how I create a visionmap, step by step:
1. Choose a theme for your visionmap
Find something you´d love to have more of in your life. I use journaling time for the choosing and finding out. You can choose to make a map of anything you want: A visionmap for attracting a loving partner, for a fulfilling worklife, a specific dream, for more sense of quiet in your life, more energy, or, like I do every year, a visionmap for what you wish for the coming year. Basically you can make a visionmap about anything you want to strengthen in your life.
2. Spend 45 minutes browsing (not reading!) through magazines, cutting out images for your map.
You cut out any image that rings with your vision. Be greedy, just cut, so you have lots of images to choose from later!
The important thing here is to go for images that for some reason appeal to you. If you for example want a lifestyle with more healthy food, and are making a map for that, you don´t need a ton of pictures with green salads or herbal tea. Find some (and if you don´t have any, browse the net and print one or two out), then go on collecting pictures that associates with the feeling you get from eating healthy food. Perhaps pictures of children playing, a sunset, birds flying. Friends laughing. Choose pictures that give you a happy uplifted feeling, that will support your vision! Get the picture?
3. Spend the next 45 min´s laying out and gluing your cut out pictures to your piece of cartboard.
Have fun with it, and if you wish, leave some space for wtiring small messages or confirmations on the map. If you like, Add some details like a coloured frame or small drawings, glitter, or other decor. Totally optional. I also recommend adding a bright picture of yourself somewhere.
This year I went a bit bananas and actually photoshopped a painting by me onto a magazine front-page and printed it out. It looks totally real. I am actually curling my toes right now with embarrasment!!! But still, it makes me believe that of course those magazines (or similar ones) would feature my art this coming year, thereby making it more known to people. Something very valuable if you want to sell art. You dont´t have to go this far at all, it takes some time of course, but it does put a big smile on my face every time I walk past it!
(Finished Visionmap)
4. Hang your map!
You can hang it wherever you choose. In your bedroom, the living room, or on the inside of a closet so you see it everytime you get dressed. I personally love to have my map hanging close to where I work in my studio. But do make sure to hang it in an honorable place where you see it often, every day if possible.
(“Just knock”, print available here)
Why I am a fan?
I love this process for several reasons. It´s easy and playful and anyone can do it, with or without great creative skills. It combines logic with intuition. But mostly: it strengthens our belief in our dreams, thereby attracting those things in our lives. I have seen and felt how it works, over and over, in my life and in other people´s lives. I have taught it in workshops and seen the glow on people´s cheeks as the process works it´s wonders. It´s so simple, you just have to do it.
It´s not like a quick-fix wishing list. It´s a tool that assist you in the sometimes impossible task of finding and acting on your innermost whispers of what it is you are meant to be doing, eating, working with, dancing with, living with, in this life.
Of course it´s not the map itself that has magic pixie-powers to make your dreams come true. It´s you! By first creating (spending prescious time, energy, focus) and then watching your visionmap daily over a period, you tune yourself in a powerful way to those visions. Creating a visionmap is a powerful help to keep believing that things far beyond your current situation are actually possible. Yes, they truly are, for each single one of us, and for you too!
Down to basics:
What you need:
*Stack of magazines
* scissors, pens and glue (I prefere a stick)
* Piece of cartboard or thick paper
* 2 hours for yourself (or 2 x 1 hour, or whatever you can manage), good music and your favourite drink
Hope you´ll have a go, and if you do, I wish you a wonderfully playful process. I mean, it doesn´t hurt to try and you may just be surprised at the outcome!