The purpose of creating a vision board is to give focus and clarity on what you want in your life. It gives you a focal point for activating the power of visualization.

After completing a vision board, look at it to see what emotions it brings out in you. You should feel positive, excited and charged with energy to make your goals happen.

Alas, some people will look at their board and not feel these emotions. They may feel they are not worthy or that something always happens to block their dreams from coming to fruition. They may also doubt their ability to visualize positivity into their life.

What is the power of visualization?

Visualization is a mental technique that uses your imagination to make your dreams and goals come true. What many people don’t realize is that everyone visualizes every day.

Every time you imagine how something will turn out, from the dinner your making to a conversation with someone, you are using the power of visualization. However, in these cases, you are not doing so strategically. You are letting your imagination lead the visualization.

The habit of negative visualization

Sadly many people visualize bad things happening, rather than good. They imagine burning the meal they worked so hard to create. They imagine conversations going badly. They imagine all the possible things that could go wrong in any situation. And, they have done this so often, without realizing what they are doing, that it has become a bad habit.

Visualizing or imaging the worst creates not only more unwanted things coming into their lives but also brings stress and depression.

As an example, let’s do a thought experiment. Get a piece of paper and a writing implement, the do this exercise:

1. Imagine a situation going totally wrong.
2. How did you feel? Write down the emotions that come to mind.

That wasn’t very fun, was it?

How to visualize correctly

Now let’s turn that experience around.

1. Imagine the same situation, but this time with everything going right.
2. How did you feel? Write down the emotions that come to mind.

That felt a whole lot better, didn’t it?

If you want to bring good things into your life, you need to develop the habit of imaging the things that could go right in any situation. Making a list of emotions you want to feel every day, is a good place to start. This will help you break the bad habit of negative visualization, and incorporate the new positive habit.

Every time, you start to visualize doom and gloom, tell yourself in a loud internal voice, “Stop Now!” This also works really well if you say it out loud in front of family, friends, and strangers. You will want to stop that bad habit of visualizing failure, pretty darn quick.

How does a vision board help you with positive visualization?

Your vision board is a visual representation of the positive emotions and outcomes you desire. When you spend time gazing upon it, these upbeat emotions seep into your subconscious mind. By regularly looking at your vision board, and practicing positive visualization, you can break the habit of negative thinking.

How to activate the Theatre of the Mind

The well-known book, Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, introduced the concept of the Theatre of the Mind. This section of the book in the most relevant to the power of visualization. Here is a summarized version of what Dr. Maltz discussed in his book.

1. Find a quiet place to totally relax.
2. Think about your brain as being a movie theatre and you are the director. A director is able to get serious emotions out of his audience by adjusting the lighting, the sounds and the overall look of the scene.
3. Now direct your own mind’s thoughts. Pretend you are in the seats of a theatre watching a movie of your life on the big screen. You see your life going perfectly, you are achieving everything you ever wanted. Adjust the sounds and lighting as needed. Pump up the volume, make the screen crystal clear.
4. When you have the movie as you want it, get up from your mental seat and see yourself stepping into the picture while everything is still going perfectly. Now view it as if you are looking out into the world and you are feeling great. You are the champion of your own perfect life.
5. Hold that vision and go back to the seat in the theatre of your mind.
6. Now gaze intently on the screen and turn it into thousands of powerful beams of light. Bring those beams towards you and allow them to enter your body, filling you with the power of your vision. The image you saw on the screen now flows throughout your body and you feel powerful and unstoppable.

If you have trouble at first, don’t worry. It might take practice, but you can do this. Use your vision board to help you create your mental movie. It is your tool for improving your daily visualizations.