A question I’m sometimes asked is: when gloomy images appear on an Intuitive Vision Board do they always spell gloom?
Having watched thousands of vision boards being made, I can confidently say you shouldn’t be perturbed by what you perceive to be a negative image.
Even when you are ambivalent about an image, I encourage you to include it anyway and allow its special significance to reveal itself, which many not be anything like what you first think.
Here’s what happened when three board directors attended a workshop together and a similar image appeared on two of their vision boards.
What they took to be disturbing at first turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Drawn to the light
Each director produced their own Intuitive Vision Board, I then coached them afterwards as a team. We discovered two of them had a similar theme of an eruption on it. One of these images permeated the entire backdrop to their vision board. The other appeared to explode from underneath the other images, pushing them upwards from the baseline like a volcano.
Neither of them had a rational explanation for this, which is what you would expect when the intuition directs the content of the board. Images for an Intuitive Vision Board arise from the unconscious, creating a bridge between what the creator currently associates with the image and something which is yet to materialise. In time the meaning of this eruptive theme would become clear to all of them.
Three months later the relationship between the three partners exploded apart. The two partners with the eruptive images on their vision boards were left reeling and in limbo while the third partner walked out of the business unexpectedly.
You could say the aforementioned images on their vision boards were negative portents. Or, they could also be viewed more constructively as a sign that something needed to surface to enable the company to move forward in a stronger, more coherent way. This is not negative, in my view, it is extremely helpful because while it remains hidden, it is gnawing away at the business from the inside.
Head versus heart
Why is the Intuitive Vision Board more likely to reveal this kind of information?
Because it is created from an entirely different mindset than the traditional approach to vision boarding – a mind that is quiet and empty of premeditative thought, devoid of caution, fears, and doubts that can stand in the way of a pure creation.
A vision board made by the Head is driven by the wants and desires of the Ego, as opposed to one guided by the intuition which is led by the Heart. Ego is the voice of “I want, I deserve, I am entitled to”, focusing on the needs of the self, with a small “s”.
Here is the master planner at work with a predetermined picture of what a successful life should look like. A vision board made in this way is more like a goal-setting exercise than a visioning experience.
If left to its own devices the Head will have decided in advance what should appear on the vision board and is looking for images to represent these ideas. It will go straight to the expensive car or the branded handbag although the satisfaction of these, once acquired, is short lived.
A vision board created from the Heart sources its inspiration from the wider field of infinite intelligence, beyond the scope of the rational mind. Randomly and intuitively you are drawn to colours, shapes and imagery that call out to you without knowing why.
To hear the quieter but potent voice of the Heart, above the noise of our heady 21st century lives, we start from a place of stillness. We want to be mindfully attentive and wholeheartedly present throughout this process in order to receive the vision waiting to reveal itself – as oppose to chasing after one we’ve already decided upon.
Most people attending the Intuitive Vision Board workshop arrive in a place of uncertainty. They know what they don’t want but not what they do – and sometimes they feel rather ashamed about this when in actual fact this the perfect place to start from. Everything you need to know will come to you in the moment in the form of a creative download, which manifests as a collage of images, the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
In my half-day workshops I use a number of preparatory exercises designed to relax the hold the Head has on our decision-making process and before creating the vision board itself. If not, the Head will be quick to step in at any opportunity and sieze control.
Heart v Head
I don’t claim to understand the workings of the Heart but I do know the more you attempt to pin it down, the more elusive it can be. However the Heart is more likely to express the spiritual and immaterial dimensions to being human. Our spark of individuality complete with quirks, imperfections and irrationality. It’s trajectory rarely follows a straight line.
The Heart is more concerned with the process of life and the quality of our experiences rather than material ownership. It is finely tuned to what we are uniquely here to do, activities which also contribute to society as a whole and not just lining our own pockets.
When it comes to making the Intuitive Vision Board, the Heart likes to peruse magazines at leisure. It loves to dawdle and is not looking for anything in particular. It favours pictures to words because they offer more scope for the imagination and are of a more poetic and mystical nature. If we attempt to grasp at the meaning of the images too soon and ascribe a literal meaning to what we see, the deeper wisdom of the vision board can elude us.
Rejoice at the negative images
When something arises on your Intuitive Vision Board that doesn’t look pretty, I say rejoice – and give it a life. Give thanks to your board for bringing it to your attention.
It may have a darker connotation and point towards what in psychotherapy is called the ‘shadow’ side. This doesn’t mean it’s negative, to be avoided or censored. It’s more likely a mystery yet to be understood and embraced – and blocking your destiny while it remains hidden.
This is precisely what happened to the company I shared earlier after the ‘volcano’ erupted. Once the two remaining directors had got over the shock of the third’s departure, they reshaped the company and it grew from strength to strength.
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