While preparing a talk on how to create a future worth living it made me think about why some vision boards don’t work when my method – the intuitive vision board – clearly does. And how frustrating it is when your wonderful vision board doesn’t deliver and you don’t know why.
The traditional vision boarding method has always been to set goals and to focus upon them until they are achieved. Using the left-side of the brain, which gives rise to motivations driven by avarice, we have only to look at the global state of affairs, even before Covid, to see this approach is no longer viable.
Albert Einstein
The great philosopher and inventor once said: “The Intuitive Mind is our sacred gift and the Rational Mind is our faithful servant.” It’s time for us all to use the whole brain if we are to sustain a future at all let alone one worth living. To do so we must fetch the Intuitive Mind to come out of the closet. The tool I am pioneering to achieve this is the Intuitive Vision Board. I’ve taken over 1,300 people through this easy-to-follow process, which is also described in my book Awaken Your Intuitive Vision. It produces a positive outcome every time.
Steve Jobs
When I was giving the talk a poignant moment occurred when I read aloud a chilling message attributed to Steve Jobs (Apple) when he was close to dying. Whether he wrote it or not, it’s still good wisdom. It demonstrates how the intellect can take over when it’s not kept it check by the more holistic perspective of the intuition. Me thinks Steve Jobs saw the light.
“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. In the end, wealth is only a fact of life that I am accustomed to.
“At this moment, lying on the sick bed and recalling my whole life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in, have paled and become meaningless in the face of impending death…
“Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth.
“The wealth I have won in my life I cannot bring with me. What I can bring is only the memories precipitated by love.”
Oprah Winfrey
Sadly many of the so-called visions and vision boards out there have a material focus in the way Steve Jobs describes. Falling shallow of the real thing, they are goal setting exercises masquerading as visions – a left-brain exercise using pictures to represent what it is you want and feel you are entitled to.
Oprah was one of the early adopters. But I heard her say she doesn’t make vision boards like this anymore. She doesn’t cut out pictures to represent what she wants to manifest in the form of a collage. She does it in her head.
Oprah admittedly has a spiritual bias. It’s likely when she wants something, it’s not just for her personal gain; it’s for the benefit of others too. Let’s face it. She probably has everything she could ever want already.
Ergo a vision board should not be about chasing after the things you want and don’t already have. That’s why Oprah has lost interest.
What are you chasing after?
The perfect body? For what purpose.
The perfect home? You’re lucky if you have a roof over your head; many don’t.
The perfect partner? No such thing. Several could do the job nicely but not all at once.
The perfect lifestyle? The grass is always greener.
The perfect holiday? Start by being thankful for the last weekend you enjoyed. Some people don’t have this luxury.
Besides, just because you want something doesn’t mean you’re entitled to it. Do I sound like your mother? Well there’s truth in it.
Get out of your own way
Creating an Intuitive Vision Board (IVB) is a way to attend to your heart’s desires and the desires the Universe has of you. It’s a creative meditation in which you take time to listen to your wiser, soulful self.
It’s a slow, gradual process. Not something you knock out in a hurry to get it done. Or you’ll miss the point.
To make the most of your one wild and wonderful life, it helps to receive direction, guidance and revelation that goes beyond your own counsel. These are the signs, symbols and metaphors that your IVB contains.
A vision board should not be about craving more things. Not about lusting after someone else’s lifestyle. You are already a unique and beautiful person.
Who you are is not the issue. The issue is how to cultivate more of your god-given capabilities, to uncover more of your hidden propensity, and align with your individual mission for your short walk on this earth.
Your big picture will emerge when you get out of your own way. When you refrain from predetermining what it should contain. When you stop pre-programming the outcome. Goal setting has its place but when it comes to visioning a future worth living, it must wait for instruction from your higher, intuitive self.
Mozart didn’t use goal-setting to create magnificent symphonies
You won’t create a magnificent life that way either. Mozart recognised there was a much greater intelligence at work than his own. He expected it, allowed for it and took the time to commune with it.
To head straight to constructing the ‘to do list’ when you’re feeling under pressure to do something, is not the answer. Creating a vacuum and space for your vision to come to you is a much wiser approach.
Mozart didn’t receive recipes for cupcakes
His downloads were extraordinary musical scores because he was a musician. That was his thing.
Yours will be your thing, which may include recipes for extraordinary cupcakes. And may also include factors that have never, ever occurred to you before but with a little stretch of the imagination and perhaps some further training, you have every capability of producing.
Can you tolerate living with the uncertainty in the meantime?
Can you live with not-knowing what will happen next without leaping in to fill the gap?
It can be uncomfortable sitting in this empty space because you’ve always been expected to know where you’re going, what you’re doing and why you’re doing it because that’s how the Rational Mind works.
If you’re the kind of person who believes each is in total control of their own destiny then you may feel inadequate when things are not happening quick enough or turn out the way you’d planned.
The Dalai Lama didn’t feel inadequate when driven out of Tibet
He certainly didn’t plan on that happening. Nor would he it have appeared on his vision board if he’d been in the habit of making one. But did he consider for one moment that his powers of manifestation had failed him? That his spiritual vibration was too weak to attract the best in his life? Or that he had some karma to repay? I don’t think so.
When a crisis occurs, it is often beyond our control. How we use the crises as fertile manure to turn a situation into one that grows trees that bear fruit is what’s important. The Dalai Lama is a wonderful role model.
Your vision is in danger of being myopic if you limit yourself to outcomes you’ve conjured up with your rational mind only. This greatly reduces the field of possibilities for you and is boring too.
The old-fashioned, end-gaming, goal setting vision board is the voice of the ego.
The Intuitive Vision Board is the way of love.
Next steps
Next Intuitive Vision Board workshop & coaching session BOOK HERE.
For more information about the Intuitive Vision Board method VISIT HERE.
Mary Nondé has pioneered the intuitive vision board since 201O. She is the author of ‘Awaken Your Intuitive Vision – unlocking possibilities you never knew existed AVAILABLE ON AMAZON or to order from your local book store.
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