If you’re one of the many that feels like 2020 has been a dumpster fire so far, then I have good news for you: The astrological new year starts today. Albeit in the midst of one of the craziest moments of our lifetime! So I’m choosing to see this moment as an opportunity to hit reset and refocus on where I’m going in 2020.
This year, I didn’t do my usual routine of picking a word or writing down a bunch of goals. Instead, I did something I’ve never done before: I made a vision board.
It actually feels kinda funny to me that I’ve never done this because when I was a teenager, I used to make this stuff all the time. I just didn’t call it a vision board. My girlfriends and I would get together and tear out quotes from magazines, photos of Brad Pitt, cool girls, and wedding dresses and paste them onto huge boards that we’d hang in our rooms. Our 14-year-old visions of what our lives would look like.
This is not that vision board (sadly?). But, it’s one that provides a bit more guidance. Because if you’re anything like me, sometimes you like to have a bit more of a template for these things!
In doing a little research into various ways to approach the process of making a vision board, I stumbled upon the idea of using a Feng Shui Bagua Map to guide the placement of items on the board. In case you’re unfamiliar, Feng Shui teaches us that the placement of color or elements (water, fire, earth, metal and wood) according to a map called the Bagua creates an optimal environment for ‘qi’ (chi) energy to flow through a space, thus creating a flow of abundance, health, and balance.
Borrowing from this ancient Chinese practice for my own vision board collage, I used the Bagua as a guide to visually focus my flow of energy for the year ahead. 
Based off of various traditional Baguas, I created this more focused chart for our Soulfull Voyage winter retreat. Each square in the Bagua speaks to different aspects of life and each square is assigned a season. You may choose to go big and create a board that focuses on every aspect, or you can select the elements designated to a specific season. You may use these seasons to focus your energy throughout the year on different areas of your home or vision board.
I find it incredibly appropriate that the Bagua for Early Spring is ‘New Beginnings and Family’.
In creating my vision board, I used these baguas to guide my placement of items, but not to the point where it’s all exact. Being a visual person, I also wanted the board to flow aesthetically as a collage! You can see where I put images related to Travel in the bottom right, following the Bagua, but my lower left corner is actually more focused on Career than Wisdom/Self Knowledge.
To put this all together, I pulled out a pile of old magazines and just started pulling out everything that I responded to visually or textually. Then it’s all about pulling out photos and words that feel right to you in really honing in on your true vision for yourself. While this vision board is for 2020, it’s really for beyond this year too. I would say I see this as a board guiding me into the future for the next few years.
As a side part of this exercise, I had sat down and written out words and phrases that were coming to me for this time in my life. These are areas for me to focus on, manifest, practice and create. Then I sort of categorized them into a few areas:
EXPANSION / creating, going big, opening to possibility and new directions
ABUNDANCE / giving, playing, getting in flow, redefining joy
VENTURE / risk, growth, grace
I tried to find ways to reflect these words and actions into my board in different areas, but I will also use them as grounding words to return to as I travel through the year. Am I leading my life from these areas? Am I making decisions and acting or reacting in ways that feel aligned with these words?
While the circumstances around this crazy time in history are horrific, I think we can seize them as an opportunity to better ourselves in so many ways. So if you’d like to hit the reset button with me, find some old magazines this weekend, and start crafting in whatever way feels good to you. There are no rules to these boards – you can use this Bagua method or your own intuition to create something beautiful that will help guide you through the coming months and years. Finding ways to focus our energies into positive areas like this is what will get us through. Wishing you all health and hope, and I’ll try and keep these posts coming if you’re finding them helpful!
