The Science Behind Vision Boards
and the Law of Attraction
By Tristan Loo
www.SynergyInstitut
eOnline.com
A vision board is a simple yet
powerful visualization tool that activates the universal law of attraction
to begin manifesting your dreams into reality. The concept of the vision
board (also known as a goal board, goal map, or treasure map) has been
around for generations, but it's gained a renewed interest and popularity
after success expert John Assaraf related his story of using vision boards
to achieve his dreams in the best-selling DVD documentary The Secret. (1)
A vision board is simply a visual
representation or collage of the things that you want to have, be, or do
in your life. It consists of a poster or foam board with cut-out pictures,
drawings and/or writing on it of the things that you want in your life or
the things that you want to become. The purpose of a vision board is to
activate the law of attraction to begin to pull things from your external
environment that will enable you to realize your dream. By selecting
pictures and writing that charges your emotions with feelings of passion,
you will begin to manifest those things into your life.
The Law of Attraction
What exactly is the law of
attraction? The law of attraction states that we attract into our lives
anything that we give attention to, regardless whether it be positive or
negative.
From a psychological view, the law
of attraction can be best explained by the information filtering system of
the brain known as the reticular activating system (RAS). Vision boards
serve the role of programming the RAS to tune into external stimuli that
can help us move closer towards our intentions.
At the base of the human brain stem,
in between the medulla oblongata and the mesencephalon, there is a small
finger-sized control center called the reticular activating system (RAS)
that sorts and evaluates incoming data.3 Your RAS is responsible for
filtering all the incoming information that your brain receives and it
also acts as receiver for information that is tagged as important.
A simple way to conceptualize the
RAS is to think of it like a radio. You are surrounded by radio waves from
various stations and your portable radio can pick up those channels, but
only one at a time. You have to tune your radio to a specific frequency of
your favorite radio station in order to receive it properly. Your RAS is
not much different in this regard. Imagine you are in a meeting room
talking to several people and out in the distant corner of the room you
hear your name. All your focus gets diverted in the direction that you
heard your name because that bit of information is tagged by the RAS as
important to you. Your RAS is responsible for having the ability to sleep
through the noise of traffic outside your room, but waking up suddenly at
the smallest cry from your infant child. Another example of the RAS at
work is when you go and buy a brand new car and then suddenly you notice
many more people around your city have that exact same car.
According to Hans Morvec, the
principal research scientist at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon
University, the human brain can handle up to 100 trillion bits of
information at any given time.4 With all that information coming in, how
does your RAS know what to filter? Your RAS is naturally programmed to
prioritize information that is necessary for survival, like listening for
a the particular sound of an oncoming vehicle when walking close to a
street. The RAS can't distinguish between a real event and a contrived
reality, however, and we can exploit this weakness to program it to seek
out stimuli in our environment that resonate with our goals. The process
of creating a vision board is one of the best ways to program the RAS. It
programs the RAS to pay attention to certain things in your environment
that are in frequency with your goal or vision, in much the same way as
you are able to pick up your name being mentioned in a conversation on the
other side of a room while talking to others. This selective attention
filter makes you aware of daily things that can help you achieve your goal
and it's your job to take action on those opportunities when they present
themselves.
How to Make and Use Your Vision
Board
Your personal vision board is only
limited by the extent of your own creativity. Some of my students have
produced simple vision boards and others have made vision boards that
could probably sell at an art show for hundreds, if not thousands of
dollars. Having artistic ability is not a prerequisite for creating a
functional vision board however and the procedures I've outlined below can
be used by anyone.
The general elements that a
well-designed vision board should include are:
- Visual. Your subconscious mind works in pictures and images, so
make your vision board as visual as possible with as many pictures
as you can. You can supplement your pictures with words and phrases
to increase the emotional response you get from it.
- Emotional. Each picture on your vision board should evoke a
positive emotional response from you. The mere sight of your vision
board should make you happy and fuel your passion to achieve it
every time you look at it.
- Strategically-
placed. Your vision board should be strategically placed in a
location that gives you maximum exposure to it. You need to
constantly bath your subconscious mind with it's energy in order to
manifest your desires quicker than you hope.
- Personal. Negative feelings, self-doubt, and criticism can damage
the delicate energy that your vision board emits. If you fear
criticism or justification of your vision board from others, then
place it in a private location so it can only be seen by yourself.
Supplies Needed:
- Foam core board (recommended) or poster board
- A large assortment of magazines. You want to make sure that these
are in color. You can go to various businesses or hospitals to ask
for their old issues.
- Glue. I prefer the dispenser type tape rollers, commonly used to
mount photos because they are clean and won't damage your pictures.
- Scissors
- (Optional) Color inkjet or laser printer
- (Optional) 3 1/3” x 4” or larger printer labels. I use Avery
#5164 mailing labels that work great.
- (Optional) Internet access
Step 1—Compile your pictures.
Start by going through your
magazines and compiling all the pictures that you can find that are
relevant to your goal. Don't evaluate the pictures or start pasting them
onto your board. Just stack them into a pile. If you are internet saavy,
then a much quicker method that I do myself is to use an internet search
engine to find good pictures that I can use for my board. You can either
print the pictures out on paper and then glue it to the board, or print
the pictures out onto a self-adhesive label so that it becomes a sticker.
This is the preferred method because it is takes much less time to do and
you can pinpoint your pictures using very good technology at your hands.
Make sure that each image that you put on your board resonates with your
heart and makes you excited at the mere look of it. It's also important
when selecting pictures to include anything that is congruent with your
goal, such as any changes in your life that might result from obtaining
your goal. So if your goal is to have a six figure income, then select
pictures of a lifestyle that is congruent with your six figure income.
Asking yourself the following
questions might help you design a congruent vision board:
- What would you do differently when you realize your goal?
- Where would you travel?
- Where would you live?
- What would you wear?
- What things would you own?
- What kind of vehicle would you drive?
- What would you do for work?...Or would you work?
- Who would you help?
Step 2—Sort and Cut.
Go through your pile of pictures and
select the ones that impact you the most emotionally. Cut the extraneous
material away from the image.
Step 3—Arrange and glue.
Start arranging your pictures
creatively on your board. Don't worry about being artistic—that's not
the point. The point is that your board should resonate with your
emotions. Arrange your pictures in a way that gives you an emotional
connection to your vision board. After you are satisfied with the
arrangement, glue all your pictures in place. Additionally, you might want
to add writing or drawing on your vision board if you feel that it would
better resonate with your emotions. A feature unique to my vision boards
is that I also put two labels on the bottom of board that read: “Date
created: [today's date]” and “Date Manifested: [blank]” This lets me
know how long my vision has been gestating since its creation and also
every time I look at my vision board, not only am I emotionally charged
with the pictures, but I also feel an overwhelming sense to see it
manifested to completion.
Step 4—Strategic positioning.
The most important part of having a
vision board is having it in a strategic location that gives you as much
visual exposure to it throughout the day. For most of us, this is in the
office, but if that is not possible or appropriate, then try your living
room or your bedroom. Some people I know mount their vision boards on the
ceiling above their bed so that it is the first thing they see when they
wake up and the last thing they see when they go to sleep. If you are
sensitive to what others might say of your vision board, then be sure to
keep it in a safe area where only you will see it. Negative criticism or
justification of your dreams can kill the energy that your vision board
releases. As Brian Tracy states, “What they don't know, can't hurt
you.”(7)
Step 5— Update your vision
board.
Your vision board has to inspire
you. It has to charge you with renewed passion everytime you look at it
and over time and as you progress closer towards your vision, you might
find that some of the images or pictures on your vision board don't really
carry as much emotional impact on you as they did before. When this
happens, you'll want to update your vision board with new fresh images
that do inspire you. You're vision board is not a finished piece of art
after its initial creation. It's a dynamic piece of art that shifts and
changes as your vision shifts and changes. Therefore, if you find your
level of passion that your vision board gives you is growing weaker, then
update it to bring fresh new emotions to it.
Celebrity Examples of the Law of
Attraction
Here are three examples of famous
people who have used the techniques of visualization to activate the law
of attraction in their lives. Although not all of them specifically used
vision boards to get what they wanted, the applications that they used
were similar in function.
John Assaraf's Vision Board.
Successful entrepreneur and author,
John Assaraf, brought the age-old concept of a vision board to the
mainstream public by relating his story of it in the motivational
documentary, The Secret. In May of 2000, John was working in his home
office inside his beautiful new home in Southern California when his
five-year old son came in and asked him what were in the dusty boxes in
the corner of his home office. John told him that it contained his vision
boards. His son didn't understand what they were, so John opened one of
the boxes to show him. When John pulled out the second board from the box,
he began to cry. On it was a picture of a 7000 square foot house on top of
six acres of spectacular land that he had seen and cut out from Dream
Homes magazine in 1995. It was the exact house that he had just purchased
several weeks prior—A sure testament to the law of attraction at work.
Bruce Lee's Letter.
The late martial arts legend and my
own personal role-model, Bruce Lee, understood the power of the law of
attraction. As a struggling entrepreneur and actor, Bruce sat down one day
and wrote the following letter to himself: “By 1980, I will be the best
known oriental movie star in the United States and will have secured $10
million dollars… And in return, I will give the very best acting I could
possibly give every single time I am in front of the camera and I will
live in peace and harmony.” In 1973, months after Bruce's untimely
death, the blockbuster movie Enter the Dragon was released in both the
United States and China, elevating Bruce to the level of an international
star. According to Jack Canfield, that very letter that Bruce wrote to
himself is hanging up on one of the walls at Planet Hollywood in New York
City.(8)
Jim Carrey's Check.
As a struggling young comedian
trying to make it in the make or break city of Hollywood, Jim Carrey was
just about ready to give up his dream of becoming a professional actor and
comedian. He had just performed at an open mic session at one of the
nightclubs in Los Angeles and had been booed off the stage by his
audience. He sat by himself at the top of Mulholand Drive and looked out
at the city below him—the city that held his future success or failure.
He then pulled out his check book and wrote himself a check for $10
million dollars, post dated it for Thanksgiving 1995 and made a note on
it: “for acting services rendered.” He then carried that check with
him in his wallet everywhere he went from that day forward. By 1995, after
the success of his blockbuster movies: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Dumb
and Dumber, and The Mask, his contract price had risen to $20 million
dollars.
Conclusion
Vision boards are an important tool
in your success tool box. They are cheap to make and their potential value
to you is immeasurable. Figure out what you want in your life and then
commit yourself 100% towards making that first step of creating your
vision board and activating the law of attraction to pull your dreams into
reality.
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