Learning
A Heart-Centered Family Vision Board for 2013
by Karen Schachter, contributing editor
http://www.dishingwithyourdaughter.com
I love New Year’s! A blank canvas on which to paint my dreams, hopes and imagined future! Full of possibilities and potential!
Unfortunately, if you're like me (and many people!), these inspired ideas and ideals get quickly forgotten in the hustle and bustle of life, as old habits come creeping back in. I don’t mean to sound like a negative Nellie: I believe in change (I’m a therapist and a coach—my career is designed around my belief that people can change).
It’s just that often the ways we try to create change often aren’t as effective as we’d like. So today I’d like to share with you a new way.
I call it a heart-centered, right-brain family vision board.
I love this approach because it taps into our intuition, our feelings, and our heart, rather than just keeping our plans and ideas up in our head. It creates a visual reminder of the feelings and experiences we want to bring into our life.
I also love this exercise because it’s a perfect way to involve your children in creating a family vision for 2013, and working together to create new experiences that honor each individual’s wishes and needs. When was the last time you put aside your analytical thinking and really tapped into your feelings about what you need and want?
In this culture we're generally bad at this, yet distancing from our heart’s longings and our soul’s whispers distances us from our true selves and from each other. And more than anything else, we (and especially our children who are growing up in a high-tech virtual world) need experiences of true connection—connection to themselves and to others.
So let’s get started.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Turn on some soft music, spread out, and don’t be afraid of making a mess or getting it “right.” You’ll be using words and images to create a collage. The collage does not have to “look pretty” or be “neat”—it is meant to be a representation of feelings, wishes and dreams that each of you would like to invite into your life this year.
First invite everyone to grab a magazine and start ripping and cutting words and images that appeal to them. The images don’t have to be an exact representation of what you want to bring into your life, but can represent a feeling or intuition. Spend about 30 minutes or so ripping and cutting.
Then spread all your images out and look at each other’s. Have each person share what they chose and why. Be careful to simply listen, not judge, criticize or over-analyze. Next, together, as a family, decide how you’d like to place the images and words and glue them on the poster board.
Once the vision board is complete, step back and look at it. Invite each person to notice what she sees and how she feels. Initiate a conversation about how you can work together to support each other in reaching your goals and creating your dreams.
Place the vision board in a prominent place where it can be seen by each family member every day. As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This vision board is a powerful daily reminder that can help pull you toward your dreams.
One of my grand “resolutions” as a parent (not just a 2013 wish!) is to help my children truly know themselves, trust themselves and create the life they want for themselves, while feeling a deep sense of support and connection within their family. The heart-centered family vision board is a wonderful tool for helping to make this resolution a reality!
I’d love to see images of your family’s vision board. Please send us a copy at karen@dishingwithyourdaughters.com.