Using a healthy creative outlet that is fun and brings you positive energy can impact your well-being. A vision board is an example of such an outlet and is a great activity to explore that creative side to reach specific goals and desires. But will creating vision boards affect you emotionally?
Vision boards are a great way to get clear on what you want, get your creative juices flowing, stay positive, and stay motivated. Also it’s good for your emotional well-being. And when you start achieving your goals and see your affirmations right in front of you, it helps them really sink in and become a part of your subconscious.Â
Creating vision boards is a form of art therapy beneficial for emotional and mental health.
Seeing your affirmations and goals visually represented can also help them become ingrained in your mind and subconscious, which can lead to a greater sense of accomplishment and fulfilment.
By regularly engaging with and updating your vision board can serve as a reminder of the progress you’ve made and help to maintain a positive outlook.
So understanding this emotional impact will encourage you to take advantage of that creative outlet.Â
Do Vision Boards Affect You Emotionally?
Vision boards are a visual art form – a project – that allows you to visibly see and explore your visions for the near and far future.
It portrays the following:
- Goals
- Intentions
- Desires through pictures of magazine clippings
- Printouts
- Drawings
- Paintings…
You can also include quotes and words of affirmation as mantras or reminders of what you want to work towards.Â
It takes a great deal of emotional and mental capacity to create and look at something like a vision board. You need to process it as if what you are trying to achieve is right in front, staring you in the face.
Using a vision board can impact your mental health negatively or positively – often both. But there are many reasons why that happens.Â
Studies are done to assess art’s effect on depression and other mental illnesses. Since vision boards are a form of art, similar to scrapbooking, they are a positive medium for moving through mental challenges and finding a positive outcome.Â
Many books, documentaries, successful entrepreneurs, and mental health professionals talk about the art of manifestation. An example is a book and documentary called The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.
This book discusses vision boards as a form of manifestation by putting your thoughts and ideas into a visual representation. This ‘vision’ has to be processed daily (visually) to reach success.Â
The Secret describes that daily visual processing the vision plays a role in adjusting your mental narrative and emotional response to your goals and life in general.
That makes it easier to take a path through a growth mindset and positive thoughts – meaning keeping your spirits up rather than your emotional capacity being crushed with every obstacle that comes your way.Â
The Result Of Vision Boards On Mental And Emotional Health
We have established that vision boards impact you emotionally and can be a stepping stone to a successful, fulfilling and thriving life.
Here are some results of the mental and emotional impact they have on the lives of people who use them:Â
Clarification of GoalsÂ
Having a clear and distinct understanding of your goals, desires, and intentions can cause a significant positive boost to your mental health.
Feeling unsure and confused about future achievements is common, but worse when it stays jumbled in mind and harder to work towards. Or when there is no reminder of the precise goal.Â
Emotional health is heavily impacted due to brain fog and uncertainty. Finding a clear picture, word, or phrase for a goal, like a specific car that includes the color and model, allows you to pin down your desire and remove it from floating around in your mind.
Visually seeing that daily on your wall or mirror is a clear goal and allows your mind to focus on achieving instead of being stuck on deciding.Â
Boosts Creativity
Creating a vision board requires a level of creativity release. You don’t have to be artistic, but making a vision board is an art form. Even putting together a basic one will cause you to feel creative because you can decide if you want to use:
- Pictures
- Sketches
- Paintings
- Clippings, etc.
The time and effort (even minimally) are a fun and productive form of an art project.Â
There is a link between art and improved brain function. Creativity impacts your brain wave patterns, emotions, and nervous system and increases serotonin levels in the brain. The benefits of art are not simply from creating but experiencing – like marveling at a painting. According to neuroscience, making and processing a vision board is an art that rehabilitates the mental state.Â
Reminder Of Intentions And Motivation To Achieve
Having a clear, visual reminder of your intentions and goals allows your brain to process and reprocess the positive thoughts and excitement to work towards those achievements on your vision board.
Forgetting or ignoring your intentions can occur when life gets busy or you fall into familiar patterns that become habits. Â
A vision board reminds you why you initially started, which can help to bring back the desire, motivation, discipline, and enjoyment of taking steps to do what is needed.
When you start taking action and see your goals getting closer, it triggers a positive response in the brain, improving mental and emotional health.Â
Contentment From Success
Being emotionally healthy is significantly impacted by feeling gratitude and contentment. It is challenging to find that gratification when you don’t see changes or results.
A vision board lets you noticeably view your progress as you tick or cross off achievements. Seeing how you are succeeding makes you feel grateful and excited for more.Â
That feeling of being thankful, having success (even small achievements), and motivation to continue changes the brainwaves brings floods of contentment.
When things remain only within the brain, you know you are making progress but don’t see the magnitude of it as you would on a visual representation.
A vision board is thus incredibly beneficial to receiving that happiness.Â
Can Vision Boards Negatively Affect Your Emotions?
While vision boards are a wonderful medium for boosting emotional health, they can negatively impact people to some extent. Vision boards are said to help improve mental health because they are a visual manifestation.
But they are also a visual presentation of what people fail to achieve or the difficulty of working on specific goals.Â
Vision boards are often created with a timeframe in mind. That means people set their goals to be achieved within a few months, a year, five years, etc.
When those goals are not completed within that timeframe, it is clearly evident through the vision board. The goal will not be crossed off, or it will serve as a reminder of all the challenges faced during the period.Â
People can feel discouraged, disappointed, and like they have failed. That’s why it is advisable to start with small things and not set unrealistic expectations when starting this journey.
ConclusionÂ
A vision board is a fantastic means of using art to achieve goals while boosting your emotional state. It impacts the mind and helps people stay motivated.
But it’s important to use vision boards in conjunction with other self-improvement strategies and to focus on progress rather than perfection. It’s also important to celebrate small wins and progress along the way, and to be kind and compassionate to yourself.
Please note that vision boards are not a substitute for professional help if you have underlying mental health issues. If you are experiencing severe symptoms such as depression, anxiety, or other psychological issues, it’s essential to seek help from a mental health professional.
Be mindful of how you use your vision board, setting unrealistic goals or expectations for yourself may lead to disappointment and demotivation, rather than the intended positive effects. It can have adverse effects if people don’t reach their goals as intended.Â
