Boy do I know how to take a break!

I last posted in October with high hopes that I would continue to write from Thailand where my family and I were taking the opportunity to unplug from our lives and reconnect with one another. But the sun, the beautiful people and the endless adventures of travelling with our little family of four had me living in the moment. This meant some of my writing fell by the wayside.

I did however keep up a travel blog to ease the hearts of the grandmas and grandpas that worried while we were gone. You can read it here.

In these last few months of being home and readjusting to the busyness of our life I have managed to re-center myself and set some intentions for the upcoming months. In fact I took it upon myself to make my first vision board and I thought I would share it with you.

Vision boards are for everyone. For those of us who see the world visually and for those of us who don’t. I chose to illustrate mine myself, but that’s not necessary. You can cut up magazines and make a collage. You can doodle your ideas or pin up odds and ends from around your home.  How you create it isn’t what’s important. The focus should be the intent of the piece.

The main purpose for creating a vision board is to give traction to all those good ideas that bounce around your head and scream out to be captured and set afire with true intention.

Now intending to do something is one thing. But affirming that intention every day with a self-programming repetition creates an actual belief that this intention will (or better yet) is already true. And it is after all, our beliefs that create our reality.

This is why I have hung my vision board right in my field of vision above my computer monitor. Every day I read over the affirmations I believe about the year 2014 and every day those intentions move closer and closer to becoming my reality.

When you set out to create a vision board challenge yourself to use the language of affirmations. This means that you speak about the things you want to be or do as if they are already reality. I have talked about this before, but the words “I am” are the most creative and important words you will ever say about yourself. When you say “I am” you need to get real careful about the words that follow that phrase as they literally form the beliefs you hold about yourself.

Here are some examples of my affirmations for 2014:

• I am happy.
• I attract wealth and abundance into my life.
• I live in the moment.
• I create a new website that attracts new clients.
• I love and fully appreciate my body.
• I publish a children’s book.
• I host a conference to build community.

When you say and write affirmations, write in the positive. Edit out all negative words. For example, instead of saying “I am not angry”, say “I am peaceful” or “I am gentle.”

Also use the present tense. Be careful not to refer to future situations. Our subconscious interprets things very literally. For example, setting an intention that “I want to be a good writer” just tells yourself that someday you hope to be a good writer. All you will ever experience is the wanting of that future situation.

Instead tell yourself “I am a good writer” and see how life conspires to present opportunities for that to come true. If you believe that you are a good writer you will make different choices and engage in different activities than if you simply want to be a good writer. Sometimes you have to try hard to believe at first, but it will be worth the extra effort in the long run.

This has been true for me.

A year ago when I started this blog, I talked to myself about someday being a good writer. I daydreamed about being published and imagined the day when I could answer the question “What do you do?” with “I’m a writer.”

And then I read about affirmations and intention.

I began to refer to myself alone and in front of others as a writer. I told myself “I am a good writer” and I said it in as convincing a voice as I could muster. Then I watched as this truth was affirmed for me over and over. Friends, colleagues and sometimes even strangers have complimented my writing over this last year and my confidence has grown immensely. Now sometimes when I get asked what I do, I actually say it aloud.

“I’m a writer.”

And gosh that feels good.