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Born in the US, raised on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, lived in Italy, the US, and Canada. Lover of language, travel, colour, and the natural world.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Deepening the vision


 I am taking a course right now that is all about finding the next step in life. It is called "Pathfinder." I am hoping it will help me clarify where I am headed and find myself on the path to full time work.

Part of the course is that I receive prompts in my in-box five days a week with activities to help me focus in on what I am passionate about, and what I could imagine establishing a career doing. For the past couple of days the exercise was to gather materials to create a vision board. I had just made a vision board with a women's group that I am a member of a couple of weeks ago, but interestingly, the last two weeks a lot has starting shifting in my life, so I actually had been feeling as though the vision board I made two weeks ago already felt outdated (is this a sign that they work? I am thinking it has definitely contributed!)

Tonight I gathered together everything I have been cutting out of magazines and printing out off of my computer, and put it all together on the board I bought earlier today. I couldn't fit everything I wanted to stick on my board on it -- my life's vision, I am quite relieved to discover, does not fit onto a board...

I am really pleased with the result, and am hoping that by this time next year many of the images will have become a reality in my life. Have you made a vision board lately? Do you have dreams and goals that you are working towards? I invite you to give it a try. All you need is a sheet of poster board, as many magazines with pictures as you can find lying around (and do not mind cutting up!), scissors, and a glue stick. You can also use stickers and coloured pens if you like, but that just makes it flashier. I just used cutouts from magazines and photos of myself and friends to illustrate things that I want in my life. For example, I have a cutout of a body in the middle of my vision board. Inside the body are all sorts of beautiful growing things. To me this symbolizes cultivating beauty on the inside -- spiritual beauty, and my ability to shape my own reality and experience in this world. In the bottom left corner of my board I have a photograph of myself and my former employer and friend on his farm back in Canada. To me this symbolizes my love of farming, and desire to own my own farm some day. It also symbolizes how important a strong sense of community is to me, and how much I want to build a community around myself wherever I am living. The swans on the far right symbolize partnership and family. I am not sure if it is true, but I heard once that swans keep one partner for life, and that is what I am searching for at the moment, so I thought I would include them to help remind myself of the kind of partnership I am looking for.

How about you? What are your goals/dreams? If you make a vision board and feel like sharing please do be in touch. I would love to see what you create!

Have a great Thursday, friends. See you here on Friday!

1 comment:

  1. Love your vision board. About two months ago I was doing one almost every two weeks. I've felt the same way recently - as if my 2 month old board is now way outdated. Looking at your board my first thought is: Ariana has such a wonderful life! I know you're searching to discover a career and your next steps, but I wanted to share that to me :) your life looks amazing...already! :) Since you're doing Pathfinder you might also want to check out Lululemon's goal tender - I work there so I use it all the time but it's on their main web site. I think it's absolutely wonderful to use, and of course - all goals can change, all choices can change, all visions can shift. I've found since doing my vision board the biggest shift has been in my attitude TO my goals and visions. I'm much less interested in finding THE thing that I think I SHOULD do so much as experimenting with things that genuinly interest me, and when something sparks my interest - just going deep, really deep into it like you have done with agriculture. Anyway, I ramble. The place for the goal tender site on Lululemon is: http://www.lululemon.com/education/goalsetting ...love, Sharon

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