Ayesha Rascoe talks to author and spiritual teacher Gabrielle Bernstein about vision boards and why they seem to be growing in popularity.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Every year, countless people make resolutions. This will be the year we start dieting and exercising, meditating more, saving money to buy a house, giving our best. But some of us may need to visualize our resolutions to hold ourselves accountable. Lately, social media has encouraged people to create a vision board to manifest their hopes and desires, online or the old-fashioned way with magazine clippings, a poster board, and glue. To tell us more about vision boards and why they’re so popular, author and spiritual teacher Gabrielle Bernstein. Welcome to the program.
GABRIELLE BERNSTEIN: Well, I think I manifested to you, honestly.
(LAUGH)
RASCOE: Well, thank you. Thanks. Thanks. I appreciate that. We are going to talk about other manifestations. So, you know, I mentioned the idea of a vision board. When I think of a vision board, I think, for example, of magazine clippings about, for example, your new career or your new house or your handsome husband – like positive scenes and words pasted on a large poster in cardboard. But for those who don’t know the world of vision boarding, tell us more about them.
BERNSTEIN: So pinboards are a place where we can display images visually somewhere – so putting them on a pinboard or putting them on a fridge. And the idea of creating a vision board is to really claim your desire and see it repeatedly. Because when you look at something enough, you start to believe it. And I, as a spiritual teacher, will say, when you believe it, you receive it. And that might sound woo-woo (ph) to people here at NPR, but you know what? It works (laughs).
RASCOE: Some people listening may think, for example, why do you have to do a vision board? Why not just make a list of the things you want? But it sounds like what you’re saying is that the visual act of seeing it helps you imagine it more. It helps it feel more real.
BERNSTEIN: It helps it feel more real, and it also triggers a feeling. So one of the qualities of being a super attractor, as I call it, or a manifestor, is having a sense of what you want to attract into your life. So for the sake of visual onboarding, when you look at this image it will trigger an emotional feeling, a connection within you. And that feeling – assuming it’s a good feeling, because you want to put the right things on the board – is really going to build momentum behind your power of attraction, to really draw that desire into your life. It makes you aware of it. You start to see more of that. You start to see it getting closer and closer because you feel into it. It’s really about feeling the feeling of what you desire.
RASCOE: When you talk about it, what do you say to people who might be more skeptical?
BERNSTEIN: You can’t just sit on your butt and do a vision board and expect everything to come into your life. Some things might. Some things may appear. It could just be that synchronous. But, you know, for years I would take covers of my books before they were in print, and I would have my designer put the New York Times #1 bestseller on the cover. And then I’d put that on my vision board. And it’s not like I’m just sitting on my butt and waiting for my book to become a number – I – you know, I wrote the book, and they became the #1 bestseller in the New York Times.
RASCOE: Now, why do you think that right now a lot of social media influencers are sharing their personal vision boards, they’re giving tutorials on how to create them? Why now do you think it really seems to be taking off?
BERNSTEIN: I mean, look, you bring this up every day. We are living in a crisis. We live in constant, low negative vibrations. And, you know, if anyone needs a vision board, it’s the media people. I want to, like, send, like, Vision Board 101 to everyone at NPR.
RASCOE: (Laughs).
BERNSTEIN: You know, what you focus on, you create more of it. So I think what people want right now is to focus on the good stuff.
RASCOE: We’ll leave it at that. This is author and spiritual teacher Gabrielle Bernstein. Thanks.
BERNSTEIN: Ayesha, you are awesome.
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