Question: How can creating a vision board help cancer patients?
Finding your inspiration, hope and support is so important on your cancer journey. One way to do this is to create your own vision board that can serve as daily, positive motivation. It’s a physical space, like a bulletin board or poster, that you can fill with all the things that keep you focused on staying positive and hopeful.
Visualization is one of the most powerful tools available in anyone’s arsenal for success in life. It has been scientifically proven that using a vision board can increase visualization activity through our mind. When we look at a picture of the things we want, we imagine the accomplishments and the pleasure and fulfillment we derive from them.
Your vision board can include anything that you are grateful for, that makes you happy, or that you are striving to achieve. Items that could be included are photos of family and friends, inspirational quotes, pictures of places that bring you joy and peace, reminders of your goals, dreams, other things that motivate you, and a list people and places for which you are grateful.
There are many very successful people, Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith for example, who have said they have achieved outstanding results in their lives through the use of vision boards.
Using a vision board has many advantages. It can clarify your dreams. Vague wishes are not clear goals. It creates better intention by turning ideas into a real physical product.
Having a vision board will help you create intention in your head. Visualization makes you more creative and lets you see things from a broader perspective, which can help with problem solving. When you see yourself achieving your goals and living the life you desire, you will feel motivated.
A vision board can help you become more productive and focus better amidst the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It can also increase your chances of success and unlock your inner potential by helping you think freely about all possibilities.
The Wright Brothers invented the airplane many years ago because they visualized and imagined that humans could fly in their heads before making it real. A vision board can help you be positive, purposeful, and more confident simply by imagining your dreams or ideas in vivid detail where you can feel and sense them.
It can also serve as a mental rehearsal. When you visualize yourself doing something, like shooting a basketball, your skills may actually improve, just like you are undergoing real physical practice. Relaxation and improved self-image can also be achieved by creating a vision board. How you see yourself is important.
Listening to slow music and visualizing your day helps organize your thoughts, prepare you mentally, and also reduce stress. Finally, your vision board can develop your desire for the things you want to achieve. Having a strong desire for what you want to accomplish in life is an important attitude you need to have.
Join Lisa Ramos Murray, MA, BCC, Certified Life Counselor, for a Vision Board Workshop on Tuesday, April 12 at 5:30 p.m. in the Mission Hope Boardroom. Bring along your vacation brochures, photographs, magazines, inspirational quotes and meaningful items for your vision board. All other materials will be provided. Registration is required, so call 805-219-HOPE (4673) to reserve your spot.
HAVE A QUESTION? This weekly column produced by Mission Hope Cancer Center invites you to submit your questions to “Your Cancer Answers” at the following email address MHCC@commonspirit.org.
