I don’t know about you, but I love taking the time to create a vision board for all the things I want to call into my life. It’s really fun to pull together a pile of magazines and start cutting out images, phrases and words that inspire me and the life that I want to lead.
In the end, all of the clippings get tacked onto a poster board which I keep in my office and reflect on often. I’ve even made digital versions of vision boards that I can use as a screen saver on my computer.
Vision boarding is something that reminds me to dream big! It becomes a creative part of my goal–setting process. The vision board is something I can look at daily to keep me inspired. It helps keep me focused on what I want instead of fixating on what’s missing in my life!
For years I’ve also practiced Feng Shui, an ancient Chinese practice that has become popular in the West over the last few decades. One of the first Feng Shui concepts that drew me in was that your home is an energetic extension of yourself and your deepest desires. When it’s arranged and decorated deliberately, you can use your physical surroundings to help inspire and manifest the kind of life you want.
When I first heard that thought, it landed pretty hard for me, because when I considered my home from that perspective, I didn’t really like what I saw. I noticed clutter and felt overwhelm, not inspiration, when I looked around.
After the initial shock, I realized that the state of my home was proof that I was missing out on a powerful opportunity to live more deliberately. On poster board, I was so clear about what I wanted to call into my life. But you’d never get that message by looking around my home. I was sending out some serious mixed messages to the universe! This led me on a deep dive into Feng Shu-ing my surroundings!
I loved that Feng shui simplified the big picture of life, making it easier to visualize, by breaking life down into 9 areas that are relatable for everyone:
- Fulfilling Work
- Support and Adventure
- Creativity and Self Expression
- Love and Partnership
- Character and Recognition
- Abundance and Gratitude
- Family and Community
- Knowledge and Insight
According to Feng Shui, each life area has a clear energy center within your home. You can use a Bagua map, oriented with the front door of your house, to find the related parts of your house. Here’s an example:
When you apply the Bagua Map to your home, you quickly see that every part of it has substantial meaning, because it has influence over a part of your life. Even under-appreciated spaces like closets, laundry rooms and garages can affect your manifesting potential! The good news is, once you have it all mapped out, the conscious creation opportunities within your home are endless. Your house becomes a living vision board!
If your home is square or rectangular, like many are, you can figure out the bagua map with relative ease, by sketching out a birds-eye view of your layout, and then dividing it into 9 segments just like a tic-tac-toe board. Line up the front of the map, (the side where the Knowledge, Work, and Support areas are) with the wall where the front entrance to your home is located.
Back when I first started playing with this, I hadn’t really thought about my desires for each part of life in detail. It was a rewarding process to consider what I wanted to manifest in terms of work, love, money and more.
At the time I was looking for a committed romantic partner after dating nice guys that never worked out. It’s no wonder … how could the universe get it right if I wasn’t even clear on what I wanted?
I created a list of the things I deeply desired in my perfect partner. Physique, personality, and all the rest. Then I tucked the list in the partnership area of my home and surrounded it with enhancements that spoke to the type of love I was calling in. Candles, flowers, rose quartz crystals and poems were all intentionally placed to call energy toward what I was calling into my life.
Guess what?! It worked! The right doors opened over the coming months and all eventually led me to my true love. A few years ago, I actually found that old list again and it describes my husband perfectly. I literally had written the job description/recipe for him and then manifested him into my life. Needless to say, I was hooked on using Feng Shui, and consciously arranging my home so it helped me manifest what I wanted in life.
Using the bagua map is not always cut and dry. You may live in an odd shaped apartment, have an addition or two off the main house, or perhaps have a front door that’s not in front. In those cases, you’ll need to do some research or request help from an experienced Practitioner to determine your personal bagua map.
The Feng Shui Bagua is such a great tool, but even if you don’t have your home mapped out, you can still look at your home as a vision board for your life. Here are three thoughts on how to do that:
First, get clear about what you want! The universe can only send you what you want if it knows what you want! If you aren’t manifesting with ease, it may be due to a lack of clarity or sending mixed messages like I was.
Consider each of the 9 life areas and get clear about what you want for each one. Clarity is key and the first step in being able to set clear intentions and send out a unified message that the universe can understand. Often that simple act of clearly defining your true desires is enough to set the universe in motion and help you start manifesting.
Next, take a fresh look at your physical surroundings and see if the messages are matching up. If you feel cluttered and overwhelmed like I did, it’s a sure sign that your home is out of alignment with the life your calling in!
Release items that aren’t supporting the life you want to live, including clothes that keep you stuck in an old vision of yourself, or items that remind you of lack in your life.
Decluttering is powerfully symbolic of releasing old patterns and blocks. It allows you to make room to call in whatever it is you really want. Look around and make space for more and better things to come your way.
See if you can add some things that speaks to magnifying what you desire. Images and word art are great reminders of what you’re calling in. Crystals, candles, chimes are energizing enhancements that call energy toward what you want.
At a minimum your home will feel lighter and more refreshing. At a maximum you’ll feel truly aligned with your space! Sit back and pay attention to the shifts that take place in your life after making these deliberate changes in your space. Keep a running list of the things you manifest from your powerful living vision board!
Happy Feng Shui-ing!
