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Positively Midlife Podcast
Ellen and Tish, college friends now in their 50s, take on midlife with a big dose of reality, humor, and fun. They cover diverse topics including friendships, books, experiences, adventures, stories, sex, relationships & dating, health, wellness, and BIG dreams. Each week features fabulous stories, interesting guests, and open and honest discussions about topics that are important to women in midlife. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen!
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Positively Midlife Podcast
Vision Boards: A Midlife Guide to a Vibrant 2024 - Ep. 86
Embarking on the adventure of manifesting our dreams, we discovered the transformative power of vision boards, especially curated for midlife women gearing up for a remarkable 2024. Picture this: a room full of enthusiastic women, each on a mission to materialize their aspirations, and there was Tish, absorbing the collective creativity at a dynamic women's group event. And Ellen, meanwhile, uncovers a vision board path with a focus on love and self-discovery via an online class with the captivating love coach, Carissa Montooth our podcast guest in episode 59.
Have you ever imagined your deepest desires coming to life right before your eyes? That's the magic we explore through vision boards as they serve not just as an artistic endeavor, but as a powerful manifestation tool. Ellen crafted a board that manifests her pursuit of love and what's important for her in the areas of health, success and wealth. We loved how these visual prompts are not confined to the start of the year but are year-long beacons, pushing us towards small victories and life-changing habits. Our 2024 vision boards are a testament to our resolve, a mixture of personal growth, adventure, and for Tish the courage to step out of her comfort zones.
We signed off with a reminder to our listeners to harness the anticipation of what lies ahead, all while staying positively midlife. Join us on this episode as Ellen and Tish we embrace 2024 with open arms and a their vision boards as their compass.
Obsessions:
Tish: Chat Books
Ellen: Dust Buster
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Welcome back to the Positively Midlife podcast. Today we have a very special episode for you. We're diving into the world of creating a 2024 vision board.
Speaker 2:That's right, Ellen, and I'm so excited to talk about this empowering process. You know we can't wait to share our personal experiences with creating our own vision boards.
Speaker 1:It's true. But first let's get to a little bit about how you and I jumped on this vision board craze. You did yours first and even though I was reluctant, like a lot of things, you pulled me into Tish. I saw what a great board and the process you went through and how excited you were and I have to say I had more than just a little bit of foam out.
Speaker 2:You know, I've been invited so many times in the past to do these vision boards and this would be the first time and I decided to go to this in-person event. This women's group that I'm involved with One of the ladies was having the event at her home and I thought why not? Why not make my vision board this year?
Speaker 1:I'm really happy you did, and I did mine a little bit differently. I attended an online class hosted by the amazing Carissa Montuth, a love coach and healer, and I know Tish. You remember her, but some of our listeners may remember her from a previous episode of the podcast she did with us.
Speaker 2:You know, carissa has this most amazing way of helping someone uncover their path forward right. So I can't wait to hear about your experience with doing a vision board with her and her focusing and leading you.
Speaker 1:Oh, she was fantastic and she guided us through the process of creating vision boards, and there are four categories, but there was a very special focus on love and self-discovery. So transformative experience. I learned so much about myself, what I desire here in 2024, and in midlife in general, so I didn't do my board during the half hour session, I did it after.
Speaker 2:You know, here's the thing, though Even though I went to an in-person session, ellen, I prepared all my pictures that I was going to use the night before, so I kind of did some homework before I went right, and so I think this is a great idea. I think it would be great to do a vision board based on one area of your life that you're really looking to seek change or do something again. That kind of addresses everything, and I think we both did one that addresses multiple areas, but the in-person event was incredible because you're surrounded by like-minded individuals and we're supporting each other and encouraging each other in this creative process, and the energy in the room was just contagious, and I left feeling so inspired and motivated that I had to start poking you to do it too right.
Speaker 1:Totally. I felt that enthusiasm from you and I'm really glad you did yours, which spurred me to do mine. But before we jump in further, because I know this is a topic we really want to talk about, let's get to our weekly obsessions. What do you got for me this week, Tish?
Speaker 2:In the past I've done. One of my obsessions was I did this chat book, which is where you go into your Facebook and you print out all your favorite pictures from the year and you print out this beautiful bound book, right, and it has all the little what do I want to say? Any of the comments that you make about the photo are included in those. Well, Chinese books has come out with a new product and these are these small little five by five, tiny little softcover books and they're only 30 pages and I really think they're probably geared towards people who have little ones and do lots and lots of pictures.
Speaker 2:But I thought, because it's a monthly subscription, you get one each month, right? And I thought how fun would it be that you plan out to do a book or a friend or a family member every single month and you send them instead of a card. So the cost of this is only like $7, right? Oh, wow, the first one is half price, but the cost of it is $7. I don't know if you bought Hallmark cards recently, but they're in the neighborhood of $6, $5 to $7. So for the cost of a card, you could send some of your favorite photos of you or your group of friends or your family members in a little book, and how neat would that be.
Speaker 1:I love it. My boys love to look at our photo albums when they're home, so I could see just sending them to adult children right. But I agree, I went to buy a birthday card and I was shocked. I usually try and buy my cards when I'm at Trader Joe's. They have the cutest cards for like $2. So just a little tip out there Next time you're in T-Jays, buy some cards. Ladies.
Speaker 2:You know we love those Trader Joe's. But what's neat about these little books too is, you know a lot of us at Midlife have grandchildren. These are child-friendly books, oh wow, Especially these soft-covered ones. So you know how kids love to see themselves. So even if you did like print up, you know, for a grandchild little book, you know, photos of themselves, you know how fun that would be. Or if you're a grandparent that lives very far away, pictures of you all when you were together, to remind them that you're still around.
Speaker 1:I love it. So many uses for these, so we'll put a link for that definitely. Yes, you've got me hooked.
Speaker 2:Well, what about you, Ellen? What's your obsession for this week?
Speaker 1:Well, you know, as always, I've gone in a totally different direction. My obsession is my dust buster. When at the last time you had a dust buster, kid, you know the hand-held vacuum, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:It has been a long time.
Speaker 1:Okay, Me too, I had not had one, I think, since the 80s or the 90s. I mean, we're going way back. But I got a dust buster for the holidays and I'm telling you, I'm running that thing 10 times a day. I'm in the hall doing something. The kitchen spilled some coffee grounds. It is the best tool that you could possibly have at midlife Because you can just zip in and zip out with that thing and they're very light these days and easy to clean out. But I'm just shouting out to the black and temporary dust buster because they've been around forever and they're better, stronger motors, but I'm having so much fun with it.
Speaker 2:You know, what I like about that too, especially for somebody at midlife is we don't always have to run these big industrial vacuums because we don't have a lot of kids running around the house and stuff like that. So what a great alternative to kind of just keep on top of things. So I love that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we'll put a link in that and everybody think about the dust buster. All right, let's get back into vision boards. Tish, so why do we think? What do you think actually doing a vision board is really important for midlife women?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I know it's important, alan right and I think midlife, you know it's this time and we keep saying this over and over, but it really is this time of reflection and revaluation of where we are with our lives. You know, it's a phase where we may be redefining what our goals and priorities are, and the vision board serves as a visual representation of what our aspirations, dreams and just the life we want to create for ourselves. Moving forward.
Speaker 1:Now Tish, I mean, I'm going to just add that it really is a tool to manifest what we like, what we desire, and to keep us focused on what really matters in our lives. And you know, midlife can be really complex and a vision board can really be a compass, guiding us towards things that bring us joy and fulfillment. And I know we've talked about those things as well. And one thing Carissa mentioned in the class I took is to take a photo of your vision board, make it your screensaver on your phone or your lock screen or on your computer like your laptop, so you can see it and have it central all year round to really having you manifest, and I love that idea.
Speaker 2:I think that's so important too, because the whole purpose of the vision board is to have it in front of you all the time. It's that visual reminder when we put it on paper, and so, whether it's on your bathroom mirror or multiple places, I love that idea of screensavers on your laptop or wherever. So, yeah, I'm all for that. So, speaking of vision boards, you know now I know that Carissa is a love coach and healer, so I think I need the skinny. Was this a love board that you put together, ellen?
Speaker 1:Tell us Well in a way it was I mean, I really was it appealed to me to take it with her because I just love her energy, but I do want to manifest bringing love into my life in 2024. I am single, you know, I've been dating and so it really was a big part of it. But I also liked that it was not the whole thing and we'll get to that a little bit the four ways. But for me I found it really therapeutic to find the images, find the words, cut things out, Because when you're doing it, you're also thinking about it. What's important, what do I want to find, what kind of image? And so it's therapeutic in a couple ways. Right, it's internal, but it's also external in that. So it helped me think about 2024 and how to manifest love in my life. So I learned that there's a method you can use to create vision boards, and that's what we did. It's about quadrants.
Speaker 2:Tell me more about what these quadrants are.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll be curious, because I think you may have the same quadrants, tish. So Karissa was talking about the four sides of a perfect square, and this is like your life, and when these four things work in harmony, when you have wholeness in each of these areas, you can handle anything. Life doesn't feel like a chore, and we know when life feels like a chore, but it feels like a joy. So that was a really interesting concept for me.
Speaker 2:It sounds like these four quadrants are like the four food groups of building a happy life or something. So, ellen, what are the four quadrants that you should consider using?
Speaker 1:Okay, well, these made sense to me. So one is health and self-love, one is wealth, the other is love, which I did focus on quite a bit, and the fourth one is success. And so my vision board is a collage of images and words that represent, kind of the relationships I want to nurture, the love I want to bring in and surround myself with, and, like most vision boards, it's really about this balance of life and that there's this flow moving towards what you want.
Speaker 2:That sounds amazing, ellen. You know mine is a very colorful representation of personal growth, adventure and creativity. You know it's a visual reminder to myself to embrace new experiences and step out of my comfort zone again.
Speaker 1:I love that you talk a lot about stepping out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 2:No, and I love that. That's when the magic happens. That's when the magic happens.
Speaker 1:Right, it's the bravery. It's brave to do that, and I am really excited about your vision board, tish, and I love that we kind of came at it in two different ways, but somewhat in a similar way. Right, really really thinking about it. Ok, let's talk about five reasons vision boards work. Carissa gave us five and I thought they were really great and I think we could go through them. They would be interesting for our listeners. The number one reason is once you create it, you reap the benefits of it for the rest of the year, and I love this. It's like something that keeps paying again and again and again. When I've been looking at my vision board, I'm like, oh yeah, I put that in there. I need to think about a morning routine, right, all year I will be able to really reap the benefit of this thinking that I did at the beginning of the year and I love that we did this. In January, we talked about intentions, we talked about joy as being intentional, and now we're really talking about manifesting what we want for the year.
Speaker 2:But I don't think it always has to happen in January, right, I think, whenever you're ready to start focusing that vision and I think the main key which you're saying is to create it and then reap the benefits. So you're not building that list every week what are my goals this week? And then you write the goals, and then the next week, what are my goals? And it's all the energy that's put into making those lists over and over again, right? This way you really focus on this overall picture of where you're heading to, you put it down on paper and you don't have to spend the emotional, mental real estate recreating these every time.
Speaker 1:That's right and it's just a constant reminder of what we want to focus on and I love that. And they're beautiful. Your board's beautiful, my board's beautiful. It brings me joy and happiness just looking at it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, most definitely. And, Ellen, I know you mentioned that the number two reason that we should put vision boards together was that it gives us a clear direction, it gives us something good to move towards and not just wasting time looking back, thinking about regrets, what I haven't done, what I didn't do, but it's just a clear path forward.
Speaker 1:I love that idea and, of course, there is a time for looking back and cataloging what happened. But I really felt like this idea of what do I want to be, what do I want to make happen, to manifest, to bring into my life. I really felt that that was the best part of it for me, this clear direction, because I can look at this board maybe in July and be like what am?
Speaker 1:I doing that, for it's not here on this board, right? So it continually helps us to refocus. Did you feel the same way, tish, about your board?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I definitely do. The other thing that's super important is I made sure I dated my board, so I put the year that I created my board and the lady that I had been to the session with highly encouraged this, because she's done vision boards the last several years and she loves going back to the different years and she said she surprised herself. She was, oh wait, I accomplished that and she forgot it was on a previous year's vision board. So it's not about it must happen in 2024. It's about where are you going towards?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that I have not dated my vision board and I'm going to do that. So the number three reason, and I think I already jumped the gun on this one a little bit, but it's like staying clear on what you want and really having the ability to do that in a visual way. I'm a very visual person and looking at this beautiful beach that I have or someone doing yoga or a great picture of us tish around that it helps me really stay clear and focused about what I want here in 2024.
Speaker 2:You know, I know, um, marissa believes that the fourth reason to have a vision board is that it will keep us inspired, right and um, to take actions and to take us closer to what we want.
Speaker 2:Right, and to focus on how good it will feel to have it. And I think that's the key there with the vision board. When you see that and the tight and you were just talking about the joy that watching the beach or whatever brings you, that is, that is the focus on how good it will feel to have that, and I think that is the true power. It keeps us from getting distracted, it keeps us from getting off track, and we see that what and again, for us, it's only meant to speak to us. Right, that beach could mean different things to you than it does to me, but looking at that beach, you know what it means. It is it, it. It spurs a passion inside you to get to whatever that vision of that beach means to you, and so that's why I think these vision boards are beyond doing, you know, again, I think making lists of where your goals are super important, but that visual component that you were talking about, when you're a visual person, these are so, so important.
Speaker 1:I think they are, and also just the process, the physical process of putting things on a board and moving them around and understanding why you're doing it. So it's working several ways for you. I have to say I love this idea of taking little actions to bring us closer to what we want. I know we've talked about this with big joy, like microjoys. We talked about this with atomic habits just tiny, small, small steps, and I do feel like the vision board is again that same thing for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, most definitely.
Speaker 1:So the fifth reason is you create it once and it goes into your subconscious mind, which is a good thing, and so it's there throughout every day and you're building it into your life, and I think that that's such a powerful thing.
Speaker 2:You know, I kind of spoke to this before. You know, by creating these vision boards, you don't have to continue to make these lists and spend a lot of time and energy remaking and reminding yourself. Right, the board puts it into your subconscious and it's also into your every day. So by selecting the pictures, by doing the thought process of this is what I want for my life in different areas, as you talked about the different quadrants. So we do that. We select the picture. It starts to go into our subconscious. We put it on the board. It starts to go into our subconscious. We put it up in front of us. We're seeing it every day. It goes deeper and deeper in the power of that. That is truly the power of the vision board.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's that idea of manifesting something, because when you put it out there into the universe and you put it in your subconscious and you put it in your vision, whenever you're looking at it, it changes.
Speaker 1:I know Carissa talked about how, when you buy a car, everywhere you drive, you see that car, whether it's a Toyota or it's a convertible. You're like, oh wow, somebody has the same car. Or he was talking about how, when you're pregnant, you see all other pregnant people, because that's what's in your vision and where you're going. And so I feel like it's the same thing. When you put it on the board, it means something and it's there to grow and build, and I really like the idea that this is creating a life that aligns with our authentic selves and you and I have talked about this a lot being authentic and these boards are so unique that you and I put together, so unique to each of us, and I really say, before we wrap up, I really, if I could say, encourage you to consider creating one of these, as someone who was reluctant and kind of poo-pooed it, if I could say it that way this whole process.
Speaker 1:Really I'm a convert. Can I say I'm a convertist?
Speaker 2:We are. I'm always reluctantly getting you to do things. No, I don't like that idea. No, you do, you do. But again, it's about change, it's about committing, it's about vision boards are about committing to yourself. And if we don't know what we want, if we don't know where we want to go, how are we ever going to get there?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, this really is powerful at this stage of life. So I'd say, whether you go online, like I did in person, however it is, find a method that resonates with you. Start manifesting your dreams and, like you said, it doesn't have to be in January, at the beginning of a year, it can be any time. And I do have to say I did get some great ideas on free images from Carissa, and one of the resources she had is that you can purchase a vision board book. There's all sorts of them on Amazon and that really surprised me, like so many people are doing vision boards, that somebody created vision board books and there's all different kinds of them that you can get, with different themes. So a lot of resources out there to help with the vision boards.
Speaker 2:I went to Pinterest and I clicked in vision boards and I spent actually several couple hours flipping and pasting different pictures that I wanted into a document and I just printed them off. I color printed them off the event that I went to. They went to recycling centers. They put the word out that they were looking for. You know, one recycling center wouldn't give us any magazines, we said but we want to recycle them. Nope, they wouldn't hand them over.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it had to do with.
Speaker 2:It could have had people's personal mailing addresses on it or something, but it wasn't terribly easy to get this. So if you're going to do a group one where you're going to use magazines and stuff like that, you're gonna need to ask a lot of help to get these together, to be honest. Okay, but you know again, cut and paste images. If you do get your own magazines, pull things out, Use the Amazon books, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:You know, I know, I know it does. It's funny. Not many of us have a lot of magazines like we used to 10 years ago, and I've seen even on Nickdoor people asking for magazines and different things for vision board projects. So the resources are out there, you can find them. It's a little bit harder to find some women our age in a lot of these images, so I would say that was a little bit challenging for me but I pushed through it. I pushed through it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and again, you don't have to. You know you don't have to use any specific formula. What are you just ask yourself? What areas of my life do I need to redirect? What areas of my life are giving me that angst of it's not going the way I want it to go? You know, those are the things that you include on your vision board and don't hold yourself back thinking, oh, that's impossible. You know it's okay to put some impossible out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, why not Dream big, dream big. And then you know, maybe your vision is fiji and you make it down to some beautiful beach on the West coast. I don't know, it doesn't matter. You know, Maybe you wouldn't have made it to the beach without it at all, you know. But again, just go ahead, be creative, be loose with it. I encourage you to do it with friends because I think it is going to loosen up, you know, kind of get your juices flowing. If you have older daughters, do it with them. You know, do it with sons if they want to do it.
Speaker 1:I know I'd love to get my boys to do a vision board.
Speaker 2:I have a good friend where we were talking about he had just put a vision board together and I know, I know I was like, yeah, and I was like really into it, and then I never followed through, and this was like a year or two ago, and so I have to let her know that I finally got my vision board done. But so, yeah, I think what we the message is too it's never too late to envision and create the life that you really desire. And I just wanted to thank everyone for joining us on this journey, because you know, both Ellen and I have podcast on our vision boards to make it bigger and better. So please share with your friends that with our podcast, somebody that you were like. You know they need some inspiration in their life. Right, but until next time, we just ask you to stay positively midlife.
Speaker 1:That's right till next time, midlifers.
