We are well into 2019, the second month of the year and I simply ask “Have you kept with your intentions?”, “Have your Visions for this year shifted, changed, altered”, “morphed into something different?”, “Have you asked yourself what YOUR vision for your life is day-by-day?”
What is a Vision Board, you may be asking. Well, it is a visual representation of what you would like to see for your future. Your Vision Board is simply what your intentions represented through images, art, words, multimedia, nature, anything you’d like to represent your Vision Board. Why? Simply put, because we are creatures of habit and humanity falls in between these realities that can create some interesting dilemmas for us.
We need some reminders to let us know we have been working toward something in life, anything, even to justify why we are on the path we are currently on. Sometimes life hands you these curveballs and the options may seem unfavorable, but you push on anyway. There is a part of us that longs to connect with others, connect with those we love and those who love us, create a community that is warm, caring and supportive, possibly provide the world with our purpose, and also do the daily routine, get the family fed, clothed, educated, and healthy on top of wanting a “Vision for ourselves.”
I ask, “What’s on Your Vision Board?” because we may need inspiration, an example, just a little reminder that the life we are living now is worth all the struggles, trials, tribulations, joys, memorable moments, risks, decisions, choices, and intentions, but WE are not defined by them. I am a strong believer of believing in yourself and things will fall into place, it may not be the way you planned or would envision; but time will keep going and you will find a way to manage through.
As a Licensed Marital Family Therapist, a mother, an educator, a wife, a daughter, a friend, and someone who truly wants to live a purposeful life, there are times when I find myself in cross-roads. Times where I have settled in “my ways” and often times feel defeated; but yet I move on. I move on because I have several visions. I see that there are things in life where I have no control over, dilemmas in life where I may not have chosen the “right” option; but I move forward because I believe these times will work it’s way out. I continue to be eager to learn, old and new facts/fiction, how we, as humans, behave, emote, relate and simply live our lives.
An Iconic verbal “Vision Board” is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech “I Have a Dream” and I invite you to read and feel these words as they come to you:
I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I also invite you to hear these words from Maya Angelou “Still I Rise:”
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou, 1928 – 2014
You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries? Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard ‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise. Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.
From And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou. Copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/still-i-rise
I invite you to read (and if possible, hear) the lyrics of “Listen” by Beyonce:
Listen
Beyonce
Listen to the song here in my heart
A melody I start but can’t complete
Listen to the sound from deep within
It’s only beginning to find release
Oh the time has come for my dreams to be heard
They will not be pushed aside and turned
Into your own, all ’cause you won’t listen
Listen, I am alone at a crossroads
I’m not at home in my own home
And I’ve tried and tried
To say what’s on my mind
You should have known
Now I’m done believing you
You don’t know what I’m feeling
I’m more than what
You’ve made of me
I followed the voice, you gave to me
But now I’ve gotta find my own
You should have listened
There was someone here inside
Someone I thought had died
So long ago
Oh I’m screaming out
And my dreams will be heard
They will not be pushed aside or turned
Into your own
All ’cause you won’t listen
Listen, I am alone at a crossroads
I’m not at home in my own home
And I’ve tried and tried
To say what’s on my mind
You should have known
Now I’m done believing you
You don’t know what I’m feeling
I’m more than what
You’ve made of me
I followed the voice, you gave to me
But now I’ve gotta find my own
I don’t know where I belong
But I’ll be moving on
If you don’t, if you won’t
Listen to the song here in my heart
A melody I start, but I will complete
Now I am done believing you
You don’t know not what I am feeling
I’m more than what you’ve made of me
I followed the voice you think you gave to me
But now I got to find my own, my own
Songwriters: Anne Preven / Beyonce Gisselle Knowles / Henry Krieger / Scott Michael Cutler
Listen lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Cypmp
Given these examples I chose to include points toward a gut-feeling, almost a yearning for this intention to make a change, be the difference, become a part of something that can continue to create a better world for ourselves and for others, or just catch a break in life simply because we have a vision.
Our eyes are said to be the windows to our souls, yet we tend to only see what is in front of us and not the bigger picture. It might be time that we give ourselves the permission to see our world and create our visions. As I write this I am also reminded of how memories can foster these visions and how amazing our brains are. We have been on overload or overdrive for quite some time, let’s pump the breaks and look at what our intentions are going forward. Take the time to create YOUR Vision Board, which is always a work in progress.
Below is a snapshot of my vision board, the words that drive me these days:
“…And one day she discovered that she was fierce, and strong and full of fire, and that not even she could hold herself back because her passion burned brighter than her fears.”
-Mark Anthony
Written by Pia Crosby, Marriage and Family Therapist, On Dec 14, 2018
Pia Crosby is licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who practices therapy with groups, couples, individuals and families for over 10 years. She has worked in several schools and high schools as a Psychotherapist. Pia Crosby believes that mental health is an integral part of the overall health and must be considered as a priority.