live your dreams

Using Vision Boards to Live your Dreams in 2019

~ ambarelie ~ Leave a comment

 

vision boards with kids
Photo by Brandi Grooms Photography

Hi friends!

The holiday season is upon us! During this time of year, many of us like to look forward and make plans for what we want the next year of our lives to look like. We envision our dream lives, set goals, and make resolutions for how we will make the new year our best year ever!

For the last few years, I’ve been using vision boards as a tool for helping me make my dream life a reality. A vision board is a way to create a visual representation of our desires. It helps take our hopes and wishes from an intangible idea in our heads and places them in our physical space where we can see them.

I like to create a vision board each year right before the new year. I then place it on my nightstand where I can see it everyday. Within a few weeks, it becomes something that I don’t pay much attention to, but it is still sitting right beside me as I go to sleep each night and is one of the first things I see when I wake up in the morning. My subconscious mind gets to work interpreting the things on my vision board as part of my reality. It’s always surprising to me to look back later in the year and see how many of the things on my vision board have materialized.

vision boardThe first year that I started creating vision boards was in 2015 when I was pregnant with my daughter. Like any first time expecting mother, I had certain ideas of what I envisioned life with my new baby would look like. I remember being just about 5 months pregnant as I created my vision board that year. I pasted sayings like “healthy pregnancy” and “blessings” on it, along with photos of a mom and baby doing yoga, a smiling mom and dad with their baby girl, and the green smoothies I pictured myself having as part of my postpartum health regimen.

Shortly after creating this vision board, I got wrapped up in the end of my pregnancy, preparing for baby, and then, finally, bringing my baby girl into the world and adjusting to life with a newborn. I forgot all about my vision board as I started acclimating to my new life role as a mama and started bonding with my baby and being the mom I had always hoped to be.

A few months later, I was really shocked when I looked at my old vision board and noticed that everything on it had come true! I had a super healthy pregnancy, my husband and I literally could not stop smiling at our baby girl, I had just started making mommy and me yoga a part of our morning routine, and I had been having green smoothies everyday after I discovered how sensitive my little babe was to the foods that I ate! My life was filled with blessings at this time and it was really awesome to see that everything that I had dreamt about as I created my vision board was now my reality.

I’ve continued to make vision boards each year, and have had similar experiences with my visions coming true time after time. Last year, I included my daughter June in the vision board making process. She was just 2 years old at the time and she helped pick out photos of the things she wanted more of in the new year. She chose photos of cookies and apples (now 2 of her favorite foods), and we added in pictures of toddlers brushing their teeth and using the potty… two things that seemed so far away at the time, but now things that she has mastered in the last year! It was so much fun to include her in the process that I’m planning on doing it again this year!

After I shared about my vision board making process with June last year, I had lots of moms reaching out to me asking for ideas on how to make their own vision boards with their little ones. And so, this year I’m going to be hosting a VISION BOARDING WITH LITTLES workshop!

Who is this for?: Mindful Mamas and their Kiddos

What is it?: Vision Boarding with Littles Workshop

Includes –

  • Crafting & creating vision boards
  • Talk on how to use vision boards to reach your goals in 2019 (explained in a fun, easy way for kids to understand)
  • Setting doable + powerful goals
  • Kid friendly mommy and me meditation that you can use over and over to connect with your intentions in the new year!

When: Friday 12/28 from 10am – 12pm

Where: Long Branch, NJ

Price: $30 (Includes healthy snacks & refreshments & all materials needed to create 2 vision boards – one for you and one for your child) $5 each additional child

Space is limited to 10 families and we have just a few spots left. If you are a local NJ mom and would like to attend this workshop, please send an email to mamabirdwellnest@gmail.com and I’ll send you all of the details to sign up and secure your spot. 

This is going to be such a fun time to connect with your innermost desires and show your kids a fun, tangible way to start making their dreams a reality! 🙂

If you are not local to NJ, and would like to learn more about how to create your own vision board, click here to read the in depth blog post I wrote with all of my tips for creating powerful vision boards.

Wishing you a happy and healthy holiday season! May all of your dreams come true in 2019.

Be well!

Lots of love,
Ambar

 

I’m a Wild Dreamer. Are You?

Wild Dreamer
~ ambarelie ~ 6 Comments

Wild Dreamer

I have a confession to make.

I’m a wild dreamer.

Let me explain…

Earlier this year, I had a wild dream.

I dreamed of a life of fun and freedom.

I dreamed of more time with my daughter.

I dreamed of working for myself and being my own boss.

I decided that the way to pursue these wild dreams, was to leave the stability of my full time job.

This may not sound all that wild to you.

But for me, it was.

You see, my paycheck gave me validation.

My daily routine gave me structure.

My career gave me safety.

But, I’m a wild dreamer.

So I left the familiar in search of the unknown.

And it hasn’t been as easy as I thought it would be. In fact, at times it’s been really freaking hard.

When I left my job, I lost the identity that I associated myself with and defined myself by.

Having a full time job was comfortable. It gave me something to do everyday. It filled my life with meaning. It made me feel like I was contributing to society, and to my household.

Without this outside source of validation, I’ve had to find a new sense of self worth; one that comes from within. And that has been tricky.

There is nothing in this life that I love more than being a mother. But being home with my toddler 24/7 can be intense.

I’ve been bringing my daughter to daycare 2 days a week. I tell myself that she needs and thrives on the socialization… but if I’m honest with myself, the truth is that I also need that break.

Not having my own steady stream of income coming in has also been an adjustment. I’ve always been financially independent, and now I feel like I need to ask my husband for money. This too, has been challenging.

Without a job to define myself by, I’ve had to find my new identity. This part may be the most difficult of all.

I am home with my daughter most of the time, but I’m hesitant to say I’m a stay at home mom.

I work on my blog religiously, but I don’t always think of myself as a blogger.

I coach clients through my private and group coaching programs, but I don’t always think of myself as a life coach.

I write a weekly newsletter, but I don’t always call myself a writer.

Basically, I’ve been playing small.

I’ve been scared to label myself.

I’ve been feeling lost as I figure out this new life stage.

But, I’m a wild dreamer.

And I know that I’m meant to live life on my own terms.

And that means setting an example for my daughter…

By fully living out my life’s purpose.

I know with every ounce of my being that I am here to help and encourage other mothers to find their purpose, and live out their own wild dreams…

So that they can set an example for their own sons and daughters.

We need to show our children that their own wild dreams are theirs for the taking…

And this starts by having the courage to go after our own dreams, hopes, and desires.

The first step to actualizing our dreams is to declare them out loud.

So today, I’m declaring that I’m a wild dreamer, yes, but also…

I am a blogger, I am a life coach. I am a writer.

I am a wild dreamer.

I dream of a life that is more play than work.

I dream of family adventures.

I dream of a marriage based on love, devotion, and romance.

I dream of being the type of mother that my daughter wants to be around.

I dream of time and location freedom.

I dream of playing outside everyday.

I dream of fully inhabiting and enjoying my one wild and precious life.

I dream of stepping out into the world as the blogger, life coach, writer, wife, mother, and woman that I am here to be.

And I’m ready now.

Want to join me?

We are all wild dreamers.

We are the dream weavers, and it’s time to make our dreams a reality.

Your wild dreams may not look like mine.

In fact, they probably don’t.

But I know you have them.

What wild dreams do you dream of?

What do you think about, dream about, yearn for?

What have you been wishing for, perhaps not even admitting to yourself?

What desires are whispering to you, trying to be heard?

Remember, the first step to creating your dreams, is to declare them out loud.

What are your wild dreams?

Please share in the comments below! Let’s support one another in rising up and making our dreams a reality.

Dream big and have a beautiful week.

Be well,
Ambar