2021 Vision Board

 

2021 Vision Board

One of my favorite activities each year is to make a vision board for my word of the year. A vision board is a way of visualizing your intentions. I make my vision boards on wrapped artist canvas so that I can hang them, having a constant visual reminder of how I am going to journey with my word through the year.

The process begins with going through the magazine pages and clippings I have collected through the year. Whenever I weed out old magazines to go to the recycling bin, I first go through them and tear out any images or pages with interesting words. This gives me a supply of images and words to go through when I do projects.

I then take the images and words that fit with my intentions and my vision for my word and I begin to play with the layout and the groupings of words. This is a process of elimination time as I always have more words and images than I need. It is a form of meditation as you go through the words and arrange them. I am usually surprised with what I finally end up with. I tend to do this process on a large piece of cardboard or poster board so I can play with it for a few days.

The next part of my process is to cover the edges of my canvas with torn text from old books. 

I glue the pieces of paper around the edge to the backside, folding it on the corners in the same manner as I do to the sheets on the corners of my bed. 

Once I have all the sides covered I will apply a thin layer of gesso to make the text a subtle neutral background. I can then hang the canvas on my wall without framing it as the book text gives the sides a finished look.

Here is my final product.

January has been a good month of digging into the meaning of our word, setting intentions and a vision for it, and finally, making a vision board. These are all foundational practices for living out our word of the year.

For February I'm going to look at different ways of digging into God's Word with our word of the year. I hope you'll join me! You can follow along and share what you do with your word in the Words Art & Faith group on Facebook or on Instagram. Use #wordsartandfaithgroup and #wordoftheyear2021so I can easily find your posts.

Rhythms of Daily Life January 25th Edition

 

Rhythms of Daily Life January 25th Edition

I'm finding it hard to believe that we are in the last week of January already. The month has flown right by. But today I land on the day we celebrate the birth of my daughter, Jamie. Happy Birthday, Jamie! 41 today. That time has flown by also, and I honestly don't know how I got to be as old as I am. I sure don't feel like it in my mind. LOL!

So far, I like the flow of my art/creative projects this year. Capturing the things in my week that I want to remember in a visual commonplace book is going well. It's a good pace that enables me to make a little art each day. Here are my weekly spreads for weeks 3 and 4:

My 100 Day Project

This collage corner with the bird on it inspired me to do the 100 Day Project this year. I wasn't sure if I was going to participate this year as it is beginning January 31st, which is two months earlier than normal. But that little bit of inspiration got me excited, so beginning on the 31st I will do 100 days of bird art - mainly collage, of course. I made a junk journal with 100 pages to put my daily pieces of bird art in.

My Word of the Year: Rhythm

Each year I make it a habit to select a Bible verse or passage to use as a theme with my word of the year. This year I chose Matthew 11:28-30. I made a page with the passage to go into my journal.

That's all for now. Have a good week!

Setting Intentions For My Word

Setting Intentions For My Word

Over the years it has been my practice to set intentions for my word of the year. If my word of the year is a lens through which I will view life, then setting intentions are the practices through which that word will become a practice in my life. In other words, how I intend to live it out. 

I am often asked what the difference is between intentions and goals. I think the main difference between goals and intentions is in how you view them. Goals are usually specific in nature and are future oriented. I want to save 100.00 each month or I want to lose 20 pounds. Intentions are usually focused more on daily living in the present moment and lean toward habit forming and lifestyle. Both play a role. In fact intentions can help us meet goals. But I tend to prefer intentions because I think they help create a lifestyle or mindset instead of just completing tasks. Intentions can help us become the type of person we want to be. So instead of simply setting a goal of how many pounds I want to lose, instead my intention is to eat healthier for my overall health. As I work on that I may or may not lose the pounds but will gain so many other health benefits. If I simply have a goal of losing ten pounds then every time the scale doesn't change I feel like I have failed.

Here is a brief, basic rundown of goals and intentions from various definitions I found online:

Goals	Intentions
Future oriented	Present oriented
Concrete, tangible, specific	Aspirational, values-based characteristics
Action oriented	Way of being
Usually have a fixed outcome	Often ebb and flow as you grow
Generally more outwardly focused	Generally more inwardly focused
Usually focused on an end result	More focused on day-to-day living

I think both goals and intentions are valuable. However, I do tend to lean more toward using intentions, and here is the main reason why. To me, setting intentions is about making choices in my daily living that focus on who I want to be more so than on what I want to get done. And this is based on one of my personal core values: Doing flows out of being. Who I am is more important than what I do, and I want what I do to flow out of who I am. Who I am is about my character and my heart. I can change behaviors or habits and still have no change in my character or outlook. Because I also value authenticity - I want what I do to reflect who I am, or put another way - I want my actions to reflect my heart. And my heart is continually being transformed as I intentionally seek to be formed in the image of Christ. I wrote about having a set of personal core values last week. You can read it here.

So, I focus on intentions when looking at how I want to live out my word of the year. And I keep my values before me as I set those intentions. Then setting goals can help me put action to my intentions. But all of it is determined by my "why" - the values that guide my life. 

My word this year is rhythm. As I said last week, my vision for this word is to study and know the rhythms of Christ's life and to examine the rhythms of my own, tweaking and developing the daily and weekly rhythms that help me stay focused on my values for becoming who I want to be.

    My intentions are divided into the categories I want to focus on this year: 

• The Rhythms of Christ's life - studying His words and His ways in the Gospels, studying my theme passage this year Matthew 11:28-30, and studying how the New Testament calls us to be Christlike.
• Unforced Rhythms of Grace - this is from Matthew 11:29 in the Message Bible. This is about practicing spiritual disciplines and setting a rhythm for my spiritual life that helps me focus on how I live it out. 
• Rhythms of Daily Life - I'm making weekly page spreads in a visual commonplace book this year to help me connect more with the moments of my days that are significant to me. The rhythms of my daily life is focused mainly on my creative life and participating in creative groups and projects. This year that includes my Words Art and Faith Group, Life Documented 2021, the One Little Word class with Ali Edwards and the 100 Day Project, plus whatever comes along later in the year.
• Healthy Rhythms - I am on a continual journey to improve the way I eat and the way I live. I will begin my 6th decade this year and I want to fully enjoy the decades ahead of me and remain active, so I need to continue to make changes and choices that support that desire. Mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

What are your hopes for your word this year?

What intentions would help you live out your word n a manner that would help you be who you want to be? Do they align with your personal core values?

What goals will help you move toward your intentions?

Feel free to share in the comment section below or in the Words Art & Faith Group on Facebook.

Next Friday I will look at making a vision board for my word. So start collecting your magazine words and pictures.

Journaling the Rhythms of My Life

 

Journaling the Rhythms of My Life

I'm getting into a rhythm with my visual commonplace book weekly spreads. Documenting this way is keeping me present to the smaller moments in my life. The moments that may just slip by in the hustle and bustle of life. Here is my January cover page and my 2021 week 2 page spread.

Using Personal Values To Determine Vision

 

Using Personal Values To Determine Vision

I'm digging into the work of exploring my word of the year this month and laying out plans for how to live it out through the year. Typically, once I have decided on my word of the year I will begin a planning process that looks something like this:

• Research the word's meaning - using multiple dictionaries, finding synonyms, quotes, etc.
• What is my reason for choosing this word? What is my 'why'? 
• Based on my personal values and my "why", what is my vision for the year ahead with my word?
• What are the intentions I need to set in order to see that vision become a reality in my life this year?

Determining your  personal values is probably one of the most important things you can do. Even if you have not taken the time to determine them, you are probably already living by them without realizing it. Some of us live by the values we were raised with. They may not have been articulated, but as children we tend to 'catch' them as we grow. Good or bad, our values are often shaped by the environment of our family life. As adults, then, we have the choice to keep those values or determine and shape our own. I have held onto some of the values I was raised with - such as good work ethics. But in my childhood the environment of my family was shaped by alcoholism, dysfunction and emotional instability leading me on a journey through my adult life of healing, faith and becoming healthy. That journey has also included replacing many of the unhealthy values I held onto from my childhood with ones that I have determined to be healthy to guide my decisions and plans.

Values are the things that matter the most to you, the things you believe are most important for the way you live your life. Values serve the purpose of defining our 'why'. They help us set our life purpose and make decisions. Values are like a behavioral compass; they can help us react to different situations and can help guide our actions. Let me share my core values and then give some examples of how they work.

My core values are:

• Faith first. For me, that means using the words and ways of Jesus as my guidelines for life. Matthew 6:33 "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness" has long been a guiding verse for me. 
• Doing flows out of being. Who I am guides what I do. Character matters in how I live my life. The Apostle Paul gives us this example in how he lays out many his letters; he gives a theological foundation for who we are in Christ before he gives us instructions on how we are to live. 
• Wholeness is the goal - seeking health in spirit, mind, body, emotions (Luke 10:27). Over the past few years I have used each of these areas as a guide to set my intentions.
• Authenticity. I highly value honesty and being real. I want the outside to match the inside. I want congruence in my life - that what I say and what I do are the same. It may not always be pretty, but it is character shaping.
• Life long learning. Especially in the pursuit of spiritual formation, but other areas too. I dig in and research everything to fully understand things and compare them with how they line up with the truth of God's Word. I am always curious!

I have others but these are the core ones, the ones that shape what I do and how I do them. So, for example, because I value life-long learning it means I am always digging deeper. One of the main reasons I have selected rhythm as my word for 2021 is because I want to explore more deeply the rhythms of Christ - His words and His way of living. Honestly, in this past year that was full of division and hatred in the midst of a major crisis, I continually found myself thinking of how Christ would react. How would He handle the hate filled words and actions that flood social media? How would He address the constant finger pointing and fighting? How would He act in the midst of so many people dying, being sick, mourning loss, losing jobs, going hungry, feeling that they live with injustice? So I want to study His rhythm of life through the gospels and described by the writers of the New Testament letters. With core values of faith first and authenticity, I want to respond to the things going on in the world around me based on Christ's ways - not by the ways of the culture, or the ways of any particular political party, or any other outside influence. I made a decision over 30 years ago that my life would be rooted and grounded in Christ and that His ways would guide my ways. It is a life long process of learning.

Here's my main why for selecting my word for this year, my vision for what I would like to see in my life with my word: To study and know the rhythms of Christ's life and to examine the rhythms of my own, tweaking and developing the daily and weekly rhythms that help me stay focused on my values for becoming who I want to be.

"Are you a reflection of your values?" ~Sarah Jeffrey

Now, in order for my life to be impacted by my word and my vision for my year, I need to set intentions that will help me live out my word as well as my core values. I read the following quote the other day but could not find a reference for who said it, but it's an important one to note.

"It's one thing to have values, it's another thing to actually live then out."

We can say we have values, but if we don't actually live them out they are only intended or inspirational values. My personal value of authenticity and congruence motivates me to set intentions that can be lived out and shape who I am. Next week we'll look deeper into setting intentions and what the difference is between intentions and goals.

So, do you have personal values that help define who you are and why you live as you do?

Do you use your personal values to help determine your vision for the year?

If not, why not spend a little time in the next week and think about what those things are that are most important to your life? What drives why you live the way you live? What are the things you believe in the most? 

What is the reason you chose the word you did for this year? What is your vision for your life as you live out this word?

Feel free to share in the comment section below or in the Words Art & Faith Group on Facebook.