Come Make Vision Boards With Us — And Let Us Tell You Why!

We lay out a gentler path for the new year by trading resolutions for intentions and using vision boards as a steady, visual reminder. We unpack the brain science, the relief of externalizing mental load, and why community makes creative rituals feel safe and fun.

• how a single word guides daily choices
• what a vision board is and is not
• imagery, emotion, and the brain’s RAS filter
• easing the mental load with external tools
• ritual ideas including tarot and placement
• community sharing for clarity and belonging
• support for social anxiety in group settings
• progress over perfection as a practice
• event details coming soon and rough headcount

Thank you so much for listening to our episode today. If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, feedback, things you'd love to share with us, we have a Google form linked in our Instagram bio. Or you can just send us a message. Later this week we will be posting info about the event on our instagram! 

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Join the conversation on Instagram @heartonthetablepod

Transcript

Planning A Community Vision Board Event

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Welcome back to Heart on the Table. Today's episode, we are going to be talking about vision boards because we are hoping to host an event in the new year and invite all of you who would like to come join us in person for probably a couple hours of just intentional alignment setting, I guess is a good way to describe that. So today we're going to be talking about just the magic and the neuroscience behind vision boards and why they matter.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Yeah. To us. I just thought that I told Miranda before we started this episode, like we'll just keep it very casual and chill and conversational because I don't really have a plan. I was just like, we need to talk about our first event, and we usually have good conversation anyway.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

So yeah, and we usually miss recording them.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Yeah, we're usually like, damn, we should have hit record. I was going to say that I think so. After this episode is released, which it'll be releasing on Wednesday, I'm hoping to have some details ironed out of like the when we would host this and where. So I'm hoping that by the weekend, after this episode is released, we'll be able to release some details. That way we have a month to kind of plan and plan ahead. And I'm hoping to have at least at least eight to ten people join us. But I guess we'll just see.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Yeah. We'll just kind of go from there. But I'm very hopeful to have details out this weekend on like the event, what we're doing, what we're planning, and all of that.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

And maybe in that we can include like a story poll where we can maybe get like a rough headcount of how many people we can plan on if that's if it's like you and you want to bring a friend, or you want to tell your sister or your whoever. Your neighbor, your neighbor, your co-worker.

unknown 3:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

And them too. Just we'll get it'll be probably one of the like ones you can write an answer so you can type in a number.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

I did post some story polls about this episode. Should I share them?

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Yes.

Why Intentions Beat Resolutions

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Okay, here we go. Let's see here. Did we get any more responses from Let me check? I posted these just this morning. Okay. I said, Do you usually make a vision board or intention setting ritual for the new year? 30% said three people said always. Three people said I want to start. Four people said not really into it. And then what energy are we craving going into 2026? I've got alignment, peace, more calm. If you chose a word or theme for the new year, what would it be? We have intention, seek, then I said I still need to think on it. And then would you have interest in coming to a vision board/slash intention setting event with us in January? So far, we've had seven votes for yes, two of those being us. So we have five of you that said that you would be interested. I wanted to speak really quickly before we go flying into like neuroscience and all that, that I am not a big New Year's resolution setting person. And I would say that what we're trying to host, I'm assuming is a little bit different. I think that New Year's resolutions, from everything that I've read over the years and looked into, they're just a fast track to, I don't want to, I don't want to use the word failure, but I want to say it's just it's too much. I think that there's always the new year brings a new beginning, right? A new slate, a clean slate. And I think everyone is really quick to be like, I'm gonna be a completely different person beginning from December 31st to January 1st. And I just don't think that's reality, right? Like we cannot change our entire lives in one day. So I'm not this event is not New Year's resolutions, let's just force ourselves to be different. This is more chill than that. This is let's pick a word, let's like let's create vision boards, and we'll talk about the why behind that versus let's make a million New Year's resolutions that we're just not gonna follow through on.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Which I think can be hard if year after a year you're setting goals for yourself, which goals is a word I have a hard time with, but I think that again the the intention for the year, not what the next thing is. We talked about this arrival fallacy in one of our last episodes, right? Like then what's the next thing? What's next? What's next? What's next? It's about how do I want to live intentionally day by day. Yes. And through that you can make change, but it starts with intention.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Yeah. Intention versus a whole list of the all the ways that you want to be different versus just like accepting who we are right now and making little changes day by day. But I think like the new year is a fun time, right? Because it does resemble like a clean slate, a fresh start, like a new beginning. And I'm a huge fan of new beginnings. So I think it is fun to have some ritual or some intention behind that. But yeah, this isn't New Year's resolution vibes. Yeah. Agreed.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

And I think it's important that we make that distinction. Me too. So I'm glad we took a second to talk about that. Which is making me reflect on some of the I think I sent you a picture of my journal a couple weeks ago when I got it, that I'd scribbled out some. I'm like, maybe I need to go back and redo those. But I was even thinking while journaling about like daily intentions, like making time for connection or play or like less screen time. I think those are all intentions. No, they're small enough that you can do them in many different ways. Yeah. You can connect in many different ways. They're broad. Yeah. Yep. Which I think is helpful. I don't know. But it's not I have to do this one thing. It's this is how I want to live. Right. Day by day. And how you do that day by day can look different.

Choosing A Word For The Year

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Yeah. I remember last year at the beginning of the year, I put last year, girl, we're still in 2025. Let me slow down. This year, I'm obviously very excited for a new year. At the beginning of this year, I put the word presence in my journal because I really liked the idea of just choosing a word for the year. And yeah, I'm trying to reflect. I think over and over again, it's something that I've come back to, or I've opened my journal and I've been reminded about, oh yeah, I was very in like setting this intention of wanting to be more present. And I think that's the beauty of an intention setting ritual is that we can be reminded all year long of, oh yeah, that thing. That thing, I was trying to seek out more of that this year. And maybe over the last month or so I haven't been that good at it, but let's start again. Right. Like you can always start again. We can always start again or be reminded. And I think that's way better than like setting a bunch of goals that are just like completely unrealistic and then feeling like feeling as if we failed. That's not what I want this to be about.

unknown 9:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

I agreed. I have a couple of things about what a vision board actually is. Okay. Which I know we've been talking about that already, but I'm just gonna go down my list of notes here. A vision board is a ritual of choosing images that feel like truth or longing or direction. It's not about manifesting a perfect life, it's about attuning the nervous system and what feels aligned.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

That's literally what this said. It said distinguishing manifesting versus attuning synchronicity.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

It's funny. I think it's also a way of externalizing inner desires so they can be seen, understood, intended. You can't know what you want what it is that you want until you like make it external, right? Yeah. Or it's hard to know what you want unless you make it external. It can take you longer to figure out if it's stays buried somewhere inside you.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Yeah, I think that there's like a practice in making like a vision board where it's like we're making the things explicit, you know, versus like just something that we're like pondering on or thinking about. There's some there's a lot of intention that comes from actually making this thing like explicit and tangible and something that we can hang up or reflect on like day in, day out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

It's like an external reminder. I like what you said about hanging it up or somewhere where you can see it or come across it as a reminder.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

It's easy to forget about.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

It's so easy. Day to day. I talk about that a lot in session. Just like the things that we're trying to do or keep the ways in which we're trying to change or do better or whatever, it might be more present. Like, life just happens. And it's I think we have to give ourselves a break and understand that like sometimes we just need a reminder of what we're trying to do. Like, every day is not gonna be perfect, we're not gonna have our word or our intention or whatever it is that we're trying to bring into our life at the forefront of our mind every single day. Like, we just don't have that capacity. So, just that's what this is for is creating, like making it intentional, making it explicit.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah, I agreed. Why have here the the reason why images matter? This is where we get into the magic of the neuroscience or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, whichever way your brain tends to lean.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Whichever way your brain brains.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Whichever way your brain brains. I like that. But your brain responds to imagery faster than language. The pictures bypass like the rational mind and speak directly to emotion and memory. Vision boards activate activate the brain's reticular activating system, or the RAS, which is the filter that notices what aligns with your intentions.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

I have never even heard of that.

What A Vision Board Really Is

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Neither have I. Interesting. If you want to know more, I guess go look it up. Seeing your desires visually helps the body recognize that this is safe and that this is possible. Vision boards also serve as a somatic anchor, like a felt sense of this is where I'm heading. Like again, that external reminder. Because we tend to operate day to day in the external. We have lists, like to-do lists, we have errands we need to run, things we need to, I guess things we need to do, essentially is what makes up the majority of my day, at least. Yeah, same. And to-do lists help me keep track of that, but that's why externalizing that list so you don't have to like hold it all in your mind.

unknown 12:28

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

You just brain dump and then it's there.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

You don't have to continue to ruminate or hold space for all of those things. Right. It's just there. Yeah. The book that I was telling you about that I was reading about like housekeeping, that sounds so like trad wife vibes, but I'm like, I'm need help. Yeah, keeping my house clean. So I was reading a book about housekeeping, and I think something that often shows up in sessions is what's the word? Mental labor? Mental labor.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Emotional.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Quite it. I think it is mental labor. Emotional.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Unseen. Emotional labor.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Unseen. Oh, I said that. It's not that's not quite it. It's the maybe it is mental labor. Mental load. That's the word. I'm thinking about mental load when you said that. So many of us have so many things going on day to day, in and out, that like sometimes we're carrying so much mental load, we don't have enough room to be holding on to like our wishes and our hopes and what we're hoping for the year. Yes, back to like making it explicit. Which I do want to bring up something about mental load.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Because, like you said, it's a very common, I think, topic, especially on TikTok. I see. And I think it is one for like it's one I think mostly women feel, or at least that's the vibe on all the mental load videos, especially as a working mom or as a working stay-at-home mom, just as a mom in general, or I I want to speak to the fact that's come up recently in my own like therapy client work. Yeah. That it just so happens, and there's probably some layer of like societal cultural socialization piece to this, but that like I was even talking to my husband about it earlier this week. We got look at the way my brain works. It's like I take two steps forward and one step back. You're fine. I know we got a skylight calendar at Costco like last week. It's been so fun to keep track of all of our stuff. Yeah. And I asked myself when I got this, I was like, do I really need this? It's just another method of organization. Am I gonna stick to it? But it has been helpful because we can share calendars and we can keep track of our entire schedule. Yes, yeah, externalizing the mental load. And when I was talking to my but I was talking to Chase about the mental load and how did it come up? I we I had, I think I was like thanking him for being for keeping track of so many things. He's I don't I feel like you do most of the calendar invites. He was, I was telling I was giving him gratitude for all of the ways that he participates in our schedule because he does send me invites for things, otherwise, I can't keep track of it. He's oh hey, I'm gonna go do this thing or we're gonna host this event. He tells me about it, but then unless there's a calendar invite, it goes in one air and out the other. He was just telling me how he didn't think that he was, he's like, You send me most of them, and I was like, Yeah, but you participate, like you do do so, like some of it. Yeah. And going back to the recent like therapy client sessions, that I think it's a very common thing that most of the event planning or the schedule keeping and tracking falls on a female in the relationship, at least in a heterosexual relationship, which is just going back to that mental load. Yep. And the caring of it all.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

And then goes back to why it's important to like make these things explicit. They're just not things that we maybe have the time to be thinking about every single day, but are still worthwhile and still important and still like helpful. It's been helpful for me to look back, or when I'm flipping through my planner and I look at presents, was the word that I chose. I'm like, oh my gosh, I totally forgot about that. And then it's made me like in those moments be like, okay, let's figure out how to make that a little bit more intentional this week. Because yeah, I have not had the time this year to be thinking about presents. Like, I've had a lot. That's why I'm like ready for the new year because a lot has happened this year, and some of that was intense, and yeah, like I'm just like, okay, fresh start.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Yeah, and I think it gives a felt sense of direction. Yep. Like it's not direction really, right? Because you're not quote unquote accomplishing anything goal-wise, but like or maybe you are. Yeah, that's the whole point. And maybe in the messy storm of it all, and all of the to-do lists and all of the schedules to keep, you have some sense that this is how I'm moving forward.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Yeah, and I think like it's not goal setting, it's a softer way of just keeping at the forefront somehow, some way, like what you were trying to do, what's important to you, what matters. We talk about what matters all the time.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Coming back to the present moment. Yep. To do, I think is very like anxiety, like living in the future, thinking of all of the things. But we're not necessarily guaranteed that we're going to get any of that done. Exactly. And I have to-do lists where like I don't mark off a single box. I'm like, wow, I do feel like I failed that day, but then it just gets moved to the next day. Right. It's not going anywhere.

The Neuroscience Of Imagery And RAS

SPEAKER_00 17:47

My to-do list isn't going anywhere. And you always have tomorrow. Yeah. Just because you didn't get it done doesn't mean that it's a failure. You just move it to the next day. Let's see what else. I also was gonna talk about how like a vision board is an example of ritual. And I think I don't even know how to talk about that. Like, I think that human beings are very we have so many rituals. Like celebrating birthdays is ritualistic. Maybe some people go to like church on Sundays, that's a ritual. And I'm thinking for myself about I think a ritual is anything that we do that's like celebratory in nature, just like a way that we as humans make meaning, like having a ritual. And I think that there's a lot of different ways to, and there's so many ways that we can have ritual, and I think it's very individual for everyone about what's going to be the most meaningful or what ritual maybe is the most intentional. But I think vision board, like creating a vision board, can be a very like ritualistic way to create meaning for the new year ahead. There was some ritual ideas here that I liked. And one that I think would be really fun on our podcast at the beginning of the year would be for maybe both of us to pull a tarot card. And then maybe even at our little event, we can have a couple decks and have everyone like pull a card for their year and include that in your include that in your vision board. But I remember at our little gathering that we had one of my therapy friends was talking about pulling a card for her year, and I was like, dang it, I definitely didn't do that this year, but when she said that, I was like, I'm totally gonna start doing that because I feel like that's similarly to a word, another way to have a fun way to come back to meaning throughout the year.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Yeah, I like that a lot. I also think it would be a good idea too at this event to offer the opportunity to share about each vision board if someone feels so inclined. Yes. Because another thing that I have here about what makes this gathering so special versus just doing this at home alone is that community amplifies clarity and that seeing others explore their desires also awakens a part of that for ourselves. And collective rituals, like you're saying, yeah, regulate the nervous system, makes it easier to dream without fear. Shared creativity is deeply grounding. Yeah. There's something about cutting out the images that have magazines and it's like tangible, like that's like fun, and arranging them visually. There's something about visually or like tangibly arranging these visual images that also like rearranges something for yourself internally. Yeah. It's like the this also came up this last weekend when we were going through back to housekeeping, when we were going through just all the stuff we keep in closets and all the stuff we keep in the basement, like bringing up the tree this weekend, brought a lot of we dug around in our storage. Yeah. And it's a good ritual to have spring cleaning, winter cleaning, for example, this weekend. But it does kind of mess with like your internal world. Like we spent, my husband and I probably spent about an hour and a half or two while our son was napping, just going through storage bins, going through like bags of blankets that I'm like, why are why is this blanket in a bag in a closet? Do I need it? Taking up room.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Taking up room.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

I think I was holding on to it for sentimental reasons, but those sentimental reasons have passed. Like I don't need it anymore. I know.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

I've not thought about it. I don't even know what's here. Let's just clean it. You haven't even thought about it, but it's there taking up space. Exactly. Like, I hate that.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Yeah. So we did go through a lot of stuff. And after our son woke up, we sat downstairs like a couple days later, and we still have storage boxes everywhere, like open. We've not put anything back away yet. It's just like breathing, aerating, aerating, completing. Which we sat on the couch and was just like, wow, I feel so emotionally drained. And I was like, Yeah, it it does something. Like your space that you live in is also a reflected, like a reflection of your internal space too. Absolutely.

unknown 22:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

And like you said, it's there taking up space, but you don't know that it's there. It takes a lot of energy, emotional energy, physical energy, mental energy to go through that stuff. Yeah. And get rid of it physically. And the other part about why community is so important for things like this is that being witnessed, we talk about witness all the time, actually builds like social accountability and belonging. This is something that you're doing together.

Mental Load, Externalizing, And Calendars

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Yeah. I also just want to put this out there and make this explicit too. If you have social anxiety and you are like listening to this and you're like, oh, that would be so fun, but I just don't know if I could do something like that. Like, I want you to just, I want to encourage you to not let your social anxiety hold you back. Like, I was thinking about this on the drive over here this morning as I knew we were going to be talking about this. It's like our event that we're hoping to plan and all that. And I was like, I want to make this as comfortable as possible. I was thinking about like maybe we at the beginning, we can do like a thinking about like conversation cards where it's just like easy topics that we like have those on the tables where people can pull them and not feel this pressure to like engage in conversation with people who are strangers or bring a friend with you. Somebody, if you don't want to bring a friend, just bring yourself. But like I really, I think as therapists, like we really want to make this as comfortable and as just community-based as possible. So I really don't want anyone to stress about all strangers though. I want, I think I do think I have a strength in like bringing people together and like mishmashing all the different kinds of personalities. You do. I'm like, don't let it hold you back. If this sounds like something that you're interested in, maybe you kick off your new year with getting a little like getting a little bit out of your comfort zone and coming and coming to our event. I think it could be, I think it will be good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

And I think another part of that too, I can also speak to my own social anxiety. I think when we talked about that therapist gathering that we had one of our first few episodes, I think I had shared that I had gone to a training earlier that week. Yeah, it felt very different going to a training versus going to an evening where you have something in common with these other people. Just by thinking about coming to this event, we have I don't know how many people listen to our podcast. You're all listening because you share something in common.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

To some very great call out.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Yeah. Yeah. So these are other people that maybe feel the same way or maybe feel like they belong here. You do belong here. And I can almost guarantee you're not gonna be the only one. Yeah. With this fear of showing up and meeting a bunch of new people.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

I know I myself am probably going to feel it on the day of. I'll be right there with you. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

But like it's worth it. It's worth it to leave from an event like that and feel like that sense of belonging or that sense of attunement or the sense of connection. Like, I think it's worth pushing through the discomfort. And you can do hard things. You can. And I think it will be worth it. I was gonna see if there's anything in here that's Ooh, that's a good one. Just talking, which would be more we would hold that for the actual event. Common mistakes trying to make it perfect.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Ooh, okay. I have here that one thing I wanted to also bring up is that this the ritual of creating a vision board is not about reinventing yourself.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

It's about reconnecting to the self that you already are.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

That is, I love that because I think that connects back to the beginning here of New Year's resolutions. We're not trying to reinvent ourselves. We're not trying to aim too high. We're trying to, yeah, reconnect back to what is important and who we already are and make those things more explicit as we go day to day through the year. It's not about creating a whole new like us. Yeah. Let's see.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Anything else that would be just on a note to that reinventing yourself versus reconnecting to yourself is that vision boards aren't magic because they manifest things for you. They're magic because they help you remember yourself.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Also, that creating a vision board is about like being curious. It's not like you don't have to come with a clear idea of who you are, who you want to be, what you want to bring forth in your year. Like we're just approaching, we would be approaching this with like curiosity.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

And you're more than just one thing, you're many things. Yeah. A compilation of all the things. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Yeah. Anyway, I'm just excited. I really so I put out a post recently, or like today, asking if there are any places in the valley that would be like a good place to host. And I have my eye on one that I really would love to use. That would be so fun and cute. And yeah, I am really excited to reach out to them and see if we can make it happen because I just think it would be fun and a good way to engage their awesome like company. They're a nonprofit, but a good way to engage their nonprofit as well. Trying to think of anything else.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Like that's it, don't you? Yeah. Thank you so much for listening to our episode today. If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, feedback, things you'd love to share with us, we have a Google form linked in our Instagram bio. And or you can just send us a message. We'd love to hear from you. We again, I think we'll be posting later this week about if you're interested in coming, we'll maybe do like a rough headcount.

Ritual, Tarot Pulls, And Shared Meaning

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Yeah, rough headcount. And I think that this weekend I'm very hopeful to have an official like announcement for a date and a time and the where and cost, all of that. I we both want to be able to like get some supplies for this. Some thing like some vision board magazines and stuff that I've seen on Amazon. And I don't know. So there would be like a small cost, but it would be really fun and we're excited.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Thank you so much for listening today, and we hope you tune in next time. See you next week.