This is an interview with one of my workshop participants (also a friend) who manifested a boyfriend within one month of doing her vision board. After years of not having much luck in dating, Heather talks about how getting super clear and conciously creating her vision of what her ideal relationship would be – was KEY. Now seven months later she is happy to say that she and her partner are still together in love! Listen in on how exactly it all played out.
Lisa:
Okay, so Heather, thank you so much for joining me today. I have some questions for you; I’m making a case study around the benefits of vision boarding and how they can help, not just in all aspects of our life, but in certain specific aspects of our life. Maybe just tell a little bit about yourself, your business, what brought you to the workshop and what were your expectations going in?
Heather:
Perfect. I’m Heather Briggs. I run Radiate Real, and there I act as a brand strategist and a business coach, helping people find a really strong alignment between their soul, their brand, and their marketing, so making sure that all three of those things are connected and aligned and feel authentic to the entrepreneur.
I came to your workshop because I’ve done vision boarding in the past. I believe in the power of it. I was feeling like I wanted some accountability to sit down and do one, because it was sort of something that had been on my to-do list and I wasn’t getting it done on my own. So when I saw your event come up, I thought that’s great accountability. That means I will definitely do it, and as it kind of got closer to the event, I started thinking – wow, I don’t think I want to do a ‘whole life’ one. I think I wanted to really narrow in on my love life and get clear on what love looks like to me.
Lisa:
Great. So when you were there – in the workshop – the wheels were already starting to turn, like I’m not going to be focusing on my business, financial, home environment, spirituality or any of those other categories that we can weave into our vision board. You decided I’m going to hone in strictly on significant other and romance.
Heather:
Yeah, I’d been single for quite a few years, dating kind of, but not even really feeling inspired to be out dating. And then when I was getting into situations, I kept coming back to – hmm, I don’t know if I’m even actually that clear on what I’m looking for. So I had an awareness that that was one of the things that was really out of alignment, I guess, in my life. I knew that I had the tools, and I sat down and, put some energy and attention there. I was hoping it would shift.
Lisa:
Great, thank you. So how did this process work for you and did it actually bring you clarity while you were doing the workshop?
Heather:
Yeah. The day of the workshop, I think I just really got into the idea of putting all this time, attention and energy towards this one thing, and it was powerful. I mean, in the moment I don’t think I realized how powerful it was to spend a dedicated, what, three or four hours, your workshops are? Like really thinking about one specific component of my life, so much that I couldn’t gloss over it and just put a picture of a ‘heart’ or a ‘happy couple’ on it. I needed to go deeper than that. I’ve done that version before. So I wanted to get really clear on specifically what love looked like and felt like to me. And yeah, it was really great to have your guidance and also the digital approach, which again, a lot of us need to go to the whole internet for source imagery versus like, I don’t know, a magazine where, again, you might just find these sort of cheesy magazine-style-love-image editorials. I knew my love life was not going to be super traditional, but I didn’t really know how to identify what those markers or symbols would be that would make it unique to me.
Lisa:
Right. I love that. And I love that it’s true, I mean, even for myself on past vision boards, I’ve kind of glossed over it and just put a picture of a happy couple and moved on to the next category in my life. And so yeah, I really thought that was amazing the day that you were there, and you said ‘I’m just doing it around LOVE’. And I could see in the process you were actually cultivating and growing things right then and there that maybe you hadn’t even realized were important to you, and so that was neat.
Heather:
I think as such a visual person, vision boarding’s so powerful because yeah, my mind couldn’t necessarily come up with the words without the pictures. And once I started going to Pinterest and sort of seeing these examples of passion and love and connection and looking for things that felt like me and what I wanted, it definitely opened up a lot. So in the moment I was feeling, oh yeah, there’s more possibility than maybe I had thought, again coming from more of the stereotypical, traditional visions of what love and marriage and all that stuff looks like. And being 40 and single, childless and recently deciding I didn’t think I want to have kids, I was having a bit of an identity crisis around like what does a happy, longterm, loving partnership look like for me? The pictures helped to give me the words ultimately, which was helpful.
Lisa:
Amazing. That kind of leads me to the next question. So you’re describing what you came up with and you also mentioned the power of intention and the energy around when we’re really focused and clear on what we’re looking for. What was your result at the end, and did your result become the catalyst for something new and did it perpetuate growth or change?
Heather:
Yeah, I think I left the workshop feeling hopeful, also a little bit scared and unsure of what it meant. I maybe sat with it for a week or two, posted up on the wall, and I didn’t really know how to take action necessarily. But then one day I was on online dating and I had this ‘aha’ moment.
I was about to delete my profile, because I thought maybe this work I had done, that I don’t know, I was still a little confused how to action it. And then I just looked over to the side, saw the vision board, saw this blank summary area on the dating profile, and I was like, what if I just write down the things that are right there on my vision board? And it helped me for the first time ever fill out a dating profile that really felt like me. It felt like that it was clear on what I was looking for in a partner, and that allowed me to feel more confident about being there. Do you know what I mean? I thought, right, it’s like marketing. When you’re really clear on who you’re trying to attract, it makes marketing a lot easier. And I think online dating is very similar to marketing in a strange way. It really is how dating sort of shifted with the internet and everything.
So it allowed me to put words to those images, to say really clearly what I was looking for. And I remember just kind of feeling like if that’s all I do, fine – that was the shift almost.
I finally could give voice to what I was looking for, and then as the universe would have it, I ended up meeting somebody online really quickly within posting that really authentic kind of profile!
Going on a first date, again, being able to be in the early stages of dating and have something to go back to that vision board was anchoring, it was more than just feelings, you know? Again, I was like, is he this vision? And so that really helped I think propel me into consciously dating this person and stepping into that vision, being continually surprised that things would pop up that were kind of a part of that process, and having them manifest pretty quickly. I’d say I met him within a month of doing your workshop, and it’s seven months later and we’re still dating.
Lisa:
I love that. That’s so cool. And I’m very happy for you, because I know you’re happy. But I love that you said consciously dating, also it’s purposeful behind it, and just being able to refer to the vision board and say ‘am I aligned’, in the early days — being able to discern if you’re kind of on track.
Heather:
And I think it’s interesting, too, because we’re talking about vision and how things look, but really the process of vision boarding is much deeper. And so maybe in the past we were – and I see this with my friends – we get overly concerned on how the person looks in that more superficial way. And I was able work around that, because maybe he didn’t necessarily look like what I had thought I was out looking for, but he felt like it. And when I looked at the circumstances of what we both like – the activities and things that were important to me that I’d put on the board, I was seeing that these are the same things that are important to him. So it was like a different way of how we tend to sort of visualize our ideal partner. Sometimes we can get really stuck on the wrong things.
Lisa:
YES. I love it. I love everything about this, and I don’t know – I don’t think there are any coincidences. I think you were meant to be in that workshop. You were meant to put that vision board together, and what you came out with at the time – like you say – you were able to have the words, do the profile, and here you are. You’re still together, and it happened pretty quickly.
Heather:
Quickly yeah, and with that, like you know what they say with manifesting – when it’s super aligned, it’s supposed to feel kind of easy and effortless, and that hadn’t really been my experience dating. So there was a certain magic to that too, that it actually did feel easier and had the sort of internal alignment.
Lisa:
Love it.
Heather:
Thank you.
Lisa:
Well, thank you so much, Heather, for sharing this with me and everyone that listens to this, and it’s all about the power of intention and getting clear, and that vision, well, it’s just fun to see it manifest. But it’s also fun creating it, so fun making the board.
Heather:
It’s fun creating it. It’s so true. I think that if you can get into a state of joy, play and creativity when you’re asking or in the process of figuring out what you want, it makes the whole thing easier from start to end.
Lisa:
That’s right.
Heather:
I think we can all take a lesson in this in many areas of our life and where we could actually just anchor more joy, more ease, more fun, and allow that to take us where we want to go.
Lisa:
So true. Alright. Thank you, my dear. I appreciate it so much, and I look forward to seeing you at the next workshop and the next coworking date that we have.
Heather:
Yay. Thanks so much, Lisa. And yeah, I just, I really want to recommend to anybody who feels stuck or sort of stagnant in either your whole life or a certain area of your life to really lean into exercises and practices like this and allow yourself to play with it, because it just takes one of those synchronistic things and you can really see the power of this work. So thank you for doing the work you do.
Lisa:
Thanks, Heather.