New Year’s has always been my favorite holiday. Not because of the parties.
Because it feels like a sacred doorway.
A recap of what I did… didn’t do… and what I’m ready to become next.
In my family, it’s a big day. And for me, it’s been a ritual since I was nine: I made a vision board every year at first it was just pictures from magazines. I’d stare at them all year like they were little portals.
Then I started checking things off.
And slowly my “vision board” became what it always truly was:
A map. A plan. A promise.
But I’ll be honest there was a season of my life when I thought vision boards were stupid.
Not because I stopped believing.
Because I stopped believing in me.
The year I almost didn’t make one
When I got sick wheelchair-bound, bed-bound vision boards felt… insulting.
Like: Really? You want me to cut out pictures while my body is collapsing?
And then it hit me:
This would be the most ambitious vision board I’d ever make.
Because when you have POTS, you don’t just “feel tired.”
You can’t carry a bag. You can’t stand in a line. You can’t casually go lift weights like a normal person. Even sitting up can feel like climbing a mountain.
So what did I put on that board?
I cut out pictures of lean, fit, strong women lifting weights—not because I was delusional… but because I needed my brain to remember that “strong” still belonged to me.
I added planes, too. Because I had entered a whole new world: medical tourism.
I wasn’t just going to hospitals. I was building a life around healing.
I would book a 7-day trip:
2 days for doctor appointments… and the rest for everything else.
The sights. The ocean. A new restaurant. A museum. A sunset.
Because if my life had turned into symptoms and appointments, I needed my vision board to keep whispering:
“You are still allowed to live.”
I put a photo of a doctor with the word HEALED.
I imagined myself walking. Running. Building muscle again something that feels almost impossible when you’ve been in bed for months.
And I added romance too.
Because nobody talks about that part.
There isn’t a lot of romance when you’re bed-bound. There’s caretaking. Fear. Survival. Stress.
So I gave myself permission to want love, softness, and closeness again.
That board wasn’t “magic.”
It was me refusing to let my nervous system decide that my world was over.
The manifestation “secret” nobody says out loud
Manifestation isn’t passive.
It’s not you sitting on a couch hoping the universe delivers.
It’s attention training.
When you repeat an image, a phrase, a goal, a feeling—your brain starts filtering life differently. You begin noticing opportunities, connections, and next steps you would have literally missed before.
That’s the science-meets-spirit part I love: your subconscious mind is always scanning for what it believes matters.
So when you build a vision board you actually look at every day, you’re not “wishing.”
You’re programming priorities.
Why vision boards stop working (and start feeling like guilt)
Most vision boards fail for one reason:
They become a wall of pressure.
A pretty collage that whispers: “You should be further.”
And if your nervous system is already overloaded—busy mom life, hormones, sleep issues, anxiety, gut stuff your brain doesn’t interpret that board as “inspiration.”
It interprets it as threat.
And a threatened body doesn’t create.
It survives.
So we’re flipping the method.
Your vision board isn’t a “wish board.”
It’s a safety + focus + action board.
The missing piece: your nervous system has to feel safe first
If your body is stuck in fight-or-flight, you can have the best goals in the world and still feel like you can’t execute.
Because survival mode steals:
- your focus
- your patience
- your sleep
- your consistency
- your follow-through
So before we talk goals, we start with regulation.
Think of it like tending a garden:
you don’t plant seeds in frozen soil and then shame the seeds for not growing.
You warm the ground first.
The “Brain Board” method (my new way to do vision boards)
Step 1: Choose 5 categories (keep it simple)
Pick five:
- Health & Energy
- Love/Family/Home
- Money/Business
- Confidence/Beauty
- Spiritual growth/Peace
Step 2: For each category, add ONE image + ONE sentence
The image is the cue.
The sentence is the instruction.
Examples:
- Health: “I’m a woman who chooses stability daily.”
- Business: “I build what I can sustain.”
- Family: “I’m present, not perfect.”
- Love: “I welcome softness again.”
Step 3: Under each category, add 3 “Checkmark Actions”
Instead of “lose 20 lbs,” write:
- Walk 20 minutes 4x/week
- Protein breakfast daily
- Lights out by 10:30
Now your brain knows what to do.
Step 4: Add one “Nervous System Anchor”
Put this somewhere visible:
“Regulation first. Then results.”
The 3-minute daily ritual that makes the board actually work
- Hand on heart slow breath (30 sec)
- Look at the board choose ONE focus (60 sec)
- Ask: “What’s my smallest next step?” (30 sec)
- Write it down and do it today (60 sec)
The weekly “checkmark review” (how the board turns into results)
Once a week:
✅ Circle what you did
➡️ Pick what’s next
✂️ Remove what’s unrealistic (without shame)
🌱 Add one supportive habit
Your board is allowed to evolve.
That’s not failure. That’s growth.
XX to your INVISIBLE BATTLES & UNSEEN STRENGTH,
Carola
If your body is stuck in survival mode
Sleep · Hormones · Gut · Anxiety
Begin with gentle, foundational regulation.
With care for your invisible battles & unseen strength,
Carola, ND
