WELCOME if you’re new here and found my publication from this IWD post.
I’m Claire. I’m an Engagement Consultant and Mentor and I live under dark skies on the Northumberland Coast with my husband and my two children. My Substack is an extension of my business Creatively Conscious. A place to consider the impact of creativity on our wellbeing.
Good morning! 🌞. How’s March treating you so far?
Boring/ relatable story alert - I’ll level with you and say I had a little (frustrated) cry yesterday. It was about the fact our replacement dishwasher is somehow much SMALLER than the old one and the dinner plates don’t fit inside properly. I’m frustrated because I nearly ordered the exact model we had but it’s only lasted 6 years and we’ve paid to have it fixed lots. The new one came with a 10 year guarantee so I thought that was the better option. It was meant to be the exact same dimensions as the old one but somehow my ability to work these types of things out has come back to bite again!
It’s always the life admin that breaks my spirit never the creative work! 🤷🏽♀️
In this (non) dilemma, I think the only option is to buy new plates?! That and get used to washing up and looking at the view more? 🫧 Maybe it’s all ok after all…
So to vision boards and my opinion on them….
Last weekend, the lads were watching football and my daughter and I were upstairs pottering. I love this time wandering with her.
I put some clothes away and I was tidying up the shelf that my vision board rests on in our bedroom. Luna had found her swim bag and was busy taking her PJs off to put on a swimming costume - navy pokka dot with frills! The board sat above her with some crystals and oracle cards.
I see it every day although not always consciously… It makes me smile. It could be a month or more since I’d consciously checked in but the power of it’s creation and remember a younger, hopeful version of me fills my heart. As I bent down to help her, I noticed the shelf was dusty and went off to find a cloth.
That same weekend at Alnwick Story Festival, I was by myself getting read to speak to 30 people about the power of Substack. In this moment I felt pulled inside the vision of what I’d hoped to create for myself…
full of creative enthusiasm close to home.
delivering expansive, creative work to people who appreciated it.
feeling taken care of/ held/ appreciated and properly paid by commissioners.
knowing my business is taking care of me while I’m doing other things. 1
I am reflecting on two years of bringing the visions on my current board to life. I can’t quite believe two years have passed but that’s what time does. I’ve been working with vision boards since 2016 - I LOVE them. I think they are really ‘alignment boards’ as they help us to pull into the vision of our creative possibility…
My last board was created as a three year board but all the visions appeared in less than two years…
IMPORTANTLY - I find it helps quiet imposter syndrome and comparison because if I’m focussed on my own vision it really doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing/ achieving/ advertising.
I know it doesn’t mean anything too much to anyone else to share these pictures but it’s a way to try and explain the magic as an invite to you.
For me, every time I reflect on what’s happened within our peripheral vision or in my business I see it on right there on the vision board. It’s a fairytale right in the middle of our routine. I’ve also learnt the hard lesson of seeing something I wanted so so badly not being something I have control over at all - this work is as nuanced as it is possible. 2
Magic right in the middle of the ordinary like spotting deer in a clearing on my way to Tesco 3and a pet rabbit to play with in a children’s play park on holiday. 4 Our camper van and new projects….
Spring time is SUCH an amazing time to create and get friendly with your visions.
There is power in our seeds and bulbs waking up. Things feel more possible than they have for a while…
Why create a vision board…
It’s fun!
The art of creation is a hot line with your intuitive thoughts and dreams
The creation process and act of sitting with your visions is powerfully rooted in neuroscience
Seriously, why wouldn’t you?
Neuroscientist Dr Tara Swart explains: "Looking at images on a vision board primes the brain to grasp opportunities that may otherwise gone unnoticed. That’s because the brain has a process called ‘value-tagging’ which imprints important things onto your subconscious and filters out unnecessary information.”
2021 - 2024 MAGIC ✨
Highlights you might notice here in my work; ‘Sparkle’ and ‘Joy’ - I talk about joyful sustainable growth all the time over on
; a project and work stream I set up just last year.The motherhood image is a direct representation of what
and I set up over on and the flowers at the bottom were in borders on our first family holiday aboard last year. There is much more beside but I don’t know whether you’ve ever tried to describe the energy of a magical and congruent feeling that lives in your body it’s hard and not always tangible to others!The quote is from Maya Angelou and she says;
“Making a living is not the same as making a life.”
My husband and I have worked part time since we became parents because we choose life and being self employed. Sometimes there are clashes in values with that EXTERNALLY and what we see people striving for all around us but we are cool with it. (Mostly). When Dave got sick I decided I could earn enough for him not to work and so that’s what I have done. There wasn’t another option5
We feel secure in it, taken care of in it and know that it’s an alternative and inspiring path for others. Sometimes a jolt out of what we are ‘conditioned’ to do Mon-Fri 48 weeks of the year but we’ve been living it for over 10 years now…
It’s just out of sight here, but there’s a card that says $1000 on it. I won exactly $1000 in a competition last Spring. 🤩 Sometimes vision boards are very literal other times things take time or show up in different ways…
✨
Why a 3 year vision board?
“What if I fail? Oh but darling, what if you fly?” Anon
A really interesting thing happens when we’re asked to plan/ think longer term. To be expansive in our intent, to lean into expansive possibility and innate desires.
I think, a vision board for a year is more of a goals board really.
You can hold the energy of a year and know pretty much how it might pan out so the images aren’t always very embodied - they are either completely off the map or safe - does this make sense?
Without knowing it self limiting beliefs inform some of your choices and in a 3 year vision board all that is bypassed. It’s almost like you can throw anything up there because in the 3 year container anything (and more) is possible…
Join me for our 2024 Vision Board Class online
Max 30 spaces (£35 per person or two payments of £17.50)
I’m sharing my personal practise and guiding you through creative intention setting for work, family, wellness, wealth and health this Spring equinox over zoom. Come join us?
This class and the recorded is FREE to members here at
.Upgrade today to ‘paid’ to access it, two free months to (my Substack teaching space) and over 50 ‘behind the scenes’ of my business posts right here in my Substack portal.
I love to share the practical action with the magic of expansive vision!
In the membership, I also do regular vision board check in videos to anchor us to this thread each season or when something magical pops up - whichever rolls around first.
So last question; what do you want to put on your vision board this Spring?
What is tugging away and calling to you outside of the life you have now?
Is it health, wealth, lifestyle related?
Perhaps you want more space, more travel, a different type of work, perhaps you want to win a specific competition, get a book deal, deepen your friendships?
🌥️ 🎟️ 🌀 🌄 🐇
If you feel comfortable, let me know in the comments? Visual journalling is MY favourite work, when you become a member you access all my past classes on that too.
Sending sparkles,
Claire x
PS - My 1-2-1s are back for a limited time. This is a completely new offer from me for us to work together on a strategy for your online presence for 6 months together. There are 8 spots left (I’m not doing that thing where people say there are 8 spots left there actually are 8 spots left after two bookings came in this week). ✨
PPS - NEW for Members. In April I am starting a monthly zoom check in for those who are interested in ‘Self seeding their Business’ by this I mean those who are growing a business that supports them while they are busy LIVING! Come?! They’ll be around the start of the month, lunch time ish UK time and an hour long. There’ll serve as a motivator to plant the seeds, do the work then go play in the garden with your kids or tend to the seeds of tomorrow.
Post coming on this later this month!
For those of you who don’t know my husband has been sick since he caught Covid in 2020 as we were about to bring our daughter LJ earth side.
The two deer were literally in a clearing on a roundabout. I wouldn’t have spotted them but my daughter dropped something out of her pushchair and so I stopped to grab it and talk to her. As I bent down, the sun was in my eyes and as I spun round they were right there - beautiful ancient beasts straight out of a fairytale right in the middle of a built up area and busy road. PURE magic in the mundane.
Our first time abroad as a family of four, memories to last a life time. I didn’t think I was going to be able to book this trip - it felt OUT OF CONTROL to spend £5k on a family holiday when I was solely responsible for the bills. My husband was feeling well after a fair few years of health conditions and as the sun was setting we headed to the play park to be met by a Spanish family who had brought their very tame pet rabbit to play too. Rabbits are one of my power animals and I remember this feeling of deep knowing it was all going to be ok. In that moment and after.
We don’t live an expensive lifestyle - the cost of living increase has been a shock but I was determined not to fall into old behavioural patterns around ‘not having enough, not being enough.’ If you are feeling those sorts of things I’d really recommend this course - it changed everything for me.
I made my first vision board at the start of this year and I love the energy it brings! I like to use photos I've taken myself (somewhat like a scrapbook) to remind me of blessings from the past and what I hope to see/do more of!
So fun and exciting to see your special vision boards Claire. Thanks for sharing them 🫶🏻