Every year at this time, I return to a ritual that has followed me through countless seasons of becoming. Many people call it a vision board, but I’ve always felt that phrase can be a little… stiff. A little too strategic. A little too “corporate goal-setting session.”
And that’s not what this practice is for me much anymore. I’m now calling mine Joy Maps.
I welcome you calling your “vision board” something else too that works better for your life. Happy Trail. My Guide to Bliss Mountain. Call it anything that helps you breathe a little easier and dream a little wilder.
Because when we change the name, we shift the energy, we personalize the energy even more. The traditional term “vision board” still works just fine, but for me renaming releasing pressure and helps the magic rise.
A Ritual of Creativity and Possibility
I’ve been a vision board person for as long as I can remember. In fact, I typically create a couple. One quietly at home and the last two years, I’ve crafted one during a Saturday gathering at my church.
At church, we bring nothing with us. No saved clippings, no stack of words I’ve been collecting all year. I simply show up as I am, trusting that whatever magazines are there are exactly the ones we’re meant to use. It feels divinely led—an invitation to work with the materials life is offering in that moment.
For the one at home, I use a storage container I’ve been adding to for years. Throughout the year, I save magazine pages that capture me—powerful words, inspiring images, colors that feel like hope.
Creative Play for the Soul
My favorite part of the process is the collage itself as the creative in me loves arranging the pieces so they flow. Turning scattered images into a cohesive, intuitive, almost musical whole. Finding the story in the colors and shapes. Letting the future come alive through scissors and glue.
A visual conversation with the Divine… a way to trust Spirit to show me what’s calling next.
Do I Have a Massive Manifestation Story?
Not really. No lightning-fast miracle to report. No “it showed up the next day!” moment.
But here’s the truth: I keep my boards for several years. And over time, things do happen.
Not because the board itself is magic, but because I become mindful of what I desire. I stay in conversation with what matters. And I let the Universe, the Divine, and my own SoulFire know what I’m ready to welcome in.
I have mine in my office area, where it becomes both aspiration and inspiration on view daily.
A SoulFire Approach to Crafting Your Joy Map
So here’s my usual approach creating a Joy Map (or vision board, or Guide to Bliss Mountain).
1. Start with what sparks joy.
Just like Marie Kondo teaches us to keep only what sparks joy in our homes, the same applies here: Only add what sparks joy within you.
Not societal expectations. Not obligation. Not someone else’s definition of success.
The images should delight you, soothe you, energize you. You should feel happy and hopeful when you look at them.
When you create from joy, you naturally move toward the life that matches it. Small steps moving us forward, almost without realizing.
2. Let intuition guide the materials.
Whether you too have a folder of saved clippings or use whatever the Universe sets before you, trust the process.
If something draws you in, don’t question it. Your future self understands before your current self can articulate why.
3. Blend in a little Feng Shui.
I love using a loose Feng Shui-inspired layout—not as a strict rule. Use it as a guide, not a grid. Gently cover the key areas of living:
- Wealth & Abundance
- Career & Purpose
- Love & Relationships
- Family & Home
- Health & Wellness
- Creativity & Joy
- Wisdom & Learning
- Adventure & Travel
- Community & Contribution
It helps ensure your Joy Map becomes a holistic vision and not just about one area of life.
4. Let your Future Self appear before you.
When I look at my Joy Maps, I see the “her” I am slowly becoming, wanting to reach:
- the long trek hiker
- the daily yoga practitioner (the she who does daily meditation appeared this past year!)
- the woman who finally makes time for her own self-care
- the writer mindfully crafting bestsellers
- the early morning coffee drinker on her sunny porch surrounded by well-behaved dogs, making her life follow her schedule
She is me—arriving in layers, in seasons, in time.
A Joy Map helps me remember what I’m moving toward and gently encourages me to take one small step each day.
Creating is something sacred
Whether you call it a vision board, a Joy Map, a Happy Trail, or your Guide to Bliss Mountain, what you’re creating is something sacred:
A soft, brave permission slip to honor your soul’s longings.
This is SoulFire work at its brightest. We’re collecting sparks—tiny pieces of joy, hope, beauty, expansion—and arranging them into a picture of who we’re becoming.
Tending the flame within you, reminding it that your desires matter, your inspiration matters, your becoming matters.
Your Joy Map is not a plan; it’s a path of your possibility.
And every time you look at it, you tell Divine and the Universe:
Here I am. Here’s what lights me up.
Have fun and enjoy the process!