Dream Boards and Vision Boards

Dream Boards and Vision Boards



Many of us have heard about the importance of Vision Boards to help us focus, guide our intentionality, and help us grow in the direction that we see for ourselves. Vision boards also help us to bring clarity and voice to what is swirling around in our heads as we try to decide what we do next. When we are aligned and we do what we love and love what we do, we are constantly celebrating. Celebrating what is right with the world and celebrating what is right in our lives.

However, and there is always a “however”, it can be hard to find time to do a vision board and it can be even harder to have our vision boards grow and change with us as we grow and change. So I now use a very simple vision board with MicroSoft Word. It requires nothing special and nothing fancy, I don’t have to buy and download software and I can modify it and adjust it anytime I see fit.

I start with a table. I usually start with a 3x3 table giving me 9 different work areas. It is a nice tic-tac-toe board and keeps the concepts simple and easy to use. Some times I use landscape and other times I use portrait and then I add to each box. When I am done adding to each box, I either make the lines darker or I get rid of them altogether if I like the board to have a more integrated look.

Each box then becomes a place to put in my vision and images for intentionality. It can be for my family, my own personal growth, or my business. Or ,I may do a vision board of how I will pamper my muse or take care of myself. The possibilities are endless.

Here are the 9 categories i start with, but I also change them up as I see fit. Use the categories that resonate with you and that help you to visualize and intentionalize what you envision for your business.

Places I want to see business grow	Social media that I will hone into	My best and ideal customers
What products I will be selling to promote my business	Business logo or name	Where I will travel to promote my business
Quotes that inspire me	Books that inspire me	Web resources that resonate with me

These categories resonate with me and offer me a guide, but do not become rigid. Additionally, they offer me an opportunity to use words, clipart, pictures from my files, or quips and quotes...and I do not have to stick with the 9 boxes, it is just a quick and simple organizing tool.

So, start with a tic-tac-toe board and create your vision board for what you want to attract and manifest in your life. What is it that you want for you, tu vida, tu familia, y tus socias? Go ahead, visualize it.

Con un pan y cafecito,
Seguimos adelante,
Zulmara

Camaron que se duerme, se lo lleva la corriente.

Shrimp that sleep are taken by the current.

Created with Oprah Dream Board
http://www.oprah.com/spirit/O-Dream-Board-Envision-Your-Best-LifeTM

Using Apps

Using Apps

As we enter into a journaling journey, there are apps out there to help us. For those of you who are thinking, this is all fine and good, but I have no time to write in a journal, cut out pictures, find clipart, or do any of those things that successful journalers do, I just have no time. There may be an app that will do the trick and allow you to do the amount of reflective journaling you want to do without having to get up 20 minutes earlier and hope no one else in the house has the same idea.

The apps that I have enjoyed using are the social apps. My favorite is Awesome Note. Awesome Note allows me to have as many folders as I want that deal with the different aspects of journaling.

I currently have about 15 folders on Awesome Note for the various types of journaling experiences I want to document on the run, quickly and easily. One is for Artist’s dates. When I go on a date to pamper my muse and restore my creative energy, I take pictures on my phone and add a few words of wisdom. I have a folder for Quips and Quotes, when I hear a quote or see a quote that resonates with me, I pull out my 4S and turn on SIRI and have her take down my quote.

The other apps that I use are Storie, LifeNote, MyTymz, Penzu. If you have a smart phone, look at the social apps available and find one that resonates with you and one that helps you get on the journaling journey you want to be on. It can be very simple,take a picture and a caption…and you have a record of being in the right place at the right time. Or just take a picture and write an affirmation.

You will have so much fun, you will start looking for opportunities to write down those moments that make your day. You will have a place to write those quips and quotes that resonate with you, without having to think,”OK, where did I leave my journal last time I wrote in it?”

If you have an iPad or a tablet, you may find that you have more and more to say and to write, with the bigger keyboard screen, it will make your journaling experience that much richer. Y vas a disfrutar and you are going to enjoy your journaling journey.

So go ahead and get a few of those apps and start recording with pictures and quotes, these can become fodder for your journaling journey or they can be the place where you record all of the affirmations in your life.

Con un pan y cafecito,

Seguimos adelante,

Zulmara

No por mucho madrugar, amanece mas temprano.

No matter how early you get up, dawn doesn’t come any earlier.

Discovering your Inner Diva

Discovering your Inner Diva

Journaling to the best you, you can be…

 As you journey through your life and you find your self facing adversity, wanting a change, being extremely happy, needing to decompress, or release stress, journaling, in its many formats, will help you to reach your goal, change what needs to be changed, or get through a particularly stressful time.

And you will find that the journaling takes many forms…you may not feel you write well enough to keep a grief journal, but cutting out pictures that remind you of your loved one or finding quotes you would have liked to share with them, can have the same healing effect. You may want out of a difficult situation at work, but feel you cannot articulate the life you want in a journal, so find the pictures that resonate with you and cut them out and put them in a journal…that will help you find the path to the change you desire. You may find that you are angry at the world…keep a simple gratitude journal and jot down 5 things that make you happy everyday.

The mind is a powerful, living, breathing organ and what we think we manifest, so therefore when you want a change, want a difference, want a new job, a soul mate, a good person in your life, you can visualize it into existence…just by believing in the power of your dreams and creating the visualizations in your life. You can do it with journaling or you can do it with quotes, pictures, songs, ideas, quips, scrapbooks, and blogs. The important thing is for you to realize that you have the power to create the life you wish to create and writing it down will make it happen for you…as long as you believe in the power of your dreams to be manifested in the life and the work that you do.

It has been a great pleasure to share this journaling experience with all of you and I want to sincerely thank each and everyone of you for your participation and responses to these posts. 

Otra vez, mil gracias a todos mis amigos…for joining me on this terrific journey…

Con un pan y cafecito,

Seguimos, ADELANTE!!!

Zulmara

"Barriga llena corazon contento."

Full Stomach, Happy Heart.

The Writer's Journal/Notebook

The Writer’s Journal/Notebook…

I am often asked what advice I would give to aspiring writers and my answer does not vary much…you have to read, read, and read some more and simultaneously you have to write, write, and never stop writing. Keeping a writer’s journal is essential to help you gather as many tidbits of information that will help you with your writing later on and will keep your writing fresh and interesting.

You have to write about everything, anything and then some. That is how you become a good writer…by writing…and when you are ready for the story, the book, the novel, the idea, then a writer’s notebook comes in handy…

The writer’s journal is where you jot down ideas, collect names, collect quotes, and other tidbits of information that may or may not make it into your stories, novels, poems, or shorts. This is where you mine the gold mine that is your life to help prepare you for what it is you want to write. This is where you start preparing the fertile ground for your creativity…and you never know what will make it in and what won’t. This is not where you filter your work or your words…anything is good, everything and anything goes. This is to have fun, with quips and quotes and anything notes.

The Writer’s Notebook, on the other hand, is much more specific. This is where you are laying the groundwork for your story…this is where you have scenes, characters, plot lines, and ideas. Science Fiction and Fantasy writers keep the most elaborate notebooks, since they are creating virtual worlds and they have to keep them straight. Some fantasy writers even create a language that is specific to their world and their characters may visit other worlds in order to be ready for what is coming next.

Many writers use different strategies for organizing their stories and keeping them straight but they all have some way of getting to know their characters and of understanding what the characters are all about. They have some way of detailing, fact checking, and ensuring that there is a logical fit for the reader, especially if there are multiple books in a series.

JK Rowling was a master at keeping detailed information straight and she even got some of her facts wrong, especially with dates and ages, as do many writers. So, as an aspiring writer you have to write…in all sorts of genres and you have to find a process of organizing the story that keeps it straight and keeps it real in your mind. For example, the most effective writers know more about their characters than their readers do, because in developing the back story, they had to know so much more than they shared with the reader…alas, our gay wizard…

Con un pan y cafecito,

Seguimos ADELANTE!!!

Zulmara

"Preguntando se llega a Roma."

Asking will get you to Rome.

I am not a writer, what can I do??

I am not a writer, what can I do??

 We are almost at the end of our journey together and this one is for the skeptic, the non-writer, the person who has many journals started, but none of them finished. So what do you do? Follow your strengths and go with the flow. In the first place, don’t force yourself to write, keep a visual, pictorial journal that flows with pictures cut from magazines or drawings that you make, or comics that speak to you. Review these regularly and stay focused.

Get into scrapping your life and write captions or buy ready made captions to capture those special moments in your life with your family and friends.

Do a collage of your goals…find the picture of you at your perfect weight, your dream house, your favorite food, the place you want to vacation and put them in plan view as a constant reminder of what you want to accomplish in your life.

Get a sketchpad and markers and draw your gratitudes, goals, aspirations, and innovations. This will help you to capture the essence of who you are and who you want to become.

Go online and do a vision board, it is like playing with pictures and lets you focus and you do not need to write to follow your bliss, you just need to find the pictures and sounds that work for you.

Oprah has a great vision board that is free and simple to use. You can find it here:

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/O-Dream-Board-Envision-Your-Best-LifeTM

Con un pan y cafecito,

Seguimos ADELANTE!!!

Zulmara

"Al que con el lobo se junta, a aullar se enseña."

He who runs with the wolves will learn how to howl.

Your Memoirs

Why write your memoirs?

Me and my muse...from our great Build a Muse Day!!!

Memoirs are the story of our lives, sometimes embellished, sometimes not, that leaves a sense of history, who we were, what we accomplished, and how the many narratives that make up our lives fit together. Es la estoria de nuestras vidas.

Many famous people write their narratives because, we their adoring public, like to know who they are, what makes them tick, how they became who they ended up being. However, why would we write our narratives? Several reasons, one is that as writers, we are in the best position to preserve a family history, which gives our families a sense of self and a sense of belonging to something greater than ourselves. When we write our narratives, we are giving voice to our ancestors, who they were, what they endured, how they survived, and how we came to be who we are.

Additionally, we are giving the young ones in the family a sense of where they came from, the sacrifices made by those who had come before and the expectations that are a part of the proud stock from which they come.

We also write to honor, love, respect those who have been there for us, to let them know we care and we appreciate all that they have done for us in the process of being a part of our lives.

And, what do you choose to write about? Well, it depends, individual usually start with an incident that had an impact on them, getting married, birthing a child, graduating from high school, losing a loved one…and go from there. Our stories are powerful and as writers we owe it to our selves to write them down for our families to have a strong sense of who we are and what we have to offer.

So, just start writing about those things that have made a difference in your life. Creer es lograr.

(If you are truly interested in creating a work of art of your life, be on the lookout for my ecourse for a step by step guide.)

Con un pan y cafecito,

Seguimos, ADELANTE!!!

Zulmara

"El que es perico, donde quiera es verde."

You are who you are no matter where you are.

Finding Prompts: quotes songs poems pictures

Finding Prompts: quotes songs poems pictures

For those who feel a sense that writing a journal is something they would like to try, but are having trouble getting started, I would say, start with quotes-songs-poems that resonate with you…and just jot them down.  Es una conexion.

Choose a poet or a singer that resonates with you, copy their poem in one of those…too pretty to write in journals, and respond to the poem. You can come up with a question as I have done for each of the poems in my Guided Journal, or you can just respond to how the poem makes you feel. There are many wonderful poets online who frequently share their poems on their blogs or other posts.

Songs lyrics are another inspiration. As you are listening to your playlist, jot down a sentence or two and make that your prompt for writing for the day. Music is inspirational and often speaks to us in many different ways and enters our soul through different channels, if you love music and are very auditory, this may be your path. La musica es una inspiracion.

Quotes are another source of great inspiration for writing. Get a quote book and pick a quote and write how it resonates with you, speaks to your, or makes you angry. You will be surprised at how this exercise allows you to get in touch with your inner you…and who you want to be and gets started on your journaling journey.

(Bumper stickers that make you chuckle or cringe are also great, just whip out your phone and speak in a note for later writing in your journal or snap a picture and include it in your journal.)

Pictures offer wonderful prompts. Dewitt Jones does a great job of writing his bliss when he celebrates what is right with the world with his pictures and his captions. Some of the captions he creates and other times, he uses quips and quotes. Photos that you take yourself or that others take are a great place to start a beautiful journal as you journal your bliss.

Magazine and Newspaper articles often contain interesting tidbits of information that make for great journal entries, copy down a headline and get creative…you can respond to it, think about what it is going to be about, or write the article based on the title using your own voice and interpretation.

Conversations…a great place to find interesting tidbits to write about. Turn a phrase into a random question, or jot down an idea and expand it later.

Prompts are all around us and when you start looking for quips and quotes and anything notes, you will find that you will stumble on more prompts than you can possibly use.

Con un pan y cafecito,

Seguimos ADELANTE!!!

Zulmara

"En la casa de un herrero, asado de palo."

In a metal worker’s house, there is a wooden hoe.