The key here is to let your authentic Self reveal itself to you, as opposed to letting your conscious mind dictate what’s “right for you” or let your ego derail you. 

To do this, focus on dropping into your body throughout the experience rather than staying in your mind. Notice your emotional responses and physical sensations to cue your level of alignment to each possibility – sensing for expansion vs. contraction. Take intermittent pauses to ask yourself how you feel about what’s being written, as opposed to hearing what your inner voice thinks of it. Follow the breadcrumbs of anything that feels expansive.

Select a format that intrigues you

Below are three formats to choose from: Journal Entry, Mind Map, or Vision Board. Each format is broken up into two parts — part one is a brain dump, and part two is your why. 

a) Journal entry

You can find Part One & Part Two in our Visioning Session Prompts (see "Pair With" below to download). Reminder, a journal entry can use full sentences, bullet points, doodles, etc. — write however suits you!

b) Mind map

PART ONE:

• In the center of a blank sheet of paper, draw a small circle with this phrase inside: "what makes me feel alive?"
• In all the empty space around the circle, start jotting down anything & everything that comes to mind in response to that question – nothing is off the table! Feel free to use our Visioning Session Prompts to guide you.
• Once everything is on the page, revisit each item one by one to consider how it truly resonates with who you are now – do I actually feel alive with this thing? Or is it because the world tells me I’m good at it, or that I need to do it in order to be/receive what I want? Anything that feels unaligned (constricting) – cross it out. Anything that feels intriguing (expansive) – circle it.

PART TWO:

• Use page 3 of our Visioning Session Prompts (or draw your own Mind Map on another sheet of paper). 
• In the second tier of circles, write in everything you circled on your Part One brain dump, categorizing them as needed to fit on the page.
• The third tier of circles is your why. Consider why each item makes you feel alive. Get to the root of it – what emotion does it invoke? When you imagine yourself doing it or experiencing it, what part of you comes alive? Jot down your answers. 
• Can you spot any patterns or similarities amongst them? Do any surprise you? Do any remind you of a childhood dream, even just a little? Are any of them a part of your life now? 

OPTIONAL: If you want to focus more on discovering your “purpose,” you can reference an Ikigai diagram for a more structured format. Ikigai is a Japanese phrase meaning “a reason to live.” In this format you look for the overlap of your passion, mission, vocation, and profession – incorporating what you love, what the world needs, what you can be paid for, and what you’re good at.

c) Vision Board

BEFORE STARTING: let the visuals call to you, not you to them! What we mean is, oftentimes we go into vision board sessions with a set plan of what we want to put on our board. We spend our time hunting down the right images and words in magazines to show what we want to do, be, or have — this is not that kind of vision boarding. This is about discovering your soul’s authentic desires by letting your subconscious take the wheel. Toss your preconceived notions about what you think your life needs to look like, and go into this without a set intention. Give yourself a chance to discover what truly feels right to you now, in this moment. You may not be aware of what your truest desires are yet, so let the images and the words jump out at you. Let yourself be surprised by what ultimately lands on the board.

PART ONE:

• To set the theme for this visual brainstorming session, start by feeling into the question: What makes me feel alive? You can reference our Visioning Session Prompts to help focus your energy. 
• Then begin looking through magazines, Pinterest, social media, etc. and print/cut out anything & everything that evokes an expansive emotional or sensational response from within you. Don’t overthink it, just cut it ALL out.

PART TWO:

• Go through all the cutouts and start laying them on your board – selecting only those that you feel called towards, trusting your body to guide you (not your mind). Don’t think about what’s being selected or how it could possibly come true or even why you’re placing it there. Feel free to adjust/swap out selections as many times as you need, noticing how your body feels when you place one cutout on the board vs another. Keep only what feels most authentic to you at this moment in time.
• Now step back and take a look at the finished board. How does the big picture make you feel? Can you identify why each item was selected? What does it show you? Are there things on there that you didn’t expect? Are there things that didn’t make the cut that you thought would have? What clarity does it provide about what you want and who you want to be – at your current phase in life?
• If you make a physical board, we suggest waiting a week or so before gluing everything down so you can make adjustments as your energy settles into itself.