Visualization- Using Avatars to Visualize Your Dreams

I'm a grown woman, but I still like dolls of any kind!  When I first found out about various online avatar and doll-making websites, I quickly became hooked.  For me, there is something so soothing and satisfying about creating a little look and then placing an avatar in a scene of my choosing.  I used to be very into sites like Meezs, Looklet, and Elouai.  

As strange as it may sound, in addition to creating avatars and dolls just for fun, I also sometimes create them to visualize a goal.  I make a doll that resembles me as far as features, hair, etc, and I use scenery of what I'd like to have or achieve.  Sometimes I set them as my desktop background in order to help myself visualize having my ideal situation.  When I was younger, I found that sketching a scene of my dreams was an incredibly powerful visualization tool.  Occasionally, when I look back on old notebooks where I had made a sketch of my goals, I find that a drawing I had made shares eerie similarities with my life.  So, using online avatars is just a higher-tech version of this technique.  I haven't made any dolls lately, but here are some examples from the past.

This first one is from Meez.com.  I used to love that site because they had so many options and the creations were animated.  This "meez" is one that I made when I was working on my college application back in 2008.

This is one that I made on Elouai.  Elouai is a site that has some Korean dress-up games such as Roiworld and doll makers.  It is geared towards kids, but I used to love creating looks on there.  The dolls are really sweet and cute, and the fashions are so unique and funky, despite the fact that some of the games are quite old.  This doll is my favorite, since seeing the world is my number one dream, and she is a world traveler setting out on a trip somewhere. 

When I finished college, I wanted to continue onto graduate school with the hope of becoming a teacher. So, I made these "teacher" dolls.  

Two years ago, I became obsessed with the idea of visiting Korea.  I made this doll with the Korean flag behind her. 

This past summer, I decided to make a doll on meez.  I was surprised to see the site still existed!  However,it had not been updated since back when I used to use it; there were no new clothes or backgrounds.  Everything was stuck in a time warp left over from Myspace days!  I was not sure I would be able to go back to Korea, so I made this doll with the pretty style and caramel bob I wanted to rock on my trip and I placed her in a temple scene taking selfies. 

Beside being enjoyable and cute, dolls and avatars are a tool you can use to help you visualize your dreams.  Maybe it seems weird, but if used for that purpose, they can help you hold that image of your dreams in your mind.  And anything that allows you to envision yourself in the situation of your dreams helps you to bridge that gap between where you are now and where you want to be.

So do you like using avatars or other similar programs to create looks? What sites do you/have you used?

Have you ever tried any visualization technique like this? 

Visualization- "Elegant Residences"

Just wanted to share a Facebook page that I love called "Elegant Residences."  It is filled with pictures of gorgeous homes and interior design, and it is often updated multiple times in a day.  I love seeing these beautiful pictures in my Facebook news feed and dreaming of a better and more fabulous life.  Here are some pictures from their page, like them on Facebook if you like what you see.  BTW, I'm not affiliated with them in any way, just sharing a page I really enjoy!   

Vision Boards and O Dream Boards

Since the start of a new year tends to make us reflect on how we spent our last year, and what we intend to accomplish in this one, it is the perfect time to talk about...

Vision Boards

If you have never heard of them, vision boards are a tool you can use to help you visualize your goals.  You simply identify your goals and look for pictures and phrases that help you imagine having your desired outcome.  You then hang the vision board in a place where you will see it often.

The idea behind creating a vision board is that thoughts precede actions, and that you must believe before you can achieve.  

Every time you do something, a thought caused your action, whether it was a conscious thought or not.  If you turn on your bedroom light before entering, even if you did it on autopilot, you thought of turning on that light, and your body then acted on that thought.  The purpose of using a vision board is to put thoughts and images of your goals in your mind, so that your actions will follow these thoughts, whether consciously or subconsciously.    

Seeing images of the life you would like to live also serves to change your belief system.  Instead of focusing on what you don't have or can't do, you are putting the focus on the positive, on having the object of your desire.  A vision board directs your mind towards a purpose with intention.  Looking at the images over and over stretches your mind and gets it used to idea of having what it is that you want.  You need confidence in your ability to achieve your goals, or you will be hesitant to take action, miss opportunities, and stall your own progress.  A vision board is a way to fill your mind with images of success.  

Some common ways to create a vision board are using paper, glue, photos and magazine clippings, or pinning pictures to a memo board.

This is a really old vision board of mine.  It has been hanging in front of my treadmill for ages.  I made it using magazine pictures that I glued to a large poster board. 

As you can see, the main themes in this vision board were love, finding a good career, fitness, and travel.

A really cool resource for creating vision boards that I sometimes use is 

O Dream Boards on Oprah.com.  Once you sign up for free with your email, you can use their templates to create vision boards.  They have a library of stock photos you can use, or you can upload photos from your computer.  You can add text, save, or print your board.  For the past couple of years I have used this to create small focused vision boards.  Sometimes I set one as my desktop background, other times I print them.  Keeping to the new years theme, here is a "fitness" O dream board I created. 

So, have you ever used vision boards?  Did you find them helpful?

New Years Resolutions and 43 Things

New Years is by far my favorite holiday.  While most holidays are sort of cozy times spent with family, New Year's Eve is an elegant and exciting night to get dressed up and celebrate with friends.  It is glitzy and glamorous, an evening filled with glitter, sparklers, fireworks, and champagne toasts to a new beginning.  Besides the New Year Eve celebrations, what I love most about New Years is it is a time to come full circle, to look back on what you have done over the past year, and decide where you are going in the new year.  Many people do this by making new year's resolutions.  

In popular culture, the new years resolution is regarded as something you say you will do, but promptly forget.  For me, though, new years resolutions are a serious and important part of my life.  When I heard about the custom as a little girl, I immediately embraced the idea.  I recall scribbling out new year's resolutions at my grandma's kitchen table when I was about ten.  Haha..I wonder what my ten year old self wanted to achieve... If only I had that loose-leaf page!  I do have a little notebook where I have kept new years resolutions and other goals since my late teens.  I regard my resolutions as true goals.  Sometimes they are goals I can achieve in a year's time, others are ongoing and life-long.  While writing my new years resolutions, I let my self dream big.  What is amazing to me, looking back, is that some of my resolutions were just pie-in-the-sky fantasies when I wrote them down, but years later I have completed many of those almost-forgotten goals that I once thought impossible.  This does not surprise me, since I strongly believe in the law of attraction.  For me, writing down goals each year in the form of new years resolutions is not an act of empty promises, it is a means to use the power of intention to build a better life.

Since this process is so important in my life, I wanted to share with you a website called 43things that I use which allows you to list goals you would like to accomplish.  43things is a slightly interactive goal-setting community. You can view other's goals, "cheer" goals (the 43things equivalent of a facebook "like"). You can comment on posts or message members.  When you complete a goal, you can write a post about how you did it to help others who want to do the same thing.  You can also read "How I Did It" posts to get information about your goals.  Completed goals are added to a things done list so you can look back on what you have accomplished.  I find this site so useful and helpful in keeping my goals in sight!  I try to check in often to read my list of goals and make any updates.  

I said the site was slightly interactive because, while your posts are public, your profile is very low-key and only gives as much information as you want to put out.  My 43things profile is very discreet and without information that identifies me such as my picture.  Some people use their real name and photos, it depends on your taste.  You also don't have to interact with other members if it doesn't interest you.  You can use it strictly as a place to keep track of your goals.  I like the "cheer" aspect though, to me it's almost like a little prayer for your goals.  So, I cheer others and like to get cheers.  I have also had experiences where someone posted something helpful or said one of my posts benefited them, and that is pretty awesome! 

43things has a separate list to add your new year's resolutions.  You can check them off when they are accomplished, and look back on prior years.  So, if you are thinking about setting some new year's resolutions, you might want to check out 43things, its a really useful website.  

I wish you the best luck in accomplishing your dreams in 2013!  Hope it's a wonderful year for you.