In a collision of Pinterest and pop psychology, vision boards contend with an unfair reputation for being cliché. Besides, shouldn’t creating a collage of beautiful images just make us more aware of the ways that we don’t measure up?

Maybe the idea of defending or explaining the words and pictures that we choose makes us feel silly. If you’ve dismissed vision boards as a trendy craft project, or have a hard time giving yourself over to whimsy and free association, maybe this will change your mind!

Vision board are actually just one of many powerful visualization and manifestation tools, but with the added benefit of a tangible end-product. Just like meditation and journaling, creating a vision board is a mindfulness practice that teaches you to reflect on your core values and deepest desires, free from judgment and constraint. Better yet, it helps you recognize them when you encounter them out in the world!

Yoga has a reputation for being antithetical to competition. If you think back to your own first impressions of yoga, I would be willing to bet that the word conjured very soft images. Even if you’ve been practicing for many years, to describe yoga as an exercise of cooperation between mind and body would be entirely accurate – the only way to “win” is to show up and have the experience that you were meant to have. It has long been understood by trainers and coaches that yoga can improve athletic performance, but for those of us who consider ourselves athletes as well as yogis, it is easy to feel like we are merely alternating between separate disciplines.

No matter how we got here, we’ve arrived in 2021! The last year was not at all typical, and that may have made us all even more motivated to set big, mindful goals for this one. As important as it is to honor the urgency that you feel when you set your sights on your heart’s desire, I like to think of January as a time to take stock. With the chaos and excitement of the holidays behind us, how can we set aside time to ask ourselves Where are we going? and Where have we been?

We do it to ourselves every January. It’s understandable. The beginning of a new calendar year feels like the natural first page of a new chapter. We imagine the new year from the perspective of our future selves, and we like the narrative simplicity of it all. Wouldn’t it be nice to say, Yes, I used to be like that, but everything changed in 2021?