Living with Arachnoiditis Requires Vision~ CREATE A VISION BOARD

The narrow lense of Arachnoiditis creates the image that “there is no way I will ever be able to do that again..now…” “I am afraid of what will happen if I…”  While the lense of hope & desire paints the picture,  “I wish I could still…”  “If only I could…” “I really miss doing…”

Survival depends on opening our eyes to see that the truth of our abilities is mirrored back to us when we include all of these concepts into our view of the big picture.  Life with Arachnoiditis changed for me when I allowed myself to see it differently. I realized that I could choose what lens I used to look at my world.

Step 1  (For this activity, I am using a concept that I learned while participating in a business development program for my studio. Jennifer Lee’s Right Brain Business Plan (2013-2014) vision board helped me to plan and launch the Art For Arachnoiditis project. I think it is also an effective way to illustrate how I shifted my arachnoiditis perspective.~sheila)

Use magazines, newspapers, old photos, printed digital photos, copies, etc to find the text and imagery that best displays your ideal year in 2015. There are no rules or limitations to this process. Cut them out.

Paste them onto poster board in any order which is visually pleasing to you. {If cutting and pasting in the old fashioned way doesn’t work for you; try cutting and pasting a digital collage in a photo program or word document.}These ideas and images can overlap and combine in any way that sends a message to remind you that these are the things that make you feel good about life.

When your collage is finished; hang it on the wall or post it to your desk-top, or hang it on the door or ceiling of the room in which you spend the most time. If you cannot hang it up yourself, ask somebody to hang it for you. Best results happen when you hang in a place that is easily visible to you….especially during horizontal time.

If you feel comfortable doing so; please post your collage to share your dream vision with other visitors to the page.

For what seemed like too long, I believed that I had to stop enjoying my life because Arachnoiditis was in the way.

Then I discovered I can work around it. Arachnoiditis does NOT mean that we have to stop or avoid doing these things. It means we must pace ourselves and adapt our methods.

Step 2  will be coming in the next post.

I look forward to seeing your vision for 2015!