I love getting creative with my clients. We all have the power to unlock our creative side, and vision boards can be a very powerful tool in eating disorder recovery. In this article, I will describe how to make an eating disorder recovery vision board.

It’s very important for me to understand what my client’s dream life looks like so that I know how to help them get there. The very first thing I ask them to do is create their eating disorder recovery vision board. In order to create a vision board, you first need to get out your journal and reflect on what your life looks like now, and how you want it to look in the future. The point is to be as specific as possible, thinking about everything you want to bring into your dream life.

I have some specific instructions for the vision board. First, figure out if you want this to be digital or physical. I recommend having both so that you can see the physical version somewhere in your living space every day, and the digital version can be set as the background wallpaper of your computer and phone. I use Pinterest to find pins specific to what I am looking for, and I create a board. Next, I will print out all of these images. You can order an inexpensive corkboard on Amazon. You can also order pushpins, stickers, and whatever else you think you may need.

I ask clients to focus on a few things when they start this process. I ask them to think about the feelings they want to bring into their lives—maybe that’s peace for you. You could find an image that evokes peace or find a picture of the word peace and place it on your vision board. Find any quotes that resonate with you. Make sure you find images that depict your recovered life, like your dream career path, travel destinations, salary, social circle-anything you can think of that you want to invite into your life, make sure it is on the board.

For a lot of my clients, this looks like pictures of family and friends to represent a constant support system, or dreams of living on the beach, or maybe dreams of a future partner. My very first vision board had a lot of quotes, poetry, pictures of people who meant a lot to me, and even fear foods I wanted to conquer.

There is no right or wrong way to do this. This is all about you. Just remember to focus on the feelings you want the images to evoke when you achieve these goals on your eating disorder recovery vision board. If you have a picture that represents that dream college or job, what is it you will actually feel when you are accepted or hired? When you look at your vision board each day, take a minute or more to soak in the feelings. Breathe in the sights, sounds, and scents of the experience. Mentally say to yourself while you are looking at the board, “yes I love it here. I am so thankful for being here and feeling this happy.” Remember, this is an investment in you and your future. You are setting the course for where you want to be, who you want to be with, and most importantly how good you want to feel.

If you need more support on your eating disorder recovery journey, I would be honored to work with you. Please contact me here for 1:1 private eating disorder recovery coaching. Let’s make your eating disorder recovery vision board together!

Merrit Elizabeth

Merrit Elizabeth Stahle is an Eating Disorder Recovery Coach certified by The Carolyn Costin Institute. She holds a master’s degree in Health Promotion Management and a certification in Applied Neuroscience. She is fully recovered from an eating disorder and she has years of experience working with women with eating disorders.