A tale of dreams and realities, aspirations and limitations. Discover the power of imagination and the beauty of hope as we explore the gap between aspirations and everyday life.

Published: November 14, 2024 · Updated: 11 September 2026

She searched for wickerwork furniture, and a thousand results popped up on Google. She gazed longingly at the light-coloured, eco-friendly, artsy, handcrafted furniture. A stunning headboard against a peach wall.

Her bedroom would reflect the sun rising over the forest, glimmery and chirpy. She imagined herself sliding between the softest flowery cotton bedsheets on the queen-sized bed, head resting on scented silk pillow covers. Silk supposedly retains the softness of the hair; she didn’t like her dry and brittle hair that the old fan dried even more. She wanted to wake up like a queen, not a scarecrow.

She had lived through 54 summers on the planet. But she couldn’t recall even one morning when she had woken up in her very own beautifully decorated room, floating in heaven to welcome another sunrise. Though, in the course of her work, she had covered many interior design houses.

Her nights were filled with dreams of creating her own space, her identity. In her head were flowy muslin curtains, French doors opening to a green garden, flowery balconies, fragrant creepers, aroma-infused air-conditioned room, marble flooring, classy glass lights, freshly painted walls, walk-in closet and a luxurious bathroom.

She hummed softly, lips curled in a tiny smile, cutting the photographs. Her vision board was far from done. She had downloaded innumerable photographs from social media, enticed by the gorgeous décor, uncaring of the price points.

Dreams and money don’t gel.

Her dreams were big, her bank balance nil.

A bedside table with a small lamp for reading. An old alarm clock by the bedside, a tray with creams, perfumes and lotions. No digital radiations in this room. A table for the phone would be close to the door, near the closet.

The door-bell rang. The part-time helper was here.

She picked up her walking shoes, gathered the bits of hair curled up in the corner, looked painfully at the stained walls with paint peeling off. Dust had become a permanent resident in certain crevices. The old wooden floor was full of holes and scratches. The fan required multiple rounds of cleaning.

The room belonged to her only when her sibling went to work. She needed to sleep by 8 pm to get up at 4 am, but they never slept before 10 pm. She didn’t like the one bright light in the room, the sound of reels when she wanted to meditate or loud talks on the phone.

She dusted and cleaned the room, the bathroom, even the door mat.

The only closet in the room didn’t belong to her.

Work had dried up many summers ago. This was a rented apartment and sharing space was a financial necessity.

Nourished souls had more fulfilling relationships. For her, the 4S of self-care were solace, silence, solitude, space, and the teacher had nodded.

She couldn’t isolate a single emotion, but she knew that they both needed to express their own space in their own ways.

The masterclass on vision boards was all about manifestation, bringing the invisible into the visible.

Do Vision Boards Really Work?

Manifestation is a popular word, but does it bring the desired object into your life?

To quote Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, “इतनी शिद्दत से मैंने तुम्हें पाने की कोशिश की है, कि हर ज़र्रे ने मुझे तुमसे मिलाने की साज़िश की है। कहते हैं अगर किसी चीज़ को दिल से चाहो, तो पूरी कायनात उसे तुमसे मिलाने की कोशिश में लग जाती है।” Think about something deeply enough, visualise it, believe in it, and the universe will supposedly conspire to bring it to you.

What seems like a dreamy wish, can actually become real. Dr. Jim Doty, a Stanford neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, and expert on manifestation and visualization, talked about the neuroscience of manifestation on The Mel Robbins Podcast.

Yes, this talk reinforces that vision boards, intent, mindset reset and listening and trusting your inner self are all realities.

The Law of Attraction takes the idea a step further, suggesting that like attracts like.

However, science shows us more. Psychologists have studied what happens when people imagine their desired future. Research on mental contrasting suggests that imagining a positive future can be useful when it is paired with an honest look at the obstacles standing in the way.

A 2021 meta-analysis of 21 studies involving more than 15,000 participants found that mental contrasting combined with implementation intentions had a small-to-moderate positive effect on goal attainment.

In simple words, dreaming is only half the exercise.

The other half is asking: What is stopping me?

And perhaps that is where a vision board becomes more than a collage of beautiful rooms, dream destinations and aspirational lives.

A photograph of a French door does not magically produce a French door.

But seeing that photograph again and again can keep a desire alive. It can help us articulate what we want, notice what matters to us and, perhaps, begin thinking about the steps required to get there.

Manifestation, Intuition and the Inner Voice

Perhaps a vision board is also a way of listening.

We spend so much time responding to what life demands that we sometimes forget to ask what we actually want. Cutting out pictures, choosing colours, collecting words and arranging them on a board can make those half-formed desires visible.

Is that intuition?

Perhaps not in the mystical sense of knowing what will happen next. It may be something quieter: noticing what repeatedly draws our attention, recognising what feels meaningful and allowing an inner preference to surface before the rational mind dismisses it.

Intuition is often described as a feeling, a hunch or a form of knowing that arrives without conscious reasoning. Psychology has explored intuitive decision-making for decades, while also reminding us that intuition is not infallible. It can draw on experience and pattern recognition, but it can also be influenced by emotions, assumptions and biases.

Perhaps the useful question isn’t whether intuition is magical.

Perhaps it is whether we have learnt to listen to it.

Dreams Need a Reality Check

The Law of Attraction may promise that our thoughts can attract our circumstances. Psychology offers a less magical, but perhaps more useful, interpretation.

Dream about the future. Then look at the present.

What do you have? What don’t you have? What stands between the two?

Perhaps dreams are not always about getting everything we imagine. Sometimes, they reveal what we need.

And perhaps that is the quiet power of a vision board: it brings the invisible into the visible.

The photograph is only the beginning. The real work begins when we ask ourselves what the picture means.

Ambica Gulati wears many hats: independent journalist, editor, multimedia storyteller, author and fiction writer. Her work moves between global affairs, conscious travel, the environment, culture and the intuitive arts, while her fiction explores the territories where nature, memory, mystery and imagination converge.

Beyond the laptop, she nourishes her creative practice through meditation, birding, reading, journaling, oracle cards, and yoga.

I also facilitate workshops exploring the art of journaling, understanding intuition, and cultivating our intuitive and creative faculties through reflective writing, creative exercises and simple practices for greater self-awareness.

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