New year resolutions are passe. Vision boards and manifesting are now catching on in India

In the week leading up to the New Year, Google searches on ideas on vision boards, image searches on Pinterest, and reels on how to create a manifested version of 2025, peaked on the internet. But this is not necessarily surprising especially because celebrities like Dua Lipa and Simone Biles have spoken of the idea of ‘manifesting’ a future. Its popularity even prompted the Cambridge Dictionary to coin it the ‘word of the year’ in 2024.

What is interesting to note however, is the rise in workshops and participants from India. People from across the country are armed with stickers and images of motivating phrases, praying for concert tickets, financial success and peace this year.

Vision boards — a physical or digital smorgasbord of images and phrases that showcase one’s goals, priorities and ambitions — have been the talk of the town in the weeks leading up to the New Year. The basic idea is to set clear intentions, vision and ambitions and represent them visually on the board. It can be about hobbies, studies, career, even relationships and mental health.

Harshitha Parthasarathi, a 29-year-old photographer based in Chennai, is already on her fourth vision board. She began making them in March 2024 after her friend introduced her to the concept. Harshitha says they seem to have had a magical effect on her life, describing how her wish to save money for travel was realised after she put it up on her vision board.

As curiosity seems to have grown around vision boards with reels of similar success stories taking over Instagram, many artists have begun conducting workshops on the construction of vision boards.

Around 10 people attended Bhanu Vivekanadan’s first workshop on December 29 at Ikigai in Chennai. When asked about how the workshop went, she says, “It was a fun evening getting to know each other, chit chatting while making the boards,” she says, adding that people aged 16 to 52 attended the event. She is planning to hold another on January 12.

An attendee making her vision board at Bhanu Vivekanadan’s workshop in Chennai on December 29.
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Special Arrangement

People also set up vision board dates with friends, with some even preferring to stay-in on New Year eve “manifesting” their future.

Vishwani Reddy, who works as a coordinator at a school in Chennai, and her friend spent a day early in December, sitting at a cafe and making a vision board. They downloaded images from Pinterest for their vision board, which they made digitally. Vishwani feels like she was not giving enough time to her passion: dancing. So she put up a picture of a kathak dancer on her vision board, with the idea of taking up classes in 2025.

For new mother Brinda Kannan based in Chennai, after a year of focusing on her pregnancy and her eight-month-old son, making a vision board is about bringing back focus on herself. “I thought a vision board would be the first step towards discovering new hobbies, focusing on my career among other things,” Brinda says. She plans to make it her lockscreen wallpaper where she believes it will serve as a tool of motivation to achieve her goals.

In an era of fast-paced life and lower attention spans, Shrinidhi Vijay, an art director based in California, uses her vision board to think beyond a big dream and focus on the smaller goals that have a powerful impact. “Life tends to be a blur and we miss out on the tiny moments or the quiet moments as I like to call them. I make my vision boards to focus on these moments,” she says.

Onwards and upwards

A completed vision board
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Special arrangement

While some prefer to make their vision boards digitally, others take a more physical approach. Shillong-based content creator Catherine Shadap began gathering images, quotes and phrases early in December, which she then printed, cut-up and made a board. For Catherine, her vision board is not something she is going to achieve. “Rather, I see it as something I have within me. I just need to have routines and habits to bring about that life,” she says.

Deepnajali Bhagawati, 28-year-old working professional based in Hyderabad, made her vision board using a collage of images from magazines and Pinterest, after watching many reels and after a push from her friend. However, she admits to feeling overwhelmed. “Though making it was a fun activity, I am not sure if it is going to help me,” she says.

The key is to keep checking in with yourself, says Catherine. “I know it’s a trend right now to do a vision board, but it can be so much more if you are intentional with it,” she adds. “I don’t know if the vision board is going to work for me.. But at least I took the time to think about how I want my life to look like in the future.”