The Wellness Vision: A Holistic Way to Begin the New Year with Clarity

In just a few weeks, the calendar will tick ahead from 2025 to 2026. Where does the time go? If you’re on the other side of 50, like me, it feels like the days, months, and years accelerate. This time of year has a way of reminding us of the passage of time—sometimes gently, sometimes with a jolt. The new year brings that reality into sharp focus, whether we’re ready for it or not.

As the year turns, many of us feel a familiar nudge to think about our health and refocus on our goals—the very things that often slip to the bottom of the list when life gets busy. We move through our days tending to what’s urgent, responding to what’s needed, and giving our limited time and energy to the responsibilities that call the loudest. It’s no surprise our own well-being gets pushed aside.

It often happens quietly, the way a pot gets moved to the back burner—not because it’s unimportant, but because something else is always boiling over. And over time, we start to accept this as normal. But when we pause long enough to notice where we’ve placed ourselves in that hierarchy, it invites us to reconsider what truly matters. Something shifts. We begin to see that tending to our own well-being isn’t selfish—it’s essential.

So, before you consider setting goals or thinking about new habits, I invite you to pause. You may not feel ready for change—and that’s completely valid. I promise, this blog post isn’t about making a plan. It’s about tuning in with awareness and creating just enough space to notice what’s happening beneath the surface—your needs, your emotions, your desires that have gone unattended. It’s about lifting the lid on that pot on the back burner and tending to what’s been quietly simmering—your own well-being, waiting for a moment of attention.

But, when every pot feels like it’s on the verge of boiling over, it can feel almost impossible to lift your gaze beyond the immediate demands. Imagining the future—let alone a different one—can feel distant or abstract. But this is exactly why a pause matters. Sustainable change rarely begins with action; it begins with clarity. And that clarity often starts with a powerful step most people overlook: imagining the future you want to move toward.

It may sound a bit soft or “new age-y,” but visualization is rooted in how the brain works. Visualizing your best self and the future you desire is a powerful way to begin a new year. And while setting a goal, starting a healthy habit, or releasing an old one is meaningful work, something deeper happens when you pair it with a clear inner picture—creating an emotional connection to your future self. When you harness your brain’s capacity for mental imagery, you can truly see the direction you want to move. The clarity that emerges may be the very thing you’ve been missing.

Guided imagery, for example, is one of the most validated integrative health tools, supporting things like stress reduction, pain management, recovery from surgery, and behavior change. It’s a way of speaking to the brain in its oldest language: images. Before we had words, we made sense of the world through pictures. This practice taps back into that instinct—inviting you to imagine a future or feeling you want to step toward and allowing your body to respond to that imagined experience as if it were already becoming true.

What Is a Health & Wellness Vision Statement?

In health coaching, this process becomes more concrete through a wellness vision statement—a clear, meaningful description of the health and well-being you want to cultivate. It describes where you’d like to be a year from now (or another point in time) and is written in the present tense, as if you are already living that version of yourself. A strong wellness vision reflects how you want to feel and what you want your daily life to support.

A wellness vison statement like your own personal mission statement—a touchstone that everything else flows from. It becomes the north star that guides, inspires, and motivates you toward your ideal future. A strong vision brings clarity when your strengths and values are woven into it, creating a foundation that feels both steady and true. It’s not about perfection or doing more; it’s about aligning your choices with the person you most want to become.

Why Is This Work Hard to Do?

In my coaching sessions, I’ve seen that creating a wellness vision isn’t easy for most people. And there was a time in my own life when it would’ve felt out of reach, too. Before I changed careers, I was moving through a season where my job felt “fine” but not fulfilling—I was on autopilot, doing good work but not feeling energized by it. At the same time, I had lost clear boundaries around family responsibilities. I didn’t realize it then, but I was quietly edging toward burnout.

During that time, it wasn’t that I lacked motivation—it’s that I was so focused on keeping life moving that I forgot to look at my life in a more holistic way. Many women know this feeling: the kids need you; aging parents need you; work needs you, and your own needs quietly slide to the back burner. And when the demands of daily life feel endless, looking to the future isn’t inspiring—it can feel overwhelming, even emotionally painful. Sometimes visioning means admitting that we’re not living our lives to the fullest. We’re not thriving. We’ve drifted far from the person we want to be.

I couldn’t have imagined creating a wellness vision for myself back then. I was too busy trying to hold everything together. But that chapter taught me something essential: sometimes we need a reminder—a pause—to lift our gaze and reconnect with the possibilities, opportunities, and potential that still exist for us.

Now, as I continue my own journey of walking the wellness walk—not just talking the talk—I understand how powerful this work can be. A wellness vision isn’t a luxury. It’s an invitation to return to yourself, to recalibrate, and to remember that your life is allowed to feel aligned, meaningful, and nourishing.

This is a good place to take a pause and tune in with awareness—to create a little space for yourself and gently check in. If you were to consider creating a wellness vision statement, here are a few prompts to support your reflection:

·       Close your eyes and imagine your ideal level of health and well-being. What does that version of you look like and feel like?

·       Picture your energy. Is it steady, vibrant, grounded? How do you move through your day?

·       Consider your physical vitality. What does your strength, stamina, or mobility feel like in this ideal state?

·       Think about movement. What kinds of activities are you engaging in, and how often? How do they feel in your body?

·       Reflect on your daily rhythms. What habits support your sleep, your stress levels, your sense of balance?

·       Envision your connections. Are your relationships nourishing and mutually supportive? Do you feel connected, seen, and cared for?

·       And finally, imagine how you’re nourishing yourself. How do your food choices support your energy, health, and well-being?

Let these questions guide your inner picture—not as a test, but as a gentle exploration. What emerges here can become the beginning of your wellness vision.

The Creative Tension That Moves Us Forward

Coaching science supports what many people feel intuitively: change often begins with discontent—the honest recognition that something in your life isn’t working. A certain amount of discomfort can nudge you to pay attention, to finally say, Something needs to shift. But discontent alone can’t create change. It can show you what you don’t want, but it can’t show you the life you want to move toward.

In coaching sessions, through reflection and dialogue, we can shift our perspective from what feels heavy with obligation to imagining a future where we’re living the life we want—healthy, grounded, strong, confident, and in control. When we visualize that version of ourselves, even in a small way, it creates what researchers call creative tension. Creative tension is the natural pull between where you are now (your current reality) and where you want to be (your vision). When the gap between the two becomes clear, it creates energy and motivation for change. You can reduce the tension by lowering your vision or by improving your reality—but the goal is to allow the tension to inspire growth, strengthening your reality while your vision rises with it.

The more compelling the vision, the more momentum you have for action. And once a vision is created, it becomes a guide. It helps you identify the resources and strengths you already have—your capabilities, your opportunities, and your support systems. Change becomes less about willpower and more about alignment.

The Creative Expression: Visioning Beyond Words

A wellness vision statement is one way to imagine your future, but not everyone connects most deeply through language alone. Sometimes the future we’re imagining needs form, color, and emotion—something we can see and feel rather than only describe.

This is where vision boards and other creative forms of visioning come in. They translate your internal dream or goal into something visible and tangible. When you choose images that reflect the life you want—strength, connection, vitality, confidence—your body responds. You feel something. And that emotional resonance becomes a quiet, powerful source of motivation and inspiration.

Together, a written vision and a visual one can support each other: one offers structure, the other offers inspiration. Both help you stay aligned with what you truly want to cultivate. And this isn’t just a stand-alone project—visualization also includes picturing the effort and the hard work ahead. That emotional connection to your future self can boost your confidence, making you more likely to take action and persist.

A vision board is a collection of images, colors, words, and symbols that reflect the dreams or desires living quietly inside you. It might include pictures pulled from magazines, old photographs, handwritten phrases, or quotes that resonate with your values. Each board is deeply personal. Some focus on a specific goal or intention—such as health, career, or relationships—while others center around themes like growth, gratitude, courage, or confidence.

Vision boards work because they give form to what is often invisible. They turn hopes into something you can see and touch, tapping into the same neural pathways that make guided imagery so powerful. And the process itself is intentional: you choose images that feel aligned, that inspire, that spark recognition—images that reflect the version of yourself you want to honor more fully. Slowly, a picture emerges—a visual expression of your direction, your values, and the future you feel drawn toward.

A Moment to Pause and Reflect

Before moving forward, take a moment to pause and reflect on these questions:

• What is one area of my well-being that I want to nurture or strengthen this year?

• What images come to mind when I imagine myself living in alignment with that desire?

• What emotions do I want to experience more often?

• What supportive habits, relationships, or environments help me feel most like myself?

• If I created a vision board today, what would I hope to see reflected back at me?

Let these questions gently guide your awareness. There are no right answers—only clues that help illuminate the direction you want to move toward.

Balanced Perspective: What Visioning Can—and Can’t—Do

A clear vision is powerful, but it isn’t magic. It won’t remove obstacles, erase challenges, or replace the need for steady effort. Visioning isn’t about pretending everything will be easy or imagining a future into existence. It also isn’t meant to bypass the very real circumstances—time, energy, caregiving, health, stress—that shape your daily life.

An important part of this process is not only picturing the outcome you want but also imagining the effort it will take to get there—the small steps, the discipline, the learning, the discomfort, and the persistence. Research on mental contrasting—a method developed by psychologist Gabriele Oettingen—shows that we’re more likely to follow through and stay engaged when we visualize both the desired future and the work required to reach it.

Visioning works because it provides orientation, not shortcuts. It helps you see where you want to go so your actions, even small ones, can begin to move in that direction. It offers emotional connection, motivation, and clarity—but it still needs to be paired with compassion, realistic expectations, and support.

Bringing It All Together

Whether you express your vision through thoughtful reflection, a written statement, or a creative process like visioning or vision boards, the heart of the work is the same: it’s about imagining a future that feels aligned, meaningful, and true—and allowing that clarity to guide your choices.

When we take time to self-reflect, we gain the awareness needed to distill what truly matters. And once we know what matters, our day-to-day decisions become easier. We begin to choose in ways that align with our values, our needs, and our well-being. We’re less likely to push ourselves to the back burner because we’ve reconnected with a clear sense of direction and purpose. And with that clarity, the world feels a little different. Opportunities stand out more clearly, doors we hadn’t seen before come into view, and the next steps feel easier to recognize.

The beginning of a new year doesn’t ask for a perfect plan. It asks for presence. Your vision, whether it’s clear or still taking shape, becomes a compass. When you pause long enough to hold that vision, you may notice the gentle pull of creative tension—the space between the life you’re living and the one that feels more aligned. That awareness isn’t meant to overwhelm; it’s meant to guide. With it, you slowly lift your own well-being from the back burner and bring it forward again, where it can be tended with care.

If you’re longing for space to reflect and imagine, Beth Filla, LCSW, and I will be guiding a vision board workshop on January 4th to support that process—a place to explore imagery, intention, and possibility. You’re warmly welcome to join us.