In architecture, mood-boards are regularly used in the preliminary stages of design. And for good reason. The collection of images helps designers and their clients quickly visualize concepts in a way that is more efficient than words alone. Everyone who looks at the board can see the look and feel of the proposed colors and textures, and the ‘mood’ they will potentially generate in the finished product. Sometimes the material is glued down so the board can be held up and presented, other times, the material is laid on a table or in a box-tray, and things are added and taken away as the meeting progresses.
When I was a junior architect (decades ago), we used samples of tiles and swatches of fabric, combined with images cut from magazines and our own sketches, to create a montage. More recently, computers have allowed people to make their own mood-boards digitally. Anyone can now collate ideas for their own interior design projects, but also for weddings, holidays, or craft projects. (Pinterest is a popular example.) Whether it’s printed out or left on your screen, done quickly and intuitively, or slowly and thoughtfully, the end result provides an insight into what you’re feeling and where you’d like to go.
There’s nothing stopping you from making a mood-board for your migraines.
You can make a mood-board that shows other people how you’re feeling at the moment. For some people it’s not easy to articulate their pain, frustration and loneliness. A picture, on the other hand, is worth a thousand words. In this instance, your mood board is not about getting ‘sign-off’ or ‘approval’ for what you’re feeling, instead, you’re trying to provide insight (to yourself and others) about your mood.
You can also make a mood-board that visualizes where you’d like your health to be in the future. Instead of ‘making peace’ with where you are at, why not aim a little higher, and aim for healing. What would that look like, what actions might help you get there? If you’re going to use the board as an inspiration for manifesting or visualization, remember that it should focus on both the end goal and the steps that might get you there. Olympic gymnasts don’t just visualize the gold medal around their neck, they imagine (over and over) every summersault and backflip they’ll need to perform to get there. Details matter.
Below are two mood-boards that I made on PowerPoint from some of the AI art that I have been making. A few of the images are ones I’m slowly uploading to Instagram, some are ‘remnants’ or ‘offcuts’ of bigger images that weren’t what I was trying to say. Others are ‘snippets’ that highlight details that jumped out at me as I was scrolling through the image folder. I made the montages very quickly, via ‘cut and paste’, so don’t read too much into them. That said, you don’t need a degree in psychology to see a difference between the two mindsets and whether they were made with ‘my (bad) mood’ or ‘manifesting’ in mind.
If full mood boards seem too much to make, you can always select just two images – a before and after as it were – and place them side by side as a reminder of the difference you’re trying to achieve, (as I did for the banner at the top of this post and replicated below).
Mood-boards might seem childish, but as someone who has used them often, I can tell you; they have the power to persuade. More importantly, anything that helps you articulate what you’re going through, and where you want to be, is helpful to your holistic healing journey. Remember, it’s your brain – your pain – your journey. You are you-nique, and so is your mood. So go ahead and express yourself.
Take care, Linda x
The Mindful Migraine 
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