How to build a realignment board

While I don’t subscribe to the idea of “re-branding” for the new year, I do feel called to something similar that can only be described as a realignment. It’s not about destroying, wiping, and re-purchasing. It’s about the careful unraveling of an old identity, parsing through the strings of its entrails with clear vision and then re-aligning the pieces back into new focus with an almost maternal touch.

There is something so ceremonious to me about the start of a New Year. I am the type of person whose life force is nestled amidst a solid plan. I like to plan my weeks, my travels, and my relationships. I like to imagine the entirely different reality of what my life could be if I just made three different small choices, and flirt with the idea that I could start fresh anytime I please, so long as I have an idea of where I’m going. The rest of the plan can be made along the way.

Every first week of January (not always on the first day—I have to wait until the exhaustion of the holidays subsides and inspiration strikes), I make a realignment board, list, and letter. It’s a vision board essentially, a visual guide of my wishes and wants for the upcoming year, but its purpose serves more as an opportunity for reflection than of asking for things to materialize in my life.

I have upheld this tradition of mine for the past five years. I cut out little photos and write out my ideas, I lay them down on paper and frame the piece for the next year. It sits either on my nightstand or, for the past two years, on my desk, for 365 days. It also becomes my phone background, and in the year of 2024, when I re-branded my styling company, it became portions of the website’s background.

If you are feeling called to a little reflection and re-alignment this season, this is how to do it—

Step One: Prep the space

We need to think clearly. If you’re surrounded by clutter, that physical feeling of abrupt lack of focus will leak into your mind. It doesn’t have to be major, just a quick pick-up and vacuum, so when you occasionally look up from your task, your mind isn’t darted into a flurry of memories upon seeing an old soccer ball in the corner or your list of things to do when a pile of laundry infiltrates your vision.

After the space is tidy, light a candle or put on a quiet playlist. I usually opt for bossa nova, something upbeat yet lulling. Sounds that are simultaneously repetitive and energizing tend to have the best effect. We first created a neutral space by cleaning, and now, we create a space that’s a step above. Small details that uplift you from your normal routine and lodge a feeling in your gut that something special is brewing.

Take your time, pour a cup of coffee or pop a bottle of champagne. Grab a snack (for me it was a tin of Christmas cookies) and a charger so there’s little need to leave your assigned space, melt into place, and prepare to focus.

Step Two: Write The List

The list is where I put all of my thoughts about the year ahead. This piece of paper is what you can consider to be your first draft. It can be singular words that come to mind; it can be specific goals you want to achieve, feel free to scribble down anything.

It can be a passing idea of a place you would like to visit or a small idea you want to see come to fruition. Big, small, feelings, objects, and more can all go on the list. Make sure it’s expansive and not repetitive. Think about every aspect of your life—your finances, your familial relationships, your health. This serves as a touchpoint for the images you’re about to collect, and a written reminder of the first things that come to mind when you think of how you would like to realign yourself for this year.

*If you are a paying weekly newsletter subscriber to Light Bites, this is where you will implement last week’s style exercise to get a head start on your board!

Step Three: Collect the images for your first draft

Now we can make the list into something more visual. Go to Pinterest and start to collect images that you feel represent your list. Add them to a new board you can label 2026. This is why we want your list to be as expansive as possible, because a board with only objects to buy and bodies to attempt to replicate is nothing of substance. Collect photos that evoke the feelings of the singular words you’ve written or the nature you want to throw yourself into. This board is also your first draft of the visual re-alignment, so anything goes. We will edit down soon.

As you are starting to collect, reflect, and write, notice things. I went about writing my goals and wishes, and as I read them back, I noticed I had not mentioned finances once. I also noticed how independent my realignment was starting to look. I noticed I wasn’t wishing for an absurd amount of money to materialize in my bank account or hoping to make new friendships. I was wishing for things as simple as eating more pears this year and being in closer proximity to animals in their natural habitats. These noticings aren’t positive or negative; information is as neutral as can be. But the point of this entire ritual isn’t to wish—it’s to notice. So as the warmth of possibility starts to flow into your ribcage and swell up into your throat, try not to drown in it.

Remember that you’re not here to reinvent. You’re here to appreciate how far you have come and honor the person you’ve made by clearing a distinct path forward for them to continue.

Step Four: Edit your list

After a little while of collecting images, a bit of fatigue might start to set in. Give your eyes a rest and move back to your list. Go through every note you wrote and give yourself the opportunity to specify.

For example, in my first draft, one of my notes was “Volunteer at the farmers market,” which I changed to “Reach out to Vale and ask if it’s possible to volunteer twice a month at the farmers market.” The note changed from a passive idea to an actionable “to do.” I also added a touch of realism by specifying twice a month. Last year, on average, I flew out of the country every forty days. Realistically, I will not be able to volunteer more time than that for this specific project.

Specifying also gives you the opportunity for more concrete reflection come the end of the year. Saying “I want to work out more” is a lot harder to track come 2027 than “I promised myself I would take one group fitness class a week, and I only missed six weeks out of the year!”

So not only is editing an opportunity to be more honest with yourself, it sets you up for satisfying and concrete reflection.

Step Five: Print out words

It’s incredibly important to capture the feelings you want to emulate just as much as the images. Words, I find, are the best way to do this. These words do not have to just be adjectives, but also can be nouns or verbs. Places you want to visit and how you’d like to get there. Some words I have chosen in years past—

Mischief
Nurture
Legato
Creativity
Portugal
Giggling
White tank tops
Adoration

Step Six: Edit and print your images

Now here is where we start to get picky. My collection of images usually has about 70–80 for me to choose from. From those, I choose around 50 to print. I size them in order of importance. Images of things I care less about are around the size of the tip of my thumb. The things I care the most for could be as large as my palm, and even though most of the image will be crowded over and covered by other little scraps of paper, I know that it is lying there underneath, serving as a background and strengthening the thickness of the paper nonetheless.

Here is where you will also print your words. Images, of course, do not have to come from Pinterest. Open up some of your favorite magazines from this past year and have at it! Inspiration can come from anywhere.

Start to organize your collage however you see fit before gluing it down to the paper. Make sure no pops of white are showing between words or images. Once you have everything ordered as you like it, you can start from one of the upper corners to glue and place your year down.

Step Seven: Write yourself a letter

Once the collage is finished and dried, take another moment to appreciate and reflect on your work. Flip the collage over and write yourself a small letter. Mine is usually 5–10 sentences, and it’s about whatever strikes me in the moment. You can write out exactly what you would like to happen for the year and what you wish will come to fruition. You just can’t write about what happened last year. Everything on this paper is reserved for the future; the past can be somewhere else, somewhere you didn’t just spend two hours lamenting over.

Step Eight: Replace last year’s paper, read your letter, and begin again

If this is your first year physically creating something of this nature, I highly recommend you go out and get a frame for it. Don’t throw it in a drawer or hang it somewhere a small creature could nibble on it. Put it behind glass and place it somewhere you see. You just created art—act like it.

If you already have something framed, it’s time to replace it. This is my very favorite part. It’s the equivalent of unearthing a time capsule. Getting to finish my work, then popping out the stiff cardboard encasing last year’s hopes and reading everything I wrote, nearly to the day, one year ago.

And that’s everything you need to be able to realign and prepare for the year ahead. I recommend starting as many actionable steps as soon as possible. For me, that means beginning to research hot yoga studios, texting Vale about the market, and starting to plan out travel dates.

I also recommend doing a “mock week.” Choosing one week where you plan to do every single thing this aligned version of you would in total preparedness. A week where you take your goals to the most extreme and trail run what your life would look like if you stuck to it.

After one week you can keep what you loved, and leave the rest. Maybe after a week of waking up at 6:00 AM to work out actually left you exhausted, and instead of feeling guilty for the whole year you can say you tried it, and it wasn’t right for your body so you pushed that wake up time to 7:30, and softened the morning workout to something less extreme. Give yourself the opportunity to see what this aligned version of you might start to feel like before you dedicate a year to wishing you were them.

Edit and move forward.

I wish you nothing but luck and alignment for the year ahead. Happy 2026.