This vision board coach makes dreams come true

It is time to widen your vision. I don’t mean it in the Vanilla Sky this-is-all-a-dream sense. I am talking about living, breathing reality. I am talking about your personal vision for your own future. Are you ready to move forward?

Vision boards could be the missing key. And the best person in India to create that key is probably Soniya. The soft-spoken Mumbai-based published author is a first Certified Vision Board Coach in India, with credentials from none other than influential American career strategist Joyce Schwarz. She holds Vision Board Workshops worldwide for kids, corporates and individuals.

Soniya has written books like God Is My Magician, Rich & Awesome, The Gratitude Book, My Prayer Book all available on Amazon worldwide. She is also a Soul Coach certified by Denise Linn, USA. She believes that “when you have a vision for your life, the doors will open.”

Before you scoff at it as woo-woo or a load of bull, this isn’t a topic I am discussing because it’s esoteric and fashionable. here’s a little story about the most unlikeliest of people to follow a vision board — multi-Platinum pop singer Katy Perry.

When Katy Perry was a fourth grader, her teacher asked the class to make a “vision board” — a collage of images cut out from magazines that represents the dreams and aspirations you hope to manifest in life. The year was 1993 and Selena had just won a Grammy Award, so nine-year-old Katy chose a photo of the young Latin pop singer holding her golden statuette.

Fifteen years later, Perry has been nominated for her first Grammy Award in the “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance” category for her single, I Kissed a Girl, and later became a My GRAMMY® Moment artist. “I found my vision board when I moved apartments at 24 years old,” says Perry. “I knew where I wanted to be even as a young kid. I just didn’t know that if I put one foot in front of the other, I would actually get there someday.”

In fact, vision boards have brought average Joes and Janes out of rock-bottom life situations into joy and contentment. Take the case of fitness celebrity Natalie Jill. It’s hard to believe that this woman with enviable six-pack abs was once a down-and-out, overweight young mom struggling to get through the day [yes, you can transform your body. I speak from personal experience].

natalie

As the fitness entrepreneur writes on her blog:

I am getting ready to move in a few weeks and as I was cleaning through stuff I came across one of my old vision boards. I made this particular one when I was in a bad place. I was going through a divorce, I was a new mom, I was leaving a house I loved, and I was feeling sad & hopeless. I was just beginning to pick up the pieces and move on with a better life and I made a vision board. At the time, the items I put on the board seemed impossible. They were all things I wanted and wished for, but seemed so far out of reach. I included them on my vision board anyway and started to do the work towards achieving them. The crazy thing is when I look at that vision board now, I see that just about EVERY SINGLE thing has come to fruition.

– Natalie Jill

It doesn’t take a genius to know that real change, real transformation [two words you will find in the tagline of my blog] starts in the mind. You have to visualize it, each and every day so you can move towards the exact picture. Isn’t it simpler to start moving in the direction you want by pasting the exact picture of your goals on a board rather than just holding a picture of that lifestyle in your mind?

Photo from kasmin(15)

Soniya’s own life is no less extraordinary. The first time I met her over a decade ago was to interview her for a daily newspaper about her amazing physical transformation. She had dropped over 2 stones in as many years. She was positively glowing and in her early 20s. I was happy to see Soniya going on to become a published author and a “soul coach” with a loyal following. She lived through personal tragedy (as you’ll read further down) and was saved by Jesus Christ in what is nothing short of a miracle.

Initially, I had found her writing quite simplistic and her ideas self-explanatory. I thought to myself: ‘Isn’t it all obvious? Doesn’t everybody know this stuff?’ Being clever is not the same as being emotionally and spiritually intelligent, though. Despite being out of touch for years, Soniya was the person I reached out to during a severe personal crisis last year, and she was serendipitous in her prayer and guidance.

This interview with Soniya was long overdue. She took time out of her busy schedule for this. Before talking about vision boards, we discussed her weight loss journey (for certain readers of this blog, they know who – wink wink).

Take us through your weight loss and how you achieved a feat a lot of women struggle with.

SONIYA: As a child, I was blessed to be skinny. But after my mom passed away, I went into deep grief. The only way to comfort myself was to binge-eat. So, I would eat, eat and eat. It gave me a feeling of being full in that moment but it never healed me emotionally. One day, while doing my Event Management & PR internship, I met a fashion designer who said, “You have a chiseled face. If you lost weight, you would look amazing.” That got me thinking. I started going for brisk walks, playing squash and stretching. It gave me inner emotional release which led to shedding weight on the outside.

Yes, I loved wearing new clothes, enjoyed the attention from guys but internally, I knew I was the same soul inside. It’s just my body that went through a transformation. Years later, as I let go of my emotions & accepted the will of God in my life, I realized that the transformation was for my soul as well.

You went through another miraculous transformation later in life which culminated in your books.

SONIYA: Books happened. Just happened. Definitely a beautiful accident in my life. I always had a quiet side to my personality; I would often dwell and my pen poured out my thoughts. My mom told me on her death bed that I was not alone in my life ahead. The Most High God is with me. At the age of 13, those words sank deep in my consciousness and from that moment, praying was my way of connecting to my Lord. I used to write prayers all the time and share them with friends. When my close friend began to get amazing results from reciting my prayers, she suggested I put those in a book. That’s how my first book God Is My Magician was born.

Were you always interested in writing?

SONIYA: No. Never. I always wanted to join my family business and take it forward. It was the natural thing to do. I would have laughed if someone ever told me I would be a writer.

What is your typical week like?

SONIYA: My mornings are usually late as I am a night bird. I love my morning routine which includes sitting in silence, writing my affirmations, visualizing, setting my intentions, talking to my vision board and enjoying a cup of tea with my husband.

Photo from kasmin(1)

I hold online sessions on weekdays, guiding people in manifesting their dreams. My night routine involves a lot of reading. My Kindle is my best friend.

I do this amazing gratitude exercise every night thanking 3 things truly from my heart. Weekends are for vision board workshops which consume the entire day. A good spa session post my workshop is my treat for a day well spent.

Talk about your faith in Jesus Christ.

SONIYA: After cancer took my mother’s life, I was left in the hands of God. But it was years later, when my husband was diagnosed with cancer that it shook my life. In that moment in the hospital, I said aloud: “Jesus if you save him, I will give my life to You.”

Yes, Jesus did save. The cancer was gone. It was a huge victory for me. My faith has been unshakable ever since.

Every day, I wake up and say this prayer out loud: “God, where would you have me go? What would you have me do? Whom would you have me help? God use me. Use my life!”

This prayer helps people in ways I don’t even understand.

Let’s talk about vision boards.

SONIYA: In Habbakuk 2:2, God said, “Write the Vision. Make it Plain, so he may run who reads it.”

God has instructed us to write our vision. God wants us to focus on our future and let go of our past. God even told Abraham to go outside in the desert and see the stars, and that many descendants he would have. To me, making a vision board is an act of obedience to God’s word. When you make a vision for your life, God opens the doors.

What is the vision board workshop about?

SONIYA: Attending my workshop will give you step-by-step guidance on how to follow God’s will. I teach participants to obey God. My endeavour is not to take my students to a fantasy land only to land up in disappointment later. Instead I teach them to follow God’s plan which requires cleaning your heart of all hatred, unforgiveness, resentment etc, to sit in silence and listen to the word of God. Your purpose is as natural as breathing. You only need to get into stillness to access the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

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What would you say to people [specially creative people like artists and writers] who have lost faith in themselves?

All the forces of darkness cannot stop what God has ordained.

(Isaiah 14:27)

SONIYA: I truly believe in the word of God. Nothing can hinder your progress. You will end up doing what you are called to do on Earth. That is God’s word to us.

My advice would be to have intentional friendships. Internally detach from everyone who is not your tribe. Have friendships that pull you in that space of positive growth.

What keeps you grounded?

SONIYA: My husband. Kidding!

The clarity of vision keeps me on track. Clarity is Power.

by Kasmin Fernandes

For queries regarding Soniya’s books, products, coaching or workshops, or have a prayer to pass on, visit her website or write it down and whisk it off to Soniya’s email authorsoniya@gmail.com

All her books Rich & Awesome, The Midas Touch, Soniya – A Fairytale loved by Every child in the World, God Is My Magician are available on Amazon.

Still want more? Life presented Soniya with multiple hurdles, which she sailed through fashionably and riding on the power of prayer and God’s genius. For more articles on the themes of genius and fashionable, click on the links below:

Human Writes