Conscious Living: Introductions

This post is written by contributing author Shelly Kerry. 

I am so excited that Sonya asked me to have a regular monthly post here at Kanelstrand. This blog has become a daily inspiration for me and I am so happy to officially become part of it.

Meeting Sonya (even if only virtually) couldn’t have come at a better time. I have been reflecting a lot on what it means to live a life with direction and meaning, how to ask for what you want and how to fight the urge to fix everything. How do you balance the way you envision your life and the daily stresses of work? How can you help your personal and professional life complement each other and reflect the “real” you?

Photo by Abbey Hendrickson

What I do

A little about me and my work: I am a co-owner of Lightbox SF, a San Francisco based company that teaches creative people how to better manage their business and how to live and work more consciously. My business partner Genevieve is an expert on marketing and branding, teaching creative people how to find their story and motivating them to share it with the world. 

I work with our clients through a program I developed called Creating Space. The goal of Creating Space is to help artists work more efficiently through self awareness and breaking bad habits, setting up better organization systems and conquering time management. What I hope for is that you will learn to live more freely, simply by recognizing what you really want and need. 

We start with a studio visit and do a whole lot of talking about dreams and obtainable goals and set up a plan. The rest of the time is spent on the phone on weekly a check in and homework assignments. Occasionally I physically step in and help with full studio overhauls. The end result of Creating Space is to clear both your physical and mental states of clutter, getting rid of what is not working and opening up room for new inspirations. 

Photo by jenni waterloo

What to expect 

My monthly post here at Kanelstrand will be combining both my passion for living efficiently and consciously with Sonya’s goal to lead people on the quest to live more simply. I find that the two go hand and hand. I wish to guide people who have similar desires for self awareness and willingness to change. What bad habits are stopping you from living the life you want to live? What is stopping you from being a more productive and successful artist. Let’s help you reclaim your goals and find that self-confidence. You deserve to have both a happy professional and personal life.

So the next few months we will be discussing how to make your life, both professionally and personally easier and more meaningful by setting up better organizational systems and better business practices. We will help you find ways of recognizing what makes you happy and how to fit those things into your everyday life. And we will explore unique and exciting opportunities of opening ourselves up to new inspirations and motivations.

I promise through a little self exploration and follow through your days will be brighter. You will find that you get more of what you want and less of the clutter that interrupts our lives. You will have more time with family and friends and will begin to see that you are surrounded by positive and supportive people. Work will seem more meaningful and you will begin to recognize the true spirit of success.

Photo by davidd

Are you ready?

I hope that you join me in this journey. I would love for your first homework assignment to be to pick up that journal. At Lightbox SF our favorite exercise is to write, draw, explore in any way you like, your perfect day. Write about an ideal day whether it be one spent on vacation, a day at work, a weekend day with the family. Whatever it is, write about it in detail and don’t stop until you see fit. It can be as dreamy as you like. It is yours to own. For the next month, think about that perfect day often. What is it about that particular one that really speaks to you? Are there little things that you can add to your “real” days that would reflect a little flavor of the perfect one? What would you need to do to make some part of that ideal day a reality?

Shelly Kerry is co-owner of Lightbox SF. She is an artist, designer, and motivator. Since 2006 she has been working to build her own jewelry design business, em’s studio, and she wants to share all she’s learned. Shelly knows that building your own art or craft business can often feel lonely and overwhelming. She also understands how much of a struggle it is to balance a “day job” with a budding creative business. Read more about her here. Connect to Shelly via twitter or facebook.