15 March 2012

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.

15 comments:

  1. This sounds terrific... I've been DE-cluttering my kitchen space getting more organized too! It is so freeing! My latest project? I've up cycled a TV amour into a dry goods pantry for our family! Now I can easily see what I have on hand for baking and cooking, plus I have a place for chips, crackers, linens, small appliances and it's pretty to boot! LOVE IT! I'm going after every room and space with gusto! I love the idea of a dreams journal too. I keep a simple daily dreams journal with me at all times in my purse. That way, I can write down any inspirations that come to me any time! It even says DREAM on the cover! Look forward to more on this subject!

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    1. Deb, thank you for a detailed account of what you actually do, it feels very motivating to know that somebody else is working in the direction of organizing, de-cluttering and living a more conscious life. I was wondering, do you go through your Dream journal often to read what you have written or you mainly use it as an outlet?

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    2. I love it! I love having things tucked away in pretty cabinets. Makes things seem so clean and less cluttered

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  2. Welcome Shelly! Sonya has the most amazing ideas, doesn't she?! I love your post and am really looking foward to your advice! It seems like finding balance is a continual struggle, but every small step makes a difference. I'm off to start that journal!

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    1. Laurie, you are so nice! I too am looking forward to more posts by Shelly, I know there is so much we can learn from her and hopefully give back to her in the form of appreciation and inspiration.

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    2. Laurie I hope that you enjoy exploring that perfect day as much as I do. Feel free to share it with others too like a sister or favorite friend. Sometimes sharing it with others helps make it come true!

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  3. Great post and so timely these days Shelly! As artists, it's hard to narrow down the direction that is most compelling. Sometimes we become distracted by all the things we could create, rather then focusing on the one or two projects or methods that we have the most passion for. I had to really get tough with myself and make some choices, I had way too much "stuff" and I felt pulled in too many directions. Every time I see a new technique, I want to try it! It helped me to let go of some of those materials by thinking what a blessing they would be to someone else; someone who maybe couldn't afford them new. It becomes a dual blessing, giving to someone in need and removing the clutter from our space (and our heads)!
    I'm looking forward to your future posts! (sorry, didn't mean to write a novel here, LOL!)

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    1. Oh, novels are very welcome and I am so happy that Shelly has provoked you opening up to us! Yes, artists tend to be living in the clouds. I too find it hard to focus on just one project, in fact more and more are constantly sprouting up and I tend to believe that my life will just go on like that - between hundreds of projects. It is a hard life but somebody has to live it :)))

      Your line of thinking sounds very right to me. Nowadays people have stopped thinking of others and are not very wiling to share, so I would say that we should provoke sharing!

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    2. I'm all on board with that and I like how you put it Sonya! Provoke AND promote sharing :o)

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    3. Ditto! I am definitely on board with helping people to let go by sharing with others. Thanks for the inspiration! I really dislike just disposing of things. I would much rather allow someone else to give it a new life

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  4. This sounds wonderful! I am looking forward to your posts Shelly.
    Valerie
    Everyday Inspired

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  5. I'm really looking forward to your guest posts!

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    1. Thank you too! I appreciate all of this support

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  6. Thank you all so much for inspiring comments and support! I look forward to getting to know each and everyone of you and finding more space together. Best,

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