Last year I was reminded of how much you can grow when you push yourself out of your comfort zone.  After graduating from the Intuitive Body Coach program, I decided to keep pushing myself by committing to trying as many new things as I wanted, and I've got a great list of fun things to share with you!

So this series, Trying New Things, is all about pushing myself out of my safe pandemic cocoon and slowly back out into the world, to test my new limits after completing a chapter of looking inward and working on myself and my mindset.  Who am I now?  What do I like?  What do I want?

Having a "word of the year" is a newer concept to me, but I have found it to be helpful.  It's like a little reminder throughout the year of the way I want to move forward in life and helps give some direction.  It feels like a good focus for aligning your needs with your life and vice versa.  

My word last year was "Authenticity".  I carved the word into a candle that I burned while I journaled each week.  Having the word visible helped to constantly cheer me on when I was scared to speak up or be vulnerable, when I was ashamed to cry or be angry, when I felt overwhelmed from putting too much pressure on myself and needed permission to just do what made me happy in the moment.

This year, I wanted to continue that momentum and choose another Word of the Year.  I used the Find Your Word workbook by Susannah Conway to narrow my feelings down (and even got Sean to use it!  It's already helped him make helpful changes.), then signed up for a local art workshop, led by Pamela Sue Johnson, to make a mixed-media collage to honor that word.

I think making collages is a fun way to be messy and imperfect with art.  There are so many ways to collage and so many different elements you can use. I really enjoyed attending the workshop and loved Pamela's laid-back, positive vibe.  She made it really fun and playful!  There were so many elements to choose from so I just allowed my inner Little Hailey to play with whatever sounded fun.  It was messy and isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but I enjoyed making it.  That's what counts.

My Word of the Year is CREATE.

I added extra words to mine to encompass all the things create can mean to me.  I want to create joy, adventure, purpose, simplicity, rest, connection, passion, and magic.  I want to trust myself and my process, be brave by exploring, and radiate as much light as I can when I can.

Creating brings my brand of magic out into something that can be seen by the world.  It's kind of my calling to bring life to the things in my head that I want to physically see.  So here's to hoping I can create all the things I long to share and stay focused on the positive attributes of doing so!