word of the year
a big part of my own therapeutic art practice is setting intentions. I have found that if I choose a word to focus on it helps to call forward subconscious thoughts around the way my past has influenced my decision making and how stigmas have interfered with me from manifesting my wants, needs & desires.
in 2024 my word was joy. I worked hard at looking at why I had not been experiencing joy as often as I deserved. I was able to utilize clinical talk therapy, CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) & EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) work alongside of my own self-healing practices via books, podcasts, YouTube videos and THERAPEUTIC ART to explore what was holding me back from living a more authentic life. these modalities helped me to understand more about myself. I learned that being a cognitive thinker limited me at times to fully feel my feelings. I began to notice how feminine and masculine energies were out of balance, that I needed to release guilt, shame, doubt, judgement that others had inadvertently imprinted on my subconscious and get real with what I was attaching my thoughts to. habits like perfectionism, fear of failure, downplaying my talents, and worrying about irrational fears were all in my way. I learned that I can intentional give myself permission to feel joy. sounds simple in presentation, but it was a long journey that was extremely painful and difficult at times. however, incredibly worth it and extremely necessary for me to have arrived at my 2025 word of the year.
expansiveness to me means: bold, large scale, magnificent grandness.
in contrast to how I had previously been living, I recognized I was holding myself back. protecting myself in a way from failure, letting myself and others down, and limiting the amount of good into my life. my healing practice expanded to not only revisiting past traumas from childhood, applying new coping skills to the current stressors in my life, getting aligned with my physical health so I can heal the damage that had settled into my body because I did not have a toolbox that was able to work on life’s projects in a healthy & mindful way. all of this work that I had put in, the time I had to allow myself to heal, the practicing and failing of the application of these new modalities was exhausting. I knew I needed to find a way to not crawl inward, escape through avoidance and remain in a loop of perpetual procrastination. those were my old coping skills.
I shifted my mindset as the new year approached. I was NOT after setting a resolution. I recognized I had habits and beliefs that were no longer in alignment. I spent so much time working on dismantling that old system and spent time getting vulnerable and really raw with my emotions to break free. I knew I needed to be intentional with calling forward my wants & needs in a way that expands my container.
I had seen the word distraction written in a way that resonated with me with a statement under it that read: you have to remove some things to remain with the right things.
DISTRACTION
disTRACTION
distrACTION
I had to distract myself to protect myself during the traumatic experiences I lived through. I needed time to finding traction to enter into a 12+ year healing journey to arrive at finally being able to take action to finding my needs, wants and desires. I had this old belief that if I didn’t need it that I shouldn’t get it. I would dismiss the fact that I can and should have wants too and more over the permission to get them. this just intensified my deep dive into looking into the mirror and asking myself what I desire as well. I now have more tools than ever before and I continue to seek new ones to add to my toolbox. I finally was able to see I needed courage to execute living the authentic life I am now more aligned with to live.
so I realized all these little steps that I had taken added up to this big, bold, expansive step out of the hiding. expansiveness in action, if you will. I realize by sharing my story it empowers you to want to create your own word. we can use a word of the year, word of the month, word of the day and just apply increments that feel more achievable in the timeline that you have in mind. i’m here to show you the tools that will in turn help you to find answers to those questions you are seeking to have.
my 1:1 sessions can help you explore these things in your personal life. and the mentorship program offers you a space to apply these tools in your professional life. you deserve expansiveness as well.
xo-d