2018 Year in Review

Hi gorgeous readers,

I meant to post a round-up of my 2018 sometime in December. An end of the year blog post… at the end of the corresponding year. Makes sense.

But here we are — January 11th, 2019. And somewhere between the warm quiet feeling of the holidays, starting a new weekend job at my friends’ wine shop, and trying to wrap my head around the dozens of creative projects I want to start… I found myself pushing that roundup post to the back burner.

I said things like “Well it’s too late now, I’ll just do a roundup post next year…”

But the thing is: I don’t believe in “it’s too late now.” You can start whenever you want. You can make a “Best of My 2014 Blog Posts” article in 2020 if you want — who is there to tell you otherwise? And do their opinions actually matter?

2018 year in review sxsw
Inspirational & colorful art I spotted at SXSW this year.

So without further ado, here were my most popular blog posts of 2018:

OCD and The Power of Books: My Interview with Agape Podcast

I had the incredible honor of speaking on the Agape Podcast about how I originally discovered I had OCD by reading a middle grade novel. We touched on OCD, anxiety, trichotillomania (pulling out my eyelashes), and depression, along with how creative expression can be a healing salve.


Seven Books I’m Loving Lately

The key to reading more: find books you love, make time to read them, read similar books that you think you might love, and hang out with other friends who love reading.

Talk about books. Share recommendations. Then go write your own 🙂


I Trust This Day: A Prayer to Start Your Morning

I write a lot of prayers for you. This is a great one to use when you want to start your day on a positive and grounded note, filled with grateful expectation for the day ahead,


Three Steps to Find Your Voice

Your voice is the backbone of your art, but when we fill our heads with self-doubt (and the mashup of all sorts of other voices via social media) it can be challenging to remember what we even sound like. These are my three steps that will help you root back into your voice.


Bring Your Dreams to Life Training Series – Video 2

This was my most popular video of the year, and in it we use EFT (or “tapping”) to break through self-doubt and imposter syndrome

2018 year in review paris
In May 2018, I fulfilled a lifelong dream to go to France 🙂 Here we are at the Eiffel Tower.

In a year of podcasts, short flashes of content, and zillions of tiny Instagram stories, I sometimes wonder if anyone cares about blogs anymore.

But here’s the thing for us artists:

Even if no one was watching us, we would still be making our art.

Even if we never got another “like” in our lives, even if we disappeared from the internet… there would be handwritten pages stuck between books in our bookshelf. There would be splattered canvases, scratchy music notes, lipstick lines, rough drafts, inspired spools of thought.

I wrote in journals long before I had the courage to tell anyone that I was a writer. I wrote on this blog long before anyone “liked” or noticed anything I made.

And no matter who is watching, I will be creating in my own little corner of the universe for as long as I live.

AND — I still enjoy blogging! I never get tired sitting down and writing little love notes to my online community, and I haven’t felt the inner call to yield to the trends and switch to a podcast or anything like that.

Sharing our gifts and creations is the least we can do. The people we love will cling to these remnants of art when we’re gone.  The people we become will look back nostalgically at every word. We have no idea what’s coming, and even so… here we are. Resilient. Bold. Humbled. Showing up to our lives and trying to make some sense of it all.

2018 year in review torchys tacos
I live in Austin, Texas. Lots of Torchy’s Tacos were consumed in 2018. I’m not sorry.

May 2019 be your year to tune back into yourself. To take creative leaps. To care less about how many followers you have, and to care more about what kind of story you’re trying to tell.

To connect a little more deeply. And to transmute the heaviness into light.

Peace + Flashy Wild Hope,

Kelsey

2018 year in review creativity painting
At the end of 2018, I bought a bunch of art supplies and started painting. I’m excited to see what I make in 2019 🙂

PS Do you want my creativity tricks, program announcements, and soulful blog posts in your inbox in 2019? Sign up here and never miss a beat.

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