How do you want to feel this holiday season? Conscious Holiday Tips To Honor Your Desires

Three years ago, I decided I was done feeling sick and rundown on Christmas.

I was done giving in to what others wanted and I was ready to honor my desires not just throughout the holiday season, but also going into the new year.

So I sat down and thought about what I wanted to feel instead.

I wanted to feel healthy, energized and connected - to myself and to others.

Just having this shift in awareness helped me feel more abundant, but I knew I needed to get even more clear. I went deeper and made a list of what could help me feel healthy, energized and connected.

I came up with the following…

Communication & Abundance: A simple tool to go from defensive to calm in challenging conversations

I was with one of my friends a few months ago and found myself in a bit of a rant. It went something like this:

If we could all just communicate - not react, judge, assume, or defend, but actually communicate authentically without charge - we would discover we have more in common than we think and have more compassion and love to share.

Communicating is the basis of abundance and creating what you desire.

Clarity, boundaries, connection, love, to be seen and understood. So much of our ability to navigate the world henges on 1) being aware of ourselves, our needs and our desires and 2) being able to communicate all of that to others.

Communication creates a foundation for successful relationships in our personal and professional lives.

And yet… it can be SO HARD to communicate.

Why?

Because we have baggage and big feels from past traumas and experiences - old messages, patterns, and belief systems - that interrupt our ability to communicate what’s actually happening in various situations in our lives…

How To Stay Positive: Facing pessimistic thoughts with love

Yesterday I set out to make a new Ask Kelsey video.

The question was about how to interrupt pessimistic thinking and remain positive, especially when facing daily challenges and messages of self-judgment.

It was a good one!

And I had great answers!! Simple tools that have helped me stay present and shift myself back to a miracle mindset.

So I went about setting up the space, preparing the camera equipment and recording as usual, but when I took a look at the first recording, it was blurry.

Okay, I said. No problem. I made some adjustments and re-recorded, thinking this take was even better!

But when I looked at the footage, it was yet again blurry. Hmmm, okay, I say to myself. Let’s make another attempt. This time just a test. Everything appeared to be functioning properly so I went into another take. This one, again, even more lovely than the last.

Yep, you guessed it: Blurry…

Emmys Adventures: How to navigate big events as a sensitive soul

So… life has been deliciously full so I forgot to mention that my now husband and I are headed back to the Emmys this year!

(Yes, Ballard and I got married just two months ago! He works for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and we are blessed to get to attend the televised Emmy Awards in LA thanks to Stephen and his wife for the second year in a row!)

Now, as a highly sensitive person, big events can be daunting. There’s the staying up late, the interacting with lots of people with different energies, and, especially if it’s a new experience, the uncertainty of not knowing what to expect.

Attending the Emmys last year could have easily exhausted and overwhelmed me not just because it was my first time attending and it’s a very long televised event, but also because I was in my friend’s wedding in Utah the night before!

After an already full weekend of wedding prep and an evening of celebration in honor of my amazing friend, I awoke at 4am to take a car to a bus to the airport to another car to finally arrive at the hotel, get my makeup done and walk to the red carpet a mere 30 minutes later.

Yet instead of feeling all tuckered out, I felt invigorated, supported, deliciously glam and extraordinarily abundant.

Here’s how I did it and my advice for preparing for big events as a sensitive soul…

Face Fears & Gain Confidence: Feel at home in your body

Whenever we go out of our comfort zone to attempt something new, it can be terrifying. And the bigger the leap, the more likely old limiting beliefs are going to crop up like weeds to keep you "safe."

Today's Ask Kelsey question touches on the part of us that is worried about taking flight and the answer is all about coming home to and feeling safe in our bodies - in this moment, just as we are.

The more safe and embodied we feel, the more we can be present and available to newness because we start to realize that we are already safe, no matter where we go, what we do or what we choose to accomplish…

Sometimes Abundance Feels Uncomfortable - And That's Okay

When we claim a new level of abundance our life shifts - how we manage our time, listen to our body, spend our money and navigate our day-to-day changes. These changes may be exactly what we desire, but when we actually step into them it might feel a bit awkward and uncomfortable, even terrifying.

This is because making changes also means loss. We lose an old part of ourselves, an old habit, or an old routine that felt comforting and safe.

Alongside loss, we also have to be prepared to receive.

We can be given the most amazing gifts in the entire world, but if we feel unworthy, we will not enjoy them...

The Spectrum of Sensitivity

A few of the participants in the most recent round of my course, Abundant Living for the Sensitive Soul, told me how surprised they were at their own sensitivity.

They had never considered themselves to be highly sensitive people, had opted into the course because they wanted to gain the tools to clear their path to abundance, but the course also helped them recognize their own sensitivity and then honor and celebrate it in order to be their best selves in the world.

Additionally, in the process of marketing the course I’ve had many people tell me that they didn’t think it was geared towards them because they weren’t sensitive at all.

This was all very interesting to me and got me thinking more about sensitivity and how people experience it...

Cycles of Abundance & Tips to Navigate Endings with Grace

Throughout this past winter I taught the first round of Abundant Living for the Sensitive Soul, an online course that gives people practical tools to claim their most abundant life.

I have taught quite a few online courses and they were all wonderful in their own right, but this course felt different. I was able to share all of me - all my tools, all my life experience, all sides of my authentic self - and I had the privilege of not just sharing the tools with the participants and watching them soar, but reapplying the tools to my own life and witnessing my own desires come to fruition...

Are You Resisting or Receiving?

If I said something nice to you, would you resist, deny or even redirect it? Or would you be open and fully receive the gift of it?

About a month ago, I put this experiment to the test with my viewers on Facebook.

I was participating for a second time in the #itsSafetoShine #21DayVideoChallenge with my friend, Jenn Lederer. The challenge meant that I would show up via Facebook Live everyday for 21 days.

Now, when I first did this challenge...

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