LIFE CHANGES: Blinded But Now I Can See

It’s been a few months since I’ve written to you. Mid-April, I withdrew from social sharing to reflect and incubate. In truth, I was afraid. At the time, I was confronted by some big, life-altering questions like:

• How do I want to live my life?

• How can I live in my values?

• How do I want to serve others?

• How can I honor my values and make a living?

• What kind of future do I want to help build? 

The answers came to me easily - that wasn’t the scary part. The scary part was that the answers didn’t match up with the future I‘d envisioned for myself for so long. 

Last year I wrote a blog about my creative journey (linked below) where I shared that my focus in college was to find a lucrative way to use my artistic talent. That brought me to design. A future in design was always the plan because… well, it felt safe. At the time of leaving college, I would have told you how excited I was and it wouldn’t have been a lie, but in truth, I was settling. I settled because following my art seemed too hard, too selfish, too unrealistic.  

I was really good at design and a part of me really enjoys it. Design has added so much to my life, my approach, and my thinking, but for a long time now, the feeling of “safety” turned into a feeling of being trapped. 

In April, I was at a crossroads. My long-time client’s business had closed, leaving me free to go in whatever direction I wanted. The same client whose business over the last year enabled me to build and run a successful marketing and design agency (a dream of mine!). Also through this client, I had a recommendation to work with a new brand and continue forward on this path. 

But, something didn’t quite feel right. When I thought about moving forward the same as last year, I cringed. It didn’t make me feel full or excited. In fact, it reminded me that month after month all I wanted was the work to slow down so that I could have more time for myself and for my blog and for my art. 

It was undeniable that it was time to move on from the design world, but I felt incredibly scared. How could I walk away from a successful business that I spent years building? How could I give up on talent that I was certain would make money? I had gotten to where I wanted to be - how could I throw it all away and start over?

But, as time passed and I began to settle into the idea, it became a lot clearer to me. I wasn’t starting over from scratch. My Instagram, my blog, my art, my shop - they are seeds that I had planted and nurtured over the years and they were a great foundation for where I was going. 

Despite being consciously blind and deaf to this path, my past self had chosen to begin building it years ago when I first started my Instagram. My friend was helping me map out my content by asking me who and how I wanted to serve? My answer wasn’t design or branding, it was mental health. 

So here I am, embarking on the next new chapter of my life in pursuit of helping others heal and become more whole. Things around here will and won’t be changing much. I'm very excited to begin developing a coaching-style business that focuses on creativity and mental health. I’ll still be sharing my art, writing blogs, and expanding the shop. The biggest change is that I will have so much more time to fully focus on this community. I’m looking forward to getting to know y’all better! Thanks so much for being here!

Talk soon! Until then, continue growing, stay curious and keep on healing.

Love, Liz