It has been a little over a month since the opening of my Etsy shop, it launched with just eight journal packs and I am so proud of this little project. I will admit the idea was not entirely my own, I have been working with a brilliant creative named Kellyhope who has been the artist behind so much of my work since this Summer.
When she first came to me with the idea for using Etsy as a platform to take a different approach to healing work I decided to trust her and the rest has been a lot of growth to rise to the demands of a small but notable business venture. It is always interesting to me that we never get to see the behind the scenes of what business owners or creatives go through in order to launch a product or service. In my case, I am grateful to be working with Kellyhope because she and I work so beautifully together although through the process of opening this shop she certainly had to light a few fires under my ass.
When I say that this shop was a labor of love it most definitely was and not only because the packs were written with a lot of love but also because I had to allow myself to be pushed in ways no one has ever done for me and that is pretty significant to note about this creation. Which I suppose at the moment, reflecting back on it all has me feeling rather emotional at just how much of the process is I guess in what you could call the “shadow” when it comes to anything we create. No one sees the ways in which we must destroy parts of ourselves in faith that what we are creating will fill and mend the broken pieces with gold.
I think in anything we take on in life that we want to go from a vision to reality we must offer up all of our insecurities, doubts, limitations and excuses into the fire of that creation to be used as energy. I am very fortunate to have gotten to bring this project to fruition with someone who has been so organized and able to keep me on track, there are many who have to walk this part of their journey on their own.
The process of creating the written material for the journal packs asked me to fully step into the role of being not only the guide but also the student who would read and use these packs for their healing and growth. It was really important to me that each chakra received its own attention and detail because they are so intricate and sensitive in their own ways. I would help get my two youngest children ready for bedtime and once they were asleep in would very quietly reach for the laptop and begin to write after everyone was asleep. It taught me such a valuable lesson about making the time to do the things I wanted for myself, I don’t know that I had pushed myself that way in years and it felt so good to submit each pack in one by one.
After submitting the packs to Kellyhope she took over putting the written material into the format she created for each pack and they were nothing short of beautiful. I have to mention that I realize that putting together an Etsy shop is rather simple to do, however I don’t know that I ever would have done this if I didn’t feel that support and encouragement to do so. I think it really speaks to how far I have come in the last ten years when I could barely get out of bed to now be inspired to create and helping others through journaling or 1:1 sessions. Life is really incredible and I am happy to celebrate this step and growth, even with how much I tried to drag my feet throughout the process. Which don’t let me fool you, I certainly still relate to that feeling of finding it easier to do for others than it is to do for myself. Calling in support made it possible to not only help with all of the design work and technical aspects of setting up a shop but my desire not to disappoint was greater than my procrastination of bringing this project to life. And sometimes our lessons are like that!
Since the launch of the Etsy shop, we also added in packs to assist in the practice of working with Ancestors. These packs I particularly felt a strong connection to because ancestral veneration is a special part of my own practice and it fills me with so much gratitude and joy to know that my ancestors are always with me. Writing the material for that work I felt an enormous sense of excitement for anyone who would potentially buy the pack to dig into their own ancestral practices and healing. What a special connection it is and it’s another way of looking at ourselves with a lot more compassion and welcome in power that in our very DNA.
Overall, bringing the Etsy shop to life was more than listing products that would help someone who is self-guided. Bringing this shop to life expanded everything from the moment the idea was put into action to the moment someone sits down to journal with the packs and beyond.
