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✩ life unraveling

unraveling 2017

December 12, 2016
unravel2017

What matters is taking a moment to reflect on the year that’s passing and tune into the year that’s coming. Paying attention to your intentions and dreams. Your big plans and little plans.

— Susannah Conway

2016 is finally drawing to a close, so that means another lovely workbook from Susannah Conway! I’ve been looking forward to this book since the ending of November because I didn’t really get a chance to fill it out properly last year, as I was backpacking through Southeast Asia at the time. But if you remember, I did fill it out for 2015 and 2014, and I’m again going to fill it out this year!

This little workbook is all about reflecting on the year that past and setting intentions for the year ahead. 2017 is a bit more important to me because I’m planning to do reset of my life. I’ve been thinking about some changes that I’ve been wanting to implement for a while, both in my online life–with the blog and YouTube specifically–and my real life. I half changed my real life situation this year when I left my office job that I absolutely began to dread, but I still kept all of my babysitting gigs, even though I wanted to leave those too. So for next year, I’ve decided to drop that as well to do something else. I don’t know what that something else is yet–though I’ve been applying for jobs since I got back from Europe this summer–but I’m learning to accept that it’s fine. I just don’t want to do something I don’t enjoy anymore. If it stresses me out to which it causes me anxiety, I have to get rid of it. I’ve realized that I don’t need all this negative stress in my life; that I can quit anything at anytime if I want to. I am the maker of my own life. Everyone else will just have to deal with that.

It’s taken me awhile to realize this. Granted, I’m super picky and won’t just take on any ol’ job because I know I’ll just go back into that same rut that I’m already in. But it also makes it harder for me to get a job that I might actually like and won’t affect my anxiety. I’m just fortunate that I have a mother who supports me no matter what I decide to do, and if creating my own job is what I have to do, then I’m going to try my hardest in 2017 to do just that.

So with that, I wanted to share a few intentions I’m setting for myself for 2017. 2016 was a very anxiety-inducing year and I want 2017 to be the opposite. I want to reduce my exposure to stresses that can be avoided–I know what these are now–and just work harder on self care. I want to return to some of my past joys and maybe create a bit less to make room for those other joys. My word for 2016 was CREATE and I managed to get into the habit of creating something everyday, but that’s all I did. I was creating constantly. And while it was very therapeutic and I loved it, I forgot about all the books and movies I wanted to watch and all the songs and stories I wanted to have written. So I want to make some time out for those too.

Anyway, before I go off on another rant, here is a concise list of my intentions or what I’m planning to do in 2017:

  • Keeping only these three planners:
    • My Simple Stories Carpe Diem as my Memory Planner
    • My Marion Smith Heart of Gold as my Unravelling/Soul Searching journal
    • My A6 Hobonichi as my monthly planner/daily art journal
  • 20 books in 2017 (cause I need to get back into reading)
  • Launch Mindfully You as a free email prompt ecourse
  • Create a daily art journaling habit
  • Carry my camera with me everywhere I go
  • Start a vlog on my YouTube channel
  • Focus on creating more musical content (ie. cover videos, original songs, etc)
  • Continue my job search
  • Save Save Save = no more buying scrapbook supplies I don’t need
  • Plan for travel in 2018
  • Practice more mindfulness
  • Think positively
  • Worry less

I definitely might meditate on a few of these before the year is up and possibly add or remove some, but those are my intentions as of now. I will see where they all end up in once I’ve completed working through Susannah’s workbook, but I’m anxious for the new year! If you’re interested, you can find Susannah’s Unravel Your Year 2017 workbook by visiting her website and signing up to her mailing list. She is absolutely amazing and if you’ve never heard of her, her site is definitely worth a visit.

TAGS:new year intentionsunraveling

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  • Bernadette
    December 12, 2016

    So I just found your blog today and OMG. I feel like I am reading my innermost thoughts in this post. I also left my awful office job recently because of the hyper-anxiety it gave me and my big goal for 2017 is to get the courage to start job hunting again and finally start living a life (& hopefully finding a job!) that will bring me happiness. Wishing you the best of luck for the new year!

    Bernadette xo

    Reply
    • Tiffany Julia
      Bernadette
      December 12, 2016

      Hi Bernadette! I’m so glad you found my blog, it makes me realize that I’m not the only one going through these same sort of things (even though I know I can’t be the only one, but I find comfort in comments like yours that tell me that I’m not the only one!) I do wish you all the best luck in 2017 as well and I know we can do it! Who knows what “it” will be that brings us both inner peace and happiness, but it’s definitely out there waiting for us to come and find it!

      Reply
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I have an idea but haven't figured out how to begin, which means that I just need to do it and start from where I am.

I hope you all had a great holiday weekend. xx
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I'm quite behind in sharing my journal pages, but here are my March pages in my #unravelingjournal. 

March was all about learning about myself. I like doing this every year to take stock of who I am. I usually review my personality types—Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, Love Languages, my birth chart, etc—and journal my thoughts and revelations. I'm always amazed at all the new insights I gather when I do this—I call them epiphames. Because we know all of this about ourselves already, but depending on where we are in our personal journey, studying ourselves over again always brings with it new insights and ah-ha moments we hadn't recognized before.

I've been really interested in Astrology lately, so for this month, I reflected on my birth chart again. I recently learned about two things—The Four Elements and our North and South Nodes—how you can find out your own from reading your birth chart and what they mean.

I share what I've learned about myself over on my blog, but in a nutshell, I have to be more like Water. I have to learn the practice of stillness and the art of letting go.

I have to learn how to flow. xx
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Books 4/20: Yesterday I was The Moon by Noor Unnahar
Rating: ✩✩✩

I've been collecting a lot of poetry books lately. A few weekends ago, I purchased four collections from Strand and one of those books was Noor Unnahar's Yesterday I Was The Moon. I've been wanting to read her work for a very long time now, so I was happy to have found a copy at Strand. IDK, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. But it was still a nice read and I love the tile poem very much. xx
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Stillness—the act of intentionally pausing; of being mindful and present.

I feel like we're all one of three people: one focused on the future, stuck in the past, or living each day in the present. I don't think either is good or bad but the latter is definitely ideal. I feel those who are constantly living for the future forget the good they have now, and those living in the past can't recognize the good right in front of them. The balance between the two is living in the present. Being mindful of all you have and being grateful for it.

I struggle a lot with "living in the moment." I wouldn't be surprised if we all do. Life comes at us fast. There's always something that we need to do, see, or take care of. It's difficult dealing with what's going on in your life plus what's going on in the world. Sometimes we don't have time to slow down and pause. And honestly, I don't think we'll ever have enough time. That's where the intention comes in and when mindfulness comes to play. Like Ferris said, "If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

I've enjoyed exploring stillness, this intentional pause to take note of the things presently around me. I find it so hard to do living in a busy city like New York. There are just too many distractions and too much noise. Everything is always "go, go, go" and it feels odd to just stop. I personally struggle with being stuck in my past, something I work hard at being mindful of. My mind can sometimes spiral down that hurt hole and get stuck on what someone did to me or what awful luck I've had—things from my past that I never had any control over in the first place. I try to be mindful of this and I've noticed that practicing gratitude for what I have now helps pull me out of that spiral. 

I've learned that I need to take more time out of my day to pause. It's almost like when you're packing your bag for a huge trip. You're on automatic as you're packing but you always need to pause and take stock of what's on your list. I think we should all pause and take stock of the greatness in our lives right at this moment. It's far better than what we've lost or what we don't have yet because it's here. xx
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Oh hey, it's #thursday3 and I've got a new portrait of myself that I haven't shared yet...

✩ I took out my paints the other day because I had a whole basket of acrylic gouache that needed to be added to my swatch book. I sat down and swatched them, then purposely left them all out because I will only use things if they are out in the open on my desk. I gessoed a page in my current journal too AND since I had all of that prepped, last night I actually got messy in my journal! Worked on the Expand prompt from Messy May. Honestly, it felt very good to create an art journal page again!

✩ I've been looking for places to escape to this summer. I really just need to get out of the city and since I work remotely, I definitely could take advantage of traveling and working from wherever I am. Been looking at places in New England because it's easily accessible by train. Not looking to drive long distances (if at all really, which also sucks because this country is just built like that). But IDK, it's probably not just me, but everything has gotten so ridiculously expensive and it seems like everywhere I look the crime rate has gone up (and what I mean by this is gun violence), and society, in general, has gotten more mean-spirited, and it all just makes me want to just stay home and never go anywhere ever again and save up my money so that hopefully one day I could buy myself a small home in the middle of the forest and live peacefully amongst nature. I want to say that my brain is exaggerating about how bad it's gotten out there, but also...no.

✩ I've been very deep into my personal self-care/spiritual practice lately. Working through @lizelayne's Water Your Soul course has been a delightful pause in my day. I'm reading @debrasilverman_astrology's The Missing Element, which is very enlightening, and I've been listening to the audio lectures of @alanwattsorg. LOTS of journaling happening in this corner. I sometimes wish I had more time in my day to do more of this. But lately, I've been having to find little pockets of time to read, work on a lesson, or listen to a lecture while I work. But it's been good.

Anyway, I hope everyone is well. Happy May the 4th!  xx
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