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Hey Lovelies.
My One Little Word for this year is BECOMING.
I have this personal mantra I keep. It’s “a gentle unfurling.” It’s a process of self-discovery I adapted from Susannah Conway’s unraveling practice and made into my own, and I’ve been learning about myself in this way since 2013. Every year I set specific intentions, and each year I choose a word and supporting words that encompass those intentions to guide my year. I keep a specific journal to record the epipha-mes I have about myself and document my growth in a visual way. It’s a gradual process of inner excavation and self-discovery.
This year I chose BECOMING, which was a supporting word last year to my guiding phrase “a gentle unfurling.”
BECOMING means “beginning to be.”
A lot of why I chose this word this year is rooted in my sense of self and how for all of my life I never felt like I truly belonged anywhere. I sometimes blame this on my Type 4 personality, that whole yearning of Fours to find out who they are and their purpose; their overall search for their identity. I’ve been searching for myself for a very long time and haven’t quite found who I really am.
I often think I’m an enigma. I have parts of me that contradict themselves and don’t make much sense. But I think that’s because I’m always pulling from the outside instead of looking within. Because when you look within, you begin to realize that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a contradiction. We are all contradictions. We all live within “the and space.” These dichotomies are what make each of us real and unique.
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But I’ve recently realized that if I keep searching for myself, I’m never going to truly find myself. Because maybe you simply don’t find yourself, but instead you have to become yourself. Just like we mold our children, we have to mold ourselves into the people we want to be.
So this year, I vow to stop searching for myself in the void and begin becoming the self I want to be.
While I’ve always kept a word for the year, this is the very first time I’m participating in Ali Edwards’ One Little Word workshop. I feel like having an introspective, creative guide to follow for the year will help me keep accountable to my word and actually take action on it. The addition of some of my favorite artists co-teaching with Ali really sold me. And after the first Zoom call, I definitely feel like I made the right decision!
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I’ll be working through the prompts in what I call my Unraveling journal. It’s just a junk journal-esque book where I primarily journal about my personal growth journey. I actually made mine this year from an altered Susannah Conway book I got secondhand for $3 and I can’t wait to fill it up! I’m also keeping a creative visual feed of my journey at https://www.instagram.com/agentleunfurling. I’m treating this feed like a micro-blog. I like the idea of having a visual feed of my progress (esp. since I’m planning to explore self-portraiture in conjunction with my word) and sharing additional written insights in the captions seems easier for me than setting up another blog.
I’m really excited about this year and am very much looking forward to taking this journey! xx