The Heallist Podcast
Heallist is on a mission to empower holistic healers, one story at a time. Join founder and serial entrepreneur Yuli Ziv as she connects with inspiring voices in alternative healing who’ve achieved true abundance, while also providing practical insights into building a conscious business. Whether you're deep into business expansion or looking to take your healing practice online, tune in every other week for new episodes and insights and visit Heallist.com to explore our tools.
The Heallist Podcast
Combining creative arts and spirituality with Kellie Walsh
Explore the art of self-discovery and healing through the unique lens of creative arts and spirituality with our inspiring guest, Kellie Walsh, founder of The Divine Hive. Renowned for her soul portraits, Kellie combines professional photography with deep spiritual insight to guide individuals on transformative journeys. Hear about her pivotal moment of revelation with a respected channeler and how it led her to integrate meditative practices into her work, offering clients a holistic experience that transcends traditional photography.
Kellie shares captivating anecdotes that highlight the challenges and rewards of maintaining spiritual composure in everyday life, even in high-pressure scenarios. Explore how spirituality can be seamlessly integrated into corporate environments, fostering a compassionate workplace culture. We also dive into the balance of divine feminine and masculine energies, and how professionals can align their trade with conscious and holistic clients for a more fulfilling career.
Tune in for an episode brimming with insights and inspiration for creatives and spiritual seekers alike.
Check out Heallist.com for digital tools created just for holistic healers.
Welcome to the Heallist Podcast, where we inspire and guide healers through business expansion. We give voice to incredibly abundant healers to share their stories. We dive into the quantum field to unlock the energies of conscious creation. We also develop digital tools to help you grow, which you can find on Heallcom. I'm your host, Yuli, and I'm grateful you chose to join this space. Now let's go deep. Hello, my dear friends, and welcome to another amazing, inspiring episode of the Heall podcast.
Yuli:Today we have Kellie Walsh and we're talking about merging creative arts and spirituality. So I'm super excited to introduce Kellie. She is a visionary who has masterfully combined creative arts and spirituality into a unique and transformative career path. As the founder of The Divine Hive, Kellie merges her talents as a professional photographer with her deep spiritual insight to guide individuals on their journeys of self-discovery and healing. Kellie's approach blends intuitive guidance, energy healing and the creation of soul portraits, unique visual representations of her clients in her transformations. I love this so much and so amazing to have you here and to set intention for this episode. I really feel deeply. The moment we spoke, I felt this urge to introduce our audience to what you do, because I have a feeling there's a lot of creatives out there that are sitting in their seats with their screens in front of them and really contemplating how can they bring together their spirituality and creative arts. And you've done it, my friend, so I do hope to inspire a lot of our listeners. So welcome to the podcast.
Kellie:Oh, my God, thank you so much and I'm so excited to be here and this is kind of like a continuation of a previous dialogue that we had on a personal level, but I think it's so important to discuss. You know our merging of our creativity and our spirituality in what we do. You know, I feel like you know, paths - our creativity is a spiritual path and there really doesn't have to be a separation, but we often do that in our own minds and our own lives. So I really am so excited to be here and to help people navigate and to find that that, you know, destination, that place to bring the two worlds together, to feel completely whole in what they do and who they want to be.
Yuli:So true, so true. So, just as we're diving in, can you just start by outlining what is in your, from your experience, you saw as kind of like someone who combined both. What are the similar patterns that you're seeing? What was the "aha" moments that you realized? "Oh, actually, my creative work is spiritual work, and vice versa.
Kellie:I mean, there was really actually a very definitive, pivotal moment. You know I have been on the spiritual path my whole life. I mean I started - I didn't even want to tell people. I started writing morning pages from reading The Artist's Way many years ago. So in 1998, I started doing morning pages and don't do the math, it was a long time ago and you know, that kind of that allowing, like she says in the book, releasing that inner critic and working through, like writing, as a way to connect to that inspirational spiritual mindset, was such a game changer for me. So for the longest time I did this and it was very private, it was on my own and I had a very strong spiritual path of meditating, going to workshops.
Kellie:But then, probably about maybe seven years ago, this woman who's a channeler, who I really respect and she does privates and she does one-on-one, and she said to me well, you know you're a channeler and you know what you do - you receive a lot of information and downloads and she was the one that put the seed in. What you do as a photographer is the same as the intuitive downloads you receive as a channeler, because I always considered myself a seer, as a channeler, like I could see timelines. I can you know when I receive downloads and information, it's not so much that I actually can see them or hear them, it's more a clear cognitive aspect where it's a real deep knowing.
Kellie:But I also felt myself as a seer and I often call myself a seer in the spiritual world. And then it was like, "hello, I'm a photographer, of course I'm a seer, you know. So I mean, I think after that first you know that one-on-one with her she really put you know, even maybe deep down inside, I always knew what I was doing was spiritual. At that point I no longer separated them. You know, it was almost like my coming out party, you know, like people in my you know what I mean? People in my photography world, which I kept very private from my spiritual world. I started to merge them together.
Yuli:So what was that process like? Because I'm always curious when people have that, those deep moments of understanding, something that really shifts their perspective and puts them in a different box, in a different plane, right? But you still have your old identity and this incredibly successful career going, right? Did you kind of - some people go back and start questioning, of course, and some people find ways, like yourself, to transform it and elevate that craft as well. But what was that process like for you?
Kellie:Well, I think you know it's interesting because I come from a creative field and so it was kind of an easy segue for me to you know become, you know taking my spiritual approach to my photographic process. You know, when I started, when I started to do not so much, you know, weddings, which I did a lot of, but even weddings when I would get to a place or if I did a portrait session, I would have them have tea with me and be in a meditative state before we started to like have them, you know they didn't really know what I was doing. I was like creating and I would ask them what their intention was. And I would ask them, like you know, how are they feeling? Like you know, I didn't ever want somebody to run into my studio, I'm like, "oh, I'm sorry, I'm late, I'm late and jump into the shoot". I wanted them to be that sense. So I think the first thing was the mindset of the intention, bringing the intention that you always have in your spiritual work and your path, and how the dialogue, the way you speak, the way you move, your energy, bringing that into what I did for my human-ing, my human job, my human-ing aspect of my life. So I started subtly at first by doing stuff like that, and then another thing too is I wasn't afraid any longer to separate them. I wasn't afraid to tell people about my spiritual path. You know, I wasn't you know, when people, when I would come into a job, they're like "oh, you're so calm, you have such an ease about you," and I'm like well, you know, this is what I do and this is part of what brings that creativity and that joy to the photo world, so the photographic world that I was merging together".
Kellie:So I think that for the longest time, people that like, especially my commercial clients, they didn't know about my meditations, that I'm a channeler, like I speak to galactic aliens and I'm a channeler - can you believe that? I mean like I don't know if they would hire me back again. But after a while I was like you know, I don't care, that's who I am. You know, this is a pot that feeds me. That feeds me to be able to be the best photographer I can be, to be able to not just like to be able to see what my clients needs, but also understand and put a set of intention in there. So it was just, you know, it's everything's about energy and you know you can't think energy, you have to always feel energy, right? So going from that thinking mind to that feeling heart, like that kind of switch energetically, is what I did as I started bringing my spiritual approach to my professional life. I mean, a lot of people too, it's - I think it's sometimes easier when you're in the creative world to be able to slowly merge those. But I don't think, I think you can be whatever you do, you can be an accountant, you know. You can be a banker, you can work on Wall Street, you can - anything that you do, you can bring that mindset, you know? For us in the creative worlds, it's a little bit easy, I think, because we're already using that intuitive left side of our brain. You know we're usually we're using, we're going back and forth and being able to, you know, view and see the world in a very kind of fluid way for creatives, don't you agree?
Yuli:Yeah, absolutely, and it's interesting that you mentioned that that you know you felt naturally to kind of start bringing into your work because, like you write people in this industry a little more receptive. But I wonder if you had any stories or any examples how you know you integrate something or you really did something bold maybe that you wouldn't dare before, and what was the outcome?
Kellie:Well, one little subtle thing I did was I started, you know, all my crystals and jewelry I would always wear now, like, no matter what job I did, you know. So people that that was like, people would ask me. They would stop and like, "oh my god, that's what is that? And I would say, h, it's a selenite crystal," or it's this? And and then "W hy do you wear them?"
Kellie:I'm like, "well, you know, part of it is like, I believe there's a consciousness of the crystals that can help influence us, that we can, or even as a talisman, it's something that you can hold on if you're feeling stressed." So that would be, like you know, during my when I started. I work a lot for New York Presbyterian Hospital and I shoot all their high-end events. So I started changing my wardrobe a little bit by just adding all these pieces - that's like a very subtle thing that I did, you know, but like it was an intention because I knew I would start a conversation with people that would never even be open to that, you know, and putting a little seed into somebody you know like "oh, consciousness of crystals? What does that mean?
Yuli:You know, That is amazing. I love this kind of cocktail conversation starter.
Kellie:Exactly, exactly, you know. I think you know it's really and that's a very easy way to do that, like I'm trying to think of any other way that I love that cocktail conversation that you just said. That's very interesting, but it is definitely a way to get people to be engaged, you know yeah, and
Yuli:I think, Especially in the New York scene right, we both kind of come from that scene when everyone is so like agenda- driven, right? Oh yeah, yeah, and you come in with your crystals. It's a different - suddenly the conversation shifts.
Kellie:Exactly, exactly. And because people are curious, you know, when they see something or some or experience something that they're not especially like you said, in New York and working for, like the you know, for the example, the hospitals and some of my other big clients you know they're, they have an agenda. They have, you know, they have this idea that they have to complete something, that they're, they're goal driven. And you know, because they're so goal driven, they often get caught in that looping, right? That mental looping, you know, and all of a sudden, somebody or something just kind of stops that, you know, it stops that that narrow plasticity of a brain, you know that? You know, like Dr. Joe Dispenza says, you know, oh, you know, Dr. Joe, "w fires together, wires together, right. So like, yes, let's stop that kind of looping of our mental thoughts and really to treat people, especially in any kind of profession, out of that kind of mental prison, if you would say, you know, that kind of, you know, head first instead of heart first it should be heart first.
Yuli:Yes, absolutely, and you mentioned my favorite teacher, so we have to talk about that because, I mean, I feel like he talked, I just just came back from a retreat I I want to hear a lot about and it's probably I probably should record another episode. But one of the fascinating meditations we did is his new walking meditation - i t's called Changing Boxes.
Kellie:Changing Boxes.
Yuli:Yes, and he had that seated meditation version for a long time. It's one of his most popular ones that really changes people's neuroplasticity, like you said. But the walking meditation was really incredible because the way he does it, you start with your eyes closed and then slowly, when you open your eyes, eventually you literally you feel like you're in another box, you're in another dimension and it was just such a fascinating experience and you know, walking out there with 1800 people doing it together. And we all open our eyes in a different plane. I can definitely feel kind of like everything you're talking about and I also love this idea, as I'm stepping more on this journey to kind of not in a way to challenge people that I interact with, especially people not from this world, but just kind of open up their box and potentially introduce another box, right, well, there's other planes that exist, that those rules that you live by, they just don't exist there.
Kellie:Right.
Yuli:It's so fascinating to watch, kind of like, you t's know, know shift and get curious and something. Some cells change in those conversations for sure. So I love that you do that. And then you took it even step further at some point and I want to talk about that because I think the idea the moment I saw your website and I saw what you do and then you call it soul portraits, I was just"yes yes, yes, this is so genius because I think a lot of us and it all comes down and I'm sure you have the whole science behind it, like our own perception and you know our own external image and the pressures that come with it, and your process is kind of completely different and how you manage to combine both, eventually giving as a photographer, giving your client that product that they came for, right, that image that they desire, but also combine that with that internal transformation, potentially come up with something that is really their true essence.
Yuli:I think a lot of us these days, and then in the day, what we're going through, it's this process of like peeling off and uncovering our true nature, because our true nature is divine, right, and all those layers that we built on top and we're born with well, actually, we're not always born with, but you get it. So talk about that process, how going okay, you know, wearing crystals to a cocktail party is fun, but then how do you take that and really say, okay, I'm ready to transform those people?
Kellie:Well, I think that, okay, I think what we'll do, we'll talk about it in two ways. First, kind of more in a general, like, say, I'm working an event or a commercial job or something that you know is you know, more a group setting. Because, you know, we are living vessels of the divine. Everything that we do in this physical body is for the experience of the divine to have form, and so everything that we do is divine, everything we do is spiritual. We have put the box around what is spiritual and what isn't spiritual. So if we first can take away the idea that, like I say, I'll go back to the account he's a spiritual being. You know right, he's the even the guy on Wall Street - deep down, he is a spiritual being. He is a part of God and we need to see that and reflect that. And but we just need to have him look and change the shape of his box. You know I love the box thing. They just don't I'm going to have to use it all the time. It's great and you know, so if I'm, I'm going to give you an example of something that's really interesting. You know, I'm shooting a wedding and weddings are so stressful, you know, you try to be that kind of you try to like I'm not going to say spiritual being, because we are. I just said we are spiritual beings. That is our innate nature. But we get clouded with our own expectations of what we think define us right and the pressures of, like, a wedding photography, a wedding photography. I'm shooting somebody's wedding. There's a lot of expectation, there's a lot of things that I need to create for these people to capture those moments.
Kellie:So we're late running to this church and we were doing all the family pictures first. And we all come running into the church and it's this big, I don't know Episcopalian, I think, a Methodist church in New York City with a lot of rules and a lot of regulations. So we're all running in and the woman that was in charge of, I guess, the church, she comes up to me and she starts yelling at me and she starts in my face saying "you're late, you can't come here, you can't do that, you know, and like, just like, like literally in my face, and I'm like, oh wow. So I'm like, okay, is spiritual Kellie going to be here, or is Kellie from Worcester going to come here? But you know so, so I had to like.
Kellie:So I really had to like, and it's a daily practice in everything you do, because we do have one foot in one world and one foot in another world. Often, right, that's our life right now, that's being human. We have to experience that. So I took a deep breath and, you know, instead of reacting and being triggered like how dare, how dare you? You know, don't? You know who I am? You know, and I'm trying to hear, I'm here for the branding group. I'm trying to help, I'm trying to make their you know, this experience great for them, so we can capture beautiful imagery but not stress them out.
Kellie:So I had to take a deep, deep breath and I'm thinking I'm going to shift her. You know, I don't know if you know what this is. I'm going to shift her.
Kellie:So, instead of reacting, I closed my eyes and I said to myself I want I don't even know what the woman's name was. I would like to speak to this woman's higher self. I would like to be able to connect to something that is not in this physical incarnation, within this box of what she feels between us. I would like it to go away. I would like her to understand that we both want the same things, that we want this bride and groom to have the best experience of their life. You know, we're just coming from it from different points, and so I just closed my eyes and then the wedding started.
Kellie:It was a long hour mass. You know we're just coming from it from different points, and so I just closed my eyes and then the wedding started. It was a long hour mass and then, during the middle of the ceremony, she comes up to me. She's like hey, she's like, if you want to move closer, go ahead, it's okay. I'm like, oh, really. And then she's like yeah, yeah, don't worry about it, don't worry about it. And then later on, she's like you know what, when you're walking backwards and taking pictures, I'm going to stay behind you so you don't fall.
Yuli:That is incredible. Okay, I love this story so much. I know, yes, that's the shift.
Kellie:So I think you know, okay, you've got the cocktail conversation with the crystals, and then you have your own ability to shift by going into your heart and trying to connect to the person's higher self, the person's, that, something that's not tethered to their ego and their physicality, right, and I mean I just say that because that I mean I've tried that with other people and all that, but that was the most profound experience I've ever had in my life in regards to that. You know, it was just oh, I got bubble thumb up, thumbs up, bubble.
Yuli:It literally just happened. I didn't press anything, I was just sitting here and my computer did that for you. I think there is some. Maybe my higher self just thumbed you up, I don't know. Yeah, that was our listeners can see it. But it was kind of a a little bit surreal experience where my computer just popped.
Kellie:And at the perfect timing, because, I said, my most profound experience thumbs up. So it really was. So if you know, often you know and again you know, we're so human and you know we're always going to be triggered. I always say that healing is when you realize you're triggered, right, and the amount of time that that awareness happens and then the amount of time where you can let it go. When that time becomes shorter and shorter, well, maybe it's only like 30 seconds, you're like, oh, triggered, okay, I'm going to come into here, always coming into the heart. So I think when I had that experience with that woman at that church during a big wedding in New York City, I realized that my spiritual path could be simply always being present within my highest self, within that heart-centered flame, no matter where I go and what I do as a career. Like that's a simple thing to do for anybody to start Like, play around with that. You know, see how you feel, everything's about how you feel. I mean I can't really emphasize how much it is to be in that heart space.
Yuli:And then you know, it's just. I just want to take a pause on that because it's first of all, such a beautiful story and also really amazing lesson, and really I think if anyone can take like one takeaway from this conversation is you know, your title doesn't need to be a spiritual healer to do the work we need to do.
Kellie:It's exactly. I think it's either it's like that phrase an urban monk. You know it's like, you know, be on the mountain and have that committed spiritual life which is so important, but be in the trenches, you know, be in it.
Yuli:Be a wedding photographer in new york city?
Kellie:yeah, exactly yeah, exactly where you're dealing with a lot of personalities and a lot. So you know, I'm so. I really like use that as the gold standard of when I'm, you know, being triggered. You know, when I work for New York Presbyterian Hospital. I love all of them, but it's a very high stress environment with the people that are organizing everything. So I literally, on the way down to the job, will start feeling this stress in my stomach. I'll be going, oh, oh no, oh no, I can feel the anxiety. I can feel that because I think the more you do it, it's like a muscle right, it becomes stronger, because it becomes more intuitive. So as soon as I get in there, I take a deep breath and then I go up to everybody and I look them in the eyes. I'm like, how's it going? And like I talked to him in that kind of meditative voice a little bit. You know a lot of pauses in between the words, you know lowing the octave and and they might even for a second just stop, but it's that interruption.
Yuli:I love those little interventions that and I wish I had you, because I used to run those 500 people events in the city in my previous chapter, and you know it's funny because I used to get so stressed and it doesn't matter how much you know, I would relax or meditate before or whatever I try to do.
Yuli:You just get into that like stress ball zone that you're discovering. I wish, first of all, that I had you by my side to intervene, but in a way, you know, I started looking at it as, like this is my exercise to cut, to continue. I'm going to continue doing those events until the point that I can completely relax and completely surrender to the experience and know that everything is just going to go just as it's planned, just like as it's supposed to be, and I do not need to sacrifice my own you know well-being around peace to achieve that. So you know, speaking of which, I'm in the midst of organizing another big event with, I know, as you know. So I really look at it like I'm actually looking forward to that as an opportunity to put myself in a new box. Yeah and see, can I do that without having all that stress and all those feelings? So thanks for reminding that, because I can still relate to that we know it's a practice.
Kellie:That's a practice. It's a spiritual practice. Just what you did being like. You know if people, even in the corporate world, if they could get some instruction or some kind of guidance to know that they're going to be stressed, they have a lot of pressure on their hand, but it but it's an exercise of how you can come from a space of honoring yourself, because that stress is not good for you. It's going to wreak havoc to your body and then just the energy that you put out it's like a ripple. It's going to create anxiety and stress. And it's also an exercise on faith and trust. Especially, you could plan the best event. Everything would be perfect, but something can happen. That it's it's.
Kellie:And you have to understand that to be in the flow of the divine is to be in a place of no expectations and no agenda. Such a hard thing to put that into practice when you're in the corporate America. Right, because that's all corporate America is all about right America. Right, because that's all corporate America is all about right. So you know, I said, wouldn't it be amazing if, like CEOs, comes up to you and say, is to a meeting, I have no agenda, I have no expectations of you. I just want you to do the best that you can. That's all I want from you. Wouldn't that be an amazing way that you can shift an energy and a whole corporation office?
Kellie:And then you know, because I just I've always seen a little bit different. When I was in college, I, you know, worked for a corporate owned restaurant and they had all these rules that I thought were not beneficial or good and I'm like, well, I'm not going to do that. That doesn't make no sense to me and literally I was fired the next day. So so you know, keep thinking outside the box, keep being a seer and stay true to yourself and understand that. I mean, that's the way you can take whatever profession you are and make it your spiritual practice.
Kellie:Okay, if you want to completely and I don't, you know, and too, like a lot of people think that you know I want to stop being an accountant I'm sorry I keep talking about accountants, but it comes to my mind and or whatever you're doing for a nine to five, and completely go into the healing arts. You know that's a big jump of faith and you can, like I said, you always have that spiritual practice, so you don't have to think all or nothing, one or the other. You know you can do a blend until you feel comfortable, to the right opportunities come to you, because I think you know the biggest problem we can have in the world is that spiritual egotism. You know that is yes, yes, absolutely.
Kellie:You know I just was writing about that before we had this call. And you know, it's often like ego finds its way, really, and I'm not going to give ego a completely bad rap because I respect that ego has kept you safe, kept us safe when we were younger. But it's an untethered ego that you need to watch out and a spiritual egotism is like what is my, what is my mission on earth? Right? You know it's like that energy behind it. You know your mission on earth is be a flow of divine. Whatever you do, every step you take is divine, is spiritual. You know, if you find that you're a Reiki healer or you have these other gifts, you're a channeler and you want to expand in them. That's beautiful, but wait for the flow of the divine to show you the way. You know it's that trusting in that divine feminine energy.
Yuli:You know that's an amazing advice and, first of all, two things I wanted to point out is one like the idea of, yes, spiritual superiority, you know, and the whole division between the spiritual, non-spiritual world.
Yuli:I completely agree with you. It's all made up labels, just the same labels that we use, you know, in the 3D world. But I also, you know, just to inspire some accountants among our listeners, like I know so many amazing people in the finance and accounting industry that are moving to work with, whether it's conscious businesses or holistic clients, and they love that because they find that fulfillment of keeping their trade and the profession and the skills that they've gained over the years and, you know, just finding clients that are more aligned with their current state. That is maybe a little more awakened. So I think there's a lot of room and I'm always excited when I meet those people from industries that are supposed to be opposite of what we do, right, but they have that side. It's just such a refreshing it is. And we need more people. We need more people on Wall Street who understand healing arts.
Kellie:Oh, yeah, let's not even go about politics, that's nothing. But yes, it's so true and it's like you know it's also you have to think about. It's all about. You know they talk about twin flames, right, what is a twin flame? And really it is having that feminine. I think we are all our true twin flame. To try to find a twin flame outside of yourself, I think, has been hijacked a bit. I think the real, true concept of that is having the relationship, the marriage within of yourself of the divine feminine aspect and the divine masculine. So having somebody that can help you with your website, with your accounting, with all that, that has those skills and you have such strong intuitive skills and you come together, that's a divine union. Divine union doesn't have to be sexual, doesn't have to be physical right? Divine union is coming together to create the best divine union is coming together to create the best possible expansion for both people.
Yuli:Love this so much. Another deep pause and deep breath and just you know enjoying this, this metaphor, so much. And speaking of divine union, let's finally talk about your soul portraits.
Kellie:Yes, so so after I had that conversation with the woman that was a channeler who told me about that, I really sat down and said "how can I really merge my love of photography and my love of photographing people and my abilities to channel and to connect and to see beyond kind of this three-dimensional world, right? So I started to play around with the idea of soul portraits and what that would look like, and on the last few retreats I've had, I've actually incorporated the soul portraits at the end of the retreat and it's interesting what I really have come to understand and I actually have found a beautiful way of combining them. And what I do is we usually do an oracle. Usually I tell the person who signs up for a soul portrait do not have an agenda, do not have an expectation, do not think that you're going to use this for your LinkedIn headshot. You know, because this is not that. You come here because you want to see your true divine state. You want to have. You know, it's almost like I'm witnessing the unfolding of you beneath the skin in a way. So we have usually I will tune into the person. I will get like a message of a place or a meditation. I remote. When I do my guided meditations it's really remote viewing. I can remote view, if you know what that is. It's an ability to see, like see other timelines, other dimensions, be able to go there. So that's how I do my guided meditations. I will like remote view and take them on a journey with me of what I see. So that's kind of what I've been doing with the soul portraits. So if you sit down with me I'll get an idea, say, for instance, the last one.
Kellie:I okay, there's two I just did recently that were pretty amazing. This, this one gentleman. I just know him prior so I know he has very elven energy, very Merlin energy, even in his appearance. Right now he's a healer. So I knew where I was going to take him when he pulled. But he pulled the card. So I have people pull a card first, an Oracle card, and that usually will give me confirmation where I want to go. So with him he of course got the Elven Council as his card. So I'm like, okay, let's go there. So we did. I took him to the journey to like the Crystal City of Light, whatever I saw. I took him to this where we came together and it's a short meditation 20 minutes and we just sat there and he received information and he actually started speaking light language. That's something he's been working trying to achieve. And then when he's after the meditation and we came back he, I took his, his photos.
Kellie:You know, at first I I've learned now, after doing for a couple years, that I wait till they come out of meditation for us before I start shooting, because most people like like a totally out, you know, like the mouth some hanging and their heads to the side. You know they look like they've been in a deep sleep for about an hour. So I wait they come out to a certain point and then I start photographing them and I kind of just, you know, I just give you know lead them a little bit with. You know, I usually put them in a place where I can get some beautiful light on them. And just, you know, another person, this guy, Scott, who's a chiropractor like I, I had I, he pulled the owl card, so I knew I was going to take him to a place where you could have that freedom with his wings, like that's what I felt he needed. I felt like he was very stuck so, and so afterwards I took these beautiful shots with his hands and black and white, and it was so beautiful, so later on they would have that photograph.
Kellie:I usually give them a whole series of photographs as kind of a talisman, like a representation of. So I always say print it, put it on your altar, have it as a reminder of the story. So most of the story you know, so most of the meditations, would be something that somebody's working through. Or maybe you know one woman I took to Lemuria and I actually gave her and Scott a name. They received a name from that. I channeled for them so they can use the name for themselves or write it down or, like I usually will write their name on the photograph that comes to it. And and that's the soul portraits.
Yuli:Wow, that is incredible.
Yuli:As you were talking, I'm like I have to have one, I have to have this session with you. It just sounds so special and I love the idea that you're capturing that moment, because I think a lot of us have this beautiful moments in meditation and then you kind of come out of it and it's gone. I mean, you can journal and you can try to kind of write it, but just to capture that I think it's just a beautiful gift.
Kellie:Yes, it really is, and it is. That's why, like, the photograph can be so powerful, you know, because it can take you back to that memory, it can take you back to your remembering, you know. You know, I think that, you know, journaling is so important. I'm a big journaler and, you know, I think that combination of coming out of meditations and that, and then also too, when everything's done, we will put some music on and do a little dancing just to get the energy moving, you know. So that's kind of been the sequence of how I fine-tuned the soul portraits, because it definitely has been kind of a work.
Kellie:You know, I'm working out the logistics of how to combine the two because, you know, usually my healing arts is group meditations where we go, and you know, I just did, like I said, I just finished a series where we did the chakras with the inner dimensions of the earth, like. So each chakra was represented, like the first dimension was a root chakra, the second dimension was a sacral, so I just finished a whole series of that. But that's very much group setting, you know. So for me to make that experience into a one-on-one and then combine it with a portrait session was, you know, a work in progress but I think, pretty much fine-tuned it and I'm very excited about what I've been doing lately.
Yuli:So this is a very special thing that you're doing and I hope you know more people get your experience that, because all of us deserve a soul portrait. I think there's way too many headshots and now, with AI headshots that I can't.
Kellie:I see them, I go. That's the end of our careers, oh, ends of our professions, right there.
Yuli:No, I think this is the beginning of the the boom of the soul portrait.
Kellie:It's the beginning of the soul portraits.
Yuli:Yes, because AI will never be able to do what you do. I had absolutely no doubt in that.
Kellie:Yeah, no, I'm, you know, I'm so thrilled that my journey has led me here, you know, because I love doing soul portraits, like you know. If I can just, you know, moving forward, if I can be blessed enough to be able to do the soul portraits, do my guided meditations and retreats, I would have a blessed life. I spent years, I've been a photographer since I was 18. So I spent years in the trenches doing lots of work I can't even tell you how many 600 weddings, maybe? Lots of weddings and a lot of commercial work, fashion work. I was shot a lot in the fashion industry and that's a whole different set of issues and and personalities, as you say. But even even when I still shoot fashion now, like I come in with, I'm going to shift people. I'm going to take this, make this an elevated experience, you know, because that's what we can do as healers, you know.
Yuli:Amazing. I love what you do and I just love the idea of having you in those industries still and shifting people and elevating wherever you go. So it's just truly inspiring and I know a lot of our listeners are listening to you could relate to a lot of those stories and maybe open some of the horizons and introduce some new boxes that they can try. So, as we coming up to the end, I can't believe it. Can you do have any last words of wisdom for our listeners?
Kellie:I think that the biggest thing that prevents people from expanding and moving outside their box that they feel very comfortable in is fear. Right? Was that false evidence appearing true? I think that's what they call fear, something like you know. Try to start some kind of meditative practice if they feel like they can't meditate. Just focus on the breath 10 minutes of just focusing on your breath, walking out in nature and removing, you know, any kind of self-created obstacles that they might find. Remove that fear, you know, and take baby steps. You know, take baby steps Because baby steps builds that kind of synchronicity, nerve or muscle, like you know.
Kellie:You start to have synchronicities, you start to think you become a manifester, you know, because you start doing those baby steps and say I see myself doing this, I see my future as this, but I am not going to put an expectation or an agenda, I'm just going to be in a state of gratitude. This is Dr. Joe, very much right. "Be in a state of gratitude and allow it to come to you. Right, Allow whatever the future is to come to you for your best expression of your divinity, because when we move forward and try to grab onto something, that's very masculine and it's also like saying that we don't have it now. It's that lack of mentality and we're not going to receive it because we feel like we don't have it and we're grabbing onto it.
Kellie:But if we just can sit in a state of openness and, believe me, I'm triple 20, as they say, I'm 60. So it's taken me a long time to get to this point and, believe me, I have days where I'm three steps back, but then I just jump forward and go as far as I can and just be kind to yourself. I can and just, you know. Be kind to yourself, don't judge yourself. You know we're all on this ride being human together. So that's just what I have.
Yuli:Absolutely Well. I have lots of gratitude for guests like yourself who really inspire our listeners, inspire me, who show different paths that you can take and still be successful by the normal terms just right call them right, but just create incredible impact and heal wherever you go, elevate, raise vibrations wherever you go. So I'm grateful for humans like yourself who walk on this planet, especially in New York City. We need you. Please continue to do what you do.
Kellie:Thank you so much, and thank you for inviting me to be on this. I'm so excited that we met and I'm excited to see what our future is for us and the beautiful things you're going to be doing and yeah, so, thank you so much.
