Design Your 2025: Art Journaling, Wellness Goals, & Personal Growth with Nicole Miller

Join Haley in this episode as she chats with licensed counselor Nicole Miller about their upcoming workshop, Design Your New Year with Art Journaling and Intentional Wellness Goals.

They explore how art journaling and grounding practices can help you identify your core values and create meaningful goals for 2025.  

In this episode, you'll discover:
- Strategies for uncovering personal values for wellness goals
- The therapeutic effects of art on self-reflection
- Ways to create tangible goal representations
- Options for engaging in both online and in-person settings
- An inclusive atmosphere for all skill levels

Haley and Nicole encourage you to recharge after the holidays and embrace a creative way to set goals and foster personal growth. Together, let’s create a purposeful and fulfilling year ahead.

✨ Ready to reflect on 2025 and set aligned, achievable wellness goals for 2025? Join our upcoming online art journaling & goal setting workshop here. Registration deadline is January 6th, 2025.

🔗 Links & Additional Support 

• 💌 Get Deeper Support & Special Updates on the Unforked Newsletter 
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• Integrative Nutrition & Lifestyle Services
• Full Episode Shownotes & Transcripts

&, Thank you to YOU, the listener, for being here on this journey together.
 
Haley Schroth, RDN, LD, CPT, RYT, CMWC 

Integrative Dietitian Nutritionist for Optimal Mental Health & Physical Performance 

Transcript

[0:47] All right. Howdy, friends. I'm Haley, and I'm here with a special person today. Her name is Nicole.

[0:55] Don't worry, we'll introduce ourselves here in a second, but I wanted to let you know about an upcoming workshop that we're doing. It's called Design Your New Year with Art Journaling and Intentional Wellness Goals. This is the workshop to be in if you want to set yourself up for 2025. If you're feeling ready, it's that time of year. A lot of people set goals. If you're feeling ready to set goals, ready to reflect. This workshop does it all and just really helps you get grounded into yourself and what you want for yourself for the coming months and years. So I will introduce myself really quick for those of you who don't know me yet. I'm Haley. I'm a registered dietitian, nutritionist, personal trainer, yoga teacher. I do lots of stuff.

[1:46] But during this workshop, I am going to lead us through values. We're going to go into our goals and those habits that support those goals, as well as a grounding exercise to help figure out the values,

[2:05] to help figure out the goals and what we want for 2025. So that is enough about me let's give it to nicole and she will introduce herself.

[2:18] Hi i'm nicole miller i work as a licensed counselor and i also am trained as a spiritual director and i have always dabbled in the art um one of the things i enjoy doing is being able to bring just the creative side of life. I believe that we all have access to creativity. It just comes out in a lot of different ways. And so I enjoy bringing creativity into my counseling practice and into my spiritual life, as well as just my everyday life through the odds and ends that I find. And one of the things that I will be focusing on during our workshop is doing a little bit of a therapeutic art exercise that sort of allows us to hone in on some of the stuff that Haley's talking about with our values and our needs, our places that we get stuck, or the misalignment that happens. And then also, we're going to be working on some collages. It's kind of a vision board of the year based off of our value-based goals that we will be able to identify. And just excited to have this opportunity to put those things into a tangible form. I think it's important to be able to work with in those creative ways and visual ways. Sometimes we can find pictures and colors and images that better express yourself. Just the things that are going on in our heart and in our head. So I'm excited to do that here.

[3:48] Yes. Oh, I'm so glad you said that. So Nicole and I actually led ourselves through this workshop. It was amazing.

[3:56] She is totally right. It just helps you get out of your head and into your body to really figure out what you are desiring, what you value, what you need for moving forward in your life, reaching those goals that you have for yourself. Because chances are you probably already have some in mind. But I was really surprised which one came forward for me as the most important one, the most important value, the most important goal. It kind of blew me away. I just totally wasn't expecting it. Don't worry, I'll share. We'll share our examples in the workshop itself. So if you want to hear more about like our takeaways too, of course, we'll lead you through the examples when we are in the workshop and it'll be so much fun because I know Nicole had some amazing insights during hers as well.

[4:50] So that's a really neat process to go through to identify our values and again, what comes to the purpose. So Haley, who would you say would most benefit from this workshop? Yeah, absolutely. So I would say the first thing that comes to mind is if you have felt misaligned in your life with any goal in the past, this is a process that you can not only do for 2025, but that you can take with you forever. Like, what a great tool to have in your toolbox to be able to figure out your values, find out what really does matter for you, and be able to use that with moving forward in your health, your wellness. Just, we know that wellness, there's so many pillars. So it works in not just like the health aspect of it. It works in the mental health aspect, the financial, spiritual. So it really is something that you can take with you. Other thing I would say, who is this for, is if you felt stuck in New Year's resolutions in the past, you're just not having it. You don't like that process of putting those resolutions together and then how it feels like you can never follow through with them, like you feel frustrated.

[6:19] Just they're unfulfilling that is a very big indicator that something is off in in the way that you're setting goals for yourself whether it's in health or any other other area of life so if you're feeling stuck if you're struggling with setting those meaningful goals and habits that's going to be a really it's going to be a really important skill for you to learn also, I can just see my fellow creatives just really loving this workshop because it's full of self-reflection, inspiring that personal growth, and it's really a purposeful approach to wellness. That is who would just thrive in our workshops. We'll talk more about this later, but we have an online version and an in-person version, by the way. So lots of opportunities, no matter where you are.

[7:19] One of the things that I'm excited about with having both of those options is that I think we're going to be able to meet a lot of people where they're at. So obviously not just from being able to show up online or be here in person, but in person when we have our workshop next week, we'll be able to have our hands on magazines and papers and paints and just whatever kind of works well for people. Well, some people will dive all the way in to all those materials and some people will be overwhelmed by them. And so we get to pare it down and just really focus on what each person needs. The other thing I'm excited about with the online option is that we can do a digital vision board and look at that too. So people will have different ways they can go depending what we're comfortable with.

[8:07] And I think that just gives us a lot of room for growth and discovery. And one of the things that I keep thinking about as a takeaway from this is that this really helps us remind ourselves who we are and things we've already always known and helps us hone in on the things that are important. And so having this visual reminder brings us back to a refocus. I think we get off track so easily with our goals because life just happens. We get tired. We get sick.

[8:40] Jobs change. People move. Like there's just a million things that happen. And so to have a picture to go back to and say, yep, that's still important to me. And that's still something that I want to focus on and carry forward. I think that's going to help a lot. Yeah, that's amazing. That is exactly why creating that physical representation, even if it's online physical, like it's still like an image or representation of what's important to you. Um, like I created an online version of, of the, the collage and I, I wasn't sure going into it, if it would be quite as powerful as doing it with my hands. And I will say it was so satisfying. So no matter, no matter if you're, you're choosing to use your hands and like Nicole said, figure out what works for you with, is this overwhelming? Is there so many materials? Or do I need to pare it down?

[9:43] Or even looking online, like no matter what you do, it's going to be like such an eye opening, inspiring process for you. I just have felt so much more connected to myself, my values, my goals going into this next year after doing this workshop. So it is just so powerful to have, that that representation of your vision and your values on some sort of paper you want to add that one of the things that we can look at is that there are a lot of different ways on paper even to do this so I've created a vision board and an art journal which is basically just a big sketchbook add a bunch of things in there I'm also working on one that's in my planner for 2025 and so that's going to be right there in the midst of my daily life, my work life, and all of those things. And so there's a lot of different ways we can do this. Printing it out, if you do it digitally, putting it on your wall or on a bulletin board. Yeah.

[10:43] It just makes me excited that there's so many different ways to customize this for ourselves. Yeah, it's super cool. Super amazing. Yeah, and I can't wait to see what everybody comes up with because even just seeing Nicole's versus mine, so different. So different. And it's just beautiful how it actually represents who you are and the reflection that comes out of it. It's so cool. So I would love to dive into the different options. So we mentioned we have the online option, and we also mentioned that we have the in-person. So in-person is going to be in about a week. So we're on Saturday, December 28th. It's from 9 to 1130, and it's going to be in Loveland, Colorado. So if you happen to be around the Loveland, Colorado area, please join us. It would be so much fun. If you are not in the Loveland, Colorado area or you just can't be there and want to join us online, please sign up for the online version.

[11:51] Yeah, I know it'll be so much fun either way. If you do happen to be in person, we also have a little giveaway planned. So that's really exciting. We won't go into it. Just know it's coffee inspired, self-care inspired, very much wellness inspired, right? Of course, it's Nicole and I here, a dietician and a counselor coming together. Well, yes, that makes a lot of sense. So the registration deadline is December 26th for the in-person one. And we're doing the online version. We do have a date now. Don't worry if you can't be there live with us. It is on December, not December, January 7th of 2025.

[12:39] And if you can't come, we will be recording it. So don't worry, there's going to be a replay sent out. Deadline to register for that is January 6th. So day before the workshop.

[12:51] Cole, do you want to talk a little bit more about the options for art supplies for both the in-person and online version? What does that look like? Yep. So for the in-person workshop, we're going to have everything provided. So you are welcome to bring, if you have a preferred art journal or sketchbook that you're working in, or you already have a planner you want to add to, you can certainly bring what you have. Some people have their favorite markers or things like that. But for anyone that's just not even sure what they're getting into, but feels like they want to join us, we're going to have just the whole table set up of just different things to draw from.

[13:31] Magazines we're going to have just some things to tickle about their different scrapbook papers we're going to have art journals to take home with you paints and stickers and whatever I can get my hands on to bring that day so for anyone coming to the online option so whether you join us live or you are able to do the replay from home either way we're going to have a supply list as part of the sign up process you'll get an email that'll just share with you just some of those same things like and really the best way to do it is just to gather what you have at home if you have notebook paper from one of your kiddos or you have um you know leftover markers from last year's school supplies if you can use those things if you want an excuse to buy some art supplies because that itself is its own hobby then we have we'll have some links there for that um I do have a link for my favorite art journals that I use that are just nice and durable that kind of thing um you also can just use um like paper and pen and scissors and just make it really simple um glue sticks and tape and then obviously for the digital option we'll have a link to share and share with you more at that point how to do just the digital visual collage on there and um.

[14:51] It's one of the things that i just tend to notice with people that sometimes we get we get overwhelmed them by one thing or another. And so this is really a very much a beginner's.

[15:03] Sort of a workshop so just come as you are if you've done tons of art you still you know come and enjoy this there's something for everyone in it yeah that is that is such a good point because it can be overwhelming and especially even when we're when we're thinking about values and goals and oh my gosh art too um but it yeah it's going to be a really laid-back easy process um yeah it'll be so much fun to be able to create those habits in a group setting that align with your values and really bring your wellness vision, but also just like your vision of your most fulfilled, thriving life out.

[15:48] Sometimes it's just stuck in our heads. So we really get to bring that out with the art journaling, the grounding practice, grounding into our values also. So yeah, I just want to say that we are here to start 2025 with intention and in a in a really fresh new fun like laid-back way okay nicole do you have any anything else to to add i think i'm just excited to see where this goes for everybody i think that um we get so stuck in our heads a lot of times and goals feel daunting new year's feel you know like okay i want a fresh start.

[16:32] So um that's just a good way to kind of pull all these things together there is nothing in particular about january 1st that's going to make it magic but the idea of okay it's a new calendar it's a new year and um carrying things from the previous years and into the the new one that's just an exciting way to just reset after the holidays after just the busyness of life for the visual people that need to know what this is actually looking like this is a a collage I did in 2021 so this one's been a little while um I don't know if you can see that okay but yeah so that's an older one this year has some new things and some similar things so we'll go back from there. Yeah. And it's so fun to, to see, to look back and see it. So very, very cool. Thanks for sharing that, Nicole. And, uh, if you want to sign up, if you're, if you're all in,

[17:28] um, we'll share the links for that. If you have any questions also feel free to reach out to Nicole or myself, you can email us.

[17:38] Send us a, send us a message on Instagram, wherever, wherever you happen to be on facebook we're in all the places so uh just reach out if you have any any questions about the workshop and we would love to see you there.