2017 is really turning into something totally and completely unplanned and unexpected. Part of me feels like I should be resisting saying, “No, I said I was done with this or I’m not doing this again,” but instead I feel like this needs to be a “Yes Year,” a year to just say YES to everything and see what happens. Since I’ve been saying a lot of no’s in recent years it just feels right.

All that YES gave birth to this, a whole new JessCarlson.com. And in a lot of ways a whole new Jess Carlson!

Back in December I had said that I was taking 2017 off. I said I wasn’t going to work except that I would offer readings. Then I did a reading for myself at the beginning of the year and discovered that was exactly the WRONG thing to do, but at the same time I needed to let go of the all the “no’s” I’d been saying unless I wanted to be miserable. Since I’d had enough of that in 2016 I decided to follow this “say Yes” advice. And here we are.

Last year I made the mistake of hiring a designer for the first time ever to work on a rebranding for me and it was horrible. She was horrible. The experience was horrible, an experience which cost me $1000 and gave me unusable logos and graphics. It was the first time I said “no” to doing that kind of stuff myself in the 10 years of having a website. After that I hired a friend who worked with me on creating what I was using up to now.

When I was saying YES during March one of the things I felt I needed to say yes to was a redesign to outwardly express the changes I’ve been going through. So I spend two weeks designing graphics and totally redesigning the website.

I choose to use a Sri Yantra for my logo because it signifies a lot of what I feel I’m currently experiencing and what I am going through this year; combining the masculine and feminine energies of self and practice and seeking to find and understand deeper Universal spiritual truths. Since “yantra” means “instrument” I felt it was fitting since my blog, website, and social media are how I do this work and express these truths I find. The Yantra is used for meditation and concentration to attain elevated levels of consciousness, and in a lot of ways I feel that’s how I felt this space and what I do.

This whole “say Yes” thing makes sense because 2017 is a Year 1, a time for fresh starts and new leggings, and most of all leaving behind the things in the previous year, a Year 9, a time of endings.

So what have I said YES to?

Going back to embracing my mixed spiritual path and sharing it openly.
I’m a Witch. I’m a lightworker. I’m a shaman. I’m a Buddhist. I’m a lot of things and they all make up the very unique perspective that I have on life through a spiritual lens. The problem is that sometimes I’m not welcomed by other Witches because of the lightworker stuff and vice versa. Most Buddhists I know don’t care but some of the Shamans I know worry about the Witch stuff being “too dark.” And a lot of Witches I know love the pop culture idea of Shamanic practice and like Buddhism for the quotes. In the end I usually just go off on my own because I don’t seem to fit in anywhere else. This year I’m saying “fuck it” and just embracing that and doing more of putting that out there.

Going back to embracing my gifts as a priestess by offering coaching again.
I admit this was a bit of a tough one to work out because I had rallied so hard against coaching during the last year that the thought of bringing it back felt kind of hypocritical. But at the same it what I was really called to do. I’m totally doing it my own way though, offering only single sessions {no coaching packages that go on for months} and email coaching. I used to do email coaching a few years ago and loved it but gave it up for face-to-face coaching because it felt like that’s what you’re “supposed to do.” Now I just don’t care and I’m doing what I want to do. I’ve also brought back 30 and 60 minute Skype/phone readings.

Going back to embracing my true love for writing.
I recently went back to doing Periscope, which was something I had been resisting because I was so afraid it would take away from writing and blogging like it did in 2015. I decided to tackle that by limiting my scopes to three a week with two being free reading scopes. That means I don’t have to come up with stuff for both livestreams and blog posts. I’ve been doing more writing and I plan to keep at it. Plus I want to re-work my tarot book from 2011 and put that back out and I have another book I’m working on now. So lots going on in the writing department.

Most of all I’m continuing to ignore the business gurus and just do it my way.
That’s probably the most liberating of all, to see things working and growing while ignoring that stuff and just doing it how I want.

I hope you guys are excited to be with me on this journey because I’m excited to have you!