holidays

Happy Summer Solstice + Full MOON!

| Bonnie Kelso

SoulHouseGreetings from sunny Las Vegas on this fine Summer Solstice! Let’s face it. It’s summer here and it’s hot. It’s 115 degrees hot, and that feels like stepping into an oven when you walk outside today. So on this beautiful Summer Solstice, this longest day of the year, my family and I will be celebrating indoors in the air-conditioned comfort of our home, sweet home. The music is resonating, the paints are out, the play-doh is being kneaded, the legos are assembling into magnificent creations, there are snacks in the fridge, and the cat is tucked in a ball for her third or fourth nap for the day.

Today is the two-year anniversary of moving into our home. I call it the Soul House. On the Summer Solstice two years ago I sat here alone in the living room with absolutely no furniture, not even a single box brought in yet, and I communed with this house. It went something like this… Continue reading →

2016: Intentions for the 9 Year

| Bonnie Kelso

2016: Intentions for the 9 year

It seems that even Pantone is on board with my 2016 themes this year. Their color picks of the year are Rose Quartz and Serenity, as sampled in my illustration above.

2016 is a NINE year (2+0+1+6=9). This is exciting to me because 9 is MY FAVORITE NUMBER! I am a nine, and my personal intention for this coming “9” year is to experience completeness of self. The 9 in our 1-9 annual numeric calendar system represents the completion of a cycle. For me, this past cycle has been a time of being still with myself. Eight years ago, after years of searching for truth and answers outside of myself, I consciously began the search for truth and answers within. After several years of travel, I chose to settle down here in Las Vegas. It was not an easy adjustment… this becoming still and shifting inward. It revealed to me feelings of restlessness, discomfort, anxiety, and entrapment. At times, I experienced myself at my worst. The inner-strength that I had always relied on throughout my life suddenly seemed to expire and I found myself weak and utterly broken. Continue reading →

Creating Light from the Darkness (Winter Solstice)

| Bonnie Kelso

WinterSolstice

Life is full of contrasts. Change is the one thing we can count on in life. Everything changes, sometimes dramatically as if in an instant. What was light is suddenly dark, or what is dark is suddenly brought to light. Other times change happens so slowly, with such small increments, that our human perception can hardly conceive it at all. Like a glacier, the ice appears static and still, but underneath there are currents of icy water, moving the frozen mountains above. They tumble forward, in a dance that only the songs of epics could inspire. Huge monoliths of ice will transform in the dark of night, so slowly, it’s hard to perceive. This too, can be the pattern your energetic movements from dark to light, or from light to dark.

December 22 is the Winter Solstice. On Tuesday we will experience the longest night of the year. It is a special moment in the annual cycle and has been celebrated and revered across cultures spanning all of human existence. From Machu Picchu to Stonehenge, the evidence of a history of human connection to the winter solstice marks our ancient earth with carefully constructed monuments.

Even our modern world responds to this energetic shift. Do you think it is a coincidence that the new Star Wars movie is opening around the time of the Winter Solstice? Continue reading →

Creating Energetic Time Travel

| Bonnie Kelso

Creating Energetic Time Travel

Your thoughts are real. They have energy attached them, energy that manifests in all ways. Your thoughts can pull you into a downward spiral, or they can spiral you upwards into elated ecstasy. It’s all about your present perspective and which direction your thoughts are pushing the energy. Shifting from one direction to the other can sometimes feel profound and at other times feel hardly noticeable. The smallest things can create the shift.

For example, say you are having a great day, you are looking forward to an important meeting and you are eager to make a good impression on the group of people you will be talking to. You start heading for the door and you suddenly realize your keys are not where you thought they were. You have misplaced your car keys. You start scrambling to find them, and with every minute that goes by, you are risking your chances of arriving to your meeting on time. Now you are late and you are focused only on the possible negative consequences of the present moment. All of that good energy you were feeling a few minutes ago is suddenly beginning to move in an unexpected direction… if you allow it to. Continue reading →

It’s All About the Gratitude!

| Bonnie Kelso

creating and gratitude

Does it seem as strange to you as it does to me that we only celebrate Thanksgiving once a year? I mean there are so many things to be thankful for every day, all day long…

The Thanksgiving Day holiday is a time to acknowledge all that you are thankful for. The tradition is to gather together with friends and family to share some words of thanks together as a group. How have your Thanksgiving Days been lately? Have you gathered for a feast? Has anyone spoken up about what they are most thankful for? Has it become just another day to eat a lot of food and watch football?

As your Creativity Coach, I urge you to celebrate the holiday this year with the intention of expressing Continue reading →

10 Suggestions for Creating Better Conversations

| Bonnie Kelso

Creating Better Conversations

What were you thinking when you first read Chapter 7 in Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland? That chapter is titled “A Mad Tea Party.” I remember being so disturbed. I had never heard a conversation like that before. I remember feeling like I wanted to stop reading. (Even now when I read it, I get all itchy feeling). I wanted for Alice to run away. I was worried for the Doormouse! I didn’t like the Hatter and I was beginning to not like the Hare very much either. When that chapter was over, I was so relieved. This is how I feel so many conversations seem to go these days. They can be full of conflict, misperceptions, and plain old rudeness. In contrast, I was fascinated by the conversations in Jane Austen’s novels. There is such a careful selection of words in order to convey the most accurate meaning. Perhaps exceedingly cautious and overstated at times, but still better exchanges than those provided by the nasty old Hatter!

If you feel the same way, here are 10 simple suggestions to help improve the quality of your conversations. This week is Better Conversation Week, so what better time to put these tips into action! Just in time for Thanksgiving, too, when many of us will be spending some quality time with friends and family engaging in the fine old art of conversation. Try a few of these suggestions out and watch your experience of life improve today… Continue reading →

One Fail-Proof Way To Expand Your Creative Thoughts

| Bonnie Kelso

One Fail proof wau to exand your creative thoughts... take a hike!

One of the best ways to revitalize your creative life is to reconnect to nature. Spending some quiet reflective time in a natural setting can expand your creative thoughts almost instantaneously. I am so fortunate to live in a place where that wide-open nature is so easily accessible. Hiking was never really a part of my life growing up, but I discovered it as an adult and once I did, I knew that something significant had shifted inside of me. I found a way to connect to my spirit through nature.

Today is National Take A Hike Day! To help celebrate it, your challenge for today is to make a date with nature. If you can’t run outside right now, set a time when you can and keep the date! No cancelling, no postponing… this is really important! Getting connected to nature is the best way to clear your thoughts of the man-made clutter that we are constantly bombarding ourselves with. Once you get out there, here are three tips to make your experience worth the trip. Continue reading →

How To See Color More Clearly

| Bonnie Kelso

color

I love living in the desert. I think the desert is amazingly beautiful. Some people look at it and can only see brown. I see brown, but I also see the whole spectrum of the rainbow! Today is National Color Day, and I challenge you to find the full spectrum of a rainbow in your surroundings.

primary wheel ryb secondaryUse the power of complimentary colors to help vitalize a color for you. Complimentary colors are opposite of each other on the color wheel. Here’s a very basic one to give you the idea. Red compliments green, orange compliments blue, and yellow compliments violet. For example, if you are trying to see the green in a rock, stare at something red for thirty seconds. When you bring your gaze back to the rock, the green tones in it will really start to pop! Have fun watching the rainbow unfold before your eyes.

Continue reading →

To the Nines!

| Bonnie Kelso

9

When is your birthday? What is the number of the day you were born on? What does your birthday number tell you about you? Numerology is the belief in mystical relationships between numbers and events. Birth dates are often used to describe personality traits, karma, or the destiny of an individual. Personally, I find it fascinating. I also enjoy reading a good horoscope from time to time as well as indulging in other divination tools. Mostly I rely on my intuition to guide me, but sometimes, when the spirit moves me, I will look for messages in numbers.

This might just be my most self-indulgent post ever. Today is my birthday. I am now 45 years old. That’s a 9. (4+5 = 9). Today is the 9th of October. Another 9. When you add up all the numbers of my birthday… you get 9. It’s the number of my soul. It’s also the number of my life’s purpose. The numerology of my name, again, is a 9. Ever since January, I’ve been in a personal year of, you guessed it: 9. Guess what 2016 is? …9. Even in my CREATE! Program I write about the number 9 and how it relates symbolically to creativity.

9s always seem to pop up for me. Sometimes they arrive without much fanfare, and sometimes they kind of freak me out. Continue reading →