Hello Friends!
As summer fades and fall starts to officially flirt with us, I'm excited to share that DSWL planner production for the 2025 season has begun! As I enter into the third year of designing, printing and hand-binding each individual self-love planner I’m humbled to think about all the people who have been using these planners day in and day out for almost two years now!
A couple of weeks back I had the idea to start collecting Planner Profiles from folks who have been using the planners as a part of their self-love rituals since day one. ChefCarla Contreras jumped at the opportunity to respond to my list of questions right away! And in true Carla fashion, went above and beyond and recorded her answers for us so we could hear her excitement and joy.
Carla’s responses are an incredible reminder that we all have our own relationship to self-love and are at different points in our own unique journey. Talking about what we do to take care of ourselves in the moments when life get’s tough is truly such a vulnerable topic. But when we normalize talking about it, we remind people that they are worthy of taking that time for themselves too — no matter what leg of the journey they’re on or which fork in the road they may be facing.
Whatever path of your own self-love journey you find yourself on right now, I invite you to get cozy and listen to Carla’s personal experience with the DSWL planner. Let us know what comes up for you in the comments below so we can expand upon one of Carla’s highlights — the community this planner cultivates and it’s ability to bring people together.
Thank you so much for being here! Be sure to subscribe below to follow along on the behind-the-scenes 2025 planner production action and catch up with more planner profiles in the coming weeks!
With Love,
Jenna
Planner Profile: Chef Carla Contreras
Name? ChefCarla Contreras
Pronouns? She/Her
What do you do? Food Stylist, Content Strategist, Podcast Host
What else do you want us to know about you? I'm also a mother of two. I live outside of New York City. My favorite movement practice is Pilates. I love sipping ceremonial cacao. I invite you to share who you are in the comments below.
How can readers and listener’s connect with you? say hi on Instagram, explore my Website, participate in the self-paced Show Up Fully Challenge and follow along here on Substack at Nourishing Creativity!
What color is your current planner? So this is actually my third planner. I had a gold and I had a blue last year, and this year I have the reddish orange color and it's gorgeous. I feel like I shared a picture of this on the Etsy store if you're curious of what that looks like.
How long have you been using the DSWL planner? Two years!
How do you define self-love? Phew! I invite you to join me and respond to this in the comments below. How do you define self-love? For me, I feel like this is the question I ask guests on my podcast, “How do you define creativity?” This self-love prompt allows me to reflect on the fact that I put in so much effort, and I want to say that with intention, effort and care into taking care of myself. I created a method for taking care of myself.
I had a podcast previous to Nourishing Creativity called Show Up Fully. And in that podcast I created a show up fully method. And there were actually two guiding principles that guided me since 2018 where I had a breakdown in my health. And for 2019, I chose the words rest and deep nourishment as my words of the year.
I feel like in 2018-2019, this was radical. I don't feel like we're sitting here in 2024 thinking that these words are radical. But during the year, I added the words rest, deep nourishment, movement, mindfulness and water. These are my five things that I do to take care of myself, to nourish myself. And this is how I define self-love is nourishing myself deeply, taking care of myself deeply. And that might look like going to bed at 8:00 PM with my children. That might look like making myself greens or a salad or a smoothie. That might look like me canceling a meeting last minute because I really don't feel well and possibly have a migraine. That might look like me showing up even though I have the migraine and really enjoying time with a friend.
These are all things that are mostly free. And right now I can even feel it like self-love could be me pouring a glass of water because after I hop off this audio, this podcast, I'm going to pour myself a big cup of water.
Where are you right now in your self-love journey? I am deeply in it. I am deeply exploring what it looks like to love myself, exactly how I am right now at this moment. And this includes being in deep grief. This includes all of the things that are happening in the world around me. This happens with me accepting my body, my age, my limitations, things that may be unseen, like my hearing loss in my right ear. It's loving all of those parts, even the things that I might not get right, things that I need to apologize for. It's loving the smile on my kid's face. It's really taking the time to sit down and have dinner with my family. To close the laptop. These are all ways that I love myself.
How has the DSWL self-love planner supported you on this journey? Oh my gosh. So this question is amazing because I love the end of month reflections, and Jenna recently has done them recorded, which I really love. I love the community aspect, but I also love the fact that I can put this on and sit down with my planner and a journal. So let's be honest here. I like to write, so I use a planner and a journal, and I like to be in the energy of what was the last month? What do I want to see in the future? And where do I want my future self to go? I think that there's a beautiful process here of honoring the past, the present and the future. So this is the biggest way that the planner has supported me.
What is your favorite prompt or section within your planner? Okay, if you haven't had the planner in your hands, I'm going to give you a walkthrough. So in the beginning, there's a big section on how you plan out your year. There's also these beautiful sections on mirror work, like what would you put on your bathroom mirror? And I'm going to invite you to pause and to think about this. What is something that you could look at every single day that would remind you of your magic, of your beauty, of the light that shines within you? And could you imagine seeing it on the mirror every single day?
Another section that I really love equally as much is the memorables. And this section was started by Jenna's mom. When Jenna was little, her mom used to write these little notes like what was your memorable today? What did they want to remember? And I feel like I deeply connect with this because I have two small children and I really want to remember, take a snapshot of what was beautiful for that day. And sometimes it's what was messy that day? What do I want to remember? Because there are so many lessons and so many joys that are within our days, and how can we celebrate this?
So I'm going to say we as a collective, as a community, how can we celebrate ourselves? And I'm going to invite you into this space, and maybe that's what you want to drop into the comments too. And I keep inviting you into the comments because I want this to be an experience where you and I are in community. We are having a conversation, we are talking to each other, and I feel like that is such a gift that is so special to me, and this is what this planner does as well. This isn't a section in this planner, but this planner brings people together.
What prompt or section has surprised you most? For me, it was the mirror work. The mirror work was a real surprise, but it also has become a favorite.
Have you ever participated in the beginning of the year activity where you write a letter to your future self? If so, have you experienced opening the letter? So for me, I have written the letter, and I did this at the beginning of 2024. I believe that's when we did it as a community with Jenna. But here's the thing, as I thought about this question, I'm like, I have no idea where I placed this letter because Jenna gave us the option to mail it to her, which she has as a kit. And I've actually gifted this kit to people because I'm like, this idea is the coolest. And if you're not familiar with this concept, you write a letter to yourself one year from now, and literally you could do this today. It does not have to be on December 31st or January 1st. It can be any time. And it's really interesting how you literally write things into being, at least that's my perspective on it. So no, I haven't opened it and no, I have no idea where it is. So that's fascinating to me.
What’s one way you’re taking care of your future 2025 self currently? Currently, I'm doing that by being with you right now. I'm doing that by using my voice, by sharing my experience, because I rarely share my voice unless it's on my podcast, unless I am the host and here I'm on the other side doing something that I normally don't do, and that is leaning into my future self. I am so grateful that you are here, that you are listening, that you are with me, that you are part of the Dear Self with Love community, and I would love to connect with you, sending you so much love and many blessings.
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