We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kelsey Wishik a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kelsey , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
Oh man, that’s a huge question. Went right for it. I have so many layered answers but probably like many people, I distilled my sense of purpose through a combination of positive experiences and hardship. I’ve always been a deeply feeling and creative person, to the point of being drawn to spiritual reverence. Each person can define that for themselves, but like, I look at the world and see many awesome powers at work—especially in nature. That inspires me. I feel things deeply—that intimacy with life is a deep sense of connection and I recognize how magical this experience really is..no matter how mundane we THINK it is. We are bundled atoms eating, cooking, playing, working, sharing the earth with all these crazy beautiful animals and plants and each other—weaving this timeless myth together even with the chaos. Actually, that just makes it more miraculous. We are literally all living legends—characters in an eternal story. No matter what your character is, there’s only a few things really we can do here and one of those is service. Share what’s natural to us and that’s our service. Service is a part of our purpose—so then what do we do with the qualities that are natural to us? So, I’m connected to seeing purpose this way. I know what’s natural for me—creativity—empathy—movement—vision—and I get to share that through my work as both an artist and movement facilitator. This feels particularly potent these days—in a time where we are so in our heads trying to logic everything or trapped in the scroll. Art and physical expression is in a unique position to remind us about the great mystery and beauty in all of this. I’ll pause there because I could go on forever. Then there’s the pain piece. I’ve experienced hardship. I’ve seen some really rough days and circumstances. I’ve had a number of nonnegotiable healing circumstances where I was challenged to focus all my energy in getting right with my mind, body, and spirit. I learned a lot from healing using the methods I now teach through my company and mind/body practices. But yeah, those two perspectives paired—pain and vision/connection—keep me valuing my own time, using it wisely, elevating a little everyday even if that means in my inner world when it is unseen by others. It’ll eventually come out—in the artwork, a conversation, a workshop, or just in the respect I have for life itself. That gives me purpose too—decentralizing my ego and digging into the greatness of it all. But daily, in some way, I try to focus on what I want to experience and how I want to serve—creatively, authentically, curiously, lovingly, transparently, powerfully, and playfully—and I definitely want to share that energy with folks. Once I faced some of my biggest fears, ironically I was able to summon both willpower and reverence and that deepened my sense of purpose. I want everyday to be a fractal of that on my way to deeper discovery—I definitely don’t have it all figured—that means, while I’m a work in progress, each day do a little service, a little creativity, a little overcoming of fears, love of some kind, a little meditating and giving thanks, laugh for sure, probably cry out the doubt a little, and plant seeds for tomorrow in case everything shows up in order. Another part of my sense of purpose is seeing what’s possible, and not a single soul on this planet knows the ceiling of that. So, I’m curious.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am a creative turned entrepreneur because I had to adapt around the need to support myself and the vision I developed of applying my energies to service. I started out as a visual artist, primarily a sculptor and expanded from there, eventually morphing into a music producer, for my own work and a meditation app called Aura, and published my book “On the Move: A Return to Vastness” early last year. I started Catalyst Conscious LLC, a production company which facilitates primarily yoga programs, trainings, events, and various projects from art installations and music, to books and experiences. I have a diverse movement, yoga, meditation, and spiritual practice which began to inform the events and trainings I host as well as feeling as though I might be responding to a deeper need reflected in the communities I moved though. I saw and see people wanting to not only experience art, but wanting to experience HOW to express themselves, HOW to be creative human beings aligned in body, mind, and spirit. That seemed juicy, frankly. A lot more interesting to see and share than being in a studio alone all day—though my introspective self still benefits from that sometimes. Embodied Artfulness became my motivation for starting my company, and at this time, Catalyst is mostly focused on yoga, movement, and meditation trainings with a mix of music events and art collaborations. The idea of Catalyst is that we are the Embodied Art– no matter what our vocation is, it’s is our minds, bodies, and spirits that act through various mediums in the world–so it’s invaluable and always necessary to develop and refine our faculties. Sometimes to elevate, sometimes to get free of what’s holding us back–whether that’s pain, past, lack of skill, or blockages.
I honestly never set out to do this many things, or even own my own business. I just wanted to be an artist full-time, which I still am, but as I encountered challenges, I had to adapt, and while I had to adapt, I didn’t want to give up on my authenticity and integrity or real gifts. So many days after rejections or disappointments, I’d sit and ask why the creator had not made me an accountant, haha. But I kept looking inward without judging the situation too harshly and asked, “what are my gifts?”
It’s creativity, empathy, physicality, vision, and communication. I’m a very physically involved person, with over 22 years of movement practices from martial arts to sports and yoga. I’m naturally attracted to movement as an expression of our living presence, and found early on when I started teaching fitness that I had a strong ability to lead others into that space, and I love sharing community that way. I think we need to return to our bodies and get out of our heads so much. I started meditating around 15 and doing yoga in my late teens- and that all transformed my life. I use those developed skills to foster skillful and creative embodiment for others.
“Catalyst Conscious” is the umbrella LLC for all my projects including art and my publication company. Any time I hit a wall, I tried to adapt, and felt the urgency of the need to do that when I couldn’t find a lot of support. Probably all women business owners know the unique and varied challenges. I was constantly being under paid, over worked, inappropriately regarded, and so much more. So I started my business, it encompassed my art first. I then established the yoga and movement school Catalyst Conscious: Movement and Mind Technologies, hosting events, yoga teacher trainings, retreats, and private/group instruction and very much an effort to create the safe, inclusive spaces I wanted to experience. No matter how many there are, we can always benefit from more. If we transform the realms of “business” and entrepreneurship into safe places also—WOW! Who knows what’s next. I’ve been able to hire people on when I need help, and always pay them above minimum wage to keep a happy synergy because that’s how I would have like to have been regarded. What else does Catalyst do? I wrote a book in 2022, which took a long time, and no publisher would take it for less than $10,000 which I definitely didn’t have to spend post-pandemic. So I published, edited, and printed them myself, sustainably. The music and art industries are historically exploitative, unless you’re on the top tier—paying artists little to nothing, not to mention the difficulties in accessibility to those opportunities. I grew my business to not only advocate for my own work, but to be a living example of how our lives SHOULD be creatively expansive when lived purposefully. I work one on one with creatives to help them actualize their projects. We should NOT be forced to stunt our growth because of access, inequity in opportunity, self, or societal doubt. Of all the art I create—it is my soul in a living body that can become the best living example of art—however imperfect she may be.
YES I am growing and expanding the company to help people identify and navigate through their obstacles, 1 on 1 soul discovery work, movement mentorships, continuing education and more. While my infrastructure expands organically–I’m looking to do longterm (1-6 month) 1 on 1 mentorships with really sincere seekers who don’t want to just follow along, but want to create deep, connected shifts in body/mind/spirit. I’m building something unique based on the unique challenges and needs of the time. I think we need art. Around us and we need to experience our own original soul-expressions in the world and most of all–inside ourselves.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I actually spent a lot of time working on this when I was younger. I think the top three are Integrity, Adaptability, and Humility. These are the top three because they can fuel other positive qualities—sustainably.
How to develop?
Spend some time on the inside. Turn off the TV please! Joking but not. The whole external world narrative is fast moving and chaotic. It’s hard to measure yourself against that, and we shouldn’t. But without an internal compass it can be very very difficult to not lose ourselves in what’s going on outside of us—how good so and so is doing, how you should could would be better if—how hopeless it seems trying to create something and so on. This is what I think of as integrity—knowing our values and not getting pushed too far off by failure OR for success. Even when success becomes a constant agenda- we can’t grow and experience life organically—it’s also a hangup. There’s a lot of quick bait out there for “success” too. There are plenty of ways to “kill it” in America that may or may not jive with the soul’s calling. But if you don’t know you won’t know til it’s too late. Take time up front to establish your core values. WHAT ARE THEY and HOW are they cultivated? That way, no matter what happens you are ALWAYS working toward YOUR best life and core values, not someone else’s. I actually do this work with people 1 on 1 to help them uncover this.
Humility and adaptability go hand in hand in some ways. Cultivate a dream but sometime life makes us have to move a different way. Adapt. Creativity is a strong value for me too—once you know your CORE VALUE, you will never have to sacrifice it, you may have to adapt to how you access it. When I was too broke, for example, to make art using the materials I preferred, I got my creative itch filled through writing poetry or moving my body. It’s free!
Keep checking in. It’s an ocean out there—the waves get rough. Check on your heart. Lean on support. Become your own support. Examine your inner critic and learn to be friendlier in the inner voice. Be humble enough to know we ALL need support for the long view. These are skills. Practice intentionalilty—it’s the beginning of ANYTHING. Baby steps everyday. Get sun on your face. Whistle while you work. It’s the littlest stuff—it’s the empty space between. Be ok with that. That’s humility too. This isn’t all about US and where we wanna go as individuals…think about the bigger picture a little it will never cease to inspire— slow down and really learn something. Our fast culture kills curiosity. A lot of people look, again, to the outside world for the skills. We have to have it from the ground of our own two feet up, it takes time—that’s my thought.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
Uhh yeah!!! Always. This is my dream. Earth should be a collaborative environment! All this stuff and no connection makes us all sad. This is one of the main reasons I started Catalyst Conscious—to build and experience a growing community, diversity of minds and spaces. I am beaming a big yes to that! I am looking for collaborators on all fronts. Conscious Collaborators or people interested in growing their consciousness—that’s the premise and artfulness of my company—that CONSCIOUSNESS is the medium of life, the CATALYST to all we do. Whether you are an artist or musician or doctor—it’s the consciousness that leads and directs the intentionality, the tools, the skills. Who wants to get down with this? The people I want to work with are creative, willing to communicate and reflect as well as put in investigative work and not just expect a result without giving some energy. I am eager to work with people that value integrity and believe in our ability to contribute to concreting our world; people who are interested in becoming more courageous, because together we can.
On other fronts, always looking for investors, supporters, Yoga/fitness studios that want to host trainings and events, folks who wanna take a class or training, businesses who’d like to sponsor or benefit from the art I offer—whether sculpture or murals, and of course I’m still personally interested in sharing and showing my art so never will I turn down a space that might be eager to host me. If you have a vision for an event—public or private that could be made better by what I have to give or by our networking—I’d love to hear about it. If you want to host a retreat for your community, family, coworkers—Catalyst Conscious is down help make that happen. I love helping to generate group synergy. I’ve co-created experiences for corporations wanting to learn more about mental health, martial artists wanting to learn more about flexibility, or groups and individuals who just want to deepen their mind-body connections. Reach out and much love.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.catalystconscious.com www.worksbywish.com
- Instagram: IG: kelsey.wishik
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPBYNNTH_ytuXPlP17C0kTQ
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/kelsey-wishik
- Other: Buy Book: On the Move: A Return to Vastness https://www.catalystconscious.com/shop
Image Credits
Peter Frey (paddle boarding event photos)
