Create the meaningful year
Life has a way of sweeping us along. One word, chosen with care, gives your year a focus, and helps you see that what it brings is happening for you, not just to you. One Word is a self-paced course with Kasia Avery that helps you find your word as the old year closes, and live with it creatively, every day, as the new one unfolds.
Imagine
Imagine waking up on a busy Tuesday in March, with a hundred things pulling at you, and one small word quietly reminding you who you want to be.
Maybe your word is rest, and it gives you permission to say no. Maybe it's brave, and it nudges you to finally sign up for the thing. Maybe it's bloom, and it helps you notice how much you're growing, even on the hard days.
One word can quietly change how a whole year feels.
What is a word of the year?
Choosing a word of the year is a simple practice. Before the new year begins, you choose one word that holds how you want to feel and who you want to become. Then you carry it with you, all year long.
When you face a decision, your word helps you choose. When the days get busy, it brings you back to yourself. And when the year ends, you can look back and see how it shaped you.
It doesn't have to replace your resolutions. It gives them room. Say your resolution is to get fitter, and you plan to exercise three times a week. Miss one session and it feels like failing. By mid-February, all that's left is a quiet feeling of guilt.
You are far from alone. “Exercise more” is the most popular New Year's resolution of all. And the running and cycling app Strava found that the second Friday of January is when most people give up their fitness goals. It even has a name: Quitter's Day.
A resolution
Exercise three times a week
One narrow path, easy to miss.
A word
health
Wider and softer, with room for real life.
Now imagine your word is health. You can honour it in so many ways: a walk in the fresh air, an early night, a nourishing meal, five minutes to simply breathe. Your plans and resolutions can grow out of your word, but the word holds so much more. It's wider and softer, with room in it for real life. There's nothing to fall behind on, only something to come back to.
Why One Word?
Choosing a word sounds simple, and in a way it is. But a word chosen on a whim, swept along by the excitement of the first of January, rarely lasts. Some words sound lovely but quietly overwhelm you. Others never really touch what you truly need. Either way, by February they're often forgotten.
One Word gives you two things a word on its own can't.
The words that last are chosen slowly and honestly. This course guides you to a word that truly fits you: one that helps you make the most of the year ahead, supports you on many different levels, and helps you grow into the best version of yourself. Not a word that sounds good, but the word you need.
Choosing is only the beginning. Kasia shares the creative practices and small rituals she has developed over seven years of living with a word, and helps you set up your own: colours, symbols, scent, images, words and a dedicated space at home. Together they turn your word from a January decision into a full, rich experience you return to all year, often every day.
None of us knows what the next year will bring, but it will almost certainly bring its challenges. With the right word and gentle ways of anchoring yourself in it, you can meet them feeling supported, not alone, and even begin to see what each one is bringing you.
Kasia's story
My best friend chooses a word for every year. The first time she told me, her word was “unfurl”, and I didn't understand it at all. The next year she asked me again, so I sat down to try.
I was impatient. I wanted it done, and part of me thought the whole thing was pointless. And right in the middle of that impatience, I saw it. The thing I was missing was patience.
So that became my word. Whenever I caught myself rushing, I stopped and asked: how can I be patient right now? That year I learned to bake sourdough, help my most important relationships strengthen, slow stitch, the joy of organising my drawers with patience and so much more!
I have chosen a word every year since, around seven now, and with each one I've come to understand this practice more deeply. Along the way I've discovered simple ways to keep my word alive all year, almost every day: the colours I surround myself with, a scent that brings me straight back to it, small things I make and keep close. Not one of my words has let me down.
That's what I want to share with you. In One Word, I'll guide you through choosing your word, finding the anchors that will hold it and establishing creative practices and rituals so it stays with you long after January.
Lots of love,
Kasia
What One Word is
One Word is a course of small rituals and simple making, with Kasia as your guide. You choose your word slowly and honestly, and discover where it comes from. You find the colours and symbols that belong to it, and anchors like scent that bring you straight back to it. Then you bring it to life in ways you can see and hold, so it stays close all year.
It's quiet, unhurried and entirely yours: a little time for you, in the middle of everything else. Light a candle, make a cup of tea, and begin.
How it works
Join now at the early-bird price of $39. Everyone who joins by 30 November also receives the Year Companion as a gift, sent on 1 December.
1 December: the first half opens. Everything you need to find your word, its colours and its symbols.
1 January: the second half opens. Ways to bring your word to life and keep it close.
Make it yours. Begin whenever feels right, move through it in your own way, and come back to any part, any time.
At the end of your word year, a closing ritual, to honour what your word gave you and let go of what is ready to go.
Inside the course
Opens 1 December
Swipe for more, tap a card to read it
Opens 1 January
Swipe for more, tap a card to read it
Opens 1 January
In the second half, Kasia guides you through simple making: small crafts and pieces of art, made by hand, that hold your word and support it. Little things to keep close, carry with you, or hang where you'll see them every day.
You don't need to be crafty or artistic. Everything is simple, and imperfect is welcome.
Included: 20 video lessons with Kasia, 7 printables including guides and workbooks, and lifetime access.
Who it's for
If this is the first you've heard of choosing a word for your year,this is the perfect place to start. One Word explains everything from the very beginning and walks you through it gently, one quiet step at a time.
If you've chosen a word before and watched it fade,this is the part that was missing: somewhere for your word to live.
If you haven't painted since school,you're exactly who this was made for. There are no techniques to master and nothing to get right. Everything is simple, and imperfect is welcome.
And if you keep a journal, light a candle when you need a moment, or simply long for a year that feels more like your own, you'll feel at home here.
You know how it goes. October turns into November. We tell ourselves we'll start after Christmas, then in the new year, then when things calm down. And somehow they never quite do.
It isn't that we don't care. It's that the things that matter most to us are the easiest to put off.
One Word is a small, gentle way to begin before the year begins without you. Join now, and on 1 December everything you need will be waiting.
The course is open now, and you can begin today. Choose your word before the year turns, and step into January with it already beside you.
Make it yours - $39Make it yoursSupplies
Very little. You don't need to buy any special supplies to begin: most of what you'll use is already in your home, and everything is explained in the course.
Your guide
Kasia Avery is an artist, a mother, the founder of Everything Art and the author of the best-selling book Creative Wanderlust (Quarry Books, 2023). She has chosen a word for her year, every year, for around seven years, and has spent that time discovering how to keep a word alive all year long. One Word is where she shares it with you.
Early-bird price
$39 early-bird price (regular $79), until the end of Sunday 22 November. One Word will never cost less than it does right now.
Early bird ends in
A gift for everyone who joins by 30 November
A printable with a box for every month of your word year. One small mark, image or sentence each month, so you can see your word at work across the whole year. We'll send it to you by email on 1 December, the day the course opens.
Good to know
Yes, especially. You don't need to know anything about it before you start. Kasia explains the practice from the very beginning.
You don't need to arrive with one. Finding it slowly and honestly is exactly what the first half of the course is for.
No. One Word is for everyone, especially if you haven't painted since school. Everything is simple, and imperfect is welcome. It isn't really about making art. It's about listening to yourself.
The first half opens on 1 December and the second half on 1 January. Join now to get the early-bird price.
Not in the usual sense. The first half opens on 1 December and the second on 1 January, and from then on it's entirely yours to use however suits you. You might work through the January lessons straight away, save some for March and come back to others in June. You have lifetime access, so there's no rush. Your word is what stays with you all year.
As much or as little as you have. Some days that might be a quiet half hour, some days five minutes with your journal.
Yes. A workbook can help you find your word. One Word helps you live with it, so it's still with you long after February.
Yes, if you'd love a quieter, more reflective way to begin your year. You'll recognise some of the making, but the heart of it is your word.
Nothing special. Everything is explained in the course, and most of what you'll use is already in your home.
Yes. Simply choose the gift option at checkout.
One Word comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee. Because of the nature of digital courses, we can't offer a refund once the course content has been accessed.
For life.
This year, let your word stay. Choose it slowly, make it real with your hands, and carry it with you all year.
Make it yours - $39Make it yours