This is the final blog post of 2025.

In the new year, I’m changing how I share my work. Instead of blogging, the focus shifts to journaling prompts—short, intentional questions for anyone who feels stuck on a blank page or needs a nudge to begin. These prompts live in The Reflection Room and on TikTok.

Short prompts.
More space for personal reflection.

The site has been renamed Paula’s Prompts, reflecting the focus and the work you’ll find here going forward.

Alongside this shift, I’m working on my second children’s book, The Secrets of Fairy Village. More details about that project—and my children’s books—can be found at A Red Lava.

This post closes out the year and makes room for what’s next.

Listen. Write. Begin.

The end of the year is my cue to slow down and look back. I gather my journals, flip through the pages, and notice what actually showed up—patterns, shifts, moments I forgot mattered.


It’s not about judging the year. It’s about listening to it.
Before planning what’s next, I review what was. That reflection sets the tone for everything that follows.

In the new year, A Red Lava is evolving. The rebrand isn’t cosmetic—it’s clarity. Clearer focus, cleaner direction, and a better alignment between what I create and why I create it.
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More on that soon. For now, this is the pause before the pivot.

This is the month when people start talking about resolutions and reinvention. But before any of that, there’s a step I've been taking for the last few years that many people skip: understanding what actually happened this year.

Before I rush into “new year, new me” mode, I stop long enough to see what the last twelve months really taught me — not the curated version, the honest one.

Every year leaves me with patterns, reactions, and moments that reveal who I’m becoming. My clearest lessons haven’t come from wins. They’ve come from irritation, discomfort, conflict, and the things that pushed my buttons — the moments that showed me what truly matters to me.

This December, I’m doing a personal inventory — not to judge myself, but to understand myself.

What strengthened me?
What drained me?
Where did I stay in integrity, and where did I shrink?
What was I grateful for?
What did I tolerate that I won’t carry into next year?
And which moments proved that I’ve grown more than I realized?

One quote has guided me for years, and it fits perfectly with this kind of reflection:
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Wayne Dyer

That’s the point of this inventory. Not reinvention — recognition. A shift in perspective that clarifies what’s ready to fall away and what’s ready to move forward with me.
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Year-end reflection is a clarity exercise. It helps me walk into January already knowing myself better.

Download your Personal Year-End Inventory below.

Visit the Christmas Collection here.