Creative Journaling

These are hard times. Making space for anxiety + overwhelm.

These are hard times. Making space for anxiety + overwhelm.

This was my practice this morning: painting my feelings.

I have a lot to say about this process of space-making. I was writing about it all weekend.

But today, that's not what's in me to share.

Today I want to share that I woke up anxious.

And so I made myself a latte and a green smoothie (well it came out red because I added a few slices of beetroot) and sat with my feelings and this is what came out.

I found the light. I followed it to a place where I was able to soften my body and mind, and offer myself some advice about slowing down and being more present with myself

A lot of people feel anxious right now.

I didn't have an issue with anxiety before the pandemic. I have one now.

Lots of people don't feel anxious but to worry or feel stressed or are just overwhelmed.

This is where we're at, collectively and yet a lot of people are feeling alone in it. I want you to know that you are not alone.

And the world is asking us to carry on as though this is not where we're at.

A space-making practice is a way to rebel against that.

It's actually a way to create a better world, both your own personal world and the larger world that we share.

Space-making helps us find the softness in the hard places. And those soft places do tend to come with dreams attached. Ideas for new things we want to create or new ways we want to be or experiences we want to have. The softness shows us the way.

The first step is to honour how you're feeling.

Give yourself the grace of making space to be where you are.

How do you feel right now? Where is that feeling in your body? Anywhere else? What's the story running through your mind?

Is there any light to be found? What might help this all soften? What do you need right now?

These are hard times. Making space for anxiety + overwhelm. Read More »

New video: Journaling through my pandemic overwhelm

My pandemic overwhelm set in again, like mental fog and a heaviness pushing down on me.... so I recorded myself working through it.

NOW is the best time to join Dream Book!

We're doing two new coaching circles this month:

Well Rested: We REST together, on Zoom! Then we journal, talk and explore how to get more of the rest you need.

Organized AF: We get our shit together, together! We do a short focusing meditation, declare our intentions for our time together - then you go DO THE THING. If you get stuck, I'll be there to coach you through it.

Join us here.

New video: Journaling through my pandemic overwhelm Read More »

Spectrum Give-Away Blog-Hop

I am going to be a guest teacher in Spectrum 2016 this year – and to celebrate I’m giving away a free spot in course as a part of the Spectrum Give-Away Blog-Hop!

spectrumteachers

Spectrum is an online Holistic-Creative workshop going on its third year, and organized by Hali Karla of Hali Karla Arts.

Spectrum 2016 will be guided by 20 NEW featured teachers and more than 20 returning contributors offering a variety of workshops, inspiration and invitations – all intended to empower, nurture and celebrate your innate creative expression, healing journey, and personal development.

There will be weekly inspiration & reflective activities related to mixed-media art-making and journaling, guidance on integrating your creative process and holistic awareness into your day-to-day life, and a variety of opportunities to connect, support and share with others in the growing Holistic-Creative online community.

The themes that will loosely guide our 2016 Spectrum experience are Forgiveness, Shifting Perspective, Navigating Uncertainty, Integration, Alchemy, Connecting with Nature, Honoring Body, Trusting Joy, and Expressing One?s Truth! You can expect a variety of perspectives on these – and so much more.

spectrumquote

To learn more about the details, including all of the contributors and workshop offerings for this course CLICK RIGHT HERE.

I am currently creating my brand new Spectrum workshop for you – it is called?Heart Beat.

Your heart centre is the bridge between your physical and spiritual selves. ?In this workshop we?ll combine energy healing with creative play to dive into the richness, magic and power of your heart centre.?

As I said -?I have one spot for Spectrum 2016 to give-away to a lucky winner in our January blog-hop – but if you follow the blog-hop list below, you will have an even better chance of winning a spot by entering the other give-aways as well.

Enter here!

[contestfriend contest=”18002″]

 

(Note that?for every friend you refer who enters the giveaway – YOU get ANOTHER chance to win!)

Thanks to everyone who entered and help spread the word about the contest. ?The winner is Melanie Bodry.

Here?is a list of the other teachers who are playing along in the Spectrum 2016 blog-hop, with the dates their give-away goes live – so you can?visit their site and enter there, as well.

13 January:
Hali Karla http://www.halikarla.com/blog/

14 January:
Andrea Schroeder https://www.creativedreamincubator.com/blog
Angelique Arroyo
http://schoolformedicinewomyn.com/

15 January:
Bebe Butler http://www.bebebutler.com/
Beth Morey http://www.sheofthewild.com/

16 January:
Briana Goetzen http://www.orangespiralarts.com/
Carissa Paige http://carissapaige.blogspot.com/

17 January:
Cat Caracelo http://catcaracelo.com/
Catherine Anderson http://catherineandersonstudio.blogspot.com/

18 January:
Chris Zydel http://creativejuicesarts.com/
Effy Wild http://effybird.com/

19 January:
Elloa Atkinson http://www.elloaatkinson.com/
Grace Howes??? http://www.redbarn-studios.com/

20 January:
Gretchen Miller http://www.gretchenmiller.wordpress.com/
Kara LC Jones http://motherhenna.blogspot.com/

21 January:
Kelly Johnson http://www.wingswormsandwonder.com/
Kitty Oppegard http://handoverheartstudios.blogspot.com/

22 January:
Kristal Norton http://kristalnorton.com/
Lisa Hofmann http://dandelionseedsanddreams.blogspot.com/

23 January:
Lisa Wilson http://www.beingbreath.com/
Lucy Pearce http://dreamingaloud.net/

24 January:
Malini Parker http://www.maliniparker.com/
Meghan Genge http://www.meghangenge.com/

25 January:
Melissa Harris http://www.melissaharris.com/
Michelle Turbide http://michelleturbidestudios.com/

26 January:
Petrea Hansen-Adamidis http://www.arttherapist.ca/blog
Rachael Rice http://rachaelrice.com/

27 January:
Robin Hallett http://www.robinhallett.com/
Shelley Klammer http://intuitivecreativity.typepad.com/

28 January:
Suki Ciappara Ka’Pinao http://sukihealingarts.com/
Tara Leaver http://taraleaver.com/

Enjoy the blog-hop, good luck on the give-aways, and I hope to see you in Spectrum in a few months!

Spectrum Give-Away Blog-Hop Read More »

Free Coloring Pages Coming Your Way…

My big project for 2016 is The Year of Dreams Epic Playbook: Guided Journal + Coloring Book for Healing, Magic + Dreams Come True.

I’m so happy and grateful about this – to spend the year building the ultimate guided journal and coloring book for creating deep and lasting change is my ultimate dream job.

To celebrate I’ve decided to share some of those pages with you!

December 28 to January 1 I’ll be sending out one free page every day.

The pages will include:

* Insightful journaling prompts to spark new self realizations that help you grow into your biggest, brightest and dreamiest self.

* Creative Soul Alchemy processes to transform your energy on the spot so you can make more space for your dreams (while minimizing fears, doubts and obstacles along the path).

* Fun stuff to colour that is designed to keep you marinating in the magic of it all because amazing answers and ideas come to you when you spend more time exploring your inner world.

The pages are designed to be the ultimate BFF for your dream – to cheer it on, help it grow and pick it back up when it falls down.

Makes sure to sign up for my email list so you’ll get all the pages right in your inbox (and you’ll also get my free e-course Give Your Dream Wings).

In the meantime, there’s always the Creative Journal Prompts for the New Year to play with.

Free Coloring Pages Coming Your Way… Read More »

[New Video] How Your Journal Can Change Your Life (and peek inside my 2015 art journal)

So you may have noticed that I believe that journals are actually magic.

And it’s easy to see how there is a certain magic to the creative process, it’s easy to get a taste of the healing power of creativity every time you make something…

But I am talking about going much deeper than that.

I sat down to record today’s video because I wanted to show you my journal from this year, to show you what 8 months of intentional transformative creative practice looks like.

But once I sat down with my journal I just started talking…?about how when I first started journaling I was really just documenting my life and using it as a place to complain about things. ?And then I started using it as a place to practice creative visualization and conscious manifestation… which was definitely more fun but didn’t actually change my life.

And then I share what happened to shift to where I am now with?my journals – where they actually help me literally change my life and create what I want in my world.

Watch it now:

This is the journal I was using while I was going the Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance program. This is a self-guided year long study in advanced dreaming which is available inside the Creative Dream Circle.

[New Video] How Your Journal Can Change Your Life (and peek inside my 2015 art journal) Read More »

New Art Journaling Classes

I do have a free art journal class that you can get right here, though I don’t teach any kind of art technique there, it’s all about the inner stuff of journaling.

But I know some of you want to learn how to make gorgeous art journals and there are many lovely people out there who do teach art journaling and can show you how to do really cool art stuff.? And I am happy to be collaborating with some of them.

Right now I’m working on two new art journal classes.

The first one is How To Do A Creative Intuitive Healing Session in your Art Journal. It’s a series of videos where I explain, exactly what I mean by using art supplies to do inner healing and transformation.? I talk about how art-making is different from creative healing and how to approach your creative healing practice so that you get exactly what you want out of it.

Then I’ve got a visualization and playbook that lead you through the process of how to heal and transform ANYTHING.

You can use it to work with an inner critic that’s beating you up or a fear that’s holding you back or anything in your life that you would like to change.? And you can use it over and over again – in fact, the more you use it the better it will work.

This class will be available as a part of Tamara Laporte’s Life Book.? You’ll also get a bonus class from me, a half-hour video about how the magic of BEING PRESENT can help you find your unique creative voice.

Life Book is a year-long Art Journal class, where you get new classes from new teachers every week.? You get to learn, like, EVERYTHING about Art Journaling.

radiant

 

The second one is more personal.? I’m sharing, in surprising detail, how I journal when I’m working through really hard stuff.

The questions I ask myself, the processes I use.

I filmed the process of creating a really emotionally-charged page, and then created a workbook that leads you through the process so you can learn how to move yourself THROUGH the hard thing.

See, I don’t think journaling should just be about documenting your life or visioning your dreams.? For me, the magic is in using the journaling process to actually CREATE your life – by transforming the bad stuff, activating your inner strengths and walking the path to your brightest future.? So that’s what I’m sharing here.

This class will be available as a part of Effy Wild’s Radiant Art Journals.

In Radiant Art Journals you get to learn from fifteen different teachers and to see how they approach their personal journaling practice.

When it comes to art journaling I HIGHLY recommend these kinds of group classes where you can learn from lots of different teachers.

Because there is no “one right way” to do this, learning a bunch of different ways really helps you find YOUR unique way.

New Art Journaling Classes Read More »

A peek inside my Grow Your Depth journal

The “other video” I talk about is here, the first peek into my Grow Your Depth Journal.? I also did a video tour of my Nurture Your Brilliance journal, here.

The beauty and magic of this work comes from your commitment to do the work consistently over time.

So the whole point of Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance (the class I’m teaching this year which you can still join today!) is to create a container than helps you hold your commitment to your creative personal growth practice.

For me, the main benefit of this work is in how I feel right now.? It makes me happier and more connected to myself.

Of course, when I’m happier and more connected to myself I’m more powerful and creative.

And when I’m more powerful and creative in my life good things happen.? Like:

  • I’m making more money and I’m having more fun doing it.
  • Really cool opportunities keep coming my way (like – I was offered an artists’ residency at the beach this summer!).
  • I’m now able to work on a project that I have dreamed about for 20 years.
  • After a long time of being single and thinking that maybe there’s just no one out there who is a really good match for me, I’ve started dating someone I’m pretty excited about.

Inner work does spark outer change.

If there is any change you want to see happen in your life, I promise you the path is INSIDE you.

A peek inside my Grow Your Depth journal Read More »

How To Draw AMAZING + ENLIGHTENING Mandalas.

Imagine opening up your journal to find it filled with colours and patterns that make your heart sing and whisper helpful messages from the universe.

In my Mandala Class you’ll learn how to create inspiring and enlightening Mandalas you’ll Fall In LOVE with.

You’ll get a series of 21 videos where I share EVERYTHING I know about creating a wildly fulfilling mandala practice.

You’ll skip through all the hard parts of learning how to draw mandalas and discover the secrets of how to receive (and understand!) the message behind your mandala and how it can help bring you whatever it is you need right now: healing, comfort, insights or brilliant flashes of inspiration.

You know how amazing it is when you get just the right message at just the right time and the feeling is so electric the little hairs on your arms stand up?

I get that feeling ALL THE TIME from drawing mandalas and that’s exactly what I want to share with you in this class.

?Get it right here (with a FREE uber-helpful tutorial).

How To Draw AMAZING + ENLIGHTENING Mandalas. Read More »

What To Do About Negative Inner Voices That Shoot Dreams Down

This post is a part of the Dreamtastic Creative Journals ongoing (free!) e-course about using your journal as a tool for transformation, healing and dream-growing. The courses is full of videos, stories, photos, prompts and creative journaling processes that will help you discover the magic within.

Click here to check out what’s happened in the course so far.

What To Do About Negative Inner Voices That Shoot Dreams Down

Today I’m going to answer a question I get often:

I’m curious about how to tap the deepest level without the negative inner voice shooting the dreams down. That’s my biggest issue.

No one is going to like this answer: there is no way to get to the deepest level without encountering the negative inner voices.

Being more present in your inner world means being more present in all of your inner world.

Learning to activate your inner superpowers and make your dreams real is actually all about learning how to transform the negative, fearful voices that get in the way.

Because your inner superpowers already exist.? You already have everything you need, to do anything you want to do.? It’s just a matter of believing in yourself, untangling the tangles and healing your limiting patterns and beliefs.

Then your superpowers can shine through, so bright they change your whole life.

Which means if you want your journaling practice to be a space for healing and transformation then you have to welcome these voices in when they show up, you can’t be trying to avoid them.

This is the biggest part of my practice: welcoming what shows up and working with it.? Trusting that the negative voices that show up are the path – that healing and transforming these parts of me is exactly what I need to be focused on right now.

Often I think I should be focused somewhere else – and exploring something more comfortable and happy.? But I’m always wrong.

The thing that shows up is always the right thing to be exploring.

How, exactly, to do this deep and effective transformative work is beyond the scope of what I can offer in this free series, but you’ll get all the help you could possibly need to do this inside the Creative Dream Circle.

But the first step is definitely to welcome them.


What To Do About Negative Inner Voices That Shoot Dreams Down Read More »

New Video: Nurture Your Brilliance

Last week I shared a video tour of my Grow Your Depth journal.

This week I thought I’d share a tour of my Nurture Your Brilliance journal – this is where I work with bringing the inner changes out into the outer world – to create more of what I want in my life.

In this video I’m sharing how I do this in my business, but the same principles apply for anything else.

I recorded this video as content for Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance so the tools I mention in the video are available inside the classroom.

New Video: Nurture Your Brilliance Read More »

VIDEO: Look inside my Grow Your Depth Creative Journal

(I recorded this video to share inside Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance program, so all of the classes and tools I mention in this video are things that you get when you join.)

Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance starts TODAY.

This is the class that I need this year, I can’t wait to begin.

We have a group of 250 amazing people already gathered and I hope YOU are going to join us too.

VIDEO: Look inside my Grow Your Depth Creative Journal Read More »

[CREATIVE JOURNAL PROMPTS] Working with a crap day and transforming it into wishes come true.

Creative Journal Prompts

I had made this really fantastic video that I wanted to share with you today.

And I started uploading it yesterday at lunch time.? It’s pretty long… I left it to upload overnight and this morning I woke up to see the upload had failed.

So then I set it to upload in a different way, then went out for coffee and journaling.? And came home to find the upload failed again.

Now it’s uploading, slowly, but my wish to share it with you today is just not going to come true.

I found myself getting all stressed out because I’m not going to be able to stick to my plan.? And all the tiny little fears and doubts and inner critics used that stress as a doorway to step into my experience.

Until I remembered: this is part of it. Working with what is and transforming it into wishes come true.

This is what?Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance is about and this is what the video is about that I want to share with you – an in-depth tour of my journal and all the magic I’ve been finding in it.

I brought everything I was feeling into my journal, where I had been exploring the first set of prompts that I am giving people inside Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance and then it dawned on me: a better way to do this.

I can share the video on Monday – that gives me all weekend to get it uploaded.

And today I can share the first set of prompts that I am giving people in this program and also share what I’m doing with them.

This kind of lit something up inside me: this is a way better plan!? It means you get some prompts to play with over the weekend!

Even if you’re not joining Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance, you can explore these ideas for yourself in your journal.

Creative Journal Prompts for Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance:

Healing and transformation are difficult things to track because when done right, you feel so at home in your new way of being that you forget how things used to be.

Tracking your progress is important because when you can look back and clearly see how you?ve grown, that gives you confidence to keep going. Plus the process of tracking is very clarifying, and healing and transformation are often confusing so practices that generate clarity are always helpful.

So that’s why we’re starting with these particular creative journal prompts.

Spend some time with each prompt and follow your thoughts wherever they lead you, even if it means you don?t quite answer the question. The point of this is to get a snapshot of where you?re at right now as you begin.

Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance is a support system for deepening your journaling practice.

(If you’re not sure what that means follow this link for more info)

What does this mean to you?

What do you want your practice to be like?

What do you wish will happen for you in this process?

What are you worried might happen?

Look over your answers – what feels really important to you?

In what ways would you like to grow your depths?

In what ways would you like to nurture your brilliance?

As you grow your depth you naturally nurture your brilliance, you start to shine more brightly and your possibilities start to shine more brightly as well. Specifically, what new possibilities do you want to create for your life in this program?

My answers:

This is my page for exploring the creative journal prompts, in process:

my creative journal promopts

(In the video that I’ll share on Monday I talk a lot about how I approach the creative part of journaling)

Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance is a support system for deepening your journaling practice.

What does this mean to you?

  • to be more committed to my practice, both in being more present with it when I do it, and to spend more time with it
  • getting more magic out of my practice

(Ugh.? At this point I realised my answers were really kind of “Stuck in my head” type answers.? Like I was already resisting the magic.)

What do you want your practice to be like?

(This is where I let my heart take over answering and it started to feel much better)

  • soft space to land no matter what’s happening in my life
  • a miracle-generator
  • safe private space to express anything
  • sturdy container for healing and transformation

What do you wish will happen for you in this process?

  • a more stable experience of healing + transformation, being more grounded in it
  • for the things I want that currently feel impossible to become possible

What are you worried might happen?

  • that my resistance goes nuts and stops me from going into the depths and I stay on the surface
  • that I discover things about me that are hard to face

Look over your answers – what feels really important to you?

  • when I used the words: sturdy and grounded they felt really important.? I’ve been doing healing + transformation work for 20 years, it doesn’t feel like I want to change what I’ve been doing as much as do it in a more grounded way, and feel more study during the process of it.

In what ways would you like to grow your depths?

  • to have less resistance to feeling how I feel
  • to be bolder in wanting what I really want
  • to feel more connected to more parts of me more of the time

In what ways would you like to nurture your brilliance?

  • to let my inner truth out faster? (hmm, is this true?? must explore further – maybe waiting until I feel safe is a good idea!)
  • to let my inner truth out brighter, I can feel places where I hold back and I want to explore these places, learn more about why and how I hold back (so much of it is unconscious!) and look at ways of shining brighter that feel right for where I am right now.

As you grow your depth you naturally nurture your brilliance, you start to shine more brightly and your possibilities start to shine more brightly as well. Specifically, what new possibilities do you want to create for your life in this program?

  • I want to be having more fun.? I feel like, with being more conscientious and present doing depth work in my journal every day that leaves me needing less alone introvert-recharging time which means I can have more playing-out-in-the-world time.
  • I want my secret wish (which I don’t want to share) for the thing that I currently worry is impossible for me to have.

Then I added that image on the left, which spoke to me of having space for all parts of me to get what they need, which feels like what I really, really want from this.

This is exactly the class that I need this year and I am sooooo ready to start.

If you’re already signed up, you can start playing with these prompts now, and on Monday we’ll start sharing our answers (only if you want to, of course, it’s totally OK to keep all of your work to yourself) in our private classroom.

If you’re not signed up – I hope you will join us! When I connect with the heart and soul of Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance, I can feel how each person who participates contributes in such a meaningful way – that we really are stronger together and each of us can dive in deeper to our own process because we’re doing this work in community.

And I’ll share that video of my journal with you on Monday.


[CREATIVE JOURNAL PROMPTS] Working with a crap day and transforming it into wishes come true. Read More »

Why Art Journaling Is Not Enough

artjournal

Art journaling is becoming popular out in the world and this is very good! People are waking up to the inherent healing benefits of being creative and only good can come from that.

It?s true that just making art is healthy and good for you.

And it?s also true that if you want to actually dig in and transform your self and your life, more is needed.? And that part keeps getting lost in the shuffle.

Starting a creative practice is only the first step.

And the skills, techniques and practices that you need to get started are different than the skills, techniques and practices that take you to the next level.

It takes a special set of skills to successfully navigate the process of internal transformation.

Engaging in the creative process is beautiful and magical but it’s only a doorway to deep down healing and transformation.

Obviously the doorway is super important, but the doorway is not the journey, it?s only there to get you started.

Too many people are taking those tiny bites of healing and then mistaking those tiny bites for all there is – which means they’re settling for much less than the full-blown bliss of inner healing and transformation.

To get to the next level, your creative practice has to stop being about the art and start being about the inner journey.

You can tell where you are in this by how you feel about what you?re creating.

  • Do you want it to look a certain way? If so, you?re staying on the surface.
  • Are you so immersed in your own brilliant depths that you don?t care what your art looks like anymore? If so, then you?re on the real journey.

Creating a gorgeous art journal as a record of your life is wonderful. But it?s nothing compared to learning how to skillfully navigate your own brilliant depths.

That?s what I wish for you and that?s where we?re going in 2015, in the Creative Dream Circle.

Right now I’m thrilled to be working on something new for the Circle:

Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance: 12 months of deep-down creative + intuitive healing + transformation.

I’ll be sharing more details over the next month.? The magic will start in January, but if you join the circle today you can use December to work through the amazing classes that are already there which creates the foundation for where we’re going next.

 


 

Why Art Journaling Is Not Enough Read More »