Three of my great loves: drawing, laying a table for lovely people and then watching what unravels around that table accompanied by food, wine and candlelight. So, when Laurie at Dear Prudence Studio opened her new space, I proposed a workshop collaboration, right in the heart of...
Several years ago I started leaning into cyclical living. The concept that there are times when we rest, go inward and allow a quieter energy, and times when we are lit up, dynamic and have a more outward facing energy.
There are several cycles we can tune into: lunar cycles, the seasons of the year and menstrual cycles.
As I have always been fascinated by the moon, the effect it has on the tides and an A&E waiting rooms when the moon is at it’s fullest, it felt natural to explore the moon cycles as a guide to this approach.
Around this time, my friend and collaborator Laura Adams and I were camping on the night of the new moon, and decided to sit around the fire to write intentions.
We had both experienced a turn around in our work since becoming mothers. Laura had gone from working for a large company to becoming a stay at home mum and I had given up my job as a theatre agent after having Gryff. We had felt lost in the early years of motherhood, unsure of our identity and where we wanted to be focusing our energy. By picking up her husband Jim’s camera, Laura found the magic of photographing her children, which eventually moved onto wedding photography and now creating the Lens Eleven community.
By digging deep and allowing myself to be honest with myself, I refound my love of drawing, writing and telling stories through objects and our home.
From this night around the fire, it became clear that we needed to create a resource for others who may be feeling similar to how we had felt, with practical steps and tasks to help clarify their vision and establish a way to move forward. And one way of doing this would be in step with the moon cycles.
I had created new routines, rituals and ways of mapping out my work in step with the moon, which we began to see could all be adapted into a workshop.
So, we created Say It Out Loud. A two week workshop across the two weeks of the waxing moon, when our energy is naturally more dynamic, where we guided participants through a series of prompts and tasks to help them get out of their own way, clarify their visions and identify their big dreams and, quite literally, say them out loud.
The first two times we ran this workshop, we sent out the prompts via regular emails and also had a facebook group for participants to share their responses to the prompts and we offered feedback and support. It was truly wonderful. Seeing what the participants got out of these two weeks, the insight and confidence they found in themselves, alongside forming a beautiful community, was just magical.
Laura eventually realised that she needed to focus more of her time and energy on her photography business and creating a specific community around that, so we decided to lay the guided workshops to rest.
But what I knew I could do, was to create all of these workshops as an online resource, where the workshop would be self guided and at a lower price point of £18, thus also making it more accessible to everyone.
And so I have created a space on teachable, where you can follow the workshop, through the two weeks of the waxing moon, and if you struggle to complete it over the two weeks, you will have indefinite access to the workshop, so you can repeat it as many times as you like with each new moon cycle.