Welcome to second January (my new name for February).
This time of year can be confusing. There has been all the fun of December with parties and catch ups. This is often accompanied by busyness. Busyness to get things done so you can have a break. Busyness to decorate, buy presents and cook. Busyness to catch up with everyone.
Then comes New Year. A natural time to review what has been and plan for what is to come. At this post Christmas time you are often exhausted and just want to chill and not think about anything. And taking that time off is a good idea. We all need that time of peace and restoration and what better time to do it than the Christmas/New Year Break?
So you have chilled and recharged your batteries.
Now to plan the coming year.
Let's all join together in a collective
AAAAAAAAARGH !!!
I can't think of many other ways you can discharge your batteries faster than trying to do that plan.
One of the difficulties is what to plan.
How many of you grit your teeth and devise a plan that aligns with what others are saying you should do?
What other pressures do you find influencing your decision. You know, the ones that you feel you have to bow to but actually don't want to.
Sometimes you feel you have a great plan that aligns with what you want only to feel a sense of unease around the plans. Maybe you even find yourself putting off following the plans or unknowingly sabotaging them.
When you get out of your head and listen to your body you can devise fantastic plans that you are more likely to follow through on.
How do you do that?
I have found that unless I allow myself to look inside me and meditate deeply on my plans that nothing succeeds.
This is why I have written a Sand Play Plan Your Year Workshop.
Sand Play involves the placement of symbols in sand. You can move the sand around, you can write symbols in it, make mountains out of it, even create a body of water (not actual water).
Once you are ready you can choose symbols to place in the sand. This is done intuitively.
Once you are finished you can observe what you have put there. It is amazing how many people see things differently when they visualise the symbols. It is a powerful way to see what you are feeling and be able to plan from that.
Using symbols is a powerful tool to explore what you really feel. Add to this the tactile nature of sand and you have a deeply meaningful way to explore where you are in life and to make decisions about where you would like to be.
I will be running this workshop on Saturday 7 February, just after the children return to school and before all the activities of the year start up again.
What you will get from this workshop is:
A time to meditatively explore your deep-down desires. The ability to visualise what you want and then what you want to do with these desires.
Finally, a way to plan what you want from 2026 and a visual way to present that.
The workshop is not just sand play. There will be other visual media used as well.
More workshops will be scheduled soon - contact Nan to register your interest.
I devised this course after finding the benefits of my own meditative painting practice. The course uses watercolour paints to allow you to express the messages of your soul. The meditative practice extends from meditation through painting to meditating on the finished painting.
Painting can express things that have no words, or too many words to express easily.
Splashes of paint, lines, dots, circles, random movements of the brush can express perfectly what your subconscious needs to say. And you don’t require any artistic ability to paint your soul.
In the high paced world you live in, balancing business and family life, you need to make a deliberate practice of destressing and spending time just being so that you can hear what your body needs you to know.
To keep going it is easy to stuff down all those little niggles and worries and convince yourself you are fine. But what you don’t deal with comes back to bite you. Burnout out, exhaustion and illness are very real impacts of not processing things.
Taking time to meditate and paint what comes up in your body is important for “clearing the decks” to allow you to keep going and maintain your health and vitality.
Painting what comes out of your body is easy. It is your private outlet. And it is peaceful and empowering. Over time you begin to see and understand patterns in what you paint. And you get better at tuning in to what your body is telling you.
You will be amazed and surprised at what you discover in your painting.
Contact us to be notified when the next workshop is scheduled.
More workshops will be scheduled soon - contact Nan to register your interest.
These workshops blend education with discussion, art, reflective exercises, interactive exercises, symbols and other expressive therapies. Participants can involve themselves as much or as little as they feel comfortable. These is no pressure for participants to share information about themselves.
We live in a society where people are taught that going along with another person’s bad behaviour (not rocking the boat) is peaceful communication. But that is not peaceful communication – it is abuse! Peaceful communication is not conflict resolution. Peaceful communication is about respecting self and others, and having compassion for self and others.
Come along to this workshop to learn how to peacefully communicate!
Participants share the stories of their lives, and support one another in seeing the value of their lives.
Allows participants to learn about their grief, learn they aren't mad (!), and share their journeys in a supportive environment.
