Connect and Create Workshops celebrate the acts of connection (with self, each other, nature, our voices) and creation (of ideas, stories, art, abundance) that ground, empower, and delight us. Please explore these Flow Writing and Art in Nature offerings and come join us.
If you would like to explore different themes or are interested in a special engagement for your business, group, or team, I welcome your ideas. Please contact me directly.
Flow Writing
What’s your story? Do you have something that you’ve been meaning to say? What thoughts and emotions and ideas and questions flutter or buck within you, ready to come out into this world as spoken or written words? Let’s find out. It’s time for you to write your heart out.
Flow Writing is the opportunity to join with a few kind others in a safe, non-judgmental environment to put your thoughts into written word. These therapeutic writing workshops empower you to use your voice, even if you’re not quite sure you’ve found it (or all of it) yet. Our shared table, whether virtual or oaken, is a place for you to connect with your own heart and soul and to turn that connection into expression. In the process, you will also connect with others. Your story matters. Sharing it may just free you and someone else into love.
What does Flow Writing Entail?
When we Flow Write together, we write by hand with our favorite pen on clean paper. We express openly and courageously. With our voices on high, we use our own words in our own way, bursting right through the possible beaver dams of conditioning that may have clogged our free and natural stream. In growing confidence, we power ourselves past the sodden logjams of “I’m not good enough,” or “I’m not worthy,” or “I’m afraid,” and we let our words flow.
Then we share. We read our stories or essays or streams-of-consciousness to each other without preamble or backstory. And, in communion, we listen and process without criticism or praise. Respectfully, we acknowledge each other with our eyes and our hearts. If we feel moved to respond verbally, we can choose to do so with the simple words: “I hear you,” or “Thank you.”
This is a time to express and be witnessed in love, not a time to critique syntax or offer grammar corrections. Those things don’t matter here. What does matter is that we feel safe and encouraged to write what we are moved to write. When someone pours out their truth, we receive the gift with genuine appreciation and care. Our words and theirs may move us to feel or laugh or cry, but we never judge. This is a place to connect and create and to do so in kindness. We always have compassion for ourselves and for the others who have bravely joined us at the table to write.
Flow Writing is writing as therapy. It is writing as communion. It is writing as deep release.
Will it be safe to share my heart?
Yes. Everyone who joins us in Flow Writing consents to honor our safe space of expression outlined in the Seven Agreements. We hold to these standards for ourselves and each other. If we make mistakes, it’s ok. We acknowledge our slips, apologize quickly and come closer together in the process.
Will we meet in person?
For now, Flow Writing Workshops are all conducted virtually. This summer, I would love to schedule our sessions to meet in any of Spokane’s amazing parks so we can be together in the real life outside.
4-Week Flow Writing Series
Each 4-week series, new each month, focuses on a different theme. You will meet with your group to find and use your words once a week for four weeks. Choose the theme and timing that feels right for you.
2-Hour Open Notebook
If you’d like to experience Flow Writing without a commitment, or you just feel the need for some time at the table, join us for one of our 2-hour open sessions. Bring your voice, a good pen, and an open notebook.
Art in Nature
These days, distraction is a way of life. Our daily doings sometimes feel like a dis-graceful, multitasking dance between emails and texts and meetings and obligations and expectations. How novel it may be, or foreign, to simply breathe and be present where you are, with your own self or with those you love the most. And yet, grounding and checking in with yourself are so important to true health and wellbeing. Immersing yourself in nature is a beautiful way to bring yourself back into your body and back into the moment. Take a walk and feel the flow of your breath and blood. Touch a tree and learn from its abiding constancy and deep roots. Watch the clouds and know that all this stress, all of it, will pass.
To further your connection with the natural world, Art in Nature Workshops not only invite you outside, they encourage you to stop while you’re there, to focus on yourself and where you are, and then to create art. These small-group experiences (to maintain intimacy and allow for social distancing) are designed to bring you into nature and into yourself. They are not art lessons. They are not competitions. They are an opportunity for you to connect with the world around you and to bring yourself deeper into conscious awareness through the simple act of drawing what you see. You may bring whatever tools you would like, but do keep it simple. A pencil and a notebook will work just fine.
Each session will include a hike (degree of difficulty will be noted in the event description), a guided meditation, a creative briefing and suggested prompt, time to work quietly, and non-judgmental sharing time. See each description for specific details and prices.
