Re-finding the magic

This is a reader supported newsletter. If you are able, please do consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps fund my writing here but also all of the free-to-access support we provide daily at The Women’s Health Hub.

You can also make a one off payment of support here.

I am so hugely grateful to you for being here.

Hi guys,

I’m writing this weeks post from my bed, after getting home from a magical, but exhausting weekend at the Women Only Wellness Gathering! You can read more about the event here - it’s a yearly event set up as a way of funding two amazing not-for-profits which support women and girls with addiction and domestic abuse. All money made from the gathering goes towards running these organisations and so it felt like a really good thing to be a part of.

Myself & Lottie ran two creative journaling workshops across the day and they were really wonderful. In total we held space for 21 women & girls which is just pure magic (but does explain why I feel so tired today!).

The initial communication around the event felt hard, we were unsure how many people to expect and what was expected of us - all part of the organisers learning and growing each time they run the gathering - but we held faith* and persisted and it turned out just great in the end.

*shout out to my amazing friend & mentor Claire of here for talking me through it all, or I may not have gone!

I have been holding journaling workshops for 18 months now (for local folks, we have a weekly journaling session at The Women’s Health Hub every Thursday!). I am always blown away by how much people get from it, but it’s not been without challenge and I usually find it super hard to convince people they want to come along. We are conditioned from a very early age that we are either ‘arty’ or ‘not-creative’ and I think this becomes a big barrier for people to connect in with the practice.

As someone who strongly wanted to be both ‘ arty’ and do science but who eventually was forced to choose (and chose science cos I was told that was the ‘best’ option), I have also had to walk this path of reclaiming and refinding my creative spark. And I know it’s not easy. But I also know the power of making things for the sake of making them - of getting lost in the cutting and sticking and making marks on paper for no other reason than just because.

This is where it’s important to break those barriers down - especially because, in it’s true essence, creative journaling isn’t even about creating things! Sure we put pens, pencils and paints to paper but that’s just the tool we are using to get our unconscious thoughts out into the open air - so our conscious mind can see them and process them.

And as a tool for that - as a tool for self discovery - it is truly amazing.

And such a shame to let such a thing as not ‘being good at art’ act as a barrier to you accessing it.

Inviting you to be scared and do it anyway…

The two sessions we held for WOW were the biggest I have ever facilitated.

In my head, it was going to be us and maybe five other women having a quiet hour in the shade and I actually messaged the organisers before the event as I was worried no one had signed up.

Imagine my complete shock when she told me we had 16 & 17 people booked on them!

I think this is in part because the event had been set up to get people out of their comfort zone, and because the organisers actively encouraged people to try things they felt a bit unsure about.

In the end, we had one session with 9 people and another with 12, thank goodness. Whilst everyone was happy, as a facilitator, twelve felt like a lot. It felt harder to be all together as a group and for me to hold everyone in the space and so, when we run this again, I will definitely be putting a ten people max limit on it!

The hour long session consisted of a beautiful visualisation to get everyone thinking about their own inner archetypes.

learn more about archetypes here

The idea is that you are not just one thing - not just a mother, or a creative, or a joker, or a healer - but, instead, you are a vast array of archetypes, personalities and experiences and all of them come together to make the whole you.

So the visualisation supported you in identifying all the different parts of yourself and the rest of the session was spent writing, drawing, colouring and sticking it all down. With plenty of books, factsheets and oracle cards for added inspiration and support.

It was really, really beautiful listening to the women share what had came up for them and seeing them process it all, and I think the feedback speaks for itself!

As well as running our two workshops, we were also able to attend other peoples sessions. I particularly loved the Chi Gong workshop with Barbara Ellis and am keen to make this a regular part of my day!

Exploring the site after our work was done was the most fun

As well as the workshops, the site was filled with amazing healers & creatives and we had a lovely time chatting and connecting with others. The Meeting Womb with Ruth Willis was my personal favourite. She had loads of amazing fabric and bits and bobs for us to look through and choose from before hand sewing our own fabric vulvas!

It was so beautiful and fun and collectively we made the most amazing bunting I have ever seen! We need to do this all together at The Hub at some point for sure. My vulva was big and flouncy with lots of tassles and a big, loud bell for the clitoris - it was so much fun.

The curry afterwards, eaten outside under the setting sun and fresh air wasn’t half bad either!

Then to sit & watch the sun set

We finished the day with a beautiful sound healing session from Ruby, held in the stone circle right on top of a big hill - the perfect vantage point to watch the sun set.

It was magical - Lottie & I sat there long enough for the women to disperse and the sun to get sleepy and for the bats to arrive - swooping back and forth between the trees. It was a wonderful way to end such a special day.

Thank you for joining me whilst I relived this wonderful experience.

I’d love to know, before we go - do you have a creative journaling practice? How does it serve you in your wellbeing? Or perhaps you would like to start but don’t quite know where to begin?

Leave a comment

Thank you for reading, sending you love,

Zoe x

P.S. like reading this newsletter and supporting the work we do here? Why not share it with a friend and help us to reach & help even more people - you can do so by clicking the button below - thanks so much!