For the Curious: Nourish & Flourish
A 31-Day Challenge for Creative Wellbeing
Oh hello. I’ve been MIA, haven’t I? I’m sorry. Life has been lifeing. More on that in due course. But first of all, I want to chat to you about something exciting that’s coming up for me this month (btw - how the heck is it August??)
I love to learn. Always have. Always will (I think). Chris regularly has to talk me out of doing a masters in something. One of my recurring nightmares is that I’m going back to uni but I have to go back to LJMU and do the exact same journalism degree I did when I was 18. Eventually in this dream, I manage to get away from the journalism degree and end up doing a degree in Film & Feminist Theory (no idea why). But the fact that I dream about learning shows you just how much I vibe off it.
So over the last few months I’ve been doing a couple of courses. One is the help me define my coaching offering better and figure out exactly who I want to help and how I want to help them. I’ll talk to you more about this in time. The other is about working with Creative Courage. Part of my task for the Creative Courage course is to go on some kind of creative journey in August. So I’m going on a creative health journey - and I’d like you to come along with me.
Because the truth is, I *know* creativity is good for me. I know it lights me up inside. I know it helps me manage my mental wellbeing. I *KNOW* it helps me find flow and use my strengths and generally helps me be a better person. But I spend a lot of my time helping others be creative or think creatively and don’t often do it for myself. And this work ties in with helping me figure out what space I hope to work in around creativity and wellbeing as a coach. It also works towards teaching others more about what ‘creative health’ is because it can sound so abstract and esoteric. And my whole vibe is about making creative health and its benefits accessible to everyone.
Those of you who’ve been around my work for a while, might remember I ran a challenge called Creativity Bursts back in 2020. The aim of Creativity Bursts was to offer a space to cultivate a creative practice which would, in theory, help with your wellbeing. This month, I’m running Nourish & Flourish - A 31 Day Challenge for Creative Wellbeing. But I’m running it here, on Substack and I’m running it slightly differently.
Nourish & Flourish is a creative journey for me, as much as anything. I have all the tools that I use with my clients, but I don’t often use them for myself. But it’s for you too. It’s to help you get a flavour of how creativity might help you and let you know how I work. When we harness creativity and combine it with coaching techniques, we can get really powerful and impactful results. We can learn a lot about ourselves, how we work, what we need and what we want. And we take some of the pressure off these explorations because we’re doing it in a way which doesn’t feel too serious.
So here’s how it’s going to work:
Once a week, on a Thursday, I’m going to send you seven prompts, right here on Substack. You can choose which order you tackle them in. You can do one or two or none at all if they don’t feel right. But I’d encourage you to stay open minded and curious
Each prompt will take about 15 minutes, but you can take longer if you want to keep exploring
We’re going to cover themes around confidence, resilience, wellbeing and joy (and a couple of other things)
You can draw, write, doodle, dream - whatever works best for you. I’ll suggest a method in the prompt but do what works best.
If you’re a paid subscriber, you can chat about what you’re experiencing and what comes up for you in the comments on each post
You don’t have to participate. There’ll be 4 emails about Nourish & Flourish and that’s it. But I’d encourage you to try. You’re here because you’re interested in creativity and/or wellbeing. If you’re resistant to the challenge, ask yourself why. Maybe you could explore it in one of the prompts.
Here are this weeks prompts:
OK so who’s in? Let me know if you’re playing (key word here! Be playful! Be curious! Don’t take it all too seriously!) and follow along on Instagram
See ya next Thursday ❤️
