Living WholeArtedly - what does that really mean?

My work focuses on living WholeARTedly.

​​Part of living wholeheartedly is being able to experience the full range of our emotional life. Let's look at the word emotion: It has the same root as the word motivation and that's because our emotions are there to motivate our actions. The limbic system of the brain, including the amygdala, is the body's inbuilt remote control system to help us move away from danger and towards reward.

Of course, we also need to be discerning about which actions are the most effective. And that's where the cognitive part of the brain comes in. However, if our nervous system is shot due to stress or trauma, and we are caught in fight, flight or freeze, it's a lot harder to access the pre-frontal lobes of the brain.

Creativity is a great way to bring our thoughts and our feelings together. 'Making stuff' requires head, hand and heart which is why it is so healing. And it helps us to get moving again. When we are stuck it is often because we have come to fear our emotions and in so doing, we resist letting our emotions move through us. If we are not moved by our emotions, they are not able to motivate us and so we become stuck.

So my approach to coaching creativity is to first calm and nourish the nervous system, using creative processes that engage the whole mind/body complex, and then to explore what my client is drawn to emotionally and visually.

Creativity is not just about 'art'. It's simply the process by which we make new things happen or bring newness into the world. Science is as much about creativity as art is. Healing ourselves is being creative. Likewise, creating innovative solutions to the many challenges that face people and planet - all of this is creative.  

So the coaching and courses I offer are not about making  'pretty art' - they are about getting back into the flow of life. Because by nourishing ourselves we begin to feel creative again and this allows us to regain a sense of agency: We move from feeling stuck to feeling excited and able to take action again.  

​The first web-course that will go online (hopefully by September) is the Feathers Project because this is all about nourishing the nervous system so we can get from feelings of burn-out to experiences of flow. After that I will offer courses that explore specific emotions such as Self-Doubt, Grief and Gratitude. That way you can choose a course that feels most relevant to you.

I'd love to know which courses to prioritise so please fill in the survey below - it only takes about 30 seconds. Thank you.

---