In every discussion about upcoming programs, one question comes up:

"Why invest in a facilitated group?"

The answer is straightforward: Change is challenging, and facilitated groups provide the framework, structure, and support to ensure that we sustain ourselves through the 6 or 12-week process.

Beyond that, we provide ample opportunities to stay connected - casually in our wider community of group alums - or more formally.

December dilemma. You decide - is this time of darkness best for hibernation or preparation?

Both are reasonable responses to waking in the dark - and at least in Northern Europe - four o’clock sunsets.

If the former is your preference - we’ll see you in late January!

But if preparation appeals join our December programs for support.

This Fall we’re Driving Creative Transformation with a Radical Approach! Beginning in Sept ‘23, The Accountability Project, Write For Life, It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again, and The Artist’s Way. Online and in Belfast!

Seeking Wisdom Poetically acknowledges that poetry has the power to seduce us into consciously connecting with the creative force that we carry deep within us.

Why it’s not too soon to start thinking about the new year. Step one is about laying the groundwork to make new choices and commitments.

That begins when we ask ourselves: Who are we in this life stage?- What’s next?- What or who might help? Most importantly - do I have the humility to ask for it?

Transmitters and receivers are great descriptors for prayer and mediation. Early in 2022, Seeking Wisdom, A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection hit the store shelves, just one year after Julia Cameron released The Listening Path, The Creative Art of Attention. As with those lessons on deeper listening there is more to learn about asking for guidance…

A holiday weekend approaches. My newsfeeds, the airwaves, and billboards all shout out about the latest bargains on offer.

Apparently, I need to spend money for the ‘good’ of the economy.

Does that seem to be a shared value that we or the planet can live with?

Brigid is the Celtic goddess of abundance traditionally honored on the Celtic cross-quarter feast of Imbolc  between Winter Solstice & Spring Equinox; now on February 1st.

A floodgate is the metaphor I used for years when describing a fear of being paralyzed if I unearthed a long-buried childhood trauma.

Rage, even the expression of mild anger, was forbidden in the household and schools in which I was reared.

“Do you want this to be another year that flies by, half-hearted, arid, rootless, barely remembered, dull with dim glimpses of what might have been? Or do you want this to be a year that you savor, for the rest of your surprisingly short time on Planet Earth, as the year you started, finally, irreversibly, uncompromisingly, to explosively unfurl a life that felt fully worth living? The choice is yours.”

Our newest groups are coming together on a rolling basis.

The online group offerings began pre-pandemic when most folks eschewed the merits of virtual group sessions.

In 2020 and ‘21, we benefited from far more diversity in groups - first with our Belfast and Dublin followers meeting up with each other - and then with the addition of participants from the US, Canada, and the wider UK.

This is an invitation to dive into the enthusiasm & sense of possibility we were born with, overlay the lessons learned & choose an intentional life moving forward . The stories are a way to pass along the wisdom gleaned.

Our stories bring us clarity - and they are our legacy.

Consider that we met our children, nieces, nephews, & their children as grownups or elders. In our presence, they experience only our present.

What might they learn of having known us when we were their ages?

We’ve all heard the adage that reminds us we have two ears and one mouth - hence, we should listen twice as much as we speak. Cameron shows us the how. She encourages us to explore and practice six ways of listening: Listening to Our Environment, Listening to Others, Listening to Our Higher Self, Listening Beyond the Veil, Listening to Our Heroes and Listening to Silence.

Each is layer is explored in a chapter that invites us to practice cultivating a heightened awareness of what we may not be attuned to…

The work of my day job is to help discern, identify, & decode the origin and impact of behavioral patterns in our professional lives. Our patterns, frames of reference, and shared narratives inform the attitudes, behaviors & choices that are common to us, our grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren…

Navigating the space in between what was, what is, and what will be, can be daunting.

Yet, in those days, weeks, months, or years, we conceive and create our future.

“Choose to live in the present moment” is fine advice. Living mindfully, embracing self-care and a sense of prosperity requires skill-building and support. But where to begin?

The language helping professionals use is often one of the most significant obstacles to supporting significant life & career change.

If you’ve explored mindfulness, worked with a trainer, have made multiple attempts to adopted a healthier and more balanced lifestyle, yet find it is difficult or impossible to maintain – this post is for you. Struggling with periods of malaise, outright depression, anxiety, or physical symptoms which might be stress-related, or if you have a sense that your work/home life could be better? Living well, but have a niggling feeling that something is missing – keep reading. It can’t hurt.

"But Eve, I'm not an artist."

Many conversations begin that way when I introduce the tools of my practice supporting people in transition.

I share a larger toolbox with many coaches: Life pies, personality type indicators, skills indicators, habit or mood tracking charts, personal inventories, vision boards, mission statements, etc.

I use them, but I lead with the bedrock tools of 'discovering and recovering creativity' introduced by Julia Cameron three decades ago.

That meets with considerable resistance because the book in which she introduced them is called The Artist's Way.

A colleague's 6 year old grandson returned from school having been taught the biblical story of Joseph.

"Daddy, why did his brothers throw Joseph in the pit?"

"Because Joseph was his father's favorite. Jacob didn't treat the other brothers as nicely."

He went off. A good while later he was back, having seriously contemplated the matter at hand.

"They should have thrown Joseph's father in the pit!"

That, dear readers, is precisely why we tell stories.

Kevin Kling came into his own as a storyteller when while in college he realized, “Saturday night was only as good as the story you could tell about it on Sunday”.

Stories are the way in which we share the full measure of our experience.

Imagine if we, as a culture, could embrace depression. Imagine that in any life cycle there are, as in nature, seasons. Depression does not always have to be viewed as pathology.

The industrial age introduced clocks, the digital age upped 9-5 to 24/7.

We are not meant to operate outside of the natural order of things. Riotous springs are followed by productive summers. In fall, as energy wanes we’re motivated to prepare for winter and muster the energy to get things done. In winter we accept that little grows, days are short and if we give over to the darkness and rest, we’ll recharge.

"You are the hero of this story"

...and you're thinking - "Who me? There's not a heroic bone in my body!"

So, let's make "hero" a bit less intimidating. First, throw off the superhero images. Just showing up and being available is Job #1.

Accepting the challenge to live life more purposefully, to imagine a new future & lay the foundation for a new life stage - is what we in the storytelling business call - "The Hero's Journey".