Loft Event :: Paper Altars. Who are you becoming?

Date: Friday, March 28th 7:00pm - 10:00pm

Cost: $45

Space Limited: 15 people

Live event: Creating and receiving paper altars. Exploring who we are becoming.

As I looked around at my many sacred spaces filled with altars I noticed the textures, the papers, the secret messages and the gifts that I had received as blessings from those who surround me with love, often in the form of cards and words. I hang mixed media art and vision pages, cards with dreams and little bits and pieces of magic that find their way to me.

In Magic Making Circle we are creating altars, exploring who we were, are and will be and allowing them to infuse into our altars. I am lit up and guided by the who I am becoming. She has become spirit guide and my wisdom. She knows where I am journeying and keeps sending me people and messages to walk with me.

Rather than feeling frustrated that we aren't where we want to be, we will be using the wants and needs and desires inside of us to become guides, to teach us. The who we are becoming holds the wisdom of the steps we must start to take to become them.

During this beautiful gathering at The Loft, I will prompt you through several projects using paper and photos and special bits that I'll have for you as you start to listen to the self that you are becoming. We will create little altar offerings for our sacred spaces.

(These prompts will be part of the Magic Making Cirlce, so you'll get a glimpse into the gorgeous work we are doing together virtually in person.)

What to bring: a sacred photo of yourself (face or part of your body), any clippings from magazines that you wish to use during the evening, special cards or words from others and byob. I will have lots of snacks and sweet things for us to enjoy during our time.

Magic making mastermind weekend sessions.

“The Loft is a magical place- a life-sized fairy house of twinkle lights and swirling colors and inspirational art and quotes. It’s a Red Tent in the city, a place where Hannah and her tribe create soft, safe space for women to breathe, eat, drink, create, dream and reconnect to their true soul whispers. Connections are made, differences are cherished, truths are honored. I felt heard and known and respected, encouraged to be my best self and use my powers for good. What a life-shifting blessing!” ~ Melissa

We are not here to simply live on this earth. We are here to experience, feel, evolve, desire, devour, share, dance and open.

I chose to live sensually. The choices I make must revolve around feeling good and bringing good.

We must circle with our women as part of the deep self-care work we will all be called towards.

This circling for me is a calling so that we don't disappear from our own eyes and dreams and desires.

It is filling a hole inside that often feels gaping and raw.

When you combine the beauty of self care with the kickass mastermind of women who love pushing the edges of heart-centered business you create swirling magic.

The Loft holds twinkle lights, visioning supplies, giggles, bubbly, love and so much more for you.

Here is how the weekends will work ::

Up to 5 women will gather at The Loft in Pawtucket, RI (the airport is about 20 minutes away) for mastermind circle. Our time will include Friday night, Saturday all day and Sunday morning. Hotel information will be sent after you register so you can find the perfect spot to nest up in for the 2 nights.

Friday afternoon, after everyone arrives, we will settle in, cozy up, have dinner and talk about what we want from the time together. This will be our dinner strategy magic making! We'll make a list and hang it on the wall to guide us in the morning. After dessert and bubbly I will say good-night and we will join together after breakfast in the morning.

Saturday we will begin our mastermind circle time. This will include coaching from me, visioning, support from the circle and my assistant Kristen and some fun surpises. This can be website related, building an ecourse, blogging, content creation, planning, idea based strategy, etc. This can also be outside of business touching on relationship, dreams, anything that is present for you. (We will be using our Friday night lists for these sessions.)

You will be a part of each other's magic making mastemind in various ways. It's gonna be good!

These sessions will be intense. They will pull a lot out of you. You will feel exhausted and lifted up all at once. We will play music and pour a glass of wine to celebrate once we have completed them!!!

After we mastermind and mine and dream and feel and plan and absorb on Saturday night we will hit the city. We will get dressed up, sacredly adorned and probably smell really good as we adventure out. We will meet at one of my favorite spots in Providence for dinner and drinks and we'll let all of it melt away and celebrate.

Sunday morning sleep in or make plans to walk around the city. This day is yours. Integrate. Process. We will talk about re-entry at dinner on Saturday.

Surprises and little gifts will unfold each weekend. They will all be different and amazing. Amazing, I promise.

Some details ::

The weekend is non-refundable unless you or I are able to secure the spot with another participant. Much preparation happens ahead of time, so please, only sign up if you are 100% in!

More dates will unfold if there is more interest.

The $600 goes towards your mastermind time and all food and beverages other than the Saturday night dinner in the city. The city dinner is yours to choose and buy.

Date and Cost

June 12 and 13, $600  (3 spots left!)

$200 deposit to hold your space

July 31 and August 1st , $600 (FULL!)

$200 deposit to hold your space

Includes your magic making mastermind, food Friday night, Sat morning and afternoon as well as little surprises along the way. I will be with you Friday and Saturday, Sunday is a free day, an integration day.

Circling is vital to the movement. As women we crave this ‘red tent’ time together where we can nurture and be nurtured in a collective wave. We want to lead and be led, touch and be touched.

Circling is a form of healing when you stop fighting against feelings of jealousy, status, competition, judgement and open space for the truth inside of those feelings and allow yourself time inside of vulnerability, nurture, love, gentle power and forgiveness. Together.

Circling is showing up in truth and sharing what feels good.

Circling is allowing others to lay hands on your wounds and then holding that hand in gratitude and love.

Circling is the deepest form of fear for many of us who were taught that women are jealous of us and we cannot show up in our light.

Circling is the rhythm of sharing meals, fears and giggles.

“I felt so lifted up and so held and seen and heard. In a way I had never expected or experienced. Being at The Loft gave me a feeling of connection that was something so new for me and now I know I can’t be without it. And I never realized the sheer power and strength and love without judgment that could be possible with a circle of women! My time at The Loft was amazing and I can’t wait to return for more. I yearn for it!”

“The weekend at The Loft really shook things up for me in a soft and gentle way."

"There was such freedom to share and spill and soak and release together. I am still basking in the overflow of the intentional self-care and sacred community that was birthed from my time at the Loft.”

Why I am changing it all.

"And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more." Erica Jong

“Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of autumn--that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness--that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling.”  Jane Austen

“A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” Maya Angelou

I have no answers. Just songs. I want to walk. Bake cookies. Feel my body again. I can already feel the rain kissing me, gathering at my feet as I sweat and move.

Blow.

Fierce.

Risk.

Pray.

Be tender.

The song.

Trust in the lift of more than can be held.

Circle with the ones who want to sing.

Change it. Love the foundation.

Trust it. Revere space.

Wake.

Pray.

Rise.

Let it be sacred. Open Sunday 1-4. Really be there.

And let the rain adore each part of the woman who makes up me.

***

I'm changing it all. For 6 months the only way to work with me in a live group will be in the Magic Making Circle. I want to really be there. And adore and sing and cherish.

There are still a few days left to join and open and let it be sacred as the rain kisses you.

xo

Magical moments.

 

I was so attracted to the word magic and exploring new ways to access my own magic. My old ways that had worked for so long were drying up and I was ready for some new practices.

I had been dreaming of an Airstream for a long time. When we first started our group, we talked about feathers as a symbol for magic and as the days passed I found myself collecting them as I’d find them on my path. Just after our Loft retreat, I gifted myself the decision to let go of old work—to get out of a contract—and on the morning of my birthday I sent an email to let it go. Within an hour, I had secured an Airstream for sale on Craigslist. When I went to get it, there were huge feathers all over the ground surrounding it. It was as if the Universe was saying, yes, yes!

Living a magical life to me means following my soul’s path, following the hits, the energy, the vibration inside of me. Trusting myself and my inner wisdom.
Listening for and sensing the signs. Living my life on fire.

Circling has come to mean safety, expanded community, love, sisters, becoming fierce. Be curious, let go and trust process…and magic happens in the space in between.

Tisha Pletcher :: I am a distiller of treasures unseen. I am a scout for lives on fire. And I am a curator of the brave stories.

***

Magical moments happened for me on our FB page. The support and love that exudes from our page feels magical. Often, I see posts there throughout the day but wait to read  them when I feel like I can really be fully present and soak in all that is going on in each other’s lives. The amount of support and love on a very intimate level is magical to me.

When I wake most days now the feeling of rush and the “have to get this done today” feeling is no longer there. That frenetic energy and go, go, go energy had been there for so very long and now I feel more peaceful and calm. I am trusting that I am flowing and all that needs done will get done.

How I most want to feel when I wake up each day is happening. I want to feel calm. I want to feel loved. I want to feel supported. I want to feel peaceful. I want to trust in the unfolding’s of my life. I want to feel happy.

When I think of this list and how I feel on most days . . . I do feel this way when I wake most days. Sure there are days when my body is tired and some of these feelings are not so evident but they are still lingering. I think the difference is that I listen to my body more and when it needs rest, I rest.

Living a magical life to me is feeling aligned on an energetic level. Getting clear on what I want and how I want to feel in my everyday life. When I do this life flows effortlessly and it feels magical.

What has shifted for me the most is EVERYTHING. Seriously, how I work, how I spend my time, who I spend my time with and how I feel . .. even my parenting style has shifted along with how I feel in relationship.

I realize that being a part of this circle has touched all aspects of my life in a very positive way. Yes, I had to do the work but the energy of the circle and you helped along the way. I am more vulnerable and this circle helped me allow myself to be vulnerable. With that, everything in my life has shifted.

While I still have my boundaries my vulnerability level has shifted a great deal and it is because of our circle and that has changed all aspects of my life. I have healed in ways that I truly do not fully understand and that is okay because I don’t need to always understand I just need to trust. So if I had to narrow it down it is my vulnerability has flipped on and with that everything has shifted to a new level. .. in a very positive way.

Carrie Saba :: I lead you to love. I embrace ease in flow. I am not afraid of the edge.

***

 The next circle starts March 1st and there are still openings. We have started to gather in our online FB group and just seeing everyone's faces is already magic.

When we step into the deepest level of care for ourselves, meaning we claim it, the dreams we never believed could come true start falling as though stars from the sky.

This is why I am here. To circle us together and show each of you your magic.

This is why circling with women is my heart’s joy song.

When we have permission to see, feel and create our magic these dreams do start falling and we pay it forward and it ripples. Join us.

Cupcake crumbs and dead fish.

"By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning."

~ Lao Tzu

(I found these words from my Thursday loveletter archives from a year ago, following a trail of crumbs. Like they were waiting for me to come home to them and so I thought I would share the crumbs with you.)

he is screaming for the cupcake I told him we would get before picking up the big kids and i am pushing back with words that tumble out...if you hadn't spent the last half hour pretending your legs couldn't walk...we would be in the car already...there isn't time...

...

and i am feeling the sting of words said, words that i don't have to hold and the rush of adrenaline from being in that gap of i don't want to be doing this mixed with make everyone happy and i realize the cupcake place is 2 minutes away...of course we'll get the cupcake...i'm crying and wiping the tears and ben harper seems to be trying so hard to convince me that i am not broken...

...

i am trusting each moment and cursing my impatience and craving orange juice which i never drink and thinking about the fish that swam in my space for one day before floating belly up...in the mirror I see he has frosting all over him...my car full of crumbs and dirt that once held snow...one day and he left me that fish...

...

my phone fills with texts and i miss the turn to yoga and the talk in my head is all about not going but i walk in late and set down the mat and see all the young urban twenty-something boys who show up every week in a van together and i know that my breath needs to join theirs in this moment...i start to forgive myself for killing the fish...i do standing half moon for the first time without my legs cramping up and I smile so big after that the teacher catches me and laughs...and my breath circles up under my ribs and the softness feels like the icing on his cupcake...

...

i am so hungry and i can't place my craving but i know i want to feel it and be in it and my period must be coming soon and the kids are asleep and as he goes into the kitchen to cook something for my physical hunger all i can do is think about how grateful i am for it...my healing heart didn't kill the fish...i am so grateful for all of it...

...

i understand deeply that this dance doesn't always feel so charming meaning it kinda sucks and that every time i twirl into the dance it is a chance for a deeper opening and i know i am dancing towards me and i feel the openings that scare me and i ask myself to trust and i leap and i choose and this opening is what i asked for...i let the fish float for two days before i flushed him and i bought more cupcakes at the store so that i wouldn't feel so guilty...i step into this opening with this gratitude that is opening me wider and wider...because i let myself crack...

...

and i dance and open and feel that smile like in yoga and know it is my tears that will allow wisdom and my smile that will change worlds...and it opens.

Sugar Candy Giveaway

“We have not journeyed all this way across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy.”

~ Sir Winston Churchill

What if for one night you could play as though you were sugar candy? At ease, in the flow, giggling, hugging, lounging, creating and finding some of your own magic as you traveled through different worlds…

20 women gathered together at The Loft and traveled through worlds making their own magic and now one of you will receive a box in your home to journey through and play as though you were sugar candy.

What you'll win :: Sugar Candy Adventure at Home

A jar of brown sugar foot scrub created by Persephone Brown just for you to give yourself some divine comfort.

 

A mini altar with sparkles, intentions and a prayer written to you from Mara Glatzel which you can hold in the palm of your hand and feel guided and grounded and open.

 

Inside of the altar tin you will find a reiki charged crystal that Sarah Rubin filled with energy and safety and blessing.

 

A crown, handmade with vintage materials from Chelsae Biggs who also will be including a secret mantra hidden inside the crown just for you. (See picture down below for beautiful women wearing their crowns.)

 

Some sugar candy for color and inspiration.

 

And I have tucked in a mini vision book (if you win and have no idea what a vision book is, email me, I'll hook you up), a few pre-cut words and images to start your journey towards dreaming and asking yourself this question...

To enter the giveaway leave a comment at the bottom of this post playing with this question::

Close your eyes. Ask all of your senses, including intuition, to be present in that stillness. Enlist your senses as you ask yourself where you feel called to journey towards as you are pulled into your own fierce magic.

A haircut after a year of ponytails. A plane ticket. Tea with a soulsister. Tears with a lover to find deeper laughter. Opening your body even through fear. Giving away the clothes that don't fit. Setting the coffee pot in the morning as an act of love to your future self. Writing that poem that aches to be set free. Blowing bubbles as you stand on the shore. Taking the class that you talk yourself out of because of this and that. Finding a babysitter. Hanging up the vision board on the kitchen wall. The tattoo. Putting on the dress. Saying yes to the challenge. That nap.

(I know what you are thinking. Why didn't I just ask you to share it on FB and Twitter and blah blah! Because I want you to journey, I want you all to feel your sugar candy magic and claim that one thing.)

 

Sugar Scrub

2 cup sugar of choice (white, brown, raw)

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup coconut oil

2 Tbl vanilla

2 Tbl of lemon zest

 

Blend all ingredients in a bowl using your hands.

Transfer to a pretty little jar.

 

Eggplant Fritters

Dice one large eggplant and lay onto a baking sheet. Cover it generously with olive oil. Add half of an onion, diced and a sprinkle of sea salt. Roast in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes or until soft. Allow to cool.

Give the eggplant a quick chop, this will be about 2 1/2 to 3 cups of eggplant.

Add eggplant to a mixing bowl with one beaten egg.

Add in 2 tablespoons of capers.

One cup of Romano cheese, grated, goes into the mix.

One cup of finely chopped kale leaves (about two kale leaves) and gently mix it together adding in 2 cloves of garlic, chopped and 1 1/2 cups of almond meal (or flour).

Place generous tablespoon sized balls onto a greased piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Press down slightly on each ball. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and firm to the touch. Allow to cool. Serve warm or room temperature. These are great topped with a yummy dressing and over salad. Often I make a dip for these with some Veganaisse, lemon juice, honey, salt, pepper and italian dried spices. So good.

 

Rosemary Cassis Bubbly

In a long stem glass layer in 3 blackberries, a splash of cassis and a stem of rosemary. Pour your favorite bubbles over and sip while laughing, playing, visioning, bathing, putting on sexy lipstick or cooking dinner with Bublé.

 

To enter the giveaway leave a comment at the bottom of this post playing with this question::

Close your eyes. Ask all of your senses, including intuition, to be present in that stillness. Enlist your senses as you ask yourself where you feel called to journey towards as you are pulled into your own fierce magic.

Winner chosen next week, 2/11/14  Congrats to Veronica who said, "I have quit teaching 2nd grade. I made a list of all I am and all that I am not. I was scared for a moment. It was like a reset button. In all the pain, transparency, acceptance……there was freedom. I am learning to dream again.

This fierce magic……right now……is calling me to Begin Anew!!!! SHINE!!!!! And photograph with dedication to create!!!!!!"

 

(Photo credits Chelsae Biggs, Sarah Rubin, Persephone Brown, Mara Glatzel and Gina Parker)

An open invitation.

I choose white sheets and duvet covers, despite the children and dog.

I love the sexy wash of white touched with fluffy invitations to surrender.

Just the right pillows to prop back with coffee in the morning and melt into at night.

Mixed patterns, always changing with my mood.

A present self nurturing and smiling at the future self.

Perspective shifts from opening space and beauty.

The three minutes of care and time. Peace with every glance.

The woman sipping coffee sending love to the one with tired bones and full moments seen.

The woman thinking of her lover as she puts a tiny bit of her favorite scent on his pillow.

The woman walking by the room each day wishing she could just pause and take the time, taking the time. Today.

The woman who knows how she wants to feel at the end of the day finding it now.

The woman creating her rituals to keep time with her visions.

The woman leaning into a sexiness that with one glance you can feel down to your toes.

The woman who is practicing not to leap, but to simply sip her coffee, make her bed, look at her own eyes in the mirror and create a doorway for who she is becoming.

***

 

From Sexy and Sanguine. Want more? Join us.

I am inviting some of my special sexy friends and colleagues to join each day of the prompts with something special of their own. I'll tell you who they all are soon!

Gotta hold tight baby.

In childbirth they tell you to let your jaw release so your pelvic floor can relax and you can open.

I have chronic jaw pain and pelvic floor pain. I am a holder. A stuffer. The physical manifestation is the way I lock all the things that are easier not to talk about inside two really special places of my body.

Gotta hold tight baby.

Don't tell the truth of how you feel, they will leave you.

It isn't safe to say how that made you feel, you'll be told you are wrong. Shamed.

So maybe you aren't happy now, but who said happy was your thing? Just be safe, lock it up.

Gotta hold tight baby.

No one will ever see it, you've hidden it so well.

Make sure thier feelings come first, protect them from yours, yours aren't safe.

Your sensitivity will drive them away. You are too much for them. You are too needy. Just do for them, do for them, do for them. 

Gotta hold tight baby.

And then I went into physical therapy for my pelvic floor and everything started to flood through my body. Each session after the muscles would be triggered into release I would go home and want to crawl into the fetal position and cry. But I wouldn't. I held it all together.

Gotta hold tight baby.

My world started to shift with each session. I couldn't hold the way I used to. My body was being taught that it could release or relax or just be its own beautiful self.

I started to tell my truth. I got uncomfortable. I made others uncomfortable. I challenged the ways I showed up in the world. I didn't know what I wanted and somehow am still alive in that unknowing.

Opportunities for learning boundary work showed up, over and over. It began to exhaust me and challenge me again, in a deeper way and all I knew to say was...

Gotta hold tight baby.

Telling your truth hurts others.

You can't be nurturing if you put your needs first.

Run. You aren't safe.

Gotta hold tight baby.

I remember being in 3rd or 4th grade and being picked on by a group of girls. I was the sensitive one and it impacted me deeply. I internalized being left out from a group, it became unsafe for me to share my feelings. I had to pretend it didn't matter. I had to hide my tears. My sensitivity left me raw and open and vulnerable to pain.

Gotta hold tight baby.

Every full moon I think about release. It just isn't my thing. I've tried floating things out to sea, burning words, meditating. I'm a holder.

My physical therapist (who I have not been to see in a long time and I so need to go back, little note to self) said to me once about my anxiety, "It isn't happening to you, it is happening within you."

Um, hello.

I started practicing more boundary work, shaking each time I had to face it.

The thing about not taking on someone's feelings as your own. Yep, my new practice. Hard as shit but holy life shifting.

It isn't happening to you, it is happening within you.

I get to decide who holds my truth. It isn't all for everyone. Some of it is mine, parts of it can be shared. Safety allows for truth.

My sensitivity is a superpower if I learn to slow down. Stay grounded. Feel my way through.

Sometimes it is going to get tough. Speaking my feelings. Sharing my vulnerability. This is OK. This is a practice. I will screw up and start again.

It isn't happening to you, it is happening within you.

I don't have to release the holding. I have to integrate the feelings inside into my body in ways that don't cause pain. I have to learn that no one makes me this way, that I have the control over it.

That voice that says, gotta hold tight baby may never go. But she is being loved up by the new one reminding me daily, multiple times a day that it is happening within me. That it is mine. I can hold tight or I can open, open, open.

Gotta hold tight to your spirit baby.

Those feelings? They are beautiful. They are within you. They are walking you home.

*** *** ***

This post is part of the Let it Go Project: a collection of stories leading up to a beautiful releasing ritual, hosted by Sas Petherick on the 30th of January. All the details for this free event are here. And you can take part! Be inspired by other posts in this project, and share what you are ready to let of of on the Let it Go Project Community Page!

How we breathe in circles.

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.”  ~ Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

I am warm spiced surprise.

I am the opulent lip.

I am passion rising.

I am sweet morning.

I am built with artistry, feeling, wonder and soul.

I am possible. I am champagne bubbles.

I am finding inspiration everywhere.

I am the sacred spirit.

I am song of devotion.

I am rewriting what's expected.

I am the strong sensitive type.

I am fire and crystal untold.

I am love and lust.

I am the high and low.

I am displaying layers of meaning.

I am evolving one wild and precious life.

I am luminous in the dark.

I am hungry for change.

I am open for fun.

I am tender.

I am integrating new ways.

I am Phoenix Rising...with a touch of self adhesive.

I am the evolution of connection.

I am found.

I am unbroken.

I am kaleidoscope alchemy.

I am soulflower.

I am a new degree of possibility.

I am ready to make it happen.

I am a cake for every occasion.

I am radiant nude.

I am the hungry traveler.

I am finding creative freedom.

I am a traveler of delicious comforts.

I am a part of it all.

I am absorbing delicious self discovery.

I am destined to be dazzled.

I am a magical place.

I am room for a miracle.

I am the co-existence of light and shadow.

I am beginning.

I am tender warrior.

I am intense and light at the same time.

I am glitter and glass.

I am a player of light.

I am first, gooey, sensitive.

I am a soul of light, all aglow.

I am the only centerpiece.

I am today.

I am (fill in yours here).

(Compiled from the circle of women in Spirits of Joy, A vision book course running through January. Can you feel the breath, the pulse, the safety and the penetration into a deeper spirit? This is how we breathe in circles.)

Often the best way we can see ourselves is through the reflection not in a mirror but in the eyes of compassion, empathy and fierce magic. Someone who has walked in our story. And then we become that for another. And the breath we exhale becomes their inhale and we need not push or judge because we find ourselves in safety.

And the 'I am' that surprises us from found words. Another's words becoming where we are traveling to next or holding us in a pause that is about to transform into tomorrow.

In a circle is where breath can expand and flow from one to another and words are held by the hands and hearts of community of choice. It is where space can be held to listen. Space where you are heard and no one is trying to solve you, just see you.

Soulwork is how we commune. Story is how we gather. Prompting is where we grow. Listening is how we feed. Prayer is how we ask and accept. Surrender is what leads us to change. Showing up in our now is how we embody all we desire.

 

“There is a community of the spirit.

Join it, and feel the delight

of walking in the noisy street

and being the noise.

Drink all your passion,

and be a disgrace.

Close both eyes

to see with the other eye” ~ Rumi

***

Questions keep floating in about Magic Making Circle ::

The number I hold inside of a circle always carries an energy for me. 100 is my sweet spot. When the group is given boundaries and accountability and freedom and modeling it thrives.

Magic Making Circle will be capped at 100. There seems to be a lot of fear around this number. We may or may not get to 100 but that is the number I am visioning as the maximum of sweet spot energy and community. I love 100. It also will be the only group you'll be able to work with me inside of for 6 months, so my desire is that for those who love prompts and soulwork and the circling with women, that they choose to take this journey with us. My goal was to keep the investment affordable and open the access to a powerful circle to those who believe in the work and the practice. Masterminds with 20 or less tend to average in the thousands and I want to create a model that works for me and my life, and what I know is your life. So I am creating circles, rather than masterminds. I am finding ways to keep the mastermind option open but not vital to the circle.

A circle holds power because it is a community of choosing. This cannot be underestimated.

Can 100 people be intimate? Well, I decided to ask my circle of 409 women, who have all been part of one or multiple programs I have run over the last few years, to talk about this. Here is what some had to say.

"The unique power of Hannah's circles, even the very large Alumni group, feels as though I'm sitting in a cozy living room with my most precious, loving friends, with their arms around me." ~ Lisa

"You are a beautiful soul, through and through authentic and you have the gift of bringing women together to make magic in their lives and hearts . It is felt so viscerally no matter the size of the group." ~ AnaLisa

"There is something so important and so soul-filling about having a strong circle of love, support, and stretch." ~ Xandra

"There is something very different about how Hannah's groups form. There is an unspoken congruence that is felt within this safe space. Hannah is not in your face every single moment, seeking attention, in fact she has the balance right, she passes it over to us. She's there to guide, facilitate, prompt, nudge and cajole us. Everyone is incredibly supportive in ways that are hard to describe. These are a band of women who want to create good in their worlds to turn around their thoughts and perspectives, and ultimately be surrounded by love and joy rather than be faced with negativity and hate. What I have experienced here is that when you begin to flourish, the group holds you and prods you to move even further into your light, stretching yourself without breaking. All of this refers to a group of approximately 400! With Hannah at the Helm, it will be magic." ~ Julia

"We are all walking a different path and whenever i have reached out to this group i have received an abundance of unique responses. it's like drawing on the deepest, most beautiful and loving wellspring of knowledge and experiences! when i circle with these women i can be my true self. there is no criticism, judgement or negativity. i have only ever received love, understanding & constructive feedback. i can go deeper with my vulnerability within the open arms of this group and grow even more from witnessing the journey of others." ~ Jenny

"Wherever you are in the world, whatever time of day , if you need to talk, someone somewhere will answer. We are global." ~ Mary

I hope these voices help you to glimpse what this circle will feel like.

Other questions ::

Can you explain the monthly calls?

Yes!!! We will do the 6 monhtly calls via a Spreecast. Spreecast is a video feed that allows me to either talk and receive questions via a live written feed or I can bring someone on with me in person. Most of the Spreecasts will be with me addressing the written feed, but there may be times I arrange to have someone come on as a guest if appropriate. These will be recorded.

Often a question from one is a question from many. That is what these Spreecasts will hope to achieve, a way to in live time address where you are, what is coming up, what questions you have. You will be able to chat with eac hother over on the side in live time. If you miss the feed live you can watch and then come to the group page later and we'll still be talking about all of it.

How much time will we need to commit to the circle?

What you put in is what will be returned. For some that will be a large investment, for others it will be smaller. We all land and show up in different places. There is no wrong or right, there is what you need, what you desire. I cannot create this investment for you, you must decide this.

Some of you may be inside a 'cave' right now in your lives or a highly sensitive bubble of protection, as I was for years. You may be inside of raising multiple children while wanting to foster a passion or desire or skill. Some will be inside of already thriving businesses and looking to have a place they can go to for support and perhaps a new direction. There are some who may be quietly reading and processing inside of the group while others are out there, asking, probing, sharing. We all are able to gain such insight and movement from those who have more time or are more open to posting in the group.

I will ask of you that if you feel shy or quiet that you push your boundaries just a bit and spend some time learning to connect in this way that will draw you to the story of others and they to you. I will ask of you to learn to hold space for each other without trying to fix or compare, but to listen and create safety. I will ask that you show up. I will ask that you learn to land outside of comfort zones into desires.

For those who are ready to commit even further to their work or passions there will be gathering weekends at the Loft in Rhode Island for seriously fun and productive masterminds. You'll get all of me for a weekend to explore, question, hold space and prompt you forward. This is a beautiful opportunity to gather a friend or colleague or two and create a fantastic weekend together. (These will be announced in February.)

Having a circle like this to hold you, the talkative or the shy, the open or the cautious, is a gift. One that we will adventure inside of for half of a year. I am beyond grateful to have this time together.

This circle will become a network of women lifting you up, seeing you, listening to you, pulsing along with your unique vibration. You will discover how we breathe in circles.

And it will be beautiful.

Magic Making Circle ~ You've got questions.

Questions are floating in around the circle. I love a good question that I can dive into. It challenges me further and allows me to expand and find more ease.

As I was making this video my little one was taking a bubble bath at the Loft.

Right around the 8 minute mark after he is calling me and calling me I finally scream, "Just a minute I am making my video." So cover your ears or something!

And as I was thinking oh damn, do I have to remake this or edit, I recieve this email, seriously, as the video was uploading ::

"Dear sweet beautiful BRAVE Hannah~

I found you a year ago or so or more ....I remember the day I first watch your video and you could hear the kids in the background....you adjusted the computer and drank your coffee. 

 

I thought what is this???? Its really kind of cool and she is so brave and cool and a mom and wow this is fascinating...the entire process!"

 

So the truth is that I am evolving. I don't pretend to be somewhere I am not. Now I am making videos with my kid in the bathtub. I want you to know that if I can build this business from the ground up raising three kids, no babysitter, you can do anything. Anything you want. We get to choose. I choose to parent and work. I like being with my little guy and hearing him play legos while I upload videos. I love that he understands my work and the Loft and manifesting in the most beautiful 5 year old way. He also has feedback that I say 'um' too much. Yes, Lucas, I'm trying dude, I'm trying!

 

So I leave it in. Next year maybe I'll have fancy lights and a better camera. I started this video making years ago in my mini van infront of Barnes and Noble balancing my laptop on the steering wheel! Yes, I love to see where I've been and where I'm going. But mostly I love where I am.

 

Wherever you are, this circle will be a beautiful support system in your life. You will grow, you will step into more ease, you will get shit done, you will embrace the sacred in money and planning and sticky notes, you will see how visioning can take you into the next iteration of you and your business.

 

Have more questions? Leave them below. Let's keep this conversation going.

 

Magic Making Circle. Its going to be a good good time.

 

Article link mentioned in video. Seriously a beautiful story.

 

Magic Making Circle Questions from Hannah Marcotti on Vimeo.

Sugar Candy

What :: A night of journeying through crafts, delicious foods and spirits, and the creation that happens inside of spiritual fun

Why :: To gather, relax, restore and play within a magical, fiercely feminine community

When :: January 31st, 7-10:30pm at The Loft, Hope Artiste Village, Pawtucket, Rhode Island

Cost :: $65 Register below, spaces are limited to 16 and we expect them to fly!

 

SOLD OUT!

"We have not journeyed all this way across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy."

~ Sir Winston Churchill

What if for one night you could play as though you were sugar candy? At ease, in the flow, giggling, hugging, lounging, creating and finding some of your own magic as you traveled through different worlds...

A few times a year the hosts of this Sugar Candy adventure gather at The Loft in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and have a weekend where we lift each other up. Part fun, part mastermind, part open to what the days bring us. There is bubbly and the city lights, there are vision books and beautiful meals. There is giggling and tears. We leave the weekends restored, relaxed and flowing in our own fierce magic.

These weekends have become my grounding because gathering in person when living such an online life shifts everything around for me. It is like being inverted so the blood can flow away from tired feet. And I adore these women. We like to theme our weekends and as we were planning our next gathering the thought of how we could bring some of this energy to our larger magic community came up.

And Sugar Candy was born.

Come journey through different worlds and all of your senses at The Loft with the magic of women around you. There will be extra twinkles for this one.

Little Altars Station

Our altars are the physical representation of our internal landscape. They are the tender keepers of our innermost wishes and prayers for ourselves, turning corners of our home into small escapes or beautiful reminders of who we are deep inside.

During Sugar Candy, you will be charged with creating your own travel sized altar, so that you might begin to bring the inspiration and reminder of an altar to moments when you need it the most - on the go and moving about the world. During this mini-workshop, Mara will guide you and your creative spirit in cultivating a mini altar in a small tin box, perfect for putting in your pocket or purse. Using feather, sand, magazine clipping, fabric, glitter, and color, constructing these mini altars provide the perfect momentary escape and benefit of taking your bits of inspiration with you, everywhere that you go. 

 Sugar Glow Skin Station

 Make your own skin softening body scrub using therapeutic oils, natural fragrances, and raw sugar.  Coffee~vanilla, lemon~peppermint, and grapefruit~sage are just some of the decadent flavors you’ll play with, as you hand mix a delicious body scrub to take home.  Join Persephone as she guides you to discover your unique blend, knowing it is just another little something that adds to your shine.

You will feel like raw vibrating sugar candy!

Superpower Your Intentions! Reiki Station

Do you have a guiding word for 2014? An intention you’re working with? A newish practice you’re incorporating into your now?

Let’s reiki that shizz together! Throughout the evening, Sarah will be offering 10-15 min private reiki sessions in the yummiest, most relaxing corner of the Loft. Come and bathe in this delicious energy work, receiving just what you need to support you on your path: physically, emotionally, spiritually. You’ll come away with a special reiki-charged treasure to remind you of your superpowers, as well as written notes of the questions you are asking and the insights you receive. Get superpowered with me!

Mini Visioning Station

Soulwork is about connection to self, to the now and that future woman we see and want to flow into. We come alive as we find a part of ourselves that has been lost or longing to come out.

Hannah will guide you to create mini pages filled with words and visions and feelings that surround them. As you do this you harness the true magic of the Universe. You vibrate in a new way. These books that you'll tuck in your pocket become a way for you to align what you want with what you have. They create manifesting magic in your life. Visioning allows you to love this life now while creating a future of your dreams. 

Prosecco Bar

You know the ice cream sundae bar right? Well, we like to drink bubbly during our weekend gatherings. Create your perfect glass of bubbly to travel with you through the stations with all the little treats and treasures we'll have out for you. Infuse beauty into your sugar candy cocktail. We think we are pretty brilliant with this one.

Savory and Sweet Station

Feasting with all of our senses, not just taste is pure pleasure. Yes, pleasure. Eating sensuously. Making a gorgeous plate. Simple foods. Feeding ourselves when hungry and feeding our desires. We will show you some of our tricks and secrets for creating a beautiful table and plate. So be ready to nibble.

Meet the women who will be joining me as your Sugar Candy hosts :: Sarah, Persephone and Mara. My Lift Up women who will be guiding you into the sweet adventure.

Meet Sarah Rubin

Hi, I'm Sarah, yogi and healer, queen of compassionate listening and living, deeply devoted to rocking my most authentic, connected, and fun life. I am beyond thrilled to be collaborating with these three beautiful friends/supreme magic makers to create an evening of epic sweetness for those who are ready to taste their own beauty!

Meet Persephone Brown

Hi, I’m Persephone, an inspired chef & coach, lover of pretty food, and master of the gluten free brownie.  For Sugar Candy, I am putting aside my chefs knife and grabbing the mixing bowls, oils & natural fragrances.   We will use the processed sugar that our bodies don’t love on the inside to make something our bodies (and anyone who touches them) will super love on the outside. 

Meet Mara Glatzel

I’m Mara Glatzel. I am an intuitive coach and writer. I work with brave women that have a sacred (and stubborn) desire for evolution by guiding them home to themselves and teaching them how to cultivate lives grounded self-love, self-trust, and radical self-responsibility. Quite simply, I believe that is your birthright to show up in your life brilliantly and with unbridled joy.

In creating this sacred space for women to thrive, I’m bringing a Masters in Clinical Social Work with a trauma specialization, my spot-on intuition, and the lessons that I’ve accumulated learning to fall madly in love with my own beautifully messy life. I believe that when you love yourself and have your own back – anything is possible.

 

 

Sexy and Sanguine

What :: 2 weeks of sexy and sanguine soulwork prompts, challenges and explorations

Why :: Confidence is freaking HOT.

When :: This program will return in the FALL!

Do you truly know her?

Your rogue ecstasy, your story of fantasy, your beautiful spaces?

Have you embraced the romance of waking up in your skin?

Can you feel the sensuality inside of grey, the rawness of an orange sky, the taste of a kiss full of red wine?

Do you reflect your light in others and draw their curiosity of pleasure into you?

Have you ripened? Have you ripened?

In a past life/future life have you stood in the blossoming of your sexuality with your senses exploding, in the gift of feeling?

And from that self that was or will be can you feel her guiding you?

Are you sexy and sanguine?

Do you feel belly passion?

Can you close your eyes and paint your beauty by numbers?

Is there a knowing in your toes, your ears, your breasts that each piece of you is loved and sacred and on the journey towards whole?

Is there a candle waiting to be lit that is celebrating you, celebrating her, celebrating this gorgeous life that you have claimed?

And where can you whisper ‘oh yes. oh yes. oh yes’?

Let me take you there. To the yes. To the roughness of your edges and the dance of your awakening.

This. This is where we travel next.

Sexy :: Stimulating. Erotic. Desirable. Appealing. Hot.

Sanguine :: Bloodred. Temperament of cheerfulness. Confidence.

When I was 22 I was out walking with a friend. I had long blonde hair, worked out often, was a champion dieter, known for really good skin and living in Seattle pursuing acting, 2 years away from marriage. My friend said to me, "Whenever we are out I just watch men look at you, turn their heads."

2 days later I went to a Salon and cut off all my hair. Not in the cute or sexy-declaration-of-myself-as-a-woman way, in the I-don't-want-to-be-seen way.

It terrified me. My sexual self, at 22, she scared me. I wanted to hide from her. While many 22 year olds were out exploring their sexuality and beauty I found myself wanting to stuff it into a little box and find a hiding place for it. Part of my dieting history had so much to do with not wanting to be seen.

I was terrified of myself. Of my skin. Of my beauty. Of my yes.

This may not have been your 22 year old story. It may have happened after your marriage vows. Or when your first baby made her appearance. Maybe it was a story of a younger age or the fear of turning 50. Or maybe your sexual confidence just slowly faded as the role of young woman turned into wife, mother, worker, nurturer, tender, multi-tasker.

Confidence is alluring, hot, sexy.

Each year many of us choose a guiding word or phrase that will be the feeling we want to draw into our experiences, and it is a powerful practice. This year my guiding phrase is gracefully sexy. All to lead me further into hot confidence.

Confidence is gracefully sexy. Managing finances is gracefully sexy. Feeling delicious in your skin is gracefully sexy. Creating healthy boundaries is gracefully sexy.

Sexy and Sanguine Woman know...

• boundaries are beautiful.
• dreams come true from feelings.
• closets are sanctuaries.
• the shade of lipstick that lights them up, or the perfect lipgloss to plump.
• just when breakfast is for dinner and that bubbly can happen anytime, anywhere.
• the part of their body they always hated can actually guide their pleasure.
• pleasure.
• how to hold a gaze.
• how to receive. Really.
• how to stand in front of a mirror naked.
• to kiss and say hello before listing off complaints.
• beauty is in the details.
• how to hold space.
• feeling sexy is inside and out.
• that iterative living is gorgeous.
• how to take risks.
• saying yes is a turn on, after learning to say no.
• that listening changes everything.
• how to follow their animal spirit guide or tarot card into sacred space.
• that hot confidence is a practice.
• how to walk into a room and really see.
• how to ask the questions that flip it all around.
• that hot confidence is fierce magic.
• that an awakening is non-negotiable.

What you'll need for this course...

• A camera, iphone is great
• A journal to poem and vision in, I love Moleskines
• Some white space, clear the calendar a bit for some sexy and sanguine prompts
• A hot date, with yourself, with a girlfriend or many, with your lover... in celebration

She said.

She said, "You amaze me."

She said, "I need to go within."

She said, "Neither of us knew what we were seeking, right?"

She said, "And we learn perspectives, and how to flip it and we talk about things without projecting or manipulating emotions and eventually it can become graceful."

She said, "I am thinking about your heart."

She said, "So much magic flowing from this."

She said, "I need a hashtag."

She said, "I could feel you open to feel it."

She said, "Love you."

She said, "Bubbles make me silly."

She said, "I am excited to see you."

She said, "There will be wine."

She said, "How are you?"

She said, "Wish we lived closer."

She said, "Hey sweet bird."

She said, "Either way I love you and love you and love you."

She said, "Joy I could not need more."

She said, "I neeeeeeeeed you."

She said, "I missed you too."

She said, "Thanks."

She said, "Holding you."

She said, "Always here to talk about the hard shit."

She said, "We can learn to separate the person from the gift."

She said, "I adore you."

She said, "You are on fire."

She said, "I just cried."

She said, "It takes a piece of my soul."

She said, "I have a vulnerability hangover."

She said the words that make me who I am. That shape me. That heal me. That save me. That make me laugh. That allow me to be there for her. That help me stop for one minute and feel.

She is my tribe. My women. My circle.

If the words I send back can be half as vital to the hearts that receive them as these are to me, I am doing OK.

***

Join a magical circle and find the words that are waiting for you to hear. That will shape you. That will heal you. That will save you. That will make you laugh. That will allow you to be there for her. That will help you stop for one minute and feel.

They are your tribe. Your women. Your circle.

Magic Making Circle.

Spirits of Joy ~ Help me write my book!!!

***

What:: 30 Days of Joy Up Soulwork Prompts for Creating A Vision Book and connecting back to you!
When:: January 2nd, 2014 (We might be too tired on the 1st)
How:: An email each day for 30 days with a Vision Book prompt and some story telling from me, including videos from myself and some of my friends who are rocking their visions!

Help me write my book!!!

Why now:: I have been planning to turn this course into a book that you can hold and gift and put on your coffee table. I need your help, your energy, your enthusiasm and your stories and photos to help make it a reality. Each day while you create a vision page I will write that page of the book. I may interview some of you. I may ask for your photos. Your energy will be infused into this book and help make it a reality.
Cost:: $29 A low low price this time because I will be asking you for your energy!!!
Wanna play:: We are going to use this visioning time as a way to have so much FUN in January. This is how you kick resolutions out and call in desire, feeling, wanting, dreaming, manifesting and loving your now.

 Soulwork is about connection to self, to the now and that future woman we see and want to flow into.

Allowing ourselves to make what become vision books, is powerful. We come alive as we find a part of ourselves that has been lost or longing to come out. These prompts not only become part of our books, but our daily thoughts and often allow our writing practice to expand and gain depth.

Through daily vision work you can allow each day to guide you towards living joyously, even when things are hard or challenges arise.

Know yourself. Use these prompts to spend time with yourself. To light up in a new way. To discover a you that may have hidden out, buried by the stresses of daily living.

Create pages filled with words and visions and feelings that surround them. As you do this you harness the true magic of the Universe. You vibrate in a new way. These books become a way for you to align what you want with what you have. They create manifesting magic in your life.

Visioning allows you to love this life now while creating a future of your dreams.

Soulwork will prompt you into new places and ideas, it will ask you to push beyond that safe place and dip into seeing truth, beauty, connection, love, joy, dreams and ritual.

• 30 days of prompts.
• 30 days of soulwork.
• 30 days of creative exploration.
• 30 days of you.
• 30 days to creating a vision book.
• 30 days of connection to spirit.
• 30 days of the gift of joy.

Spirits of Joy - 30 Days of Prompts - January 2nd, 2014

"I am missing Hannah's daily emails, it had become part of my morning ritual. I would read them on my cell phone before getting out of bed every morning. Then lay here quietly reflecting on them before beginning anything else."

"I have had so many little insights into me & my joy. I appreciate you and the tribe more than I can say ~ Namaste ~ Love to all " ♥

"Hannah, this beautiful journey has grown through love. Your love, that you share with all of us."

"I have included reading my prompts and taking the time to process your beautiful words in my ritual. So inspiring and a lovely way with a cup of tea to start my day. Please don't let me miss the next program. Thank you for changing my mornings. xxx"

"It is my turn to thank you (and everyone) for the tasks and gracious love that is here in this tribe."

"Thank you, dear soul...this month has been life changing for me."

"I am a believer now. A believer of visioning."

There is a closed Facebook group just for those of you working through these 30 days. You can share pictures, thoughts, aha moments and see the daily journey of soulwork from others who are going through the days. Totally optional but a beautiful way to connect.

I've been visioning since I was young. As a highly-senstive child (who never knew that term) I had a brutal time dealing with my feelings. I felt overun by sensations and sadness and joy and every possible feeling you could have. One of the ways I learned to 'see' those feelings was to cut and paste. To go into a magazine and let the words and images talk to me.

Now I find it is the way I center. It is how I allow myself to know my dreams. It is how I manifest from a feeling into reality. It is a safe space to receive messages and words from the Universe through these magazines and let myself feel without fear.

Each time I complete a new page I want to stare at it for hours, sometimes I make free pages and hang them on the wall.

Vision books help us write new stories, chapters and pages for our lives. We don't have to stay stuck or in fear. We can step into our light. Maybe it seems crazy that a little book full of magazine cut outs can help us heal and create beauty in our lives. A little crazy never hurt! Let's play...

Spirits of Joy - 30 Days of Prompts

Questions you might have::

Is this a journaling course? Nope, I've never been good at keeping a journal so I wouldn't be the one to guide you to that. But I do love prompts, writing exploration, vision board work and art books. I love cutting and pasting and exploring. This is about creativity and using our right brain to deepen our joy.

What if I'm not creative? What if? Hm, I think you might surprise yourself.

I've never been able to fully participate in long e-courses. What if I can't keep up? I don't keep up with the pace of others either. I do things at my own pace. You'll have all the emails that come to save and use for any time you'd like. Take your time, read the first 5, join in at the end. Whatever works for you. It is your 30 days.

Can I participate without keeping a book? Sure thing. Sometimes just being present to the thoughts and prompts is all you need. This is about you. Not me or them. What feels good to you? You can also create a vision board, a big huge poster of your thoughts and cut outs, a piece of art to hang on the wall. The beauty of creation is all yours.

What will I need? A blank book, I like this one, I love the gray and the kraft color, this one has a pocket to store your little cut outs for later and they come in many different sizes. Scissors, a glue stick and lots of magazines and old cards, quotes, etc will be needed. A little time and space that you can carve out for you. If you have kids have them be part of this, get them each a book so that if you are short on alone, time you can still do some visioning each day.

I have taken this course before, is it the same? Yes. It will follow many of the same prompts. My intuition always lets me know what needs to be added or changed. What I can say is that every time I go back into my book and do my prompts again, the new layers appear. I am amazed at how quickly I can manifest the feelings and the visions. And of course, each group that comes together provides the magic that a course never can on its own.

Spirits of Joy - 30 Days of Prompts - January 2nd, 2014

if you travel far enough.

"If you travel far enough,

one day you will recognize yourself

coming down the road to meet you.

And you will say

YES."

~ Marion Woodward

An answer to a beautiful question...

Sometimes I wake up and I have pains from my head down my jaw and into my shoulders. Maybe sinus,maybe clenching, maybe stress but most likely all three. I should take stock in Motrin.

I get panic attacks. They have become more like waves than sitting outside the emergency room waiting for the impending heart attack. Those were last year. This year the waves.

My kids fight a lot of the time and it brings me to my knees. And then I yell and knees aren't low enough for how I fall.

I put on weight when I am in a place of unknowing, or cocooning, or feeling scared. And then looking in the mirror is hard. I do it anyway and it can feel like physical pain to know that I am back here again. Learning the same thing over and over and over.

And over. And needing the next size jeans.

I forget to drink water. I wish I could be hooked up to an IV and hydrated once a week. Sometimes I even buy a gatorade and drink it as fast as I can.

I am driving on two flat tires because making appointments to have things or teeth or body parts fixed is not my strength.

I killed my daughter's fish, got mad at Patrick last night because I didn't think he was being supportive (think being the word here) and let my 8 year old stay home because I didn't want to be alone today.

When I got my circle tattoo on my finger they didn't close the circle. I thought they did. But they didn't. And I believe it is the Universe giving me a sign and maybe someday I will close it. Or not.

Sometimes I hurt when I think friends no longer like me or don't need what I give. When I put my heart into things and then feel sad. The fear of losing relationships a constant and getting lost in that, but more than that. Knowing that it does happen and I will be OK. I will be OK.

Some days I can't find my gratitude and I feel like I complained and hid and threw tantrums.

There are memories that haunt me and cycle back into my body and I want to free them.

I am intense and it can be a lot for others to hold.

At 6pm I realize I have nothing for dinner.

This is why my hot cup of coffee each morning made for me with love is sacred.
This is why I wear beautiful jewelry every day and dress myself for how I want to feel.
This is why I pray through words, altars, surrender, tea bags, giggles, connection, texts.
This is why fresh flowers matter.
This is why I send love notes through Fb, texts, the mail, feathers, lipstick, emails.
This is why the picture of the feather my daughter drew for me reminds me that she is watching.
This is why I circle with women who believe in magic and risk and doing things that feel out of their comfort zone.
This is why I keep trying and hoping when every sign points to the shitstorm.
This is why soulwork saves my soul.
This is why there are so many pictures of me on Instagram.
This is why one bite of a chocolate cupcake wearing a vegan leather jacket can feel like a tiny piece of bliss.
This is why gratitude looks like a piece of pie or meeting your girlfriend at the mall on a Wednesday night or patience for feelings you have inside.
This is why I often send out the SOS text for a bottle of red around 5:00pm.
This is why that hug on the beach, barefoot and crying will happen. Over and over.
This is why when I find a shirt that feels like heaven on my skin I buy 4. And then 5.
This is why I don't have to ask how you feel but rather how you want to feel inside of your beautiful dreams.
This is why your stories are mine. Mine yours. And every word is precious.
This is why beautiful is one of my favorite words and joy lives in my gut.
This is why I no longer try to make everyone happy but rather live in my truth.
This is why the irony of scared and sacred isn't lost on me.
This is why there is no doubt magic exists.
This is why love takes so many shapes. Even an unclosed circle.
This is why I love this life now.
This is why I say thank you to my own heart.
This is why when I go to bed I think about who I want to be the next day.
This is why waking up to that coffee is my starting moment, with each sip telling me a story of now.

This is why.

Because it isn't happening to me, it is happening within me.

This is why.

The shifts that I can make blow my mind. So can the sadness I feel. So can the love.

This is why seeing how much beauty exists, even inside of pain, forever guides me.

This is why I travel.

This is my yes.

***

(From Thursday morning love letter from me to you. Sign up in the box up there on the right to receive your little Thursday morning love.)

My answer.

Photo Ruth Clark Photography.

So hard to let go. And say good-bye.

The yes I am always guiding others towards.

The yes of intuition and making your body feel at peace, release.

The yes of taking care of you, over all else so that you can show up as the brilliant gorgeous you.

The yes of knowing when you don't know and settling into the pain and prayer of that moment.

The yes when a decision is made, even if it is saying good-bye.

This Holiday Joy Up will be the last official Joy Up. There will be a celebration of all that has been and all that will be. We will honor the beauty that has held a tribe born out of the question, "Can you increase the amount of joy in your life in just 10 days?"

That was 2 1/2 years ago.

Hundreds of women have lifted themselves up inside of the space and days traveling through Joy Ups.

My life has been changed and twisted and loved up and pulled into joy.

And now my yes is saying good-bye and honoring the beauty of these travels together.

This December we will journey as a group into the final live group Joy Up program.

I am ready for the new creations that are inside of me wanting to be born. But mostly I desire going deeper and asking that of you. The you who is ready to find your own yes. In 2014 I will spread my wings and take us together on new adventures through magic and gorgeous living and truth.

When this yes became clear to me I fought it for a bit and tried to find ways around it. And everything in my body kept leading me back to the joy of a decision made inside of growth and change and surrender.

This December we will journey as a group into 24 days of the magic of Joying Up.

We will spiral together through prompts that allow us to see each moment through the eyes of joy. Joy doesn't mean being happy, joy means feeling it all, having access to everything that you hold inside. We will spiral.

Finding the yes that is waiting to be born inside of you is beauty.

This December come along with us. Into a Joy Up.

The yes can lead to a moment that is hard to let go of.

The yes might mean saying good-bye.

The yes could lead to a celebration of all that was, is and will be.

And so it is.

The Holiday Joy Up

The Loft Autumn Series : Holiday Trunk Show

Meet Chelsae. She is joy wrapped in a human body and one of my girls here in Providence. You may see us from time to time in my Instagram feed!  Chelsae has a magic about her that you feel in every conversation, each laugh and all of the beauty that she creates for her Utopian collection line.

One of my greatest joys has been having this magical space, The Loft, to share with my friends. We've had girl weekends, pre-wedding cocktail parties, wedding mornings dressing the bride and drinking whiskey, birthday parties with visioning, co-working weekends and quiet wine nights.

Chelsae had the vision for how gorgeous the Loft space could be and set about helping me collect antiques and thrift and made all the pillows you see in my space (and you'll be able to own some for yourself!). She told me when I needed plants and I found them, haha!

I am thrilled that the Loft is hosting her Holiday Trunk show. Stop by and say hello ( I will be popping in and out during the day), see the Loft and munch some yummy things. Leave with one of a kind handmade treasures for gifts if you can part with them! You may have noticed many of my friends wearing those crowns around their head? Yep, that is Chels.

Happy Holidays!

What:: Holiday Trunk show featuring The Utopian Collection, an eco-friendly line of handbags as well as accessories for you and your home

Who:: Chelsae Biggs

When:: Saturday, November 16th from 10am-4pm.

Where:: The Loft, Hope Artiste Village, Suite 1110 (In the hallway just to the right of the Farmer's Market)

Eat and drink some yummy refreshments too! Please come and invite your friends!

(Second photo credit Ruth Clark)

The Loft Autumn Series ~ Chocolate Night

Persephone Brown hosts Chocolate Night!!!

I am thrilled to welcome Persephone back to The Loft after her sold out (and then a few more squeezed in) Spring Feast where she brought us gorgeous food and wine and the understanding of each food's preparation. One of the women reported to having more fun than she thought possible at a cooking night!

The idea for chocolate night was cooked up I'm pretty sure as the Spring Feast dishes were being washed! I love food. I love Persephone. And I love bringing women together at The Loft, to feel kindred, to laugh, to rest while being nurtured.

Date: Friday, November 22nd, 6:30pm-10:30pm

Cost: $85 (includes a spot in The Holiday Joy Up, oh yes!)

 

"Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.”

― Joanne Harris

Celebration of life, settled on our tongue. Chocolate.

At the Loft we laugh. We celebrate. We dine, and wine, and sigh at the beauty and the goodness of it all. This chocolate night will be a heightened experience brought alive from the flavors, scents, and fluidity of this food from the Gods. The menu will vary from rich and raw to savory and simple. Wine is paired to take you further into the evening’s experience. Leave with a little something to take home with you, and an arsenal of new recipes which will bring love into your kitchen, the way only chocolate can.

 A perfect recipe starts with flavor, then color. A perfect dish grabs hold of all of your senses, you smile at the sight of its beauty, the textures dance on your tongue. A perfect meal nourishes you beyond healthy nail beds and belly, with story, and laughter, and soft colorful cloth napkins. A perfect meal is messy, and simple, and lovingly prepared. The first bite you dance, the last bite you sigh, and every moment in between, all that exists is love.

~Persephone

 

 

Our amazing menu:

Marinated Brussel Sprout Salad

White Chocolate Baba Gannouj

Cocoa ~ Mushroom Caponata

Cacao and Red Wine Braised Beef

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Lover’s Mousse

Wine, & plenty of surprises.

All dishes prepared will be gluten and dairy free.  Please let us know of any dietary restrictions you may have, and we will do our best to accommodate you.

 

 

 

 

Persephone Brown is a Certified Health Coach, with certification from the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. A graduate of the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and Columbia Teachers College of New York City. Spending a number of years cooking for herself (as a vegan, vegetarian, and now carnivore) and as the baker for the Juice and Java Cafe she learned the art of making healthy beautiful food that tastes good and warms your core.

Persephone uses her education and experience with food, to support women to clear the static and get real clear on what works for them. She has guided hundreds of whole food cleanses, teaching people to take that first step for their health and their life. Clarity is a beautiful thing when you're deciding where it is you want to go. A healthy digestive system and healthy mind help you get there.

 

 

The Holiday Joy Up 2013

When you dance in the magic something opens up inside and the desire for more joy, dreams and passion becomes the mission of the heart.

December 1st to the 24th

Magic. Sparkly nights. Soft space. Blessings. Hope. Sexy shoes. Red lipstick. Glitter on the floor. Gluten and dairy free pumpkin pie. Memories. Beauty. Now.

These 24 days are about connecting to daily gratitude, creating everyday magic, feeling filled with connection (rather than sugar), truthfulness, radiating love and that twinkle of inspiration for creating a season of joy.

Gratitude + Love + Magic = Holiday Joy

24 days of holiday letters holding inside of them:

• Inspiration towards making more daily magical moments
• Reminders of what truly matters to us through holiday joy affirmations
• Gratitude makers - think noise makers full of gratitude - through soulwork assignments
  
• Recipes that make your taste buds joyful and your body gorgeous
  
• Daily sparkles, tingles, twinkles, fluttering...magic of the season

 

Reminders to dance in the magic of the season:

• Support from your joy tribe
• Inspirations for sharing the love of the season
• Twinkles of gratitude
• Joyful giving and receiving
  
• Gorgeous holiday living

Shifting into joy for the present moments:

• Feeling love for who we are now, yes, now
  
• Simple ways of showing love through the sharing and receiving of gifts and gestures
• Mindfulness and joy that come from the simple, ordinary tasks of our life
• Transforming the everyday into joyful holiday magic through Soulwork
  
• Fully being inside of the joy of the season

Recipes to connect you deeper to your health:

• Grain-free and mostly dairy free, like me!

Here is how we move into the magic:

• A letter each morning delivered to your email, like a daily gift of gratitude
• 24 days of inspiration
• A Facebook Joy Tribe Group to chat in, share inspiration, pictures and the magic of the season
• Magical guests contributing their sparkle and gratitude
• Watch your holiday joy start to sparkle as you dance in the magic
• I celebrate Christmas but this is for celebrating the season, not a specific holiday
• Share the magic we will be dancing in, sign up with a soulsister
• $49.00
  
• Or join and gift to a soulsister $70.00
• December 1st to the 24th
  

I always smell joy and the excitement in the air, see it in the lights that start to sparkle and taste it in the homemade applesauce simmering away on the stove. This time together is about focusing on those special moments and making memories. Taking the stress and pressures and flipping them into gratitude, love and joy! Let's discover the magic of the twinkle together.

Here is my love note to you:

• I believe you are amazing
• I believe in you connecting to the special
• I believe in the magic of all you are
• I believe in you

"Hannah has changed the way I breathe." ~ Maria

"Thank you for giving us your all, it allows us to do the same for ourselves." ~ Izabela

"I didn't even realize how far away I had traveled from my passions and joy until Hannah entered my life. What did I do without her?"~ Joanie

"The work you do is magical and impacts so much on the lives of the women that take part… including me." ~ Amy

"I value your words so much, they always speak to my heart. Thank you, I get so tired of reading other people's words all the time but yours are always special." ~ Jackie

"To feel that connection that exists between all of us, everywhere, is so refreshing and joyful." - Emily

"This time has been wonderful. I met Joy like an old friend coming back into my life. I am really enjoying the visit and hope that she stays." - Laura

"This has been the most precious of days ♥ !" - Stacy

"Thank you for these days, they will ripple into many more days to come." - Jenn

"Focusing on joy has allowed me to encourage and old friend and totally change the way I think about situations. I'm usually negative but these past days I have learned to speak the truth in my head out loud instead of letting the negative situations take over. It has been really amazing." - Rachel

The Loft Autumn Series : Canvas, Cocktails, Community with Cassia Cogger

I am so excited to host Cassia's first Loft class. During an event Cassia attended last year she pulled out painting supplies and let us all grab brushes and sit on the floor and play. Cassia is hilarious, high energy and so gifted at about 10 million things. She will make you smile, set you at ease and show you the joy and beauty in paint.

And there will be cocktails. Because we can.

Canvas, Cocktails, Community

When: Friday, November 15th, 2013 6-10pm

Cost: $85

 Join us for a fun filled night of creative expression as we connect to self and others through paint on the canvas.

Cassia Cogger will guide the group through general painting prompts encouraging exploration and connection to intuition. Color will be splashed and splayed, maybe even sploshed. People will connect, to themselves as well as others. Cocktails will be consumed and paintings will be made...

Join us on Friday Evening, November 15, magic will happen!

No painting or artistic experience necessary. All materials are included though you are welcome to bring yours.