Happy Creative New Year!

happy creative New Year!

Happy New Year my creative friend!

Art journaling is my favorite way to close and honor the past year (yes, even 2020!) and welcome the brand new one with all its new possibilities.

Last week I created my gratitude page for 2020, and since I also always do a page about my "word of the year", this time I decided to combine the two!

A special word for the New Year

I have chosen a "woty", a "word of the year", every year since 2013. This simple practice never fails to make me grow, and support me in often unexpected ways! For instance, in 2020 my word was "Focus" and it has turned out to be a true blessing, helping me navigate these chaotic times while staying focused on my inner compass, my light, the work I'm here to do, and keep sharing it with all of you.

I said that I "choose" a word every year but that's not actually how it usually happens... Most of the time, the word seems to find me, not the other way around. And it will reveal itself in its own good time: this year, it literally fell at my feet while I was tidying up the studio! I was decluttering my bookshelf and found a journal I had used to take notes during a retreat two or three years ago. As I flipped through the mostly blank pages, a little cut-out fell to the floor together with a few magazine images of cherries and flowers. And just like that, "Fruitful" is going to be my word for 2021!

I would never have thought of this word, had it not fallen at my feet. And I am really curious to find out how it will support me and what it will teach me next year. I can already feel that it is a very happy, positive and nurturing word. Creating a page about it in my art journal has unveiled a few more words and thoughts that already make it feel more personal to me: love, creative, purpose, light, comforting...

And that's really the magic of art journaling: a little starting point, a word, an image, a color... any of these will be enough to get a magical journey started. Every page becomes a new creative adventure that will help you feel connected to your deepest truth, while having so much fun in the process!

Creating this page, mostly the day of Christmas Eve, felt so special and fulfilling, especially as it started with a layer of gratitude. The page turned out colorful, joyful, rich, deep and heart-warming. And now I feel so much more ready and confident for the New Year ahead!