Above: Flying in a propeller plane in Costa Rica, 2020.
Hello lovely friend and Happy Lunar New year (the New Moon was a few days ago on January 29th!)
This podcast is Episode #8 on the listening list and includes your FREE February Coloring page, Word of the Year (yes, its not too late to come up with one), a flash sale on my Mantra Mandala class AND news of an adventure I am embarking on!
Download your FREE February Coloring page here.
Welcome to A Creative Connection with Nature and this little corner of mine in the online world with me, Louise Gale.
I am a Mixed Media Artist and most of my time here will be spent sharing the little creative ways I weave nature into my art practice. I will also be exploring and sharing little snippets of inspiration for you to explore your own.
Read the full blog post at louisegale.substack.com (as this email may get cut off at the bottom)
So what does February bring for you?
I just returned back to the UK after spending 6 weeks with the winter sun in Spain and it is still very much in the depths of winter here.
On some days, there is that beautiful promise of Spring and I have been making time to get outside and face the weather on my walks, whatever that may be! Embracing the elements can also be invigorating and awakening! When the sun does shine during these winter months, it really is such a blessing.
Above: Moody sky from my Studio in Spain. Love the changing view from here.
Often, this month can feel like the lull and those winter blues can linger. I think I always suffered from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) which is why I always loved travelling and escaping this time of year! But if I cannot get away, I have found that getting outside, celebrating the beauty of nature and taking time walking and exploring has made such a huge difference to my own mental health.
This month, I am escaping and am off on a new adventure! I am gifting myself some time, creative inspirational space, sun and 6 weeks in Thailand. I have been longing to take an extended trip since my last one in 2020 and I am so excited I am gifting myself this time again….and who knows what adventures, opportunities, challenges and life changing moments await me along the way! More on my adventures below….
One intention is to fill my cup with the beauty of nature I will discover there and use this to inspire new creative projects.
Above Image: Nature found in Bali.
Actually, during this month I spent in Bali, I wrote the first few chapters of my book - Botanical Mandalas: Draw, Paint and Create Expressive Mandalas Inspired by Nature.
Happy New Lunar Year!
This Year of the Wood Snake is filled with abundance, wisdom, intuition, strategy, and stunning success! This is what my favorite Feng Shui master (The Tao of Dana( says and she also states that….
”What's most exciting about this Lunar New Year is the promise of major transformation. Snakes shed their skin and emerge bigger, brighter, stronger, and more dynamic afterward.
What would you like to shed this year that will radically remake your life and help you emerge stronger than ever?”
A journal spread from my Spring Clean Your Life Journal class HERE
I love to use this time between the New Moon (Jan 29) and Full Moon (12 February) to really set some intentions. Below is a list of some of my January New Year merging into the Lunar New Year activities to inspire you.
I hope these activities inspire you to continue to go slow and follow your dreams in 2025. My year always seems to really start on the Lunar New Year cycle!
Creating a Vision board for 2025. My full instructions were published on Substack here earlier in the month.
Year ahead spread using my Chakra Color Affirmations Cards (also on the above substack post)
My Big Dreams, Small Wonders Workbook (if you missed this FREE download, click here)
Word of the Year (more info and your free download below)
Create Mantra Mandalas to inspire the year ahead. (Special offer on my class below)
What is Your Word of the Year?
I do often feel that the ‘real’ new year does not quite begin for me until the Lunar New year and how wonderful it has been to enter into 2025 quietly and calmly. Slowing down, taking things in and thinking about what I want to create this year.
Maybe you can create a lovely board or sign for your word and hang it up. Below is one I created for when LOVE was my Word of the Year and I had thing hanging up in my studio all year long. Love seeing it everyday.
Above: My Word of the Year Mantra Mandala. We create this in my Mantra Mandala class
I love creating these in the round and combining collage with hand-painted elements.
Our true selves have the opportunity to thrive and plant seeds out into the world for our hearts desires. The parts of our soul that are yearning to be expressed.
¨My Body is Alive and My Spirit is Free¨ Below is a little timelapse peek into a bonus tutorial from the ‘Bloom from Within’ module in my Mantra Mandala class and I am offering 15% off here so you can dive in now and create your own Mantra Mandalas in 2025. Shhhh! I have also left the ‘Dream Life Classes’ bundle offering open at 50% HERE.
In this class, we will use the power of words and images to set intentions for the year ahead and vision all the things you would like to invite in for an amazing 2025.
A perfect way to begin this Lunar New Year.
Living my Word of the Year!
Every year, side by side with many of my creative kindreds around the globe, I choose a word to live by for the year ahead. A word to help me focus on what I want to attract into my life, the feelings, people, places and experiences.
Download the Word of the Year Worksheets here and work through the questions to find your Word/Theme. These questions will help you get clear about your word (the what) and what your motivation will be (the why). The pages are also in my FREE Big Dreams, Small Wonders Workbook here, so if you have already downloaded that, you can find them there too!
I would LOVE to hear what you come up with. Or perhaps you have already chosen a word for your 2025. Leave a comment on my Substack post and share! I would love to know.
Image above: Five years ago in Cambodia.
I have not shared this yet, but I decided that my word for this year would be EXPLORE. This means many things to me, but mostly, I wanted to get away on an extended trip to relax and fuel some creative inspiration. I have some creative projects whirling around in my head which involve exploring new materials and processes with nature (of course!).
And…now I am living between two countries, I am finding it a challenge to remain in the UK during this month of ‘winterness’ before any sign of Spring will appear.
I am still working out my schedule for this new life and I think it is very likely that I will be exploring and heading off to warmer climes during February and March each year (if everything aligns and allows me to do so!) Spending January in Spain is a perfect way to start a new year and following the winter sun is something that makes me feel so much happier.
The last time I took time to just be and venture far overseas was 2020.. and…. what an adventure that turned out to be. My initial three month trip to Cambodia, Australia and Costa Rica turned into an extra THREE months in Costa Rica.
Despite everything that was going on in the world at the time, being in Costa Rica actually turned out to be rather magical. I will share more about that here another time as I had so many beautiful connections with nature. I also simply created with what I could find at the beach and in the local store on the edge of the jungle. I want to feel like I did on that beach at 5am, gathering little treasures and feeling so inspired and I often find myself dreaming about those times at the beach and sometimes being the only soul there.
I cannot believe that was FIVE years ago. This new adventure is overdue for sure. And although I do not see myself collecting shells like I did in Costa Rica, (I am only travelling with a carry on!) I know that the nature I will find in Thailand will inspire me with all its beauty.
A little snippet of my creative balcony scene below when I was stuck in Costa Rica! I just gathered inspiration and art materials wherever I could find them.
It was during this time, that I came up with the words that are at the bottom of my substack emails. “The World is My Studio & Naure, My Materials”
Of course, we can find creative inspiration on our door step, and don’t get me wrong, I do absolutely LOVE the two countries I currently call home as they offer such different perspectives and environments. But from time to time, there is something about being out of my comfort zone and somewhere far away from my regular routine that sparks renewal and rejuvination inside of me. Especially on a creative level. That time has come again.
I look forward to sharing some of my inspirations with you when I return in late March.
If you’ve read this far, I want to let you know how grateful I am that you make space inside your inbox and day for my newsletters.
Thank you again for being a subscriber. Wishing you so much love and feel free to ask me any creative questions at all!
Thank you for supporting the work I do by subscribing. I hope I can continue to inspire.
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