Greetings to my beloved wild heart community,
I just returned from spending a magical week in the desert with an amazing group of wild hearted painters at my most recent Painting From The Wild Heart retreat.
And I must say, that as grateful as I am that I have been able to transfer my teachings and classes into an online format since the beginning of the pandemic, there is absolutely nothing like being in person with people again.
It’s hard to put into words the powerfully palpable energy of healing and transformation that happens when a group of people who are devoted to this potent intuitive painting process comes together to sit in sacred circle and to paint their wild hearts out for six days straight.
I can say with the utmost confidence that none of the folks who participated in this retreat will ever be the same again in the BEST possible way. And that includes me!
I often tell my students that the reason that I offer these retreats and classes is primarily for me because I am inviting people into co-creating with me the world that I want to live in. And in this world there is total permission to express yourself freely, there is the holding and safety to be yourself without fear of judgment or criticism and there is the joy of creating with utter abandon and allowing your soul the experience of freedom and liberation from external expectations of how you are supposed to be and live.
Whenever people come on retreat with me there is always a discussion at some point about going back to the “real” world when the retreat ends and whether or not the retreat experience IS actually the real world.
I aways add my two cents by saying that the sacred circle of creative aliveness that we create together is where we get to actually BE real in a way that’s often difficult in our daily lives, so as far as I’m concerned the retreat experience is definitely the “real” world.
And one of the things that facilitates that realness and allows the retreat to be so incredibly powerful is that we devote ourselves to a number of daily practices.
We start each day with a dance party to music and then engage in a number of expressive embodiment practices in community. Then we gather in circle where we spend some time creating space for everyone to speak from their hearts and to be held with loving attention by the rest of the group. And then we go to the studio and paint.
And we do this again and again day after day, allowing the practices to seep into our bones and to do the work of slowly softening our defenses and releasing layers of fear and holding back and ancient stories and traumas that get in the way of the shining light of who we truly are.
So it’s the practices and the commitment to the practices that allows folks to come out of hiding and courageously be seen by claiming their joy and power, beauty and truth, and the fullness of their wild hearted selves.
Now, I hope that each and every one of you can come on retreat with me one day. But until that can happen I want to invite you to join me for my online intuitive painting video class Painting With Fire. In this class I will show up in your inbox five days a week for six weeks with a short inspirational teaching video and an invitation to paint for at least 15 minutes a day. Also, each week there will be journal questions and meditations and even a chance to do some fun embodiment exercises!!
And in my experience, this format does encourage folks to create a powerful practice that will transform their relationship to both their creativity and to themselves.
The class begins in less than two weeks. So come and join me by clicking on the icon below and experience for yourself the power of a committed creative practice and the many gifts that practice can bring to your life.
From my wild heart to yours,
Chris
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