CLICK HERE for registration information!
OR contact Wendy Fedan directly: wfedan@earthlink.net
Through guided writing exercises and discussion, participants in this all day workshop will work through answers to why they want or need to write and what it means to be a writer. The group will explore what can be gleaned from other writers and how their own writing is affected by what they read. Practical tools essential to the writer, development of support systems, goal setting, and follow through will be discussed and explored through journaling. We’ll look at the writer’s soul and the importance of writing for self, finding a voice, making connections, and living in the moment. In the end, participants should feel excited about getting started, have a definite plan for where they want to go with their writing, and a support group for future endeavors. Most of all, the newly-invigorated writers will have given themselves permission to write, no excuses allowed. They will enter into a Writing Life.
Claudia Taller is the creator of the Word Lover’s retreats and a facilitator for Sharing Our Gifts retreats. Igniting Possibilities Events is a conduit for workshops and retreats. She is a travel and events writer for Cool Cleveland, editor of NewsCAPsule, president of Skyline Writers, and second vice president of the Cleveland Society of Professional Journalists. Claudia’s writing credits include Northern Ohio Live, The Legal Description, The Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine, West Shore Magazine, West Shore Live Well, Long Weekends, Minor Trips, Agape, and Wordcrafter’s Muse. She also has several full-length books in the works. She attained a B.A. in English Literature and Writing from Kent State University and interned with the Kent State University Press. In her career as a corporate paralegal, she has been the corporate columnist for Legal Assistant Today and Paralegal Today, taught at Notre Dame College of Ohio, and is a past president of the Cleveland Association of Paralegals.
In this workshop we will go on a light-hearted adventure using elements of Grimm’s Fairy Tale, Snow White, to explore the depths of our own self-love. As we examine self-compassion and self-care, you will identify your strengths, as well as areas where you need additional focus & blessing. An insightful activity utilizing the traits of the seven dwarfs will help to bring your self-care needs into clear focus and assist you with developing ideas & plans for fulfilling them. We will also begin a creative project that will involve personalizing your own Magic Mirror such as the one the queen used in Snow White. This mirror will serve as a powerful and fun tool to help you to increase your own self-compassion. To personalize your Magic Mirror we will use paints, markers, magazine images, artwork, ribbons and other decorative elements. You may want to use personal photos, art or items that you do not have with you at the retreat and thus, you may choose to add finishing touches to your Mirror at home. Increasing the ability to be self-compassionate and practicing strong self-care are some of the most positive and powerful habits we can develop for a more productive and joyful journey. This workshop is designed to increase awareness about self-compassion and self-care and help you to discover your own perfect ways to get more of what you need most.
Materials Fee, $10
Cindi & Stella
Cindi Saadi is a certified professional life coach living in Lewes, DE. She is also a published writer, photographer and artist. As a certified ARTbundance™ Coach, Cindi weaves joyful creativity & art into her coaching as she helps clients to illuminate insights, develop self-compassion, pursue goals & dreams and navigate life’s mountains and valleys. As a bold advocate of the power of self-compassion, Cindi’s coaching is warmly infused with helping others to love & be kind to themselves. She specializes in helping those who are “starting over,” to connect with their inner creative souls and consciously rediscover themselves as they pursue “what’s next.” Cindi provides individual coaching, group workshops, presentations for professional groups & organizations, and she creates art & inspirational products. Her background includes a Master of Arts degree in criminal justice and 11 years of federal investigative and case management experience that deepened her interest in helping others to achieve their greatest potential. Cindi is passionate about animals (especially dogs!) and the Earth and thus, in her personal and professional life she strives to promote an increased awareness of and greater compassion for animals and the environment. You can find her at the beach or at www.cindisaadi.com.!
“Get That Chip Off Your Shoulder” – By exploring the processes of positive thinking, angel guidance and creating organic mandalas from raw earth materials.
Polly will take you through a series of group exercises that will shed that heavy burden (AKA: “chip”) off of your shoulders, and assist you in converting those heavy burdens into positive energy! You will use those new positive energies to venture outdoors with a notepad & pencil and intuitively collect botanicals and look for angels hiding among you in the patterns of nature…. maybe the shape of a cloud looks like an angel, or you see one in the color pattern of a rock, or in the matrix of lines on the trunk of a tree.
Your collections and the angel you find on your hike will be used to create your very own Earth Angel! Your Earth Angels will be mandala’s made from organic materials, which will then serve a healing tool for you. The next time life weighs you down and the pile of “chips” on your shoulders get too heavy to handle… you’ll know just what to do and you’ll have your Earth Angel to lead you in the right direction!
At the latter end of the workshop you may discover a “Divine Intuition” you never knew you had! The angels have a magical way of making sure our choices always serve our needs.
activity example
This workshop is a “Part Two”/graduation of the “Signs and Wonders” workshop. In “Signs & Wonders” we learned to recognize God’s signs and messages. In this workshop we will learn how to interpret these messages in a unique and creative way using writing and/or artistic exercises.
Of course, you don’t need to have taken the Signs & Wonders workshop to get something out of this.
This workshop focuses on details you may have collected in your mind over the years or recent months. You will zero-in on these details – these signs and messages from God you have pondered about – and you will use this “Connecting the Signs” technique to explore them privately, and IN-DEPTH. When you collect the signs, you can begin to CONNECT the signs. We will pay special attention to repeated messages/signs you may be receiving, and collect the signs you may not realize could be related to each other. In the end, our goal will be to attempt understanding and interpreting God’s collective and repeated messages to us.
BRING TO CLASS: Your favorite writing materials.
Wendy Fedan is a graduate of The Cleveland Institute of Art with a BFA in Illustration and a minor in Creative Writing. She has also earned her Advanced Communicator award from Toastmasters International (2008), earned mentor certification by Cleveland’s Community Care Network (2009), and has recently been certified from Artella as an ARTbundance™ Coach, trained by Artella founder, Marney Madridakis. Wendy has been teaching her “Signs and Wonders” workshop for almost a year now, and is extremely excited about following this new avenue in her life which she calls “Creative Ministry.”
