I’m birthing my new course baby into the world today (my 13^th!). It’s on a day where I’m so hormonal (hello wacky premenstrual perimenopause) it’s probably not the best time to be online as I find I have little patience for the selling and promotion that seems to be everywhere. Everything’s “life-changing”, everyone’s got “six secrets”. Every email is “time-sensitive”. Every “free” webinar is just a one-hour sales pitch. Even today I received an email with the subject line: “I believe this can change your life”. Aargh, it’s so manipulative!

So here’s the thing —  the hormonal fire in my blood makes me want to be really honest with you. I’m SO tired of the way stuff gets promoted online I want to do it differently. So here’s my anti-launch pitch for my new baby:

1. I don’t have all the answers.

2. I can’t promise this will change your life.

3. I don’t have six secrets :-)

5. I’m not doing a “free” webinar to sell this course to you.

6. The only time-sensitive thing about this is the fact that the course has an actual start date — it’s Monday October 22nd.

Okay cool, we got that outta the way!

 

 

The course is called Open Your Eyes: Practicing Mindfulness in Everyday Life and, in a nutshell, this is the stuff that’s been helping me. I’ve been planning a course like this for years — I even had it featured on my site when it relaunched in 2015 — but it wasn’t until I moved house that I knew it was time to explore this properly. It started with the morning light. About two weeks into the move, when I could finally sit down and not feel overwhelmed by boxes, I began noticing how the light crept into the house in the morning. Having just spent two years in a dark cottage I was completely light-starved. Working from home had required lamps to be on all day, even in the summer, and I remember getting stressed the day of the move because I couldn’t find the boxes with the lamps in, only to then realise I DIDN’T NEED THEM — the living room stayed light till 9pm.

From then on I became a light-hunter, following the light through the house as it dipped and curled around the rooms. One morning I took a photo of the light hitting the chair in the living room and shared it on Instagram with the caption: 6:22 Morning light. I did it again the next day, and the next, until now every day begins with me noticing the morning light. Here’s what it looked like this morning:

 

 

This is an example of just one creative mindfulness practice. In Open Your Eyes we’ll spend 4 weeks trying out lots of different ways we can bring pockets of mindfulness into our days. As photography has been hugely instrumental in my own mindfulness practice we’ll explore how we can use our cameras and smartphones to get back INTO the present moment (not out of it!) but the course isn’t all photography prompts — we’ll be mixing it up!

We’ll also have a private Facebook group where we can share our discoveries, but I’m keen for us to disentangle ourselves from the pull of social media so we’ll be exploring how we can be more mindful online.

Registration is now open over here so if this sounds like something you’d like to do I’d love to have you join us, of course. The course will absolutely run again next year so you’ll get another chance if now’s not the right time (no scarcity here, loves!)

I thought it would be fun to do an impromptu giveaway so if you’d like to help me get the word out about the course I have 10 places in class up for grabs — all you have to do is share the course badge above on the ONE social media platform you enjoy using the most. Include a link to the course page in your caption — https://susannahconway.ffm-01.clickwphosting.com/open-your-eyes/ — (or my Instagram profile if you’re sharing there) and then come back here and leave a comment letting me know you shared it.

That’s it :-)

Comments will close on September 27th and I’ll contact the 10 winners on the 28th — if you win and you’ve already enrolled in class I’ll send you a refund!

Thanks so much for helping me spread the word about Open Your Eyes. Do I think this course will change your life? No, I don’t! However, practicing mindfulness has been proven to reduce stress, calm anxiety, boost immunity and increase mental focus. It also makes food taste better and music sound better… It’s certainly helped me get on top of my anxiety and was something I intuitively knew to do in the first year of bereavement even before I knew what mindfulness was (I’ll talk about that in the course) so, hand on my heart, I know this stuff works. xo

Hey look, it’s a photo of me pretending to work at my computer! Even though this is a posed shot for the new site it’s a pretty accurate representation of my day-to-day. I don’t have a desk so I’ll either be perched like this at my kitchen table or (more likely) sitting on my bed with a laptop tray, a coffee on my bedside table and notebooks strewn around me. Working from home and having a business that’s 95% online is something I do not take for granted. It was a winding path that lead me here and I’ve learned so much along the way. As I regularly get emails me asking me about how I run my biz — and you guys overwhelmingly asked for it in my recent survey — my next course will be The Inside Story: Running a Heart-Centred Business.

There are a LOT of biz-related courses out there and I don’t feel qualified to teach you how to start your own business. However, what I think could be just as valuable is an in-depth tell-you-everything tour through my business. A series of videos (with transcripts, audios and resource lists) where I share it all. You want my numbers? The screw up stories? The stuff that works best for me as an introvert? My personal theory on running a biz that genuinely helps people? Marketing that doesn’t feel slimy? You got it :D

I’m not an expert on running a biz but I’m the expert at running MY biz so if that’s of use to you I want to know your thoughts! Please head over HERE to fill out the questionnaire I’ve compiled — shouldn’t take more than five minutes, max. It’s important to me that I answer ALL your questions, so if this is something that piques your interest tell me what you’re dying to know!

You can sign up to get emailed when the course opens over on the Shop page — I’ll be offering a special discount to peeps on that mailing list :-)

Thank you so much!

My default setting is lone she-wolf. It’s taken me a long time to fully understand this and I suspect it will take many more years to truly accept it, because it flies in the face of the norm — or the norm that I perceive. I have friends I love and trust and my family are more important to me than anything else, but most of the time I really do prefer my own company. It goes far beyond being able to amuse myself of a long weekend. I like visiting new places on my own. I like working on my own. I walk my own path and looking back I see it’s always been this way. I don’t think I’m particularly anti-social — I like spending time with friends, just not as often as most people do. Once a week is just fine for me — twice a week and I feel drained.

Yet even with this bone-deep independence — and a life-long journaling habit that keeps me sane — some of the most important personal work I’ve ever done came about through the sisterhood found with other women. Through being seen and heard and emotionally held by others.

I was reminded of this last weekend when Meg came to stay — within an hour of her arrival we were already talking about the Real Stuff. We’ve known each other for eight years so it’s easy to open up and be honest, yet I remember even on our first friend-date we did the same. That’s the lovely thing about meeting friends through blogging — you cut straight through the fluff to the bean-spilling.

Our second friend-date was a flight to Seattle in 2006, where we spent a week with new friends and I got my first taste of how powerful being in a group of women can be. That week changed so much for me, as has every retreat I’ve been on since.

Fast forward to 2012. Meg, Sas and I flew to Italy for SquamItalia. Having spent many weekends together we were excited to be sharing a room again. Like sleepovers when you’re at school, the adult version is even better: we basically talked our faces off for three days. That was where we hatched the plan for our Redfox retreat (we were even planning the goody bags late into the night!)

Redfox was born out of the desire to bring women together to share their stories in community. To experience the kind of sister-bonding that lasts long after the retreat is over. We knew the three of us could hold the space for transformation to happen, and the more we schemed the more we knew we had to make it happen — it was something we yearned for in our worlds, too.

Last year’s retreat blew us all away, but especially me. This lone she-wolf likes to stay at home, so I wondered how a week of not just retreating but also facilitating would feel. As it turned out, we’d woven so much intention and love into our retreat plan, it was the most restorative and nourishing week of last year.

This November we’re leading our Unravel Your Story retreat again and we’d love you to bring a soul sister with you to both get 25% off the price. Taking time out to nurture yourself in this way is so rewarding, and doing it with your best friend/sister/cousin/mum? You’ll be taking your relationship to new heights :)

This is the only in-person teaching I’m doing this year and I can’t wait to meet our new group of vixens, ready to dig deep into what’s meaningful and true in our lives. And if you’re a lone she-wolf like me? There’ll be plenty of space to decompress and refill your cup in the quiet. Hello scheduled free time for naps, reading and walks in the woods!

Will I see you there? Feel free to email me if you have any questions! x