Fesitve wishes from Mindful Maps

Happy festive season everyone! However you choose to celebrate (or not) I wish you a few days of healing reflection, loving kindness and connection with the most important people in your life. I’d also like to say a massive THANK YOU and send a virtual hug to all the friends, family and collaborators who have supported me in starting up Mindful Maps this year. It’s been about 8 months since making it official and the response has been mind-blowing, your encouragement has really kept this going over the ups and downs of early self employment

My Christmas wish is for this practice to keep growing, evolving and putting down roots. Here are a few things emerging for 2012 (projects and otherwise) that I’d like to share with you.

What 2012 holds for Mindful Maps:

• Exciting new collaborations with Emergent Research, Be Amazing Today, Ivan Nascimento, Kiln and others including some housing associations up North.
• Writing a business plan and orientating Mindful Maps towards creative learning and living.
• Taking Come To Your Senses to the next level with Auralab.
• Co-creating the next Visual Camp.
• Working towards a new and groovy website/archive/learning resource, hopefully with Asilia.
• Building the Mindful Maps community through partners and increased communication including turning September Sun into a newsletter/regular publication.
• More workshops, including ‘Graphic Harvesting in Everyday Environments‘ which I am considering expanding into a course.
• Lots of 1-1 Mindful Mapping following the launch this autumn.
• Developing my own practice as an artist – more making, doing and going to classes. One project currently on the go is a an illustrated book about female voice (so expect lots of tweets tagged #femalevoice in 2012).
• Integrating empathi into Mindful Maps as an art/craft project and online shop.
• Create and make available visual tools for learning, life and practice.
• Explore more body-related, physical practices and play.
• Find formal mentors and supervisors. Any volunteers?.
• Contributing to creative learning and social change conversations in the UK and globally. Expect a lot more noise.

If any of the above spark inspiration then I’d love to hear from you.

Enjoy, and as Bill and Ted said… Be excellent to each other!

Image: section from a painting by yours truly.