happy almost-new year sweet friend!

I love to welcome each New Year with a special word, a positive intention that will support me in the coming months. And every year I create a page for it in my art journal! I just finished my “woty” (word of the year) page for 2023 and I’m excited to share it with you today!

Before I do, did you check out last week’s post, where I shared my gratitude page for 2022? Sometimes I like to combine the two ideas (gratitude and word of the year) into a single page, but this year I decided to make two. This practice is such a beautiful way to gently close the past year and start the new one creatively!

Join me in New Beginnings, a lovely workshop where I'm sharing the making of my "woty" pages and gratitude pages from previous years, with plenty of styles, themes and techniques to inspire you:

Below are the first layers of my page: I love to start an art journal page with collage! Just making a selection of paper scraps already gives me a feel for its mood, its energy, its color palette… Even at this early stage, I can already feel that the page is very “me”: it has lots of my favorite colors, favorite vintage patterns, and some of my favorite symbols and imagery. These keep showing up in my journals year after year!

Finding out what your personal symbols are, is a great way to make art that’s authentic and true to you. Windows show up very often in my journals, and to me they represent the idea of letting the light shine in, of opening up to the unexpected, as well as a threshold between my inner and outer life, the present and the dreams that are yet to be! Flowers show up very often to, and I’m noticing that a comfy armchair made its way into my page, just like last year! (see my woty page for 2022 here, it’s included in New Beginnings!)

Collage is a very satisfying way to begin, because the page fills up super quickly, and then all you have to do is add to it and embellish it. After selecting my papers it was time to glue them in place, then start adding a bit of paint here and there, some ink, some pencil... and then of course some journaling! I set aside some empty space on the right page, so I could freely write any thoughts that came to mind in the moment.

My Word of the Year for 2023 is “Co-Create”. It took a while to come to me, especially because I hesitated, once again, with the word Joy. For many years now, I’ve wanted to choose Joy as my woty, but somehow it never felt like it was the right time. But this year I’ve finally understood why: Joy is not a word for just one year! It is a word for LIFE, my whole life. And every other word I’ve chosen so far has been supporting and guiding me towards this true North star: Joy.

Here is the list of all my wotys. Co-create is my eleventh! If you haven’t found yours yet, this might inspire you:

• 2013: Truth

• 2014: Trust

• 2015: Ease

• 2016: Clarity

• 2017: Freedom

• 2018: Home

• 2019: Queen

• 2020: Focus

• 2021: Fruitful

• 2022: Comfortable

• 2023: Co-create

I love to flip through my art journals and look back at my pages from previous years. It's always magical to see how much guidance and growth a simple word can give you. Choosing a Word of the Year suits me much better than New Year's resolutions: it's more fun, often surprising and always spot on!

Now, something else I've realized is that a woty can rock your world in unexpected ways! I remember that the first one, Truth, brought with it some not-so-nice situations that forced me to stand up for myself more and not let myself be bullied. “Clarity”, in 2016, finally made me realize that I was ready to take the leap and start teaching, but it took 3 weeks in bed with pneumonia to get me out of the fog and make me see my path clearly. And when I did, my first course, aptly titled “Layers of Light”, started downloading into my mind so fast that I had to keep a notebook with me at all times and would jot down lesson plans in the middle of dinner with the kids.

So this year, 2022, I chose “Comfortable” and I really thought this was a “safe one”. After covid and everything, like everybody else I guess, I was ready for an easier, uncomplicated year, a time to breathe and relax. I sometimes did, but it took a lot of discomfort, including some health issues, to make me become a lot more mindful of my wellbeing, and especially of what I will and will not focus on as a highly sensitive person (eg: not keeping up with the news) so that I can keep doing what I’m here to do on this planet, and keep bringing my highest contribution to the world. I’ve spent way too much time curled up in bed with migraines and it’s not doing anyone any good.

Up until now, I guess I believed that my Word of the Year was meant to teach and guide me, to make me grow, and they all certainly did… to the point that I would second-guess myself and try to anticipate all the negative consequences a word might bring (if I choose “heart”, will I get a broken heart or a heart attack??!). Have you sometimes felt the same? If so, please know that it's completely OK to set some clear rules and boundaries and say it out loud, or write it down like I did in my art journal.

So this year, no more of this nonsense. My woty is about CO-creating with the Universe, with my highest self, with Source energy, probably with angels and fairies and a few humans too. So this needs to be a COnversation, a COllaboration. Kind, respectful and joyful! Here is my intention, feel free to borrow it and write it down in your art journal too:

If I think about it, to “co-create” means that my job is to show up, do my part and meet the Universe half-way. As I was playing with this page, I really didn’t feel any pressure to make it pretty or “finished”. I allowed myself to loosen up, relax and completely let go of perfectionism. I blissfully embraced my comfort zone, trusting the process and listening to the whispers of my soul, my intuition, my inner artist. I allowed dreams and wishes to show up and I held them in my heart with hope and anticipation, knowing that help, support and beautiful surprises will show up at the perfect time. Just as it should be. And now all those good vibes are embedded into this page, so that whenever I need a gentle reminder, I can open my journal again, and reconnect to this feeling of trust, ease and joy.

And that’s really what art journaling is all about for me: on the page I can literally create more joy, more light, more beauty and hope. And when I do, it fills my heart, my soul, my life, and radiates from there in positive ways I will never fully know. Never underestimate the power of your creativity: when you get creating, when you let your art carry your dreams and wishes, when you show up at your art table, be it in a studio or in your kitchen, you unknowingly start a ripple of good vibes that will not only benefit you, but those you love, and others you don’t even know… if that’s not magic, I don’t know what is!

I hope this will inspire you to create your own Word of the Year page! And for plenty of extra guidance & inspiration, I would LOVE for you to join me in New Beginnings! This workshop is a well of inspiration for your art journaling practice, with plenty of different styles, themes, techniques and wellbeing processes. It includes FIVE pages that I have filmed over the years: you will be by my side as I share my personal, authentic art practice. I can’t wait to take you along!

Have you chosen your own special word to support you next year?

Not sure yet? There's still time and it might show up at the last minute, so pay attention to the whispers of your soul...

How about some quiet, nurturing art journaling time for the Holidays? Let's express GRATITUDE, celebrate DREAMS & WISHES and start exploring a WORD OF THE YEAR for 2023!

Leave a comment for me!