What does it mean to hope?

Credit: A Social Media Manager who also loves taking photos | @sincerelymedia via Unsplash.com

This is the post I wrote at the turn of the year. I can read the excitement in it and when I realise that, so far, none of these initiatives has progressed very far, I wonder about the point of these new year resolutions.

In my coaching days I would have marked myself down harshly for the lack of achievement. Today, I hold them all as possible still, looking and listening beyond the obvious for where I can step in and facilitate hope. The last paragraph below goes well beyond the idea of egoic achievement and stands still as a way forward for me.

2025 is officially a year of hope worldwide and I'm working on new initiatives under the umbrella name of Divine Flourishing.  They are designed to help anyone find creative solutions and reflect my decades of work with people worldwide.  They also celebrate a sense of arrival I've experienced myself as an artist.  

The latest is an exploration of Neuroarts, the transdisciplinary study of how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the body, brain, and behavior and how this knowledge is translated into specific practices that advance health and wellbeing.  When I paint, I AM what I am painting and I am intrigued about how this might help my clients.

I'm collaborating with Atelier Ministries to offer spiritual direction to creatives and entrepreneurs.  We have launched a national survey to identify the needs of artists of faith working and living in New Zealand. 

I am continuing to offer one-to-one spiritual direction in New Zealand in association with Ignatian Spirituality NZ  and the Association of Christian Spiritual Directors.   I work with people wishing to explore life with a lens that acknowledges "this" is not all there is.  I am motivated by my belief that everyone has a unique DNA, not just physically, but in invisible ways that show up in the lifestyle they create.  So their life can be recreated if they wish.  In the UK I am affiliated with the London Centre for Spiritual Direction. 

My highest value is freedom and I'm working on a programme for artists in particular, because it is time.  Governments aren’t funding arts to be the social catalyst they have been for centuries.  Arts cost and they don’t usually make economic arguments.  Money has become a motivating force behind most of Western culture, but it isn't a good master.  

Learning what you truly want and ordering this for healthy living is one of the outcomes of spiritual direction.  It is a centuries-old relationship method rooted in Judeo-Christian traditions.  It operates on the truth that we live, we die and in between, choice is the ultimate gift of freedom.