{Spirits of Joy} Under the stars.

When :: January 4th Full Moon, for 30 days of daily morning prompts in your email, around visioning and writing inside of our books Why :: As we start to make what become vision books, powerful shifts start to happen. Parts of our lives that have been stuck, stopped, lost, come alive as we find new places in ourselves that have been longing to come out. These prompts not only become part of our books, but our daily thoughts, and allow our writing practices and businesses and love lives and mothering to expand and gain depth.

How much :: $49.00 for 30 days of prompts and a private Facebook group where we will come together to share each day's soulwork

One night I was on the beach feeling my wildish self. I looked up and I saw the sky filled with more stars than I knew existed. I felt a shift inside of me that came from a year of vision work around happiness and peace in my spirit. The shift was that I could choose to be unstoppably happy. I was aware in my wildish moment, filled with this download, that the choice of this happiness which I had been glueing into my vision books would not look anything like I was trying to force it too.

I knew that choosing my unstoppable happy that night under the stars would mean that living inside of joy would bring all the feelings, and that it was time to dream again.

My dreams come inside of vision pages, the words I write when I can't not and under the stars where the Universe kisses my tears and swirls her knowing in my belly.

I vision to find surprises wrapped into colors and phrases and deep wantings.

I vision because I deserve all of it.

I vision when nothing is making sense and I need to find my guides.

What I will ask of you for these 30 days ::

Make space to be here. Know yourself under the stars. Use these prompts to spend time with yourself. To light up in a new way. To discover a you that may have hidden out, buried by the stresses of daily living and lost dreams.

Create magical pages filled with words and visions and feelings that surround them. As you do this, you harness the vibrations of the Universe. You vibrate in a new way. These books become a way for you to align what you want with what you have. They create manifesting magic in your life.

Prompts each day that will invite you to play, explore, have fun, go deep into your spirits, fly inside of magic and create books that are so beautiful you’ll want to carry them everywhere.

• Color stories
• ‘I am’ which is the prompt that will become a ritual of change and acceptance
• Beautiful dreams
• Wantings
• Desires
• Awakenings
• Words of spirit
• Writing prompts (this is new!)
• Inspired action prompts (yep, this is new too)
• Healing
• Joy
• 30 days of prompts sent to you through your email, filled with story, photos and some videos of me chatting away and answering your questions weekly

Through ritualized vision work we can allow each day to guide us towards living joyously, even (especially) when things are hard or challenges arise.

What will you need ::

A blank journal, I love Moleskine XL Cahier, but anything you love works beautifully. Some magazines. Ask people to start saving them for you. Go to hair salons and offices and ask for their old magazines. Check out libraries for magazine sales. A glue stick. Scissors. Some space and time.

(Bangs optional.)

The revolution will start with a sigh.

I am asked a couple of questions in considerable frequency around contributing to projects for others and then how to ask others to contribute to projects in a non-yucky way. When I received Amy Palko's ask for support around her Revolutionary Lips Blog Tour, it was the most beautiful example of an ask from another woman that I wanted to use it as a teaching moment to help answer that question.

"When I sat down to come up with a list of people who would be my dream hosts for this tour, your name sang out loud and clear! You see, I'm looking for fiercely compassionate, deeply inspiring truthspillers - individuals who lead from their heart, who dance wildly with their shadows, and who exquisitely embody what it means to be fully themselves in this moment and in the next.  So, naturally, I want to extend this invitation to you."

I thought immediately, I dance wildly with my shadows! And I adore Amy and the connection we have through social media. She is my people.

Then I read the poetry. Here is a tiny excerpt...

I feel

I hear

I touch

you.

I lick my lips

with curious tongue

and taste

me.

I separate myself

from you

and go my own way...

That is my language. It is a language that many women have been afraid of, to hear, to speak, to moan.

I felt like Amy wrote those words just for me but I know that the collective of women rising and cheering and owning and claiming is part of that me.

When do we want to use our time and space to support other women in their rising?

When we have a connection, when it is filled with love, when the work they are doing makes our own work sing louder.

When the work they are doing makes our own work sing louder. We lift together. We rise.

The Revolution will start with a sigh.

My first Thai food Thanksgiving.

“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” ~ Paulo Coelho

Today is my first Thanksgiving inside of my separation from the man I spent the last 21 years with.

My heart wanted me to run away. To have him take the kids and let me be with just myself.

We decided it was important for us to be together. To still have our family structure which has been my rock for so long intact.

But I couldn't eat turkey or gravy or pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving cooking would be stressful enough but I don't want those flavors to hold memories for my kids of their first Thanksgiving in this newness.

Our favorite food together as a family is Thai food. So I got the intuitive hit to ask my daughter if that would be ok. She was thrilled, she told me she silently squeeled with delight. And my daughter doesn't squeel!

So I picked up the Thai food and put it in the fridge to be heated up later today. I will get ice cream or something yummy for after. We will all watch a movie together. My son still wants mashed potatoes. Fair enough.

We will find our way. I imagine I will cry. It's a daily practice for me now. I am learning to let the tears flow without judging them.

And my gratitude will be for this beautiful family that has allowed me to step inside of my truth and desires and needs while standing in theirs. It is a blessing that will be felt every time I eat Pad Thai.

Why I deleted your comment.

I wake up to a friend talking about her Facebook blog link being reported and removed. It was a gorgeous black and white self portrait of her naked body in the shadows. The photo is incredibly gorgeous and could hang in an art gallery or The Dean Hotel. My friend posts a photo of herself on Instagram nursing her baby and she is left comments that no one would ever say to her face, including asking her why she has an angry face just because she wasn't smiling.

I check my Facebook notifications and someone has left a comment on the photo below that was taken for Sexy and Sanguine asking who else found it 'weird.'

I deleted the comment from the thread. Here is why.

Social media is my living room of sorts. I create it. I decorate it. I decide who walks into it. I pour the wine and put out the cheese and crackers. I invite. I lure. I draw you forth.

When you walk into my living room and are rude I will show you the door. You may leave. It is that simple.

I am not on social media for the purpose of arguing or being insulted. I will not tolerate women bringing other women down. You may have your opinion. You may talk about me behind my back. You may unfriend me or choose not to spend time in my space if you are uncomfortable or just don't need what I put into that space. But you may not be rude to me or anyone in the gorgeous tribe of women I have gathering in my social media living room.

I have blocked people. Unfriended people. It is not a discussion. It is my right.

It is so rare that someone leaves negativity in my virtual space, but when they do it is removed. Fast.

Social media must be safe. My number one job inside of these spaces is to keep them safe for me and those who choose to be with me in virtual space.

I love to trigger. I love to push edges. I am careful about what I post so my photos don't get reported while still walking a line that feels good to me.

I take a lot of pictures of myself. It is a vital piece of my work. I teach women to see themselves through their lens with eyes of compassion and to find themselves each day in the space they are in. I teach sexuality as a practice of self. I teach sensuality as a practice of self. I teach self adoration and allowing others to adore you. I am my subject. Not everyone will want to follow my Instagram feed and see a lot of me. The beauty is they don't have to. Only those who find the message and the sensuality and the prompts I put out inspiring or supportive need stay in my virtual space.

When I step into the vulnerability of posting a photo laying down in the sand with my hands over my breasts staring out at the ocean, paired with words that may be cryptic but hold a huge space in my heart, I may seem weird. Or it may make you uncomfortable to see someone who is a mother and business women live inside of that much freedom around her body.

You don't have to look. You don't have to follow me on social media. Those who do have formed an amazingly warm, loving, lift-you-up circle. Many of the women in my social media circles go on to take my programs and then become friends with one another. I love watching it. I love the shifts. I love the squirm of newness. I love the support.

I do not love or welcome or allow negativity.

I create my life, my business, my happiness. I make it my work each day to be inside of happiness.

My suggestion to my friend who had negativity left on her Instagram account was to delete the comment, not play into it, not discuss it.

I will make sure to post my friend's blog post so it gets as much exposure as possible.

And I will continue to delete negativity from my virtual world. Because it is my living room. And making space beautiful and welcoming and loving is my joy, my heart-song.

Sexy and Sanguine women want.

“I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.”

~ Rumi

I want to be settled being with myself, allowing loneliness to be a part of my experience of knowing who I am.

I want to fall onto a bed full of the softest pillows and giggle with pleasure, allowing my teeth to show when I smile big.

I want to look you in the eyes without pulling my gaze away, letting my reactions and face be true, and be there as listener, giver, lover, sexy woman piercing you through.

I want rogue ecstasy, story of fantasy and the most beautiful spaces.

I want to feel touch when I feel wrong in my skin, touch in places where I melt. Lower back, feet, scalp, neck...

I want to dance when you play the music of your heart, my fears for no rhythm passing through because your music is my understanding.

I want to open in embrace, false beliefs fading as I guide you in. I want you here.

I want to truly know me, from belly to toes to neck to strength to yearning to sad bits to sanguine moments.

I want to surrender to my fear of having, there may be judgement but I will pray, feel and want.

I want to fly off the cliff into the gentle water, I will never be too high to glide down.

I want to dance and open like the soul dances and opens, the past and future stories written in my today.

I want to be here now, with you, all of you, feeling my female pulse.

I want for you the openess of what stimulates you and the dance of confidence, the sexy woman opening her eyes each morning, painting her beauty by numbers.

There is no wrong. But there is wanting. And you sweet one, you may want and want and want…

(And excerpt from Day 1 of Sexy and Sanguine. Join us here.)

Holiday Visions with Utopian Collection

Holiday Visions with The Utopian Collection's scrumptious holiday collection. December 4th from 7:30pm - 10:00pm

To join and for directions please email me at hello@hannahmarcotti.com

The Utopian Collection is an Eco-friendly line of handbags, accessories, and home art with intentions of infusing art and beauty into your life created and run by one of my dearest friends Chelsae Biggs. Chelsae and I believe in beauty and handmade and unique and joy and wild visioning. Join us for a night of creating holiday vision mobiles while having a chance to do some Holiday gift shopping with one of a kind treasures.

The Loft will be glowing with twinkles and smelling of cinnamon as we gather together to laugh and make and feel the joy.

Collect one of a kind gifts, enjoy delicious snacks, and cozy up in The Loft opening yourself up to set an intention for the holiday season.

All guests will be eligible to win a Utopian gift basket full of self care necessities and Utopian goodies.

I am spirit guide.

I am spirit guide of desirous longing.

I am my name when you speak it as taste, as pleasure.

I am the one that stands in mirrors naked, swollen, wanting.

I am a break down of control over everything.

I am sex I have known for lifetimes, I see it in eyes, in smiles.

I am release in the tease, the touch.

I am flesh that wants you to hold it and heal it and see it.

I am falling into a soul-grinding worship of self.

I am black and white filters and poetry with words that make you blush.

I am spirit guide of you absorbing into yourself, in adoration that makes your heart wild.

I am connected because I ask it of you inside of my sex, what I need to stay inside my own breath.

.......

During Sexy and Sanguine we will play with some found word, sexy poetry using the I am prompt. We will pair the words with photos that we will be taking ourselves and learning to filter and crop for dramatic effect.

During Sexy and Sanguine we will push some edges while staying beautifully safe.

During Sexy and Sanguine we will discover a self adoration that will continue to guide us, as we become spirit guides of our own desirous longings.

We start November 24th, a gentle daily prompt for 4 weeks.

The parent thing. A marriage separation.

"Did you tell anyone yet?" he asks her while I am in the kitchen making tacos.

"What are you talking about?" in her constant state of annoyance at him.

"About you know, the parent thing."

"Oh, no."

"I did," he whispers, "today, but I think she totally forgot already."

I say from the kitchen, "Hey, I wanted you to know that your best friends know, their parents told them. If you wanted to talk to them."

"About what?" he wants to know.

"About the parent thing."

"Oh cool."

And that was that. Just another layer to what they are trying to understand of the separation of their parents who have spent the last 21 years together. We are all going slowly. No one is falling apart or confused. We have all been somehow knowing this day would come in our souls for about 2 years. Or maybe I just like to tell myself that. But I do believe that how slowly Patrick and I have unravelled our togetherness has been what is keeping us solid.

I love Patrick deeply. He me. We may be choosing to no longer walk together the way we have but both of us view it as a step forward. As movement. And we longed for this movement. Stuck sucks. It hurts everyone that it touches.

For the last few years we have learned so much. We have broken addictive patterns that hurt us. We have learned a new language to communicate. We have been sad and lost and joyful inside the pain.

Two years ago I knew I wasn't happy. I knew he wasn't happy. And for two years I have prayed and prayed and prayed to find the guidance to help me follow the right path towards happiness and thriving together.

I kept thinking I could fix it, make it all better. Change it. Control it. Be OK with it. Then a few months ago I felt a death inside of me. The only way I can explain it is to say that I knew that I was allowed to let what was have its own death so that we could have a beginning. A rise. I had not been willing to let something that was ready to die go. I held on tighter than anyone ever has. My vagina suffered from pain from all the holding. If I let the holding go from the most tender sexual part of my body, if I let the death move through me out of my pelvic floor, I had no choice but to let all that I was holding onto go with the pain.

Two years later we are now restructuring how we are a family, staying guided by only love. It is our only desire inside of our slow twist apart.

There are days when I can't breathe. When my heart feels like it might not make it. When I want to be medicated so I can sleep. I go back to my prayer. And my texts from my friends. And the way my six year old looks at me like I am the most beautiful person on the planet. I know that these kids will find thier own path inside of a change that they cannot control. I feel proud as hell that they are witnessing two parents who are not fighting or filled with hatred but surrending to the choice that love sometimes asks us to make in letting go. So that we can begin.

I am in the place right now of lots of coffee, too little food on a nervous stomach and a flood of faith. I feel happy inside the pain of all of this. I feel this crazy amount of joy because I know that we both can now thrive in ways that I have yet to reach and look at.

My focus now is on finding rhythm for the kids and for ourselves. My gratitude that The Loft is here to wrap us in its cocoon of beauty and pulsing is beyond what I can say. To already have a home to go to that the kids know and love feels like divine planning. Which of course it was.

I am struggling a bit with focus. My work is my lighthouse. The women who circle with me, who lift me when they think it is me lifting them.

The space between is gorgeous and scary. Fear guides my next steps. It forces me to insist on reality and asking for what I want.

My next step is a massive night of visioning. To make a board filled with dreams I haven’t allowed myself because being stuck is nowhere to find dreams. More fear. Believing I deserve the things that play inside my spirit.

I am 40. I am inside of a marriage separating.

Every day lived has been walking me to this moment as every day does for each of us.

I desire safety and a wild edge. I desire heat in my belly, the way tequilla dances inside. I desire peaceful sleep when the time is right. I desire such happiness for our family that is redesigning. I desire to become what I have not been willing to let myself dream.

“Hey babe, give me a kiss, I’m heading to The Loft. Dad will bring you to school tomorrow.”

“OK, can I please have just 30 minutes on my iPod?”

“Yeah. Cool.” And so we begin.

Sexy and Sanguine Returns

What :: 4 weeks of sexy and sanguine soulwork prompts, challenges and explorations

Why :: Confidence is freaking HOT.

When ::  November 24th - December 22nd Registration now closed.

Your rogue ecstasy, your story of fantasy, your beautiful spaces?

Have you embraced the romance of waking up in your skin?

Can you feel the sensuality inside of grey, the rawness of an orange sky, the taste of a kiss full of red wine?

Do you reflect your light in others and draw their curiosity of pleasure into you?

Have you ripened? Have you ripened?

In a past life/future life have you stood in the blossoming of your sexuality with your senses exploding, in the gift of feeling?

And from that self that was or will be can you feel her guiding you?

Are you sexy and sanguine?

Do you feel belly passion?

Can you close your eyes and paint your beauty by numbers?

Is there a knowing in your toes, your ears, your breasts that each piece of you is loved and sacred and on the journey towards whole?

Is there a candle waiting to be lit that is celebrating you, celebrating her, celebrating this gorgeous life that you have claimed?

And where can you whisper ‘oh yes. oh yes. oh yes’?

Let me take you there. To the yes. To the roughness of your edges and the dance of your awakening.

Do you truly know her?

Sexy :: Stimulating. Erotic. Desirable. Appealing. Hot.

Sanguine :: Bloodred. Temperament of cheerfulness. Confidence.

When I was 22 I was out walking with a friend. I had long blonde hair, worked out often, was a champion dieter, known for really good skin and living in Seattle pursuing acting, 2 years away from marriage. My friend said to me, “Whenever we are out I just watch men look at you, turn their heads.”

2 days later I went to a Salon and cut off all my hair. Not in the cute or sexy-declaration-of-myself-as-a-woman way, in the I-don’t-want-to-be-seen way.

It terrified me. My sexual self, at 22, she scared me. I wanted to hide from her. While many 22 year olds were out exploring their sexuality and beauty I found myself wanting to stuff it into a little box and find a hiding place for it. Part of my dieting history had so much to do with not wanting to be seen.

I was terrified of myself. Of my skin. Of my beauty. Of my yes.

This may not have been your 22 year old story. It may have happened after your marriage vows. Or when your first baby made her appearance. Maybe it was a story of a younger age or the fear of turning 50. Or maybe your sexual confidence just slowly faded as the role of young woman turned into wife, mother, worker, nurturer, tender, multi-tasker.

Confidence is alluring, hot, sexy.

Each year many of us choose a guiding word or phrase that will be the feeling we want to draw into our experiences, and it is a powerful practice. When I created this course last year my guiding phrase was gracefully sexy. All to lead me further into hot confidence.

Confidence is gracefully sexy. Managing finances is gracefully sexy. Feeling delicious in your skin is gracefully sexy. Creating healthy boundaries is gracefully sexy.

Sexy and Sanguine Woman know…

• boundaries are beautiful.
• dreams come true from feelings.
• closets are sanctuaries.
• the shade of lipstick that lights them up, or the perfect lipgloss to plump.
• just when breakfast is for dinner and that bubbly can happen anytime, anywhere.
• the part of their body they always hated can actually guide their pleasure.
• pleasure.
• how to hold a gaze.
• how to receive. Really.
• how to stand in front of a mirror naked.
• to kiss and say hello before listing off complaints.
• beauty is in the details.
• how to hold space.
• feeling sexy is inside and out.
• that iterative living is gorgeous.
• how to take risks.
• saying yes is a turn on, after learning to say no.
• that listening changes everything.
• how to follow their animal spirit guide or tarot card into sacred space.
• that hot confidence is a practice.
• how to walk into a room and really see.
• how to ask the questions that flip it all around.
• that hot confidence is fierce magic.
• that an awakening is non-negotiable.

What you’ll need for this course…

• A camera, iphone is great
• Some apps for your picture editing which I'll share with you at start
• A journal to poem and vision in, I love Moleskines
• Some white space, clear the calendar a bit for some sexy and sanguine prompts
• A hot date, with yourself, with a girlfriend or many, with your lover… in celebration

How it will work...

• One prompt a day for 28 days alternating between photo prompts and soulwork prompts
• Guest Photographers sharing some of their tips for taking gorgeously hot photos of ourselves, filters and angles and light and focus :: Lisa Field-Elliot, Kelly Beck Bennett, Catherine Just, Stacy de la Rosa, Danielle Cohen, Misty Pittman
• A FB group where we will gather and share our photos and our soulwork
• An instagram hashtag for online sharing, though those photos will be the more cropped versions ;)
• 4 weeks of learning to feel incredibly sexy in our skin

I created this course last year because I had gained about 25 pounds and was so uncomfortable in my own skin. What I knew was that I had to find myself inside of this discomfort and pain I was carrying. I knew somewhere deep in my gut that I wouldn't be able to move through to even find the pain or source of the holding onto weight until I could look at myself deeply in the eyes and forgive all the years of feeling so wrong, so damaged, so not beautiful.

My practice of taking selfies clothed or naked became my most treasured practice towards finding a compassion for my skin, my spirit, my confidence that was simmering under the surface.

I look at who I am now after a year of this sexy and sanguine guiding soulwork and I am blown away. I have lost 15 pounds through total self adoration. I feel gorgeous in my skin. I take my really bad days and I flip them around by getting infront of my camera.

I made some huge life shifting decisions in this last year that took me from an edge of pain and unknowing into joy and movement.

It was never about the weight but it was about the feeling of stuck, of never being good enough in this body I was given.

I learned to spend time with my belly, the part of my body that gave me the most angst, torture that I had carried since childhood. I photographed my belly, spent time adoring it and let myself lead my sexuality with this part of me that for so long had been hidden as though it was what made me unworthy of love.

I look at the pictures of me now I can't believe I am the same woman. I feel like I have grown new skin. Every part of my cells seem to have changed into something lighter and filled with compassion and adoration for my own eyes.

My invitation to you is to come along for 4 weeks but to know that this journey will last into your year of 2015. It will be the beginning of a practice into deep sexy and sanguine living.

I believe it will change your life. Looking at yourself through the lens, doing the soulwork prompts, letting other women adore you and see you, you will not leave the same woman.

You will leave with your sexy and sanguine in your soul.

Vagina. And heart.

she feels love. she pulses. she gets so angry. she opens and yields. she strengthens. she tears. she cries. she rains. she adores. she feels fear. she knows you. she trusts. she won't let you in. she needs you. she holds your heart. she misses your touch. she wants her spirit truths. she holds all the feelings. she knows what you may be afraid to hear. she will speak it through pleasure and pain.

.......

Join Mara Glatzel and I for a workshop about pleasure and the rise of your sexual self. Your vagina. Your heart. Your home. Your skin. Your beauty. Your wants.

There will be all the feelings, healing and laughter. And some really good food.

In her skin. Nov 15 and 16 at The Loft in Pawtucket, RI. There are 2 spots left. We have suggested the Dean Hotel for those who are traveling as it is awesome.

Hearing her say.

she said, you give me hope.

she said, you are adorable.

she said, soul-mate-sister-unicorn.

she said, because I "fell in love" with you, the very first time I discovered you.

she said, i had this strong spirit whisper to email, so i am.

she said, you are so special in a stranger's life more than you know.

she said, because you asked and because your work has stayed in me working it's magic for a year.

she said, woman, you lit me up and i am fullfilled.

she said, you took me from questioning to permission.

she said, i choose myself, in every iteration i am now and will become. i choose.

she said, i feel belonging here that i have not experienced elsewhere..safety and acceptance, and so much love.

she said, i have discovered my sacred yes.

she said, so much of this finds me right now, where i am, perfectly.

she said, i wanted you to know the affect you had on someone you don't even know.

she said, but this. this went deep deep into my heart. in a healing way. i loved every single word.

she said, hell yes. love you to pieces.

........

'she said' is the prompt for my Community Grace course today. I took myself up on my own prompt and opened some of the words that flow towards me and often I am unable to hold. This work is so intimate, so life altering and so simple. There are times when I need to sit down and read the words and ground in the blessings that I receive.

........

Not.

I am not bohemian but bone and feather and braid and patchouli dance on me.

I am not sick but I can't breathe.

I am not writer but every word I catch.

I am not my iphone but I cannot put it down.

I am not anger but I am pissed that I am here.

I am not quenched but my lips won't invite the water in.

I am not storyteller but I won't stop talking.

I am not colorful but I shine golden.

I am not desire but every cell of my spirit and skin burn with feeling.

Maine. The beginning in black, white and magic.

It is crazy swirling magic here. I came a few days early to give myself time to slowly transform the space, unpack groceries, sit by the lake and really feel the beauty of what is about to happen. On Wednesday, 25 women from the 2014 Magic Making Circle will have their retreat on the most stunning Maine lake I have ever seen. It is a lot to hold. The planning has been for months, though I am much more of a last minute person, retreats leave just tiny bits of space for all the last minute. I've gathered surprises and secrets for months waiting for this week.

I have an incredible team who will join me on Tuesday for the pre-retreat prep. When they walk in I will have  created just enough magic and made quite a few lists and then I leave it in their capable hands while I flutter around making sure we stay hydrated and happy.

The details to me are the most important part. S'more stations and altars and spirit guides and sheepskin. Homemade tomato soup and chia pudding. Meditations and quotes, yoga and beads.

This is my third time circling with my Magic Makers, a new group each time. I am hooked. Addicted. In complete love.

We were meant to be here on this lake, I can feel the truths and change that will come from settling ourselves on her docks and tucking inside her cabins. I am already new from a few hours in the sun and listening to the water play around with time.

Twinkle lights and faith change everything.

You are the magic.

Today with an overwhelmingly full heart, I officially closed my Magic Making Circle with a Sunday Blessing. Sunday blessings have been part of my circles for almost 2 years now and have become one of my favorite pieces of writing and sharing with my circles.

I made a video for them and want to share it with all of you too. You are magic.

Will there be another round of Magic Making Circle? Yes. There will. Registration will open in January of 2015 and you can add your name to a list to be one of the first to know about it. (Spaces are limited.)

In November, December, January and February I will be leading a Business Magic Making Circle with 20 alumni of the past circles. I love to create just what the women need for what we call "Phase Two" of the circle. It is always more intense and focused. This year I had this crazy idea to co-create the content of the Business Circle with the women. I am so nervous and joyful about how this will come together, I promise to share more as it unfolds.

On Saturday I will be packing up the mini-van to drive to Maine and start setting up the celebration retreat for 25 of the women from Magic Making Circle, one woman coming all the way from Scotland. There will be cabins in the woods, a lake with kayaks and canoes, fire pits, twinkle lights and all the little magic that myself and my team have been preparing. And tomato soup. Have I mentioned I am making homemade tomato soup for 25 with freshly roasted tomatoes? I am pretty sure my whole food budget went into that soup pot!

It is always the details that make the magic. The details that take hours preparing are the fairy dust sprinkled, transforming a gathering into a soul-changing experience.

I will be spending this week in details, it is my love language.

I want to say thank you to my circle of 60 women who have journeyed together for half a year. We are a mixture of sad to say good-bye and blissful at the changes happening within each of us. I will be asking some of the women to share some words and photos here on my blog in the coming months. I want to capture their faces and joys for you because they are the greatest inspiration I know.

Happy Sunday. Sat Nam.

Today we bless what we shall be, what we will vibrate with and what we choose each morning. Our blessings come from us, they start with us. We are blessings of magic and joy. Today I bless our circle, our time together, our soulwork and all that is becoming.

(Hand photo by the beautiful Ruth Clark)

A letter to your forgiveness.

“Use whatever excuse you can to vibrate in harmony with those things you've been saying you want...”

~ Abraham

bella grace

Photo by Catherine Just

There is a place inside of each of us that longs for forgiveness.

For the fight last night. For yelling at the kids when they spilled the cereal all over the floor. For saying no when he reached over to touch you. For swearing at the guy who cut you off and almost made you smash into him. For pulling yourself further and further away from that person because he/she hurts your heart. For wanting to leave. For wanting to stay. For using formula instead of your boobs. For talking too much. For forgetting her birthday and what it meant to her. For telling yourself every morning that you are fat and unlovable. For the pain of not being a fortune teller of your future. For being late every time. For wishing you could love him more, today. For fantasizing over another. For wanting to step into her life. For the pregnancy you didn't have. For the one who couldn't be there. For the book that you refuse to write. For the fear that has held you from movement. For the love of another. For the lust of crumbs. And then more crumbs. For not signing up to go. For becoming more like her than you ever thought you would. For wishing that five years ago, ten years ago you had... For letting the house become a shit show. For waking up without gratitude.

Those places need only one thing. Your forgiveness. Ask. Ask them for forgiveness.

Then keep going. Keep living so gorgeously and let forgiveness be part of that life.

Bless your past. Forgive. Now move. Move from what was and into the depth of what forgiveness allows, which is peace in your now.

Today we bless what has come before. We allow the choices of our past to be released into the beauty of all that has created our now. We take time to find the places that feel stuck because they long for our own forgiveness. We ask. We forgive. And so it is.

.......

There is a place inside of us that longs for forgiveness ::

For...

Let's hold it together, as a magical circle, and forgive with full compassion for us.

Community Grace. Hold out your hand.

 

A 30 day course in community, connection and gathering

September 29th

$89

The first idea came as I was walking the dog thinking about my weekly newsletter, Making Space, and my heart was overflowing with the gratitude for the responses I get from this gorgeous community each time I send one out. I thought, this is community grace. It feels like a long table under the stars, set with water glasses and wine goblets, bowls flowing with salads and soups and community gathering around in truth and harmony. Being together, sharing a common goal (that beautiful meal and conversation).

To me community grace is each of our hands showing the deep truth of who we are and what we desire. Our hands painting or cooking or writing or praying or holding or sewing or touching or planting or smoothing the table cloth on the long wooden table as we prepare for our meal.

They always have a story, each program I create. If my memory was better I would remember what the idea for this program first was. It wasn't as it looks now. It grew and expanded, it shape shifted into Community Grace.

The idea settled in and started to talk to me, as they all do. They almost create themselves as I witness what they want to become. My community without knowing it helps each program become what it needs to be.

Gathering your community, your audience, is finding those that deeply resonate with and need the words you are sharing with them. A community can start with just one other person or 100 people. Each person in your community is unique and helps you stand in your light.

I want to guide you towards creating your own community grace. I want you to see that creating community can be as simple as holding out your hands in trust and truth and asking others to walk with you.

For 30 days we will play::

• A prompt every other day for 30 days, a day to explore it and a day to talk about it within our private community.
• New ways to think about using your words, images, social media and other resources to build connection and audience.
• Intuitive strategies to start to create the community you want to guide and be a part of.
• Gentle pushes to move through the fear of your voice.
• A chance to 'play' with your words, images and connections through prompts that open you up a bit.
• Connecting the word joyful to your writing.
• Find a new way to view virtual connecting. (I adore it!)
• How to see newsletters, social media, blogging and marketing as amazingly beautiful tools, like love notes.
• Expand your safe boundaries, push your edges, explore how to assemble your community.
• Closed Facebook community group where we will hold our discussions and connect with one another

Who is this for::

• Women who are using their words to gather community and build tribe.
• Women who are blogging inside of businesses.
• Women who are writing and want to find a way to expand their connections and create a little community grace in their lives.
• Women who crave deeper connection and tribe within their work, online or off.
• Women who are ready to stop viewing social media and marketing as bad.
• Women who believe that creativity and intuition are vital parts of business and gathering.
• Women who desire tribe around their blog or business.
• Women who are open to exploring connection, bravery and vulnerability inside their work.

 Words from women in my community::

"In the clamor and noise of marketing mayhem, Hannah Marcotti writes in a gentle yet fierce voice.  In Community Grace, I turned my thinking around.  Instead of trying to "promote to my target audience,"  I learned that I needed to attract the people I want to hang out with and who want to hang out with me.  This was huge medicine for me as an online entrepreneur.

Hannah taught us how to find and envision the grace that is within, to honor it and express it.  Even better, we came together as a community that was loving and supportive." ~ Loran Hills

"This program came into my life at the exact moment I needed it. I was craving direction in my new business and blog, and Hannah gave us such a gift with helping us discover our voices. I found my way to connect to my tribe through my writing, and at the same time, dive deeper into my true self and embracing my vulnerability. I made life long friends with the other women who joined. This program expanded my business and my world. I am so grateful for my experience." ~Jessica DeFeo

"The catalysts for my biggest a-ha moments during the program were pieces of your story and the stories of our Joy sisters - the reflection of self and possibility, connecting us all as one."

"I’m a writer who believes ARDENTLY in the power of community. I thrive when I’m connected to other writers who can just hold space for my work and share what it’s like to be living the writers life. The community you’ve created, Hannah, is so unique and so special. I think we’re all called to connect with others when we need it most– and I really believe the communities we find are the exact ones we need at that point in our lives."

"I am missing Hannah's daily emails, it had become part of my morning ritual. I would read them on my cell phone before getting out of bed every morning."

"Thank you all so much for your unconditional love, support, laughs and tears. Love being a part of this amazing group."

"I did not have any expectations going in and I learned this: to allow my creative side to gets its groove back, slow my roll and enJOY more of the *now* and gobble up all the inspiring stories of your daily letters and the fantastically beautiful, strong women in this group."

When will we start to play::

• September 29th
• A prompt one day, a group discussion around it the next. For 30 days. 15 prompts, 15 days to explore and discuss each prompt.
• This is play, fun, expanding your vision for the power of your blog or business.

Questions you might have::

Is this a writing course? No, I won't be critiquing your writing but I will be giving you prompts to explore using your words to gather the strength of community and connection around your writing. I know awesome writing coaches if you need a reference.

Will the prompts help me with blogging? I hope so! We will play and you will explore your words in different ways. My hope is that you'd get some great posts written inspired by writing for connecting and community building.

In 30 days will I have increased my community? If you connect with just one person in these 30 days the answer to this will be yes! And I will be asking you to connect.

Will you be telling stories of how you built your community and made such awesome connections? Why of course, thanks for asking, I love to tell stories! I will be sharing through stories written and some videos during the 30 days.

Is this about making more money with my blog? Nope, not during these 30 days. Eventually, yes. Our focus is not on money but on building connection and community around your blog or business. The money making bit is that next layer on top of the community. But if you don't have a community to sell to, you aren't making any money.

Do I need to be active on the Facebook group? Yes. This is where we will explore and discuss together. Not everyone will be as prolific as others on the group but to fully get the experience of the course (which is all about connection and community) you need to show up. If Facebook has never been your thing, let me convince you that this group is magical, but you have to show up and give me the chance to sway you!

What if I'm not playful in the online world? Then go ahead and sign up, I'll help you with that! We will play and I hope that at the end of these days you will view social media and marketing with new eyes.

A 30 day course in community, connection and gathering

September 29th

$89

On the eve.

 

Thirst is sensual, alive, raw, moving. It is our moon and waves and blood and the element of spiritual regeneration. It is psychic and love.

I avoided water on my skin and inside of me for years. I didn’t like showering until I was in the shower, once every 3-ish days. I loved being at the ocean edge but not jumping into the waves.

I held myself back from water and became so thirsty. Sad. Closed down.

My intuition, my love, my flow was being drawn out and replaced only in the smallest amounts.

One day I started to run, intuitively. I drank more water, touched water, craved water. I watched my body start to shift, change, become fit and strong.

Hydrated. Not just in my cells but my heart and spirit.

I found a love for my hunger, my thirst, my needs.

None of it was complicated. I don't do complicated.

.......

A Woman's Thirst is an adventure into simple challenges to feel alive, sensual, pulsing with the moon and the tides. It is an invitation to stretch our edges together and take risks.

We may not complete all the days adventures. Some may scare us. Some will pump us with a feeling of joy and aliveness and hydration that we haven't felt in years.

You don't need anything special for the 40 days. Each day is a simple challenge coming to you through your email.

We will connect as a group through photos on Instagram using #awomansthirst to collect the pictures of our adventuring.

It is my hope that each day the prompt/challenge will allow you to know yourself in a deeper way. To connect to the love that flows through us like waves.

We start in the morning.

Motivation and bravery.

I spent the weeks before the photo shoot running a lot.

The last year my body had changed in dramatic ways, matching the drama I was feeling in my life I suppose.

My cycle had changed as I welcomed a child into a young woman under my roof, her cycle holding the more powerful force, clearly.

My body wasn't fitting its clothes anymore and I felt like poop. Poop emoticon used many a time.

My metabolism, already slowed, came to a screeching halt, as happens to many my age who also find themselves slowing down their pace, no longer chasing after toddlers and working more on the computer. Read :: sitting on the bum.

I need motivation, deadlines, a reason. I am self motivated for sure in my work, so matching my body feeling good up to my work became a tiny secret weapon.

Photo shoot with Catherine Just in Portland, Oregon in July. Bam. Deadline. Motivation. Put a chunk of cash down and know that it will be real soon.

The running had already become part of my deep desire for quenching my thirst. But now I had a way to challenge myself and see if I could change into a high functioning, beautiful feeling, filled with light and energy body. I had tried before and failed. Being no stranger to failure, I knew I hadn't stumbled on the right 'formula' for myself yet.

One day I realized that there was this huge mental block that had been stopping me from shifting my body into a more sensual feeling/looking place, and it stopped me with shivers.

For the last few years I had been living trying not to diet. Not dieting equated with not losing weight. So I gained weight and refused to allow myself to lose any.

BIG! What???

Learning to live as a person who does not severely restrict their food creates this huge pendulum swing for many of us. We want to rid ourselves of disordered eating but it can go so far to the other side. Then we are stuck on the opposite end in refusal to make any move to change our body, for fear that we will fall right down the hole into our disorder.

I had to sit with myself and ask if I would be able to handle to emotional component of losing weight. Would I be able to lose weight and feel proud, strong and beautiful? In control but not controlling?

The past two years I have felt myself falling deeper in love with my skin, my body, who I am. I have been on a path to heal pieces that had been shoved down deep, to layers where I could only feel them in my physical body, but not my heart and spirit.

With this love was I ready to watch my body transform into what would represent a physical form I could feel proud of, walk inside of with joy and allow to become my guide?

I felt so flipping ready.

So I ran. Ate intuitively. Let myself experience hunger when I felt sad and alone rather than filling the hunger with constant feedings that my body no longer needed.

Feeling hungry gave myself space to realize how thirsty I was and to drink glass after glass of water to quench this deep thirst I had been holding onto for so many years.

I became waves as I ran, drank my water and let some pains become mirrors for my physical body.

This was not controlling my pain with control, it was controlling the slow ease back into feeling it all, quieted and dehydrated for so long as way to keep time with choices and changes.

You remember being a kid and you would say, "I'm hungry!!!" And you would hear the soft words back... you might be thirsty, have some water first.

I tried it. Turns out those soft words are usually right. You might be thirsty but hunger is so familiar to us, so comfortable almost. We know how to feed, and feed and feed, repeat.

Thirst is sensual, alive, raw, moving. It is our moon and waves and blood and the element of spiritual regeneration. It is psychic and love.

I avoided water on my skin and inside of me. I don't like showering until I am in the shower, once every 3-ish days. I love being at the ocean edge but not jumping into the waves.

I held myself back from water and became so fucking thirsty.

My intuition, my love, my flow was being drawn out and replaced only in the smallest amounts.

So I ran. Drank. Peed a hell of a lot. Figured out what I needed. And watched my body start to shift, change, become fit and strong.

I found a love for my hunger, my thirst, my needs.

Soup is my favorite way to feed myself. Some protein, veggies, broth, salt.

I went to Portland for my photo shoot and held a bravery in my body that came from holding myself, my layers, my joys, my pains, my deep desires to know my intuition and choices belong to me.

Permission to change. To iterate. To begin again each morning in full knowing that you are brilliant and beautiful and to make movement from that knowing.

Catherine is permission behind her camera. She already sees you as brilliant and beautiful and coaxes it out towards her lens.

She returns the investments you have put into yourself through photo.

Photos that will redesign how you see you.

Those weeks before the photo shoot so much happened. All the stories won't be poured out onto this page.

Look at the photos, the stories lay inside of them, words not needed to show the journey of who I was becoming as I stood (or laid) for Catherine's camera.

......

Join me and now over 600 women for a free challenge :: A Woman's Thirst :: A 40 day adventure in hydration, movement and failure.

On the island.

I am blessed for the rain falling on my braids.

I am blessed with the darkest chocolate brownie that melts as I take bites all through the day.

I am blessed to see the color blue that makes my breath quicken with a yes.

I am blessed with women who can be naked in front of you, physically and otherwise.

I am blessed when I find mirrors hiding in little corners.

I am blessed to fall in love with a life growing inside one who I love like mad.

I am blessed along side horses who feel the same as I about the rain.

I am blessed with sips of nectar and bubbles with the spirit sister who can talk to me for hours.

I am blessed munching pomme frites, always the pomme frites.

I am blessed by the sight of the pigs tiptoeing towards me for a little affection.

I am blessed with messages from the island reminding me that as intense as it all feels in this moment, the journey has only just started, each morning.

I am blessed standing on boats on waters that transport me into the first vacation in forever.

I am blessed to let my crabby sadness ebb and flow with the waves, finding giggles, refusing tears, stumbling through pains mixed with joys mixed with loneliness mixed with connection.

I am blessed by the rain falling on braids, not subtle in its shove to sip the coffee, hug my sweater and hear their words which become love notes to carry in my pocket, waiting for the sun to return.

A woman's thirst. {A 40 day *free* adventure}

A free 40 day adventure

August 12th - September 20th (my 40th)

A daily scavenger hunt challenge

Follow and connect with all the players of the adventure on Instagram

Gifts (details down below)

A woman's thirst calls in the waves of movement and risk that are creating her next becoming.

A woman's thirst is her desire to fill her cells and spirit with joy and lust and beauty.

A woman's thirst is a visionary's self forgiveness brought forth by each sip.

A woman's thirst brings her to the awakening of adventure, held deep in her blood and bones.

A woman's thirst allows her to water her future self with the love of a wild woman.

The months leading up to turning 39 (#epic39) sent me into a spin inside my Universe.

It was a feeling that came from knowing this was the last time my age would ever start with a number 3. I held a mix of wild excitement, brave confidence and a total crazy fear of letting go that I was not ready to sink into. So I grabbed 39 by both of it's numbers and I let it roll over me and through me and around me.

I decided that I would celebrate with an abandon of riches, risks and failures.

The night of my birthday I asked 6 friends to join me on a scavenger hunt around the city of Providence, RI. It was the first time I had ever stepped into celebrating myself this fully. My heart was blown open by the amount of love and support and crazy adventure that happened that night and the months to follow.

We had 39 challenges to complete.

Find someone on a first date and ask them how it was going. Check. Give away 7 white balloons. Check (One went to the first date couple.) Perform rap. Check. Get a bartender to let you go behind bar and pour a beer. Check. Get someone to buy you a drink. Check. Have someone show you a hidden tattoo. Check. Make public art. Check. Take picture with skull. Check. Kidnap someone and take them on adventure. Nope. (But this one couple showed up at the dance club we went to from the previous restaurant we were at, and we had tried to kidnap them, so, kind of...)

We didn't make it through the 39 challenges, maybe 29 of them.By 2am everything was closing and we were ready to fall onto our pillows.

We didn't need to make it through all of them. We didn't need to finish, to cross them all off, we just needed to do it, be in it. We even needed to fail big at some of the challenges.

It was a freedom and happiness that still breathes inside of me.

39 has been a year of so much unknowing and expansion and a pace that I have barely found myself able to keep up with.

I have been raw and alive. This can happen at any age. For me it was 39. My awakening. My peeling. My layers. My freedom. My truth.

I let go of the need to know the answers to all the big questions I thought my impending 40th year self should know.

And then...

I got thirsty. Thirsty in my skin, on my lips, inside my soul. My dehydrated female body had a thirst that wouldn't be quieted.

At first it was a thirst for water. As my cells started to fill with the power of that water I could feel my soul, my spirit start to open, as though I was the ocean, the waves, the current.

In these waves inside of me I wanted to become movement. To sweat. To cycle my waves, my sweat, with the moon that guides me. I craved the wisdom that was buried inside of me that could only release when I started to know and quench my thirst.

And I danced with failure. It is the attempt, the trying that changes our lives. So during this challenge we will fail sometimes because we made the attempt.

This year I invite you to join a group of women all over the world who seek to push their edges at all ages. Who will hydrate and move and risk failure in the doing.

Here is how our 40 day adventure will work ::

• A daily email with the day's challenge
• Challenges will come from me or a special guest (cause I need surprises too)
• Our instagram hashtag #awomansthirst will hold all of our photos from the adventures
• Each day go forth on your adventure and take a picture representing the challenge with the hashtag
• Explore your edges and dance with surprise
• Learn a whole new layer of who you are
• Let yourself become fully inside of your thirst
• Move with a group of women ready for change
• 40 days leading up to my 40th birthday when I will give away a gift to one of the adventurers
• One gift, to one amazing woman, will be free enrollment in all of my online programs for a year
• Maybe other surprises too, you know...

Sample of our adventures ::

• Mantra bomb your neighborhood/city by leaving little notes on mirrors, sidewalks, the table with your tip, a fence...
• Create mason jars filled with fruit water (fruit floating in water) and gift them out during the day
• Hold the gaze of 5 people today, let them be the first to break eye contact
• Park one mile away from the destination. Walk. Be open to the surprises.
• Take a photo with someone, who when you see them, lights you up. (Strangers are bonus points)
• Tell a story (using one of the prompts provided) to someone of your choosing today. Or blog it.
• Write a word on your body (using prompt provided) and go out into the world with it visible.
• These are just a quick sample of how we will play, hydrate, move and quite possibly fail...

“There is a community of the spirit.

Join it, and feel the delight

of walking in the noisy street

and being the noise.

Drink all your passion,

and be a disgrace.

Close both eyes

to see with the other eye” ~ Rumi

“What you do is take women who don’t even know how to believe in what they already are, don’t know that they should, and you give them hope, give them the tools, introduce them to a way of looking at themselves, the world, each other – that illuminates ILLUMINATES the path that we failed to notice was beneath our feet all along.”

“Hannah walks her talk, follows the path so that it is illuminated for the souls she guides. She has her finger on the pulse of the universe, and embodies the sacred feminine.”

“Hannah is honest, real, a storyteller, authentic, magical, passionate, gentle and tough all at the same time…”

(First photo credit Mara Glatzel)