Knit Pause with the Moon - Episode 3 - The Joy of Connection

Welcome to this episode of Knit Pause with the Moon recorded on the February 2021 new moon. I’m Solène, you’re host and together today we will share a moment of creative pause around the theme of connection and community. I will start by sharing some reflections and ideas on how to work with this theme in your creative activities and then we will do a guided meditation together to help you ground, pause and expand your idea of connection.

A few words about the season and this New Moon

I like to anchor these podcasts in the season and moment where I record them, but the themes and meditations that I share are pretty universal so you can definitely listen to it, or listen back at any other time if the theme speaks to you.

Right now, when I’m recording this, we are in the middle of Winter, in fact we just passed the mid-point of Winter with the celtic celebration of Imbolc two weeks ago, in France we celebrate the Chandeleur at this time. We welcomed back the sun, as the days are growing and we are heading towards Spring.

This New Moon is also the Lunar New Year, many culture around the world use a lunar calendar and this new moon marks the beginning of the year. So if you feel a need to renew, to start fresh, if this beginning of year has been exhausting to you, or went by way to fast, you can use this moment to reground, refill your creative energy tank and plant new seeds or intentions for the year.

This new moon is in the sign of Aquarius which is an archetype of connection, community, innovation. And if you follow astrology there’s also a beautiful conjunction between the planets Venus and Jupiter happening in Aquarius at this time. I’m not an astrologer myself so I can’t talk about that at much lenght but all I know is that it’s a beautiful moment for connection, for planting seeds of healing in our relationships, in the way we connect to people, in our community.

3 creative invitations

• CREATING IN COMMUNITY When we come together to knit, or make, it’s as if we were knitting from the same thread. It creates deeps bounds that allow us to share on a very personal level, to connect and open up to each other’s experiences and to really feel this joy of connection. Now could be a great time to gather with your knitting community, to find a safe space of expression for yourself. I have a free knitting+meditation challenge and MKAL called the Inspiration challenge coming up next week so I hope that you will join us because it will be the perfect place to connect, share and create in community.

• HEALING AND SELF-DISCOVERY Being able to love and connect with others in a deep radical way comes from loving yourself, comes from knowing yourself. Determining your needs in relationship. How you can connect to others, what boundaries you need. And we often have old stories, from our family, our childhood… that still dictate how we connect to others, if we feel worthy enough or not to speak in a community and value our own opinion. And those are some very tough things to deconstruct, and it takes time. You can start with some easy questions to ask yourself like: What do you need in relationship? Do you have those poeple in your life that you can share with and feel nurtured by them as they feel nurtured by you at the same time? Who do you share your creative projects with, do they appreciate you fully? Do you have people who encourage you to be creative?

• CELEBRATING Yourself and others: Time to send some love to your friends, chosen family, to the people you follow online, to give some heart on their posts, compliment their projects, celebrate who they are to you (not only what they’ve accommplished) It’s Valentine’s season if you celebrate, but more broadly we never celebrate enough the poeple in our life. And also ourselves. Maybe you want to take a moment to celebrate and appreciate yourself. To look at the knitting projects you made in the past and see how beautiful they are, to feel some pride for them. To share them with your firends, your community! If you want to just celebrate yourself or someone you appreciate in the comments of this podcast, I’m offering you this space to shamelessely, unapologeticelly do so! (And it’s also helping me out, because the most comments/love, the most this podcast reached people).

Meditation to expand and find more joy in connection

After entering a space of meditation by reconnecting to your breath, body, and to the ground, imagine a light coming from your body and expanding. Visualize its color, its texture, how it feels in your body. How bright, beautiful, comforting it is. Feel this beautiful ball of light growing, expanding.

Then feel the light and vibration of the other beings around you. And all of us, knitters, crafters, creative, dreams, all over the world, we are connected through our own beautiful creative lights. Feel the joy of this connection. The pure joy of being together. Of knowing that you are held, in this space. That you are not alone. That we are here with you.

Take a moment to think about the people you want to connect with. The people you love. The people who maybe need a bit of extra light today, the people who are in your thoughts. You can send them all some of that beautiful comforting, joyful light today.

Useful links

• Free Knit Pause Inspiration Challenge starting February 18th, click here to join

• Your free guide to create your own At-Home Knitting Retreat, click here to download