The Cultivate Project
Encouraging monthly self- Care practice visualized in lettering art and illustration.
Cultivate
I began the cultivate project as a way to practice my lettering and illustration art while also reminding myself of self care practices that I knew brought me a better mindset. As I was creating these, words started flowing and they were put into my studio journal. Then I had the idea to put those words out there with the art in the form of a podcast. You can find the podcast and art below for each month’s cultivation focus.
The cultivate project is a once a month lettering and illustration project where I hand draw and digitally illustrate a word that focuses on a self care practice I want to cultivate. In addition to producing the lettering art and illustration, I also write and record a monthly podcast because I truly believe in cultivating these practices for growth in our lives.
Join the cultivate collectors
Sign up for our newsletter to get all of the released digital wallpapers and calendars from the cultivate project so far. And get a new one each month.
We’ll also keep you updated with new collection releases and first access to original art!
The Cultivate Project
Cultivate Progress
Focusing on progress instead of on perfection actually creates a shift in your mindset that allows you to focus on the process and not the goal. To focus on how you are growing rather than perfection. A focus on how to make your work or yourself better rather than having a required outcome. And progress and growth is what we should be reaching for. We can’t grow without focusing on the process and actually enjoying it.
Cultivate Elevation
Elevating is a process and one we should love to do, not as much for the result, but because we are pushing ourselves to learn and grow. We reach for excellence through elevation, and often through that process, we get closer to excellence. It is progress, not perfection. It is cultivating elevation.
Cultivate Rest
Two key benefits to rest for everyone though:
Rest allows us to get back to the heart of it all. To rediscover and remind ourselves of our why.
Rest allows us to keep going, to not quit.
Cultivate Season 2
Cultivate means to grow through encouragement, careful pruning, feeding, and consideration of those nearest to a plant. I’m also a plant lover (outdoors becuase indoors I have no luck). And I think it’s true of ourselves. We can cultivate, or grow with encouragement, careful pruning of the things that don’t serve us or who we are growing to be, feeding and watering ourselves with goodness like the things I focus on in the cultivate project.
Cultivate Joy
As we lead into this holiday season, the one word that comes up over and again is joy. We hear it and yet somehow often in this season, we don’t live it. And I think for many of us we don’t live it all the year round. But it’s important that we do cultivate joy during this season and certainly the entire year round. And if we can cultivate an inner joy during one of the busiest times of the year it should become a habit that we hold onto all year.
Cultivate Gratitude
It may be cliché that I’m choosing to talk about gratitude at this time of year, but I think it’s important. While well meaning ideas on gratitude through November and Thanksgiving Day are great, I think we tend to go back to our old mindsets and anxieties very soon after. Often with the busyness of the holidays our old ways of complaint and narrow perspective are compacted. So I want to make sure, that when you begin this month thinking about gratitude, you carry it over into the holidays and make it a true life changing habit.
Cultivate Strength
Strength allows us to grow, to move forward, to come out of hiding, to move and do with purpose, to make changes and waves in this world. Without strength, we stay where we are and accept what is because it’s comfortable – even if it’s a comfortably hard life.
Cultivate Exploration
Exploration means pushing out of our comfort zones but without the stress of a needed outcome. Instead we are looking at process with a sense of wonder. Often we are trying something new so there is no real risk.
Cultivate Self-Love
Self love is often being comfortable with who we are, knowing we are worthy as we are and not needing to keep up with someone else, or needing more than what we know is for us.
Cultivate Expectancy
When we cultivate expectancy we are choosing to respond to things that happen in our life with hope and encouragement even though we may not know the outcome (there is a certain letting go of control required here) that leads to living with peace in your life.
Cultivate Release
In much the same way, what we take in and more importantly what we let go of is also vital to our well being. Paying attention to what we allow into our minds will often shine a light on how those things affect our mindset, our mood, and ultimately our well being.
Cultivate Questions
It’s truly getting in there and questioning. Questioning yourself and questioning others. It’s about being curious and seeing where that curiosity takes you. And based on my own experience, if you truly question and allow those questions to take you anywhere, then you will often have a few surprising revelations and answers.
Cultivate Daydreams
Daydreaming is a super important part of the creative process especially when it comes to building your life. You create your life and tuning in to the creative side of you, to listen and create in your imagination what you might want is where visions are formed, where new businesses, ideas, innovations are formed. You can’t get these things if you aren’t daydreaming. You can’t get these things if you aren’t allowing yourself to flow with your own thoughts. If you are afraid to sit in your own thoughts, consider why and release what is holding you back.
Cultivate Vision
We need to know where we are going and then keep our eyes there while working in the moment of where we are. Otherwise we’ll just go where ever our eyes are looking. And if they don’t have something to look at we’ll either end up going in many directions with the many distractions or end up stuck in one spot. This is vision.
Cultivate Stillness
Why is practicing stillness so difficult? How is it done and what are the benefits? I explore these questions and share how stillness used to work for me (hint – it wasn’t good) and how it works for me now (I found a way!).
Join the cultivate collectors
Sign up for our newsletter to get all of the released digital wallpapers and calendars from the cultivate project so far. And get a new one each month.
We’ll also keep you updated with new collection releases and first access to original art!
