By Denise Colin

This season invites us to rediscover the power of gratitude. As autumn settles in, nature begins to rest. The trees release their leaves, the days grow shorter, and the earth itself seems to exhale. Yet for many of us, this same time of year brings a quickening pace. As the holidays approach, to-do lists grow, obligations increase, and our minds race even as the world around us slows down.

That’s why this season offers such a meaningful invitation to pause. Thanksgiving, rooted in the harvest season, began as a time to honor abundance and give thanks for what the earth provided and for the relationships that made survival possible. When we return to that essence, we reconnect with the deeper rhythm of gratitude — not as an obligation, but as an act of awareness and appreciation.

At Womanspace, we strive to create space for that awareness — for moments of grounding, reflection, and connection amid the swirl of the season. Gratitude reminds us that even in the busyness, there is beauty to be found and peace to be reclaimed.

Energy and Healing

Gratitude is often thought of as a response, as something we feel when good things happen or others show us kindness. But the importance of gratitude reaches far beyond a reactionary feeling or expression. True gratitude is not dependent on circumstances or people; it’s a way of noticing life itself. It’s the quiet awe of a colorful sunset, the simple beauty of a butterfly crossing your path, or the steady comfort of knowing you’re still here, still breathing.

When we rest in that feeling of genuine appreciation for what is, we create a vibration of abundance. That energy draws in more of the same. In other words, it attracts to us more reasons to be grateful, more moments of peace, kindness, and connection. In this way, the power of gratitude lies in its ability to transform both our inner world and the way life responds to us. It reminds us that even in uncertainty, there is still goodness and connection to be found.

Both science and spirituality affirm the importance of gratitude. Studies show that practicing it can calm the nervous system, strengthen relationships, and support emotional healing. Spiritually, gratitude opens the heart and restores flow. It helps us release the heaviness of worry or scarcity and make space for hope and renewal.

Gratitude heals not by denying what’s difficult, but by expanding our awareness to include what’s still good. It invites balance, grounding, and a gentle return to wholeness.

Gratitude and Presence

Gratitude and presence are reflections of one another with each giving rise to the other. When we pause long enough to be truly present, to feel the air in our lungs or notice the light shifting through the trees, gratitude awakens naturally. And when we practice gratitude, our attention returns to the present moment. We see what’s here instead of what’s missing.

In a world that moves quickly, this simple awareness is transformative. Presence grounds us; gratitude expands us. Together, they bring us back to the rhythm of life as it’s happening rather than allowing us to contemplate yesterday’s worries or tomorrow’s plans. We stay where peace and appreciation live side by side.

Feeling gratitude, rather than simply stating it, strengthens that connection. The emotion turns awareness into a current of positive energy that subtly impacts not only our own wellbeing, but that of everyone around us.

Finding Gratitude in Difficult Times

There are times when gratitude doesn’t come easily. When loss, uncertainty, or exhaustion weigh on the heart, the belief in thepower of gratitude can feel distant and unrealistic. Yet these are often the times when gratitude holds the greatest potential to heal.

Gratitude doesn’t ask us to pretend everything is okay. It invites us to hold both truth and tenderness by acknowledging the pain and still finding a glimmer of light within it. It might begin with something small: a warm cup of coffee, the presence of a pet, a kind word from someone who cares. These simple acknowledgments don’t erase hardship, but they remind us that goodness still exists, even during difficult times.

The importance of gratitude is reflected in its ability to help us see the whole picture without denying the hard parts of life. Gratitude shifts our focus from what’s missing to what’s present. It reminds us that alongside the pain, there is also beauty, comfort, and love. In this way, it restores balance and helps us return to the truth that light and shadow coexist and both are part of being fully alive.

The Womanspace Power of Gratitude Invitation

As we approach Thanksgiving, Womanspace invites you to join us in a reflective community practice: the 21-Day Gratitude Flow.

For the 21 days leading up to Thanksgiving (beginning November 6th), we’ll come together to cultivate the power of gratitude. Each evening, before ending your day, take a few quiet moments to reflect on one thing you are grateful for. It could be something profound or something simple: a kind gesture, the laughter of a friend, the steady warmth of your home, or even the lessons that came with a challenge. Write it down, or simply hold the feeling in your heart. The important part is to let yourself feel the emotion fully. Over time, you may begin to notice subtle shifts in yourself such as a calmer mind, a lighter heart, and a growing sense of optimism as gratitude gently rewires the way you see the world.

As we do this collectively, our shared gratitude creates a current of positive energy that flows outward and connects us. The more we nurture it, the more it expands, promotes compassion, and draws in abundance for ourselves and for others.

This practice is about being present long enough to notice what is good and letting that awareness reshape how we meet each day. Each acknowledgment, however small, adds to the collective flow of kindness, connection, and hope that defines this season and the spirit of Womanspace itself.

Living in the Flow of Gratitude

As the season unfolds, may this practice of gratitude shift from being a daily exercise to becoming a way of being. The power of gratitude lies in how it changes our relationship with life itself. It grounds us and reminds us that even amidst all we cannot control, there is always something to appreciate.

When we live in gratitude, we live in flow. We begin to see how every moment — the joyful, the ordinary, and even the difficult — offers something to learn, to cherish, or to simply receive. Gratitude transforms this season from a rush of activity into a rhythm of awareness.

As we move toward Thanksgiving and beyond, may we carry this awareness with us through sharing kindness, noticing beauty, and contributing to the energy of gratitude that uplifts us all.

From all of us at Womanspace: may your days be touched with peace, your heart open to abundance, and your spirit grounded in the quiet joy of gratitude.

A reflection on the history of witches, women’s wisdom, and the modern reawakening of the sacred feminine inspired by the mission of Womanspace.

By Denise Colin

From Condemnation to Celebration

At Womanspace, we gather in community, meditate, celebrate creativity, and listen for the wisdom that lives in silence. We tend gardens and honor the earth. We trust intuition as a kind of truth. Centuries ago, these same acts — connecting with nature, practicing natural healing methods, listening inward — could have branded a woman a witch.

The word still conjures feelings of mystery, danger, and power. But behind the myths and stereotypical portraits lies a deeper story based on fear and misunderstanding. Women once called witches were often simply women who knew things, like how to heal, comfort, or live close to the rhythms of the earth.

At a time when spiritual authority was tightly controlled, such knowledge made these women dangerous. Their independence, their insight, and their ability to nurture life outside the sanctioned boundaries of church and state became reasons to condemn them.

Today, many of the same practices that once drew suspicion are celebrated as paths to wholeness and connection. We call them mindfulness, holistic healing, yoga, energy work, or simply spirituality. How did we move from fear to reverence? And what can remembering this history teach us about the sacred feminine today?

The Roots of the “Witch:” Women, Power, and Fear

The story of witches begins long before the witch hunts. The earliest meanings of the word wicce or wicca in Old English simply referred to a “wise woman” or “one who shapes.” She was the midwife, the herbalist, or the storyteller. Her knowledge of the earth, birth, and death connected her to the mysteries of life itself.

But wisdom, especially women’s wisdom, has often been treated with suspicion. As Christianity spread through Europe, the old folk traditions like honoring earth, moon, and seasons were gradually pushed to the margins. Women who continued to practice them were viewed as threats to the new order.

Beneath the myths and accusations lay a struggle over power: who was allowed to hold it, name it, and use it. A woman whose authority came from intuition and experience, rather than the pulpit or the throne, represented a kind of freedom the world wasn’t ready to allow.

The Witch Hunts: Europe to America

By the late 15th century, fear of witches had hardened into a system of control. Across Europe, tens of thousands of people, mostly women, were accused, tortured, and executed. Those targeted were often widows, midwives, herbalists, or women who simply lived beyond society’s expectations.

The witch hunts arose from a convergence of power and fear. The Church provided the framework, defining witchcraft as heresy and linking it to sin and female weakness. The state supplied the enforcement through courts, prisons, and executions that carried out the punishments. And society provided the fuel, as neighbors and villages, grappling with plague, famine, and loss, sought someone to blame.

In times of upheaval, accusing someone of witchcraft offered a terrible kind of order. It was a way to name fear and burn it away.

When this mindset crossed the Atlantic with European settlers, it found new soil in the Puritan colonies of North America. In 1692, Salem, Massachusetts became the most famous example. However, it was part of a much larger inheritance — the suspicion of women’s independence, intellect, and influence.

Behind every accusation was a story: a midwife whose patient died in childbirth, a woman whose herbs healed too many, a female neighbor who owned property, or spoke her mind too freely. These were not women who worshiped dark forces; they were women who stood fully in their own power.

The witch hunts became a centuries-long attempt to silence what could not be controlled: women’s wisdom, their connection to the natural world, and their faith in something beyond the sanctioned institutions of the day.

The Quiet Survival of Women’s Wisdom

Despite centuries of persecution, the wisdom of these so-called witches never truly disappeared. It simply went underground. It was carried in whispered stories, in gardens behind cottages, in the hands of healers who passed their knowledge from mother to daughter, mentor to apprentice.

Herbal remedies, midwifery, and seasonal rituals survived in fragments of folklore and household practice. Though the world silenced their voices, women kept listening. They tended herbs for healing, honored the changing seasons, and carried forward an understanding that the sacred could still be felt in the living earth. Even in silence, women kept tending the sacred.

Through every era, there were those who remembered that healing could be an act of love, that intuition was a kind of truth, that the divine could be found in earth and water and breath. These quiet preservations formed a lineage of care and connection that would one day be called the reawakening of the sacred feminine.

The Return of the Sacred Feminine

Women’s Wisdom Across Cultures and Time

While the witch hunts largely suppressed women’s power and what they stood for, their wisdom was never completely lost. Some of it continued living quietly in the West, passed down through family lines of women who kept the old ways alive — midwives, healers, and caregivers who trusted the rhythms of nature. And in other parts of the world, that same wisdom remained central to health, balance, and spiritual life.

In Native American cultures, for example, women continued to serve as healers, dreamers, and keepers of natural medicine. In Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, herbalism, energy work, and spiritual ceremony remained vital parts of community life. Even in the West, where such wisdom was suppressed, traces endured in kitchen gardens, home remedies, and the intuition passed from mother to daughter.

The Sacred Feminine Reawakens

By the late 19th and 20th centuries, a reawakening began. The feminist movement questioned old hierarchies of power and belief, while psychology and holistic medicine started recognizing the unity of body, mind, and spirit. Practices once dismissed as superstition found new validation in science and wellness. Midwifery reemerged as a respected healthcare field.

At the same time, the West began looking East for spiritual depth beyond materialism and dogma. Buddhism and Taoism offered paths of mindfulness and balance; Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine revealed systems of healing rooted in harmony rather than dominance. Women, in particular, were drawn to these traditions because they offered something both radical and familiar. They encouraged spiritual authority grounded in direct experience rather than external permission.

The sacred feminine was rising again, expressed through many cultures and languages. But they carried the same essence of intuition, compassion, interconnectedness, and care for all living things.

Tending to the Sacred Feminine Today

At Womanspace, we see this reawakening every day. In yoga classes, women breathe into stillness. In meditation circles, people of all genders discover the wisdom that arises in silence. In creative and spiritual workshops, we honor the many expressions of the divine, within ourselves, each other, and the natural world.

This reawakening reminds us that the world has long been shaped by imbalance. For centuries, masculine energy, with its drive to build, reason, and control, has dominated our institutions and our understanding of power. These qualities have brought progress, yet without the tempering feminine presence of compassion, empathy, and connection, we lose our harmony. The return of the sacred feminine invites us not to replace one with the other, but to restore balance between them.

To reclaim the word “witch” is not to summon the past’s pain but to honor its courage. The witch was never evil; she was simply free. She was a woman who knew that her connection to the sacred did not need permission.

Reflection: Healing the Ancestral Wound

When we look back on the centuries of fear and persecution, it’s tempting to distance ourselves from that history and to consider it as a relic of darker times. But the echoes remain. Many women still learn to quiet their intuition, to doubt their wisdom, to make themselves smaller so others feel safe. The witch hunts may have ended, but their shadow lingers in subtle expectations and unspoken fears.

Healing that wound begins with remembering. Remembering the women who were silenced — their courage, their connection to nature, and their insistence that the sacred could live within ordinary life. When we honor their stories, we begin to release the fear that once bound them and that sometimes still binds us.

Each time we listen to our inner knowing, share in community, or find the divine in the natural world, we participate in that healing. We reclaim our birthright: the freedom to be fully ourselves, body and spirit, wise and whole.

Closing: A Call to Remember

The history of witches also conveys a story of women’s spiritual resilience. What was once condemned as dangerous has become recognized as divine. The sacred feminine endures, rising again and again wherever compassion, creativity, and courage are welcomed.

At Womanspace, that remembrance takes living form. Here, we honor the wisdom of the body, the beauty of the earth, and the light of the spirit. We gather not to hide what makes us powerful, but to celebrate it in community, in stillness, and in joy.

If this history stirs something in you, we invite you to explore Womanspace’s classes and programs. Discover what helps you feel fully yourself, without judgment, in a space where your inner knowing is not only welcome, but cherished.

Because we who were witches are, and always have been, keepers of our own truth.

By Denise Colin

The benefits of creativity for wellness are often misunderstood. We tend to think of creativity as something special, a practice reserved for the talented few. But creativity isn’t only about making art, writing a novel, or performing ballet. It’s a way of moving through life with openness and imagination, whether you’re cooking dinner, arranging flowers, or jotting a thought in your journal.

Research shows that creative engagement can reduce stress, improve cognitive function, and even boost physical health. But beyond studies and statistics, many of us know it intuitively: when we create, we feel more alive, more connected, and more ourselves.

Creativity nourishes every dimension of wellness — mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and social. In each of these areas, simple acts of making and expressing can open doors to clarity, resilience, joy, and connection.

Let’s explore the benefits of creativity for whole-self wellness, and how everyday creative choices can bring more balance and meaning into our lives.

Mental Wellness: Clarity, Focus, and Resilience

Creativity gives the mind a healthy place to rest. When we enter into a creative act, like writing in a journal, painting, cooking, or even solving a puzzle, our busy thoughts slow down. We find ourselves more present.

Benefits

Sharper focus and flow

Creative activities often bring us into what psychologists call a “flow state,” where distractions fade and concentration deepens. This state not only improves productivity but also creates a restorative mental pause. This builds mental clarity and offers the brain a chance to reset.

Reduced stress and improved cognition

Studies show that engaging in creative practices can reduce cortisol, the body’s stress hormone, and support memory and problem-solving skills. These findings highlight the benefits of creativity for wellness, especially in cultivating resilience and focus over time.

In Daily Life

Mental wellness through creativity doesn’t need to look like studio art. It might be trying a new recipe, rearranging the furniture in a room, doodling while on a phone call, or jotting down three observations from your day. These small creative acts bring focus, calm, and a sense of play to the mind.

Emotional Wellness: Expression, Healing, and Balance

Feelings often move through us in ways that words alone can’t capture. Creativity provides a gentle and natural outlet, offering space for joy, sorrow, anger, or gratitude to be expressed safely and meaningfully.

Benefits

Healthy emotional expression

Creative activities like painting, journaling, or playing music allow emotions to move through us instead of getting stuck and coming out in destructive ways. This is one of the benefits of creativity for wellness that helps reduce overwhelm and nurtures greater resilience.

Processing and healing

Research suggests that expressive writing and art can reduce anxiety and help people process difficult experiences (American Journal of Public Health). Even beyond formal studies, many of us know the relief of singing in the car, doodling during a tense meeting, or baking when we need comfort. These acts help us regulate emotions and make space for both joy and sorrow.

In Daily Life

Emotional wellness through creativity might look like writing a letter you don’t intend to send, choosing table colors that match your mood, or creating a playlist that mirrors your feelings. Even small creative rituals like these allow emotions to be honored and released in safe, supportive ways.

Physical Wellness: Movement, Energy, and Embodiment

Creativity lives in the body as well as the mind. For example, dancing, painting, gardening, or kneading bread all invite us to move, stretch, and use our hands in new ways. These moments bring us back into connection with our physical selves.

Benefits

Strength and coordination

Creative activities that involve movement, like dance, sculpture or baking, challenge muscles and improve coordination. Studies show that dance-based practices can increase flexibility and mobility in safe, enjoyable ways.

Stress relief and lowered tension

Visual arts practices, such as painting or knitting, can help calm the nervous system. Research shows they may reduce muscle tension and even lower blood pressure (Harvard Health). These are some of the benefits of creativity for wellness that directly affect the body’s stress response.

Pain management

Engaging in creative activities has also been linked with reduced pain perception. Art-making provides distraction, eases tension, and helps the body process discomfort more gently (Frontiers in Psychology).

In Daily Life

Creativity can be part of simple routines such as humming while you cook, planting herbs in a windowsill garden, dancing while you cook, or crocheting while you listen to a podcast. These ordinary activities keep the body engaged, increase energy, and remind us that movement and creation are deeply connected.

Spiritual Wellness: Meaning, Wonder, and Connection

Creativity can feel like opening a door to something larger than ourselves. When we paint, write, or make music, we often experience a sense of wonder that connects us with purpose and meaning.

Benefits

A sense of awe and gratitude

Creative acts invite us to notice beauty in the world, whether in a poem, a melody, or a photograph. This deepens our appreciation for life and nurtures gratitude.

Connection with something greater

For many, creative practices serve as spiritual rituals. Research shows that creative expression can increase feelings of purpose and spiritual well-being (Public Med Central). These experiences highlight the benefits of creativity for wellness by linking daily life to a broader sense of meaning.

In Daily Life

Spiritual creativity doesn’t have to be grand. It might mean keeping a “wonder journal” with one moment of beauty each day, photographing the sunset, beautifully arranging your dinner plate, or lighting a candle as you write a note to a loved one. These small rituals turn everyday moments into spaces of reflection and connection.

Social Wellness: Sharing, Belonging, and Joy

Creativity naturally draws people together. When we share stories, sing, or make art in community, we strengthen bonds and remind each other that we are not alone.

Benefits

Building connection and belonging

Creative gatherings encourage trust and closeness. Research shows that group art-making can reduce loneliness and improve social well-being.

Collective joy and support

Sharing creativity allows us to celebrate one another’s gifts. This is abenefit of creativity for wellness that extends beyond the individual. It strengthens the community as a whole.

In Daily Life

Social creativity might look like hosting a potluck with themed dishes, writing cards for loved ones, or swapping music playlists with friends. These acts of sharing bring warmth and connection, turning creativity into a thread that ties people together.

Conclusion: Reaping the Benefits of Creativity for Wellness 

You don’t need “talent” to be creative. At its core, creativity is about being fully yourself. It asks for presence, expression and authenticity. When you create, you give voice to something within you that otherwise might stay hidden. In that act of expression, whether with words, visuals, movement, or sound, you touch a deeper aspect of who you are.

Through creativity, we allow our minds to focus, our emotions to flow, our bodies to move, our spirits to wonder, and our communities to thrive together. These are the many ways we experience the benefits of creativity for wellness.

And the beauty is that you don’t need hours of practice or polished skills to begin. Everyday acts, like doodling in the margin of a page, singing in the shower, cooking with care, or writing a journal entry, become creative rituals. These rituals help nurture balance, joy, and authenticity.

At Womanspace, we believe creativity is a path to wholeness. Our programs in the visual arts, mind and body practices, movement and meditation, and community groups are designed to nurture these dimensions of wellness in a supportive, welcoming environment. If you’re curious to explore creative wellness in community, we invite you to discover what feels right for you:

• Arts Classes
• Mind and Body Classes
• Movement and Meditation Classes
• Community Groups and Meetings

Creativity is already within you. We encourage you to release and nurture it!