Journaling for Hope & Guidance: The Power of Witnessing Your Life

A Four-Week Writing to Awaken Course with Mark Matousek

Next class in 2025. Dates TBA.

Journaling is a powerful practice for cultivating hope in challenging times. As humans, we have a unique capacity to transform hopelessness through ingenuity and imagination, and to brighten our lives with the power of insight.

In this inspiring four-week course, Mark guides you through a series of Writing to Awaken practices aimed at catalyzing the spirit of hope within you. Shifting your perspective on personal experience – including fearful predictions about the future – helps to release vital optimism and move you from victimhood toward self-empowerment.

You are elevated by “the thing with feathers,” as Emily Dickinson described hope, and your innate ability to imagine fresh outcomes.

Register now and secure your spot!

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$197.00

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What to expect in each weekly class

Mark begins each session begins each session with a 15-minute talk about the week’s topic, followed by two 25-minute guided writing exercises, optional breakout groups, and Q&A. Known for his provocative work with students, Mark brings decades of experience as a writer and mentor to his Writing to Awaken courses, creating an atmosphere of gentle, mutual support and inquiry. Writing to Awaken has helped countless people around the world to reach their creative and spiritual goals.

“Let Mark Matousek be your guide as you journey to the depths of your mind to nurture a new way of being with yourself and with others.”
~Daniel J. Siegel, MD, Clinical Professor and NY Times bestselling author

In this course, you will learn:

– To strengthen your wise witness awareness

– To identify the positive potential in difficult life experiences

– To cultivate fact-based optimism in challenging times

– To recognize how rumination interferes with flourishing

– To avoid the negativity bias and temptations of pessimism

– To cultivate hope through imagination

“Mark Matousek is an insightful, compelling and incisive teacher – truthful, direct, compelling, open, and compassionate. He takes students on a provocative journey to places we need to go if we are to live and create from our deepest selves. His deeply spiritual center and his generosity of spirit combine to make his being, his writings and his teaching magical transformative experiences.” ~ Marcia, Photographer

Weekly Course Overview

Week One: Now is Not Forever

In this first session, we explore how the fixation on past and future sabotage well-being, and the importance of present moment awareness to a wise, insight-driven life.

Week Two: Action and Surrender

In our second session, we investigate the link between hope and confidence, and how spiritual surrender increases personal power. Developing ‘beginners mind’ is a critical aspect of positive living.

Week Three: How Optimism Works

Our attention is turned in this third session to the myths surrounding optimism and the traps of toxic positivity. By aligning yourself with the ways of nature, you increase hope and creative thinking.

Week Four: Leave Nothing Out

Hope and ‘realism’ are not counter indicated, as we learn in this final session. For hope to be helpful, it must be fact-based and allow space for our fears when they arise. This helps to illuminate our actions and become agents of positive change in the world.

This illuminating series will strengthen your capacity for hope, and provide tools for an awakened, productive, and original life.

About Mark Matousek

Mark Matousek, M.A., is an award-winning author, teacher, and speaker whose work focuses on transformative writing for personal, professional, and spiritual development. He is the founder of TheSeekersForum.com, an online community for writing and self-inquiry, as well as the author of eight books including How Emerson Can Change Your Life: Lessons From an American Stoic, Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story, When You’re Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living, Ethical Wisdom: The Search for a Moral Life, , and Writing To Awaken: A Journey of Truth, Transformation, and Self-Discovery. A featured blogger for PsychologyToday.com, he has contributed to numerous anthologies and publications, including the New Yorker, Details, Harper’s Bazaar, The Chicago Tribune, O: The Oprah Magazine, and many others. A MacDowell Fellow and graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, he offers workshops in self-inquiry and personal development internationally, using his Writing To Awaken method. Mark lives in Springs, New York.

Mark Matousek

Mark Matousek, M.A., is an award-winning author, teacher, and speaker whose work focuses on transformative writing for personal, professional, and spiritual development. He is the founder of TheSeekersForum.com, an online community for writing and self-inquiry, as well as the author of eight books including How Emerson Can Change Your Life: Lessons From an American Stoic, Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story, When You’re Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living, Ethical Wisdom: The Search for a Moral Life, , and Writing To Awaken: A Journey of Truth, Transformation, and Self-Discovery. A featured blogger for PsychologyToday.com, he has contributed to numerous anthologies and publications, including the New Yorker, Details, Harper’s Bazaar, The Chicago Tribune, O: The Oprah Magazine, and many others. A MacDowell Fellow and graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, he offers workshops in self-inquiry and personal development internationally, using his Writing To Awaken method. Mark lives in Springs, New York.

www.markmatousek.com

www.TheSeekersForum.com

https://www.facebook.com/mark.matousek/

“Let Mark Matousek be your guide as you journey to the depths of your mind to nurture a new way of being with yourself and with others.”
~ Daniel J. Siegel, MD, Clinical Professor and NY Times bestselling author

“Simply put –- if you’re looking to make a change, reach beyond your comfort zone and see the world and your life through fresh eyes – take a seminar with Mark Matousek who is a truly great teacher as well as a great writer.” ~ Mary Jo, Philanthropist

“Anyone taking an online class with Mark Matousek is in for a rare treat, and most likely a life-changing experience. Mark always plans thought-provoking writing exercises that tap into the deepest part of yourself. Through his keen insight, perspective and kind responses to the students’ writing he offers feedback that help students focus on and realize their inner truth. This is the fifth class I’ve taken with Mark, and I hope to take many more.” ~ Stacey, Graphic Artist

"The online class and live retreat that I took with Mark are two of the most profound experiences I ever had. Mark’s strong leadership and sensitivity provide a safe environment for one to write and share life stories. Writing exercises, along with intuitive questions and personal feedback, have revealed my inner sense of wholeness. I am deeply grateful for this gift.” ~ Emma, Writer

"Mark Matousek is an insightful, compelling and incisive teacher – truthful, direct, compelling, open, and compassionate. He takes students on a provocative journey to places we need to go if we are to live and create from our deepest selves. His deeply spiritual center and his generosity of spirit combine to make his being, his writings and his teaching magical transformative experiences.” ~ Marcia, Photographer

"Mark, thank you for the immense gift of your online course! It was truly a unique journey which seemed to run parallel to the lived events of that moment in my life. The safe and inspired place you fostered for me (and our group) enabled me to delve into the deepest corners of my personal story and emerge with something new to share with the world.” ~Juliet, Homemaker

Get Journaling for Hope & Guidance: The Power of Witnessing Your Life here

$197.00

Journaling for Hope & Guidance: The Power of Witnessing Your Life