Winter Camp, explained
What is this thing? A webinar? A course?
Hi, dear friends,
Earlier this year, I signed up for a workshop with one of my favorite poets. I was excited to be in a space together. I had in my mind that we would be writing together, sharing our poems in the live sessions, and getting feedback from our fellow classmates.
Well, not quite. There were more than a hundred poets on the Zoom sessions! We listened to the instructor poets analyze the poems; we were given a prompt; we wrote on our own. Then we went to the next poem and the next prompt.
The only time when we all went off mute was at the end of the session, when we were encouraged to say “goodbye” all at once. I could have watched the recordings and not missed anything.
To be fair, I should have read the description more closely. And it was really too large of a group to do anything else.
But also, it can be hard to understand what you are getting when you sign up for a virtual thing.
And so it dawned on me: You probably don’t have any idea what Winter Art Camp and Winter Camp are really like, because they are probably not like anything you’ve ever been to before.
Camps aren’t webinars.
Camps aren’t massive open online courses.
Camps aren’t a series of prerecorded videos.
Camps are interactive communities that spring up for about a month.
At least, that’s how I’ve set up these two camps …
Fun spaces to solve a problem you might have too
Basically, I created the camps as way to solve two problems — problems I have felt, and I am imaginging others have experience, too.
Problem 1: You love being creative, but you struggle with making time for it among everything else. You wish you were writing more, or painting more, and bringing projects to the finish line. You don’t want a webinar or a class with grades or an online course with videos; you know what you want to do already. You long for a community of other writers and artists and a feeling like what you are creating matters. Solution: Winter Art Camp, which supports you with live meetups, sessions, prompts — and it’s in January, to kick off a creative year. The magic is the community of other people working on their own creative projects, hearing their challenges, and seeing their progress.
Problem 2: Winter can be hard, especially by the time February rolls around. Experts encourage movement, connection, outdoors, light, nourishment, creativity. Yet those simple things can be much harder to do in winter, when we tend to be more isolated with less motivation. Solution: Winter Camp, with gentle nudges, a community portal, and live sessions of dance meditation, breathwork, and more to brighten the cold, dark season.
Camp basics
Camps are 4 weeks long, or a little more.
Camps offer support to do the things you already want to do — but sometimes it can be hard to do on your own.
Camps have a certain magic when you are in it with other kind humans — it’s fun to see what they think, what they are up to, and share your thoughts.
Camps are interactive — they are at their very best when campers are connecting.
Camps have …
Live weekly meetups. In Winter Art Camp, weekly sessions focus on our creative projects, talking through challenges, sharing progress. In Winter Camp, weekly sessions focus on movement and connection, like DANCEmandala, breathwork, meditiation. Both camps have a kick-off sessions where you introduce yourself and meet other campers.
Reflective prompts that are gentle nudges by email. It makes a difference to hear a nudge, even when you’ve already heard it before. Ponder the prompts or journal about them on your own, or answer them in the portal and read other people’s responses.
Private community portal. Not Facebook. No ads. The portal has an intuitive layout. You can start your own threads or join in a conversation. Here’s a screenshot of the Winter Art Camp portal in early 2024:
Does that sound like a lot? Or just right?
You can pick and choose. There is no wrong way to do Winter Camp.
Some campers read the prompts and skip the live sessions, and still get a lot out of it.
Some people are really active in the portal, sharing and chatting.
It’s up to you. You can’t fall behind. There are no grades.
I have a vision that one day Winter Camp will have thousands of people in it, all having a better winter because of their time together.
But right now, it’s still pretty new, and it’s small and special. You can be there at the beginning. Your ideas and feedback will help shape it for the next season.
If you are intrigued or excited, I hope you’ll join us this winter.
Learn more about camps and sign up here.
You can use the code WINTER100 for $100 off. I also know money is tight right now, so there’s a pay-what-you-can link, too. (If you are outside the U.S., please write to me at brianne@odysseyofthebody.com.)
I’ll be back in a few days with the last Field Notes of 2024, plus interviews, tools, and much more in 2025.
To our journeys,
Brianne
p.s. I’m honestly trying to figure out what helps people the most, so if you have suggestions for topics, schedules, formats, ways to make a virtual gathering better — or other problems you’d like to focus on — let me know!
