Thanks to the generous support of the Regional Arts & Culture Council, I got to spend three inspiring months exploring worry with some incredibly thoughtful, courageous and wise sixth-graders. We called ourselves the Fearless Writers, and over our weeks together compared our worries to bungee jumping, swimming in shark-infested waters, being stuck inside a rain cloud, and having a monkey banging around in our heads. We traveled to peaceful places of our own imagination— sunny islands, rooms made of pillows, and rooms filled with teddy bears. We imagined what it would be like if we used our creative brains to imagine things going right instead of wrong. We compared our lists of worries to our much longer and pretty hilarious lists of non worries— cake, socks, pugs, pickles...

We also talked about how, difficult as it may be sometimes, being sensitive to the world is a beautiful thing—the world could use more sensitive souls, especially now. And we learned that, according to researchers in London, we are all creative geniuses. We read about it in an article titled: Overthinking Worriers Are Probably Creative Geniuses, Research Finds.

This year I'll be returning to offer more Fearless Writers workshops, and will be creating a website to share some of our projects so you can try them with your own kids and students. Or send me an email if you'd like to organize a Fearless Writers workshop at your school.

had the amazing experience of working with As some of you know, last year I received a grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council to create writing workshops for 6th-graders dealing with anxiety. For ten weeks, I visited three Portland public schools to explore worry with some amazingly thoughtful, courageous and wise young people. We called ourselves the Fearless Writers. 

generously funded Fearless Writers, a writing workshop for sixth-graders dealing with anxiety. Over ten weekly sessions we explore worry through 

Over the past few months we’ve compared our worries to bungee jumping, swimming in shark-infested waters, being stuck inside a rain cloud and having a monkey banging around in our heada... We’ve traveled peaceful places of our own imagination— sunny islands, rooms made of pillows and rooms filled with teddy bears. We imagined what it would be like if we used our creative brains to imagine things going right instead of wrong. We compared our lists of worries to our much longer and pretty hilarious lists of non worries, including cake, socks, pugs and pickles.

We talked about what an important thing it is to be sensitive to the world. Feeling it all is hard sometimes but it’s a beautiful gift—the world could use more sensitive souls, especially now. We also learned that, according to researchers in London, we are creative geniuses. We read about it in an article titled: Overthinking Worriers Are Probably Creative Geniuses, Research Finds.