Hannah Rooth of Wild Hum

evce blog

self love for people who don't love ourselves

self love used to be a concept that felt weird to me. how are you supposed to love yourself when you just…. don’t? it can come off as an almost “elite” concept ~ something for those people out there who are cool and balanced and supported and just have their shit together. who have something in themselves that’s worth loving.

i’m not going to say there’s a simple answer to how i came into the sincere experience of self-love. it’s been a long road. it’s been complex. it’s included hours of study, seeking, searching, jumping into the deep end, leaning into the edge that churns your stomach. it’s included vast measures of grace from the universe, people, resources, support coming into my life in the right places and at the right times.

but one thing about self-love is quite simple, and it’s something that i return to in many aspects of personal development + satisfaction attainment throughout my life. at the core of self-love is a willingness - a dare - to open up to myself, to meet myself where i am. to believe in the validity of my unmet desires, my secret yearning, that mysterious force within.

the lyricism of ‘make you feel my love’ by bob dylan paints such a potent, visceral recipe for this type of self-love

“when the evening shadows and the stars appear, and there is no one there to dry your tears, i could hold you for a million years”

“i’d go crawling down the avenue, no there’s nothing that i wouldn’t do, to make you feel my love”

“the winds of change are blowing wild and free, you ain’t seen nothin like me yet”

“i could make you happy, make your dreams come true... to make you feel my love”

here’s the live, self-produced cover of “make you feel my love” i released this week. hope you feel the comfort.

to build pragmatic emotional intelligence, intuitive creativity, and community development skills, apply for our next evce season via the form below

love + power
hannah

hacking writer's block

A dear friend told me she’s been experiencing writer’s block recently and asked if I had any advice to work through it.

In my experience, the key to avoiding writer’s block is deep listening. It’s same as opening yourself to another person to let them unburden. In this case, the person you are opening to is yourself. The trick is to set aside your expectations, your worries, and your business for a while, and to find yourself in your own body. Tune into your sensations, your perception of your own energy, your pure existence in space and time. Set ‘yourself’ aside and make room for whatever is emerging around and within you.

What makes the simple difficult is that being with ourselves can sometimes feel impossible. If we’re unable to feel well in our bodies, everything in us pushes to get away. Creating an internal experience of safety is relieving and magical. It strengthens our ability to exist deeply within our own bodies. How do we create safety? By relational modeling of safety, both with others (in community) and within our selves (imaginal healing work).

For experiential safety creating practice, consider joining my workgroup “emotional vulnerability through creative expression (evce).” You can also follow along for resources here on the evce blog or on instagram.

When you sit down to create, first, tap in to what your intentions are. Did you come with a goal? Did you come with an expectation? Let it go, and give yourself the space to just be there in whatever way you need. If your body needs rest, meditation, dance, care, affection, or silence and you come in trying to extract some creative work out of it, you’re working against yourself. Let ~being there with yourself~ be your priority. And if you stay for a while, whatever needs to emerge and be shared from you will do so naturally.

Until next time, and with love,
hannah

faq

Do I need to be an “artist” to do this program?

This program is for anyone who is interested in using an artistic method to create. That could be music, visual art, written work, dance, etc. You don’t need to consider yourself skillful or professional to reap the full benefits of this program. You just need the desire to get more in touch with your creative side.

Do I need to know about “emotional skills” or “intuitive creating” to participate?

No, you don’t. Our first sessions will be interactive education on the skills we’ll use and discuss throughout the program.

What do you mean by “peer support workgroup”?

I am leading this group first and foremost as a peer. I am not a therapist or an ‘emotional healing’ or ‘recovery’ professional. I’m a fellow human with a deep interest in these topics and the capacity to create space for us to grow together. This means that you are encouraged to come into the program bringing your full self, your skills, your knowledge, and your input into our sessions and our process. While foundational topics and methods will be provided in every session, we will co-create much of the program together, choosing how we utilize discussion, meditative, creative, and educational methods through a process of group collaboration and consent. Particularly for this inaugural season of the program, you will be creating this experience in tandem with the other applicants and I.

Do I have to share my creative artwork in order to be in this group?

There is one session (the fifth) in which we will each practice "performing" or "presenting" our art. How the presentation is approached is up to you. We do ask that you present or perform in some way as an act of solidarity and trust building with the other group members. This will be a small group - no more than six people total.

How much of my time will it take to participate?

This group lasts for three months. The time commitment is one 90 minute session every two weeks, and a minimum of ~30 minutes of personal creative & educational time every week.

Can I miss a session?

This is an intimate peer-support group in which each session builds on the last. We ask that you come in fully committed to attending all sessions. This is to help facilitate a setting of trust and reliability as we all go through this process together. The session times (two per month) will be chosen based on what works for everyone in the group after applicants have been selected.

a note on the program

I am not a professional mental health worker.

In this program I am not acting as an instructor or therapist, but as a peer.

I hope that your knowledge of resources pertaining to emotional health will grow considerably during the program. I’ll be sharing introductory information about a variety of principles / methods / tools that I’ve learned about through independent study. With each new tool or idea, I’ll provide resources from professionals so that you can learn more about whatever interests you.

While I believe that practices we’ll experiment with can be useful in healing from traumas / hold-backs, and I will do my best to use trauma-informed care principles, this is not a “recovery” or “therapy” program and should not be relied upon as such. If you are having any symptoms like substance abuse, self-harm, or suicidal ideation, I strongly encourage you to seek the formal support of a therapist or recovery program as soon as possible. I would love to have you in the program and hope it would be of use to you, but I cannot support you in the full way that you need support.

Emotional healing, intuitive creative expression, and community support have been key interests of mine over the past 10 years and I’m excited to open up a space where we can learn and grow together.

much love,
Hannah

evce blog

self love for people who don't love ourselves

hacking writer's block

faq

a note on the program

EVCE Application

From Where I Stand

Dangerous (Live)

Dust

Never Say Much (Louder)

Fallen Angel