Hola! From Jozi To Barcelona!

November 2025

Hi friends,

As I write to you, I’m thinking about the places our paths crossed this year - around retreat tables and conference halls, in that cosy Brookdale lounge, across school halls and women’s gatherings, and through the pages of Do The Heart Work – Volume 1. Many of you journeyed through Be The Elephant with me: digging deeper, slowing down, reflecting more, and writing with courage. Thank you.

After nearly a decade of teaching journaling across Southern Africa, this year brought a beautiful gift: a new opportunity that took me to Spain. I had the joy of teaching two workshops at the Barcelona Journaling Festival, a global gathering of writers, thinkers, and kindreds doing extraordinary work in the world.

I’d love to take you with me into some unforgettable moments with people whose work has inspired me and called me to more. Think of this as our familiar table… just a little more international. With love, Ant.

Be The Elephant Workshop

These reflections invite you to something new in 2026: sparked by Barcelona.

I want to invite you to the table that once held only twelve women in my home, and now holds many more. For years, that table was my safe place. It still is. But now I get invited to sit at your tables, and even tables across the world. A reminder that our shared devotion to journaling stretches across continents, threading us together with people who are so alive with the gifts of this practice. By doing the heart work, you and I are part of something much bigger. So pull up a seat, you belong here.

In no particular order: here are the Barcelona moments that stood out for me. Enjoy!

(PS: Beautiful images supplied by self_exposure, Barcelona - THANK YOU)

MARUSHA: THE DYNAMITE BEHIND IT ALL

Founder of the Barcelona Journaling Festival, Girls Who Write, and former travel and lifestyle editor at Harper’s Bazaar and Grazia. Marusha is powerful and visionary.

In 2022 she published her first book, Not Just A Mom - her own manifesto and a love letter to creative women everywhere, especially those who’ve been juggling life, work, dreams, and motherhood. It was only afterwards that she realised how powerful a circle of women can be… and how much we need our own tribe.

Last year when I first found her page, I felt seen for the first time in almost a decade of doing this work mostly alone. I told my husband Rowan, “There are others like me , and they’re doing this work beautifully.”

This year she invited me to speak. I am forever grateful.

The festival is expanding to New York next year and momentum is building. Who knows, why not in Africa one day too?! Follow Marusha here.

LYNDA: THE SPARK & THE FRAMEWORK

Author, social worker, and Director of the International Association for Journal Writing. When Lynda Monk opened the festival with “Writing Alone Together,” I was stunned. Lynda, may I borrow that phrase forever?

Her warmth, clarity, and decades of wisdom poured petrol on my fire. She reminded us that epiphanies happen on pages. That words help us shape the lives we are living. That this work is vital. Not optional. Necessary.

After her session, I wrote in my journal: “I have spent years writing my way back to my true self. I have silenced fears on pages. I’ve taken risks on paper before I’ve taken them in real life. I’ve found The Voice of Love on my pages: the one that breaks me open and puts me back together. My podcast in 2018. My book in 2024/5. Who knows what’s next?”

KATERINA: ARCHAEOLOGIST OF WORDS

Author of Girls Left in the Woods Become Archaeologists and Founder of BC Athens Book Club, Katerina Zherbtsova.

Her session on personal archaeology felt like creative play therapy for grown-ups. We had to choose one item from our bags and write about it as if it were an archaeological clue. I chose my camera.

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“My way of seeing is my way of being. Light-chaser. Beauty-hunter. Someone compelled to document the gift of one wild and precious life and teach others to do the same.”

Katerina reminded me that I love writing, not just the deep work, but the playful, imaginative part of it. I realised in her session that I’ve spent over 20,000 hours journaling in my life.

AMIE: THE 25-SHOT COURAGE COCKTAIL

If tequila shots came in human form, they would be Amie McNee. Author. Speaker. Creative Coach.

A mix of Australian fire and British delight. I discovered her book We Need Your Art earlier this year at the recommendation of a friend, and it’s become essential reading, like The Artist’s Way just with more wit, f-bombs, and bite.

My new Lithuanian friend and I got hopelessly lost on the metro and arrived at Amie’s book launch with three minutes to spare. Even so — YOH. Three minutes of her is enough to rearrange your creative spine.

Her Sunday session at BJF was electric. Amie teaches that your life’s extraordinary potential is directly linked to how extraordinarily kind you are willing to be to yourself. She helps creatives send self-doubt packing. And she does it because she’s actively doing that work herself. You feel it. Raw and authentic.

I left with inspiration and a note to find a picture of 8-year-old Ant and write her a letter. Keep your inner child alive. What would your younger self tell you to do? What would they tell you to stop fearing?

OLIVER: THE ATOMIC LINE

“What happens when I close my journal?”

Co-founder of the BJF and creator of Shadow Journaling. Oliver Mann is a unicorn: a man leading the way in a field mostly embraced by women, and doing it with depth, humility, and steel.

His one line has not stopped echoing through me: “What happens when I close my journal?”

Pages matter. But so does life after the page. I journal every day, sometimes twice a day. I’ve filled countless pages. But it’s not about the pages. It’s about what happens after the pages. What the writing makes possible. How the work in the journal translates into the rest of my life, not just for my sake, but for the sake of others. His work is vital in this space.

Make it stand out

MEGAN: GRATITUDE, PRIVILEGE & PSYCHOLOGY

Author of The Art of Positive Journaling and The Joy of Writing Things Down. Dr Megan Hayes is a researcher on Creative Health.

She spoke about Dr James Pennebaker (she had me at that). But Megan also touched something I’ve been wrestling with: How do gratitude practices land in under-resourced communities? No answers yet. I’m sitting in the discomfort. I bought her book. I hope it stretches me further.

LUCIE & MARTINA: ACADEMIC ROCKSTARS

Academics from Brno in the Czech Republic who have developed a whole methodology around journaling for research.

Their work is opening doors for journaling in universities and schools.

I’m dreaming of bringing journaling into more African schools in 2026, particularly into communities where children have few avenues for creative expression. Lucie and Martina’s stories reminded me why this matters. If you are a teacher or school leader, please reach out. Let’s build creative journaling clubs in your spaces.

ANCA: THE QUEEN OF COLLAGE

Founder of NaivcreativCustom. Anca Croitoru’s IntuCollage session sideswiped me. In the best way. Cut. Tear. Glue. Don’t overthink. Let your hands lead you.

Collage became a powerful mirror, revealing what words sometimes hide. Anca and I are in conversation about bringing her to South Africa, virtually for now. Watch this space as we mishmash collage and journaling in a Romanian, Barcelonian, South African way.

GRETA: WRITING CIRCLES NEAR THE ARCTIC CIRCLE

Founder of Write It Out Circle in Iceland. Greta Lietuvinkaite lives on a fjord…literally. She started hosting writing sessions to connect with locals during long seasons of darkness. She’s a human sunbeam and a reminder of the power of writing alone together (Lynda Monk ;)). Private practices becoming catalysts for communities.

MATT: THE GUY WHO MADE A ZOOM ROOM A WRITERS HAVEN

Co-founder of the London Writers’ Salon (LWS). Matt Trinetti is an engineer who quit his job, travelled, started writing, and during the pandemic began hosting daily writing sessions on Zoom with his friend Parul. They haven’t missed a day in six years. Thousands of writers now show up daily (with them) to write in silence together. I joined last week. I’ve been more productive than I’ve been in years. There is something comforting about writing quietly with strangers around the world. Matt really inspired me to build community with more intention.

THE ONES I SADLY MISSED (DUE TO MY OWN SPEAKING SCHEDULE), BUT WON’T FORGET!

Emelie Hill Dittmer (Sweden) - her memoir sounds like essential reading in post-apartheid South Africa. Ilona Matusch (Vienna) - her “Walkshop” (walking + journaling) is exactly my love language. Erin Dusek (Ibiza) – ex-dancer, founder of The Gratitude Community. Carlos Mayeya (Mexico) – Global IT Director using journaling for corporate breakthroughs; co-creator of The Honest Journal.

I hope our paths cross again.

The final moment: writing or dancing your gratitude

The festival ended with a live DJ (the amazing @beats.biondo) and 170 people either writing out their gratitude or dancing it out. I chose dance. I had no words left.

Ashley Looker, author and empowerment coach, led the closing moment with grace and fire.

There I was, hands in the air, praise like a Sunday morning, thanking the writer of my story for this extraordinary gift. Then, eyes closed, Amie McNee grabbed my hand and we swayed like two hippies. I caught some of her courage. I feel unstoppable since. ;)

Thank you, Barcelona Journaling Festival. I am forever changed. Here’s to building an African space for those who want to write alone together and to do the heart work side by side.

Watch this space!