Crafting Calm: Creativity, Protection, And Hope For 2026

What if the world’s storm doesn’t have to drown your sky? We open with a hard reset on perspective—how the collective mood can warp our view—and then build a grounded path toward steadier days using protection magic, creativity, and clear intention. Instead of marinating in the news cycle, I talk about practical ways to care for your energy: salt at the thresholds, a daily candle for whoever needs it, and the gentle shift from anxious worry to empowered compassion.

Creativity takes center stage as a true antidote to anxiety. We unpack why the brain struggles to ruminate and create at the same time, and how flow—through crafting, music, cooking, gardening, even problem-solving at work—can become a reliable nervous system reset. January’s theme, illuminate, threads through the hour as we explore seeing more clearly after the longest nights, choosing hopeful inputs, and letting small rituals add up to real change.

We also dig into timing. Many listeners are feeling January as unexpected “go time,” an invitation to plant seeds earlier than usual. You’ll hear ideas for visioning that actually stick, including a simple neuro-art approach to mapping intentions, plus seasonal tips for warm nourishment and reading recs that balance learning with delight. Along the way, we share coven updates, a Portland event announcement, and a handful of journal prompts to close the loop: What is being illuminated for you now, and what tiny seed can you plant today?

If this conversation brings you a little calm and a spark of courage, share it with a friend, leave a review, and subscribe so you never miss a cozy, witchy check-in. Then tell us: what’s being illuminated for you—and which seed are you planting next?

Use COZYCOVEN for 50% off Our Coven monthly: https://www.jennycbell.com/our-coven-community

Chapters

• 0:00 Reframing A “Bad Year”
• 3:16 Negativity Bias And Gratitude
• 5:27 Creativity As An Antidote To Anxiety
• 8:27 Salt Magic And Feeling Protected
• 12:47 From Worry To Hopeful Action
• 16:57 Illuminate: January’s Theme
• 20:17 Creativity, Books, And Coven Focus
• 23:52 Community, Events, And Personal Growth

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

Hey witches, and welcome to another Cozy Coven Chat. I am your host, Jenny C Bell, and this is for the week of January 11th, 2026. 2026. I want to first, um, before I get into our card and all those other things, I want to first just ask you, and I really want you to think about this. So I originally thought that 2025 was a really terrible year for myself, for everybody, and the news and all of that, 100%. But when I really reflected on the year itself for my own personal self and my own family, it was actually a really good year. And so I just want to start with definitely pay attention, stay informed, be in the, you know, understand what's going on in the news, all of those things. But make sure to separate that from yourself. Yes, you are a part of this world, and it's important to be worldly and connected. However, the opinion of the world or the shift of the world, the energy of the collective, all of those things can be different from you. You're also separate. And make sure you balance that in your perceptions. So I really just thought, you know, God, 2025 is such a terrible year. Everybody was saying that to me. Lots of people I know went through it. But then when I really looked, uh, really looked, it was a really good year. And so I also want to say it's okay to have a good month or a good year when other people aren't. Things are really rough. You know, I'm a millennial, so they have been pretty much my whole coming of age, right? Um, you know, between 9-11 and these, you know, different economic downturns and having friends having to serve in the Middle East, and you know, just like so much of my growing up, my becoming an adult, my coming of age has been completely unstable. And so it's really easy to let that affect the way you see yourself or you see your own life. And I think it's important to, you know, you don't have you can feel good, you can have a good year, you can have luck on your side, you can have things go well for you when it doesn't happen for everybody else, and that doesn't make you bad, doesn't make you um uncaring or unsympathetic, right? It's it's okay. It's okay to have a good week when your friend didn't. It's okay to have a good year when other people didn't. Like, I think it's very easy to get caught up in the negativity bias, right? We I think I've talked about that on here before, but our brains are wired to find negativity. Like we are wired to find problems. That's part of our evolution, right? We wouldn't be here as a species if we weren't looking for danger. However, living in the kind of modern life we do, it's not always to our best, you know, it's not always for our best to be wired that way. And that's where gratitude practice comes in. And something else, too, that really helps with kind of this negativity bias is creativity. I recently uh read Beyond Anxiety, which is a beautiful book. I highly recommend it. And basically the whole premise of that book is that when you are creative, when you're being creative, when your mind is engaged in creativity, it can't be anxious. Like you can't be both. Your brain can't do both. It can either do creative or it can do anxious, it can't do them at the same time. And this is so powerful to understand. It's why, you know, so many of us that craft get lost in the craft, you know. If you've ever done like a crafting thing and you just like come out of like a four-hour beating session, you're like, wait a minute, like I need water and food, and I haven't used the bathroom. Like, you're just like totally out of it because you were in the zone, you were in the flow, and you just were in the moment. It's so beautiful. And so, creativity, I'm the more the older I get, um, the more I realize how important creativity and creative practice and doing creative things is important to me. It's my focus for 2026. I have creativity as a focus, I have holding hope as a focus, and definitely have like trying to see my life through my lens as a focus. Okay, so that I guess was my long introduction today. Um, I pulled cards ahead of time, and we're still using my deck that I created with my friend Rosemary called the Cosmic Creator. Um, and we got salt. And the message for that deck, for salt, is you are protected. Because salt is a mineral, salt is a rock, salt is something that our bodies need, and they're something we use for protection. So it's still new year energy, it's still fresh start energy. And so something that you could do is take salt and sprinkle it into each of your windowsills on the inside or in your doorways as a way to just have protection for you, for your home, for your space. You can also make something called black salt. I have a kind of more involved recipe in our coven, but at the very basis of it, black salt is you save ashes from your incense and you mix it with salt with the intention of protection. And some people add charcoal to make it much darker. I don't like to do that because I like to put it around my house and charcoal stains, so I don't like to do that part. But salt, we are protected, and I feel like that really goes with what I was saying. You know, yes, things can go really crazy in the world, and you can be in the news cycle or in the algorithm and get really focused on all the negativity. It's so easy to be focused on that that you forget that you yourself aren't going through that. Like you're not there in that part of the world, or you're not there living that. And that doesn't mean that you don't have empathy and care and love for those people. But what it does mean is you don't take it on. I remember when I read You Are a Badass by Jensen Sarrow many years ago, got me kind of back on my spiritual path. And she said something about how when you worry, you smear fear, like you're sending worry to other people. So instead of sending worry to other people and sending them fear, you send them love or you send them encouragement. And my friend Granddaughter Crow, she shared with me that every day at the same time, she lights a candle for whoever needs it. So every day at the same time, this is her practice. She lights a candle for whoever needs that light, whoever needs a little love, whoever needs a little energy. And that's a practice that it's funny that she shared that with me because it's something that I shared in our coven, not knowing that she did that, as a way to help when you feel helpless. So when you see terrible things in the news or you see something happening in a part of the world that you can't go and help, lighting a candle may seem really small. It may seem, oh well, it's not really enough. But you remember, we are shifting energy, right? Everything is energy, everything is the mundane, and the magic live next to each other. In the mundane, there's these things going on, and you can't physically get there, physically change it. But in the magic, in the invisible world, you can play with the subtle energy, and you can send goodness to where the people need it. So it's not powerless, it's not helpless, and you're not sending fear and worry. You're not getting caught in the news cycle, making you feel anxious and sending anxiety out into the world and spreading it. Instead, you're standing in hope, you're lighting a candle, and you're sending hope and love to whoever needs it. Think about if we all did that. Right? The more I learn about magic, the more I listen to the telepathy tapes, which is such a good podcast, the more I talk to other people from different backgrounds, the more I just see and know deep down that really everything, including us, is just energy. And a lot of it, a lot of this powerlessness or like my little contribution doesn't help, isn't true, right? It's uh it's a perception. So when you feel like the world is too much, or when you're worried or you're like overwhelmed, take time away for yourself, fill your cup, get yourself back into a place of positivity, and then send love out. It doesn't have to be a candle. It could be if you do Reiki, you could just say, I'm sending Reiki out into the world to whoever needs it. It could be holding a crystal and asking the crystal to send some love out. Just think if we all did that. If we all sent out love and hope for whoever needs it, how would that how would the world change, right? It could, it could be really positive. Like I've talked about on here before, studies show that where b people are meditating, the crime rates go down. Like where there's group meditations, people just feel happier, they feel calmer. We are energetic beings, we pick up on everybody else's energy, and we're all connected. It's an illusion that we're not, and so you can very easily send love and hope to people that need it because we are all connected. You know, that's how I give send distance reiki, distant Reiki. Like, all I do is find that person in the great web of life, find their soul and connect to them through that web. You can do that with anybody. So I just want to kind of keep that in mind, and I think it helps to to keep yourself um not in a place of anger, not in a place of sadness, you know, if you're able to send hope. It feels good, it feels empowering. Empowerment is the opposite of feeling like devastated. We're not gaslighting those emotions at all, but we don't need to stay in them. Like, you don't need to be constantly angry to be aware of what's going on. You can be aware of what's going on and still find a peace within. It's possible. Okay, I got a little heavier. I just came back and I'm like, I have stuff to say. Um, so in our coven right now, our word, I guess, is all is connected. Our word for January is illuminate. We're gonna be doing keywords uh for the whole year. I asked everybody in our coven to contribute keywords that they would like to have as a monthly theme. And then I've picked from there. And so illuminate just felt right. Several people actually contributed that word, and that felt like the perfect word for January, right? We're trying to see more clearly. Definitely. I know my own card was a swords card for the month ahead for January. Um, we're trying to see clearly, we're trying to have a fresh start, we're trying to understand things better, and illuminate makes sense, and it's you know, we're in the darkness, we're moving towards in bulk, but you know, the longest night of the year wasn't really that long ago. So illuminate just really makes sense. And there's journal questions in there, and we're gonna have a live on um affirmation creation. I've been doing affirmation since I was like in college, and I learned about them in psychology, and we're gonna talk about them, why they work, and then create them together as part of Illuminating Our Path. Um, something else we're doing is my friend Ashley from the Big Crystal Energy podcast sent me the book that she thought was her the best book she read last year, which was Magic Maker: The Enchanted Path to Creativity, um, by the author. She has the, I'm sure you've heard the podcast Waking the Witch, um, Pam Grossman. And it's it honestly had me hooked when she talked about being a teenager and listening to her holy trinity of Tori Emos, P. J. Harvey, and Bjork, because same. Um, Tori Emos is my all-time favorite um creator. And so this book is all about creativity, which seemed to really go with illuminating your path. It seemed to go with a lot of people in our coven are leaning more towards creativity for their key words and key focuses. And it definitely connected with the fact that I have learned through both my own experience and through research that creativity soothes anxiety, right? It's that creative, beautiful force. And everybody's an artist and everyone can be creative. So if you hear the word creativity and you think I can't draw. Yeah, me neither. Okay. We all have our creative outlets though. You can find it through dance, you can find it through music, you can find it through cooking, baking, crafting, gardening, even in your job. You know, depending on what your job is, there's creative ways, creative solutions, creative problem solving, creative talking, creative dialogue, um, creative campaigns and different types of gaming, right? So definitely focusing on that this month. Oh, speaking of our coven, um, it is still only$11 to join for the month, and that is with the code Cozy Coven. And so if you've thought about joining us, please do. Um, it's a good time. You know, we're not, I'm not trying to make it more than what it is. It's a great resource, so much information on everything from Akash records to tarot to crystals to how to make a spell. But then it's also companionship. It's this idea of like community, which I know so many of us crave on this path, um, including myself, right? Uh so we have that going on. Oh, I also want to announce that I don't have the date yet that I am teaching, but I will be a presenter at Spirit Northwest in Portland in April. And so I'm really excited for that. When I have more information, I will tell you. But one of my goals uh for last year was to do some kind of in-person event this year, and I got approved um at the end of I think it was December. So I was like, okay, cool, already making things happen for myself in 2026. So I'm really excited for that. I am in southern Oregon, so Portland's a bit of a a drive for me, but it's where I'm like, it's the biggest city near me, really, you know. And I have been wanting to put roots down there because I just feel a call to it, and I want to do that. Um, I will have to overcome some very basic anxiety about driving for a long distance by myself and you know, all of those things, adulting for real and doing the hotel by myself. I haven't done that in a long time. I used to go to these conferences in San Diego every year as an avid teacher when I was in California, but I haven't done that in so long that I'm like, I need to put on my big curl pants and travel by myself again. Um here's to overcoming silly little anxieties, big anxieties, right, in 2026. So something I wanted to talk about too, uh, which is just, you know, but something I talked about on TikTok uh this last week was that I my favorite astrologer to listen to every week is Chani. Channy Nichols Nickel. Chani Nichols. Um, and I have the Chani app, which is um you can get for free, but I have the paid uh version. And every week on her um her app, and I think she also has a podcast for like oh Channy Nicholas. I'm like, it's not Nichols, Channy Nicholas. Sorry, I got totally distracted with like trying to figure that out. Sorry, Chani, I know you're not listening. Um anyway, so I have the app and I got it because I like that it's by your rising sign instead of your sun sign, because the more I've learned about astrology, and I'm definitely not an expert, the more I've learned that the rising is really kind of more of the day-to-day. And she shares if you pay for the app, you get a month ahead for your rising, and then you get a week ahead for your rising. And something she's been talking about since last year is how January is go time and has been go time. And it's interesting because I have been feeling that as well. My cards for January showed me that this was go time. And what do I mean by go time? Normally I spend a lot of the winter writing. That's when I usually um come up with my next book project, uh writing things for our coven, writing articles. I spend it doing quiet activities, I spend it dreaming about what I want for the year. But I don't usually plant any seeds until the energetic new year, which is the beginning of Aries season or the spring equinox, or also known as a stara. And that's usually when I actually am like, this is what I'm committing to, like, this is the goals I'm doing, this is the one I'm manifesting for the year. However, this year I felt a need to do that in January. And if you listen to Channy, and I'm sure other astrologers say the same. February, March, or some like I know at the end of February, Mercury goes into retrograde. That's gonna kind of change the manifesting energy a bit. But right now, there's been a lot of good um astrology for planting seeds. And yes, I am tired. I winter always makes me so tired here in the PNW because it's so dark and I don't get the vitamin D. Like I take it, but I'm not getting the actual sunshine. I'm sleeping more, I'm more sleepy, I my work days are shorter, like I'm just not as productive. And so, yeah, if you're feeling all those things for sure, for sure. But that doesn't mean you can't plant the seed. It doesn't mean you need to get out there and start the thing. But this January, I think, is unusual in that it does feel right to plant the seeds now and not in March. And if you're not ready, that's fine, right? You have so many opportunities. I wrote about this on Substack, how there's just so many New Year opportunities for witches. We have Sawin, we have the Gregorian calendar new year. If you want, you could celebrate Lunar New Year, and then there's Ostara, which is the energetic or astrological new year. So, really, you have like four opportunities to celebrate New Year and have this kind of fresh start. But this has felt right to me. I took a two hour class with Colette Barrett and Reed. It was free on doing a vision board, and I've always On vision boards as magazine cutouts or lately on Pinterest in their collage kind of aspect. But she taught like a whole new way, and it's it's funny since I took the class, I've seen it come up. Um, there's different apps and different ways of doing this, but basically it's like neuropathway art, right? So it's like doing art in a way that activates different parts of your brain, and then that is how you manifest. It was very interesting. Um, and I'm not, like I said, a visual artist at all, but I'm really happy with the way mine came out. My daughter, who is an artist, was like, oh, this actually looks really cool, and my son really likes it. And it was just a really good exercise. It was like a moving meditation because it was like doodling and drawing through prayer meditation. It was very active, very much like a spell. So I did that and it felt right. Am I like 100% gung-ho and like ready to go do all these things I have that I want to manifest? No. No. I'm definitely more in planting seed, thinking about it, talking about it face. So you in the end use your intuition and decide, you know, what is best for you at this time. Um, but I do feel some seed planting energy. Okay, so let's look at some journal questions for this week. Um, but before we do that, I just want to say also seasonally, you know, this is a good time to start planting your garden. So you might want to look at what you want to have in the yard. You might want to look at your farm the farmer's almanac for your area and start deciding, you know, when you're planting stuff and what you're planting. So this is definitely a time to do that if you haven't already done that or haven't thought about it. Um, seasonally, too, it's definitely a time to eat and drink warm things, hot things. You know, for the most part, I've been starting almost every day with oatmeal, occasional brownie here and there, but I digress. But oatmeal or miso soup because I'm getting older and it's better on my digestion to start with something warm. I can't do like a shake in the fall and winter months. It's gotta be something warm. Start the digestion, start to feel good, add something nourishing to start the day, and then from there, you know, we go. Um, but yeah, so time for that. It's time for indoor activities, time for reading. Oh, I'm reading a really good book. Um, let me see. I took a chance. It does, I just want to say that um, I do want to say that there are some trigger warnings in the book, so definitely read them. But it's called For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Bell is spelled B-E-L-L, and it's by JC Lynn. It's a romantic about a girl who dies, so it's not giving anything away, and is working the help desk at hell. And she befriends the demons, and there's a lot of layers to it though, because she's like raised evangelical, and she also at one point befriends a child who had a similar experience of like, you know, being told she was gonna go to hell. There's a lot of layers to it, and I actually really love the way the author has written about the afterlife and how there's different deities and different options depending on what you believe in, and there's Summerlin for the Witches, and I don't know, it's really been a fun read, but definitely check out the author was kind enough to put trigger warnings, so read them, and if that doesn't sound good to you, then don't read it. But um, I'm trying to always read a nonfiction or listen to a nonfiction and then read usually a romanticy, almost always a romanticy, sometimes a regular fantasy, and sometimes regular romance, but hardly anything else. So I do want to share it's a good time to be reading. Okay, so to end with our journal questions for the week, thinking about illuminate. What is being illuminated in your life at this time? Thinking about salt and protection. If you were, if you knew that you were 100% protected no matter what, what goals would you have this year? And lastly, does this feel like seed planting time? And if so, what seeds are you planting? Thank you always for listening. I hope you have a great week.