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I felt the journey of the monthly prompts and recognized how full a year 2022 has been.

I hadn’t had that deep of a reflection [for a really long time]. It moved me. I wept.

A former Thread Writer

What is The Thread?

The Thread is a year-long course, a collective art piece, a manifesto for a better world, a journal in the form of 12 letters, a stationery set, and a chance to get to know yourself and the world a little better.

Over the next year, you'll receive monthly prompts to write a letter to your future self.

Each letter is a fragment of a conversation, a thread to weave into the story the year ahead. The prompts loosely follow the seasons in the northern hemisphere and will be on themes that invite you to detach from the pressures of modern day society, learn to listen, remember to feel , foster understanding for others and inquire what's important to you.

The Thread is sort of like a yearly planner, but a bit more spiritual. A bit like a self-improvement course, but without the idea that you're not good enough. It's an invitation to reconnect to our shared humanity.

How does it work?

At its core, The Thread is a year of guided letter writing. A commitment to take a little timeout once a month to reflect and get to know yourself a little better.

The Thread is free offered on a pay-what-you-want basis, and if you pay a small fee or shipping and handling, you'll also get a set of artist-designed, quality printed stationery to help inspire you and get hands-on. Our brains work differently when we get away from the screen and work IRL, by going offline, we allow our brains to make new connections and explore a little deeper.

All lessons on The Thread will be delivered via email. No logins, no stress.

We'll guide you through the year with a different theme to explore each month. The course will include inspirational content, optional exercises or activities, and podcast episodes as well as the main writing prompts.

You can choose if you want to keep the Thread experience to yourself, or share it with someone else.

Writing solo, you'll write 12 letters over the time of a year - to your future self.

If you share the experience, you'll write up to 24 letters and receive up to 12. A chance to see the world through someone else's eyes and tap into a different kind of connection.

On your own, or with someone important

The Thread email course comes with everything you need for a year of writing. Just bring your own pen.

It's up to you to choose if you want to write exclusively to your future self, a bit like a journal, or if you write a second letter each month, to share with someone else.

You can choose to:

  • Join The Thread by yourself
    Use the prompts to learn more about yourself, write one letter a month — make it as long as you like save the letters, and read them all a year later. Amazing to enquire what's important to you.

  • Join The Thread with a "+1"
    Register with someone you want to get to know better. You write one letter to yourself each month, and write your second letter to each other. A meaningful way to deepen a relationship — no matter if you write with a lover, a friend, a business partner, or a family member.

Your Host

Jonas Haefele

Your guide on The Thread is going to be Slow Works founder Jonas Haefele.

Jonas is a designer by education and a techie by accident. After moving to London, he spent years in corporate training, teaching Fortune 500 companies about technology and innovation to up-level their workforce and accelerate transformation. In 2019, Jonas founded Slow Works to help organizations explore how to use technology mindfully while caring for the people and the planet. He's also co-founder of LGBTQ+ entrepreneur network Series Q, a yoga and mindfulness teacher, and has recently launched A Quick Pause, a podcast offering mindful practices to reconnect, heal and empower.

In his free time, Jonas likes to host dinners, bake sourdough, go for long walks in nature and generally move his body and nurture his soul.

Sophie Smiles

Winter

Sophie combines creative facilitation and illustration skills to enable collaboration and change communications. She is freelancing while studying Illustration and Visual Communication at Westminster University, London. She supports leaders in articulating their visions and creates space in which teams can creatively explore their ideas and solve problems. Her work is as much about the process as the pictures and is designed to cultivate open, productive and sustainable workplaces in the modern digital age.

Learn more about Sophie at sophiesmiles.co.uk.

Michaela Stavova

Spring

Michaela is a Czech/Swiss illustrator and animator. Drawing from her understanding of different cultures, she is offering various styles and techniques, which support clients' ideas and creatively develop their projects.

You can find more about her work on her portfolio and follow her on Instagram @michaelastavova.

Xara Bennett-Jones

Summer

Xara Bennett-Jones is an illustrator based in London. She works for the UN as a graphic designer and illustrates on a freelance basis. She's inspired by botanics and whimsy and enjoys drawing from myths and stories to create artworks.

You can find Xara as @titian.threads on Instagram.

Anders Tallvik

Autumn

Anders Tallvik is an Amsterdam-based conceptual graphic designer and art director who in a parallel universe might be working in music or fine art. His design work is a balancing act between structured research and freeform experimentation, always lead by the question "what if…?" and a focus on de-stressed workflows. His personal projects include analogue photography, printmaking, and illustration, all of which are ways to explore the interplay between creativity and meditative participation in the here and now.

You can follow Anders's work at @anderscreative on Instagram and at anders-creative.com.