WHERE REFLECTION & RENEWAL MAKE ROOM FOR WHAT'S NEXT
Hejmo (pronounced HEY–mo) means home in Esperanto—a word for the place you return to when you need space to think, breathe, and find your footing again.
It also gestures toward something less visible: the sense that your life and your creative work follow a path that is genuinely your own. One that feels natural when you walk it. Finding that path often feels like coming home.
That understanding shapes everything we do here.
Many of us move through our lives with a subtle awareness that another way of living and creating is possible—one with more honesty, more freedom, and more room to listen inward. But life fills quickly. Responsibilities gather. Time and stillness become scarce, and what we long for is easy to overlook.
Sometimes you sense what wants to change or take shape, but the beginning isn’t clear. Other times, you’ve carried ideas for years without the space to bring them into form.
Hejmo exists to offer that room, along with simple practices and friendly company, so you can move forward in a way that feels true, lived-in, and sustainable.
FIVE STEPS
These five steps trace the arc of how we work. Not a system. Not rules. Not recipes. Simply a way of returning—to yourself, and to what is quietly asking to take form.
Every creative act begins in the middle of something—at a threshold, inside a question, alongside a tangle you haven’t yet sorted. There's no need to prepare or resolve anything first. You begin from the life you are already living, from your own essence, with what is already in your hands.
Before anything takes form outwardly, a shift happens within. Attention turns inward. You pause. You notice. You ask questions that are honest rather than strategic. These movements are subtle, but they reorient everything that follows.
Good work needs space—to think, to rest, to return again. When you clear a little room in your day, and in your mind, something loosens. Ideas that have been waiting find a place to breathe.
There is no need to rush or carry everything at once. What matters is the next true step. Intention keeps your progression aligned, allowing your energy to gather around what matters most, rather than dispersing across too many directions.
When you move in your own way, at your own pace, your work begins to resemble who you really are. Ease appears—not as a shortcut, but as a fit. A way of working that feels authentic and coherent.
NINE BEACONS
Hejmo lives at the intersection of creativity, presence, clarity, making, and belonging. Nine beacons guide how we live, work, create, and keep company—with ourselves and others.
Presence brings you into contact with what is here. From that contact, attention gathers. And from attention, meaningful work begins.
When things become crowded—inside or out—it’s harder to see. We value simplicity because it clears the field and makes room for what matters to come forward.
Good work asks for truthfulness: about what you want, what you resist, and what you’re not ready to name yet. Honesty keeps the work alive.
When your actions align with what you care about, your work gains coherence. We tend to that alignment, quietly and consistently.
Curiosity keeps the work open. Simple questions often lead somewhere unexpected, and that openness is where change begins.
Whether you’re writing, making, or building a business, craft matters. It asks for care, patience, and respect for process.
Ease is not the absence of effort. It’s a way of moving that keeps you connected to the work, rather than pushing against yourself.
Work deepens when it’s witnessed. Being in the presence of others—listening, sharing, offering generosity—changes how we see and how we continue.
A creative life should sustain you. We look for ways of working that can be lived with over time—without depletion, without urgency.
A DOORWAY
Hejmo is not a modality. It’s a dwelling. It’s shaped by listening, timing, discernment, and right relationship—by work that values presence over performance.
What we offer is a calm, structured way to create and make decisions without pressure. No formulas. No hustle. No comparison. Just clear tools and a place where you can hear yourself again.
Hejmo doesn’t ask you to advance. It asks you to return, to notice, and to stay awake inside ordinary life.
Our approach is simple. We work with inquiry, empathy, and story—three ways of paying attention that shape every tool, course, and gathering here. Each offering is designed to give you room to reflect, reset, and move toward what’s next at an organic pace you can remain connected to.
We don’t provide answers or instructions. Instead, we help you see your own work more clearly—what is asking for care, what is ready to grow, and what may no longer belong.
At the heart of this work is a simple commitment: to know yourself. Not as an idea or an identity, but through attention—by noticing how you respond, where you resist, and what quietly persists. From that knowing, clearer choices begin to emerge.
Sometimes that begins with asking better questions. Sometimes with slowing down enough to notice what’s underneath the noise. Sometimes with recognizing patterns, strengths, and instincts that have been present all along.
It leaves space for curiosity, experimentation, and the natural shifts that come with creative life. We trust small steps, discerning reflection, and simple structures that help you stay close to what calls you.
People arrive here for different reasons, and each path unfolds in its own way. However you begin, you’ll find room, thoughtful company, and a way forward that fits who you are.
Artist & Designer, USA
“This course provides a strong structure, a container for personal inquiry at a deep soul level. Writing and journaling using this unique program, I have a new understanding of the facets of my personality and soul. This has allowed me to align the inside and outside, the introvert and extrovert, the personal and public, in a whole new way.”
Artist, Author & Creativity Guide, UK
“I’m amazed by Cigdem's breadth and depth of knowledge and wisdom. I appreciated the slow and considered intake, without overwhelm. The camaraderie and feeling of belonging was, hands down, the biggest win. I learned things about business that have helped me streamline and develop what I’m doing. And the confidence I’ve gained have made it easier to take the sometimes scary steps I need to take to keep moving forward in my work.”
Artist & Writer, USA
“My heart is leaping out of my chest, Cigdem! This is so amazing for my logical brain and I can play so well with my creativity/writing with this framework. Thank you for this.”
A three-month studio for people shaping a project that matters to them. This is a shared online space where clarity replaces urgency and progress is allowed to unfold without force. You arrive with one project—artistic, personal, or professional—and spend time clarifying what it is, what it asks of you, and how you want to carry it forward, with the support of the facilitator and the group. Along the way, you also work on finding the language that belongs to your project—how to speak about it, share it, and place it in the world without strain or posturing. The Studio opens twice a year and holds a small, committed group at a time.
A Hejmo Companion is an evergreen collection you return to rather than move through. It's not a self-help program or a productivity handout. It’s a simple, repeatable practice—something you can come back to when you need to listen more closely or find your bearings again. Each Companion brings together an essay, a focused practice, a written conversation with a contributing guest, and a small set of carefully chosen tools, all gathered around a single theme. Companions are meant to be kept nearby, revisited, and used at your own pace. They stand on their own and ask for nothing else.
The Hejmo Shop is where the rest of the work lives. Here you’ll find journals, practice decks, creativity kits, self-guided courses, and occasional writing groups and story circles. These offerings are made to support thinking, making, and working with more enjoyment and less friction. Some are quiet companions for personal reflection; others are practical tools you can return to again and again. Everything here is created to help you stay close to what matters to you, to work with greater clarity, and to feel more at home in the way you live, create, and share your work.
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
[CHEE-daem KOH-boo]
Welcome. I’m glad you’re here.
I hold a degree in film and media studies, with a focus on writing and directing. In my mid-twenties, I joined the American Board in Istanbul, where I worked in education and publishing for nearly two decades. When that 185-year institution closed in 2010, I moved to the United States and began again.
Over many years of teaching, writing, and making alongside creative people, I noticed a recurring need: for tools that invite calm, awaken curiosity, and restore a sense of ease in how we live and work. In 2013, I founded my company Peaceful Triumphs LLC to create those tools and experiences—essential companions for a creative life.
My work has taken many forms. I’ve been a consultant, writer, award-winning translator, and entrepreneur. What connects these roles is my lifelong interest in how creativity unfolds—especially when it’s supported by the right structure and space.
In the recent years, my work has become more distilled. I’ve moved away from instruction and toward practice; away from strategy and toward the conditions that allow meaningful work to emerge without strain.
My focus has shifted from how people produce to how they remain—with their attention, their bodies, and the longer arc of a creative life. That orientation now shapes everything I build. Hejmo grew from this shift. It reflects a change not in what I believe, but in how I live the work. I became less interested in persuading or performing, and more interested in creating environments where attention can settle, clarity ensues, and the work can speak for itself.
Hejmo is not a personal brand. It’s a shared dwelling, designed for curious, quiet creatives who feel less drawn to optimization and more drawn to work that can be inhabited over time. It was shaped deliberately outside the cult of personality, so attention can rest on the work itself rather than on who is speaking the loudest. A friendly, human-scaled place where the work matters more than the person at the center.
My current location is central New Jersey. I live here with my husband and our black cat Mochi, surrounded by woodlands, ponds, and the serene charm of old Victorian towns. My name, Cigdém, means crocus in Turkish—the flower that appears at the edge of winter, carrying the promise of the spring, and of what’s next. That spirit of return and renewal, and of beginning again with new energy, is what I hope you’ll encounter here.
TWENTY-ONE JEWELS
In my own creative life, I return to these lines the way one returns to a familiar room—quietly, without ceremony, trusting they will offer something to lean on. They’ve guided me for years and shaped how I see my work and the world. I offer them to you with the hope that one or two will stay with you.
Click each to read more.
"Attention is the beginning of devotion." — MARY OLIVER
What was a moment when paying attention changed something for you—however small?
What have you been overlooking about yourself, your work, or your inner life that is asking for your attention now?
Where in your life are you being asked to turn attention into devotion—not through effort, but through presence?
"Zen pretty much comes down to three things—everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention." — JANE HIRSHFIELD
Where in your life are you resisting change, and what happens if you soften your hold?
What connections—between ideas, people, moments—have you been overlooking?
And what becomes clearer when you offer your full attention to what’s here now?
"Pare down to the essence, but don’t remove the poetry." — LEONARD KOREN
Where in your life or work do you feel the need to pare down—not to diminish, but to clarify?
What is the “poetry” you must protect, even when simplifying?
What might emerge if you trusted that the essential and the felt can coexist?
"We shape our lives by what we choose to create, not by what we choose to eliminate." — ROBERT FRITZ
What are you building—quietly or boldly—that is reshaping your life or work?
Where are you relying on elimination when creation might offer a clearer direction?
What could grow if you placed your energy into making rather than removing?
"I believe in the balance between dreaming and building." — NERI OXMAN
What are you dreaming toward—and what small act of creating could begin to give that dream shape?
Where have you been living too much in the vision, or too much in the work?
And what does balance look like in this phase of your life?
"We do not always create works of art, but rather, experiments. It is not our intention to fill museums. We are gathering experience." — JOSEPH ALBERS
Where could you let go of perfection and give yourself permission to explore without knowing the result?
What experience are you gathering right now, even if the outcome is uncertain or unfinished?
What might become possible if you treated your next step as an experiment rather than a performance?
"Art happens when you intend it to happen. It happens when you leap with intention... The act is the point, more so than ever." — ANNE BOGART
What is one thing you’re ready to move toward, even if you don’t feel fully prepared?
Where in your life could a small, intentional act shift you from imagining to beginning?
What does “leaping with intention” look like for you right now?
"All becoming is based on movement." — PAUL KLEE
Where in your life do you feel the quiet pull in a certain direction—a shift, a beginning, a next step?
What small move could help you become the person you’re already growing toward?
Where might a tiny pivot create more clarity than a grand gesture?
"I don’t do work that is of this time; I do work that is my work." — LISSA HUNTER
What feels like your work, apart from trends, urgency, or outside expectations?
Where do you find yourself tempted to adjust to the moment rather than trust your own direction?
What would it look like to honor your work on its own terms?
"You change the world by being yourself." — YOKO ONO
Where in your life do you feel most like yourself—unfiltered, unperformed, at ease?
Where do you feel the quiet tug to adjust, please, or perform?
And what might shift if you trusted that your presence, as it is, can make a genuine difference?
"I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better." — FRIDA KAHLO
What part of yourself—your history, your desires, your perspective—feels like a source you want to understand more deeply?
Where do you tend to look outside yourself for direction or inspiration, and what happens when you turn inward instead?
What might open if you treated your own life as worthy material?
"Make your unknown known, crystallizing your simpler, clearer vision of life." — GEORGIA O'KEEFE
What is hovering at the edge of your awareness—something you feel but haven’t yet named?
Where do you sense a simpler, clearer vision trying to form in your life or work?
What simple truth are you ready to acknowledge, even if you don’t yet know where it leads?
"A genius is the one most like himself.” — THELONIOUS MONK
Where in your life do you feel most like yourself—unforced, unmasked, at ease?
Where have you learned to hide, smooth, or adjust parts of yourself to fit what was expected?
What might open if you trusted that becoming more like yourself is its own kind of genius?
“Rejecting style or trend and consciously building in a timeless, unfashionable way ensures our work stays relevant.” — ILSE CRAWFORD
Where in your life or work do you feel the pull to keep up, to match the moment?
What might shift if you let go of trend and trusted what feels enduringly true to you?
And what kind of work—or way of being—feels timeless in your hands?
"Once in a while, it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to." — ALAN KEIGHTLEY
Where in your life have you been following a script that no longer fits?
What new way of seeing, relating to, or reconnecting with yourself (or your work) is beginning to emerge?
What might shift if you allowed yourself to inhabit the world differently?
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” — RUMI
What draws you quietly, without explanation—something that feels like a thread you’ve been following for years?
Where do you feel the “strange pull” in your life right now, and what might it be pointing toward?
What could open if you allowed this pull to guide even one small step?
"Work is love made visible." — KAHLIL GIBRAN
Where in your work—paid or unpaid, visible or invisible—do you feel the quiet presence of care?
What does it look like when you offer your work from sincerity rather than pressure or performance?
How might your work shift if you allowed it to carry even more warmth and integrity?
"Isolation is the dream killer." — BARBARA SHER
Where in your life have you been trying to carry something alone that might grow with company?
Who helps you think more clearly, dream more freely, or feel more courageous?
And what is one small step you could take toward connection rather than isolation?
"We're all just walking each other home." — RAM DASS
What part of your path are you following on your own that might soften if shared with someone else?
What are you holding by yourself that might not require solitude to move forward?
How might your work, your questions, or your next step change if the right companion arrived? What kind of companionship would that be?
"Art urges voyages." — GWENDOLYN BROOKS
Where is your curiosity pulling you right now—quietly, consistently?
What kind of inner voyage do you sense yourself beginning, even if you can’t name the destination?
What small action might help you step into that exploration?
"To understand is to perceive patterns." — ISAIAH BERLIN
What patterns—habits, desires, challenges, strengths—keep returning and asking to be acknowledged?
What do these patterns reveal about where you’ve come from and where you’re headed?
And how might understanding them help you move forward with more clarity and ease?
A GIFT FOR YOU
TWENTY-ONE QUIET REMINDERS FOR BEGINNING AGAIN
I’ve expanded each of the twenty-one reminders above into a short reflection and a writing prompt. Together, they form a guided journal—a helpful companion for moments when you need to orient yourself again.
You’re welcome to download The Wayfinding Journal: Twenty-One Quiet Reminders for Beginning Again. I hope you like it.