CREATIVE

Creativity is not about making art. In fact a lot of art-making can actually damage your creativity, if you are trying to contort your natural flow of self-expression into some pre-determined shape.

The creativity that we?re working with here is your raw and wild creative essence. It?s about knowing yourself, being yourself and expressing yourself.

It?s about listening to your creativity as it speaks to you through you imagination, and then giving it more room to play.

Yes, you’ll also be encouraged to “get creative” in your journal in whatever way you feel inspired to do – collage, doodling, painting. But it’s definitely not about making your journal look a certain way. It’s totally about embracing and nurturing your creative superpowers – your ability to create your world.

In Creative + Intuitive Healing + Transformation we use creativity to create new energy patterns in your inner world. This works because energy is directed by intention and creativity is a way of playing with intention.

INTUITIVE

Intuition is the voice of your inner wisdom. Everyone has inner wisdom and so everyone is intuitive. How much of your intuitive wisdom you are able to access in any given moment will depend on how well you?re listening to that voice. It is something that you can get better at simply by working with it more.

For true healing and transformation to occur, you have to be navigating from your own inner wisdom, otherwise you?re just following someone else?s path which can never lead to your healing. This is something you get better at doing the more you practice – and you’ll get lots of tools to help you practice.

Even if you’ve never been intuitive, you don’t have to worry about doing this part wrong. Sometimes “being intuitive” can feel so mysterious but it’s really just about learning how listening to yourself – anyone can do it.

In?Creative + Intuitive Healing + Transformation we use intuition to lead the process of creating hew energy patterns, because only your intuition knows what is best for you.

HEALING

Healing and Transformation work together, but generally healing comes first as healing creates the space where transformation is possible.

Healing is a balm that reminds you of what is true: you are perfect, whole and complete. You are safe, you are loved and you are capable of anything.

Healing is about bringing the elements of your inner world into a new structure that allows more of the core of who you are to shine out, to bring yourself into greater alignment with your self. It?s never about obliterating any of the beings or elements that live in your inner world.

In?Creative + Intuitive Healing + Transformation we use healing to dissolve un-helpful patterns and bring you into a place of calm and power, so you can create new patterns.

TRANSFORMATION

Healing is a balm. Transformation is a whole new way of being.

Energy is like water, flowing like a river through the bed. If you move the river bed, you change the way the water flows. Conscious transformation is all about moving the river bed and then planting trees along it to stabilize the banks in their new places.

There is this tug-of-war that happens when you shift into a new way of being, where it?s like you are being bounced back and forth between the old and new ways. Most people tend to give up at this point, and go back to their old ways. Of course you can never go all the way back, you?ll always bring a bit of that transformation with you because being in the process changes you. But you won?t be able to live from your glorious new possibilities if you allow yourself to shift back into your old patterns.

This can be a confusing and difficult time. So if you?re feeling confused and challenged, that means you?re doing it right – remember to be vigilant about giving the transformation what it needs to take root.

In the?Creative + Intuitive Healing + Transformation process, transformation is where you?ll spend most of your time.

I’m excited to dive deeper than ever into all of this in 2015, in Grow Your Depth, Nurture Your Brilliance

As a part of what we’re doing in The Peaceful Happy Holiday Season class, I’m finding ways to connect to delight every day.

The more I do this, of course, the easier it gets.

The more I do this, the more tiny new doorways to delight get opened up inside of me.

The more I do this, the more I learn about what delights me and how to invite more of it into my life.

This is me, yesterday morning, feeling delighted by wearing a dress and tights I’d made myself:

I haven’t bought any clothes in well over a year, I’ve been sewing everything myself, which brings me a lot of joy – in the designing, making and wearing of handmade things.

I’m also enjoying my yoga practice about a billion times more now that I am finding new layers of delight in it.

Heck, on Saturday night I delighted in giving my bathroom a thorough cleaning.

Delight is everywhere because it lives inside of you.

By holding the intention to pay attention, you can activate and magnify it.

Circle members: don’t forget to keep playing with this! I love reading about your daily delights in the forum.? So much inspiration in there!

I’ve been getting ready for winter.? I went through my front closet and took all the summer stuff out – picnic blankets, sunscreen, bug spray, paniers for my bike – and started to bring the winter stuff in.

This is something I appreciate about the Dream Loft – I don’t have much storage space.? In my old house, there was lots of room for everything so I wasn’t as intentional and deliberate about getting ready for the seasons.? My parkas stayed in the front closet all summer, and the picnic blankets stayed there all winter.

Now I’ve got a tiny IKEA armoire by my front door for the things I need there, and a deacon bench in my bedroom for the things that I don’t need right now.? I like this way of having to get ready for the change of seasons.

I tried on my parka and fell in love with it all over again.? This is the one I bought when I sold my car and decided to walk everywhere last winter.? I made sure all the snaps and zippers still worked, washed it and hung it up downstairs, ready to go when it gets colder.

I went through my boots and found I do need another pair as walking everywhere did wear out last year’s boots.? I ordered these and now I can’t wait to start walking in snow -? they are the most comfortable things to ever happen to my feet!

I got yarn and started knitting a new hat and mitts, which makes me super happy.? I got a gym membership, so I can trade in cycling for swimming (and sauna-ing!), and maybe stationary cycling if I really miss my bike over the winter.? I stocked up on candles and chai tea.

I’m really greeting November with open, loving arms which is so funny in light of how I met September this year – kicking and screaming and doing everything I could to hold onto summer.

Of course I prefer being intentional and present and finding all the best ways to make the most of what is happening, but that’s not always possible.? It’s really good for me to notice this, how transition was so hard for me two months ago, and it’s so delightful right now.? The next time I find myself in a difficult transition, maybe I can remember that.

I live in one of the most varied climates in the world.? Hot summers, cold winters.? The seasons have such a huge impact on everything here.? I like that a lot.? And I like noticing how my relationship to the change of seasons ebbs and flows.

Being as awake and present as I can be with November is how I am preparing for my next class: The Peaceful Happy Holiday Season: tools & magic to get you through the holiday season with your sparkle intact.

This is really important to me: diving into the magic of what this season has to offer instead of buying into societal pressures and external expectations about how you should be spending your time, money and energy.? I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow.

This year I set out to create a series of Creative Journal Classes* that would show, specifically, how to use your journal to generate breakthroughs, miracles and magic.?

And I do mean that literally.? As one of the Circle member said this week:

“Since I joined the Creative Dream Circle I feel like I am on the fast track to success. Breakthroughs that would happen a couple of times a year are now happening weekly and even daily.”

There has been a lot of joy in the creation of these classes. I feel very lucky and grateful that I got to create this series of classes that I wanted to create.

And, because it’s important to me to share the TRUE, ACTUAL stories of living with my dreams, I’ll also say that creating each one has absolutely kicked my ass.

I don’t always wake up believing in myself.

I don’t always know how to get to where I want to be.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been really struggling with getting The Superpower Journal Class ready.? I’ve been tired.? And irritable.? And bored.? And wishing I could give up.? And eating too much chocolate peanut butter gelato.

It’s not easy for me.? It’s not easy for anyone.

Creating this class was: hard. stuck. hard. ouch. idea. flow. flow. flow. stuck! hard. hard. cry. idea. flow. flow. flow. flow. stuck. flow. idea. yes! go. go. go. flow. flow. flow. everything falls perfectly and beautifully into place. DONE.

It’s not easy for me.? To create a space where people can actually transform what is happening inside of them, so that new possibilities open up outside of them?? Of course that’s not going to be easy.? But once I get there, no matter how hard the journey was, I get so much joy out of it, every time.

Our inner critics tell us that other people have it better.? That is IS easy for them.? That since it’s hard for you, you may as well give up, because you’re only going to fail.

We all go through this, it’s a part of the creative process, which comes into play if you’re creating a painting or a new business or a new way of being.

It takes a lot of courage to drop those (untrue!) stories and learn how to stand tall in your personal power and create your world however YOU want it to be.

Teaching is how I stay on my own leading edge of growth and creativity. It’s how I cultivate the courage to keep doing the work that is meaningful to me.

I do this work because the world needs us sensitive artist types to wake up, own our power, and create inspiring things that change the world.

This matters to me.? I’m willing to get uncomfortable for it.? I’m willing to take risks for it.? I’m willing to show up every day, and work towards it.

I’m willing to do it even though it is FAR from easy.

Dreams are worth it.? YOU are worth it.

Living live in tune with your inner truth is worth it.

Purpose. Meaning. Heart. Authenticity. Wildly Free Abundant Creative Living.? If these things were easy everyone would be doing them!?

Please remember that: it’s hard for everyone.? It’s not just you.? It doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

And, of course, you are invited to join me for The Superpower Journal class tomorrow – a deep dive into healing and transforming your relationship with power, with glitter glue and crayons.? It’s happening inside the Creative Dream Circle.

*The series of classes I’m talking about are: Love your Life Creative Journal Class, The Magic Journal Creative Journal class and The Superpowers Journal.? Superpowers starts tomorrow, the other two are already available inside the Creative Dream Circle.

 

It?s Mandala Week on my blog!? Every day this week I?m posting about the magic of Mandalas, in celebration of The Mandala Class, which starts next Monday, September 15.

Today’s post builds on what I wrote yesterday I wrote about How Drawing Mandalas Helps You Be More Intuitive.

Healing is about coming into deeper alignment with your truth.

At your core you are pure sparkling spirit.? Infinitely creative, wise, joyful and loving.? Full of life.? Ridiculously inspired.? Deeply purposeful.? You’re here on a mission and you’ve got all the resources and support you need to complete that mission.

(Your dreams point you towards your mission, we’ll explore more about that in tomorrow’s post)

While this is the truth of who you are at your core, this may not always be how you experience yourself or your life.

When that is the case, healing the disconnect between your soul truth and your experience in this moment brings you back into alignment with your soul truth.

Healing is something I work on every day.

I have all these parts of me who are not in alignment with my soul truth:

• The part of me that secretly wonders if everyone else knows something I don’t.
• The part of me that thinks that believing in dreams is ridiculous.
• The part of me that thinks I can never work hard enough.
• The part of me who is working her ass off to be “good enough”.
• The part of me who just wants to hide.

So here I am, in my bus of creativity and joy, driving along the path of dreams.

If I let any of these parts of me anywhere near the driver’s seat they turn the bus around so fast my head starts to spin.? They’ll drive me halfway to the land of Let’s Just Not Go After Our Dreams before I even know what’s happening.

It takes discipline to stay in the driver’s seat and keep the bus steered towards my dreams.

I used to think it was just easier for other people to stay positive.

Or that because I have all these doubts, that must mean I’m not actually good enough to make my dreams real.

I wondered if I was doing something wrong.? That success must just be for other people.

Before I understood how healing actually works, I didn’t even realise how many little monsters were steering my bus.? No wonder I was constantly taking steps but not really getting anywhere!

This is the really tricky part – these voices have been whispering lies to you for so long you don’t think to question them.? Listening to them is all you know.

Any thought that says that you are not 100% amazing, gifted and capable of bringing your dreams to life is a lie.

Healing is about transforming the lies and bringing yourself back into truth: you’re an absolute superstar and you can do anything.? This kind of healing is an integral part of making your dreams real because it’s how you get in touch with your power source.

If you’re working on your dreams, but it feels like you’re on a bit of a hamster wheel (you’re moving as fast as you can but not getting to where you want to be) that means more healing is needed.? You’re listening to the wrong inner voices, which are steering you in the wrong direction.

So where do Mandalas fit in?

The main reason why you listen to and act from your inner critics and limiting beliefs is because that’s what you’re used to.? It’s an established pattern.

Most people just swirl around in their established patterns for their whole lives.

But if you want to make your dream real you know you need to change the patterns.

To change the patterns you need to be aware of them, and you need to access the deeper truth beneath the pattern so you can see a new possibility and then shift into it.? Which is easier said than done.

A lot of things help with this. Mandalas are one of them.

Mandalas are particularly useful if you are a creative person who is drawn to colour and pattern, and if you like the idea of drawing and colouring.

In my How To Draw Mandalas tutorial I talk about how it’s all about your approach and the awareness you bring to the process.

While you’re drawing Mandalas, you are essentially creating patterns.? And then you move onto the next row in the Mandala and you create NEW patterns.? Shapes shift and change.? New possibilities emerge.

As you are working with creating and re-creating patterns on the page, you are in the energy of creating and re-creating patterns. It’s hard not to notice how the elements you’re working with are really fluid and they can be put together in different ways.

Shifting patterns.? Once you start to see how some patterns can shift, it opens up new ways of seeing.? If x can shift in this way, could y shift in that way?

It feels to me that this is happening subliminally beneath the surface as I’m drawing Mandalas.? And once in a while a seed germinates and pops up into consciousness as a result.

The main way how drawing mandalas helps you heal and transform your world is through connecting with intuition.

Looking at everything I said yesterday about How Drawing Mandalas Helps You Be More Intuitive, and how it’s all about being connected with our inner superpowers you can see how that is also how I am describing healing.

Being more connected to your inner truth helps you root out the lies that keep you small.? Rooting out those lies is what healing is.

Intuitive healing is, in my opinion, the most powerful kind of healing because it’s coming from exactly the part of you that you want to be more in touch with!? Any other approach to healing, where you’re working through someone else’s process or following specific steps or using certain tools is just clumsy.

What really heals you is connecting to who you really are, so allowing who you are to be steering your process (aka intuitive healing) is really the most effective way to go.

But all of this is really hard to explain with words!

That is exactly why Mandalas are a good tool for working with intuition and healing – they bypass words and bring you into the experience.

This is what we?ll be doing in The Mandala Class, which starts next Monday, September 15.

And tomorrow I?ll be blogging about the other part of this – working with Mandalas for bringing your dreams to life.

I spent yesterday morning cleaning the Dream Loft and re-arranging – moving furniture, organising drawers, experimenting with how I want things to be.

Really, I was making space for a new me who was ready to emerge.

A me who is more connected to her inner magic and more willing to use it and live it and be it.

Because yesterday afternoon we had the live tele-class part of The Magic Journal Creative Journal Class, which is really an energy healing with journals and glitter pens.

We pinpointed the energy patterns that would need to be transformed to make space for us to align more fully with our inner magic, and then we started the process of transforming those energy patterns.? Then that deep internal alignment just kind of falls into place.

After our call I was so glad I had re-arranged things and made my space feel so different because I felt so different on the inside.

The part of me who is always connected to her DEEP magic was bigger.? The part of me who is unsure was smaller.? It’s a little disorienting.

Inner work is so invisible.? And energy patterns are easy to shift in the moment, but it’s trickier to hold a new way of being over time.

I like to re-arrange my space, especially getting rid of old stuff and being really thoughtful about what new stuff my new self will need, to help hold and solidify new ways of being.

To remind me that things have changed and to help me get grounded in the new.

My new, super-ultra-connected-to-her-inner-magic-self needs:

• better storage and more organisation for sewing because she is sewing a TON of adorable dresses
• for the miracle pod to take up more space and have more cushions because she is going to spend more time there
• more small drawers for storing art supplies so it’s easier to make art every day without the creative mess starting to take over
• a big open space for that giant paper mache project
• clear space between desk and bookshelf because that feels open and expansive
• stone lanterns upstairs by the huge window because they feel magical
• a new morning meditation ritual that helps me feel more sparkly inside and out

My heart feels like it’s smiling, settling into this new space.

Things change when YOU change.

If you have a dream that is not your reality – you want things to change.? You can’t make things change by trying to force them to be different.? You can create space for things to change by creating change within yourself.

You can grow into the you-who-lives-your-dream.? You can learn so much about how this version of you is different from the you you are today, and how to move towards more of what you want.? You can heal the parts of you who are afraid, unsure or believing false stories about what is possible for you.

This way you grow gracefully into your dream, instead of striving and sacrificing and working your ass off.

This is exactly what all of my classes help you do – in different ways, because inner transformation is a big job so it’s good to have a lot of tools!