Wednesday 30 December 2020

Affirmation Wednesday

 


GROUNDING PROMPTS 

What opportunities for growth have you experienced in your life so far?

What opportunities for wealth have you experienced in your life so far?

What do they have in common?

How do they differ?

How do you usually receive opportunities for growth? For wealth?

What other ways would you like to receive these opportunities? Where could they come from?

How would you feel about these? 

How do you see your personal growth 1/5/10 years from now?

How do you see your wealth 1/5/10 years from now?

How would you embrace/explore/start the process of allowing? What do you need for this?

Sunday 27 December 2020

Sunday Journaling Prompt

 


GOING DEEPER 


What happened this year, month by month?

How did I feel?

What lessons have I learnt?

What did I lose?

What did I gain?

What are my regrets from this year?

What can I do to turn things around?

What will bring me peace?

What will bring me happiness?

What do I need to let go of to achieve these?

What am I grateful for?


Wednesday 23 December 2020

Affirmation Wednesday

 


GROUNDING PROMPTS 

What are you desires?

Are you working on them to come true? 

If yes - What goals have you determined for your desires to come true? 

             What have you done towards your desires/goals?

If no - What are you waiting for?

Why do you desire these? 

How will these desires coming true change your life?

What can you do today towards your desires coming true?

Sunday 20 December 2020

Sunday Journaling Prompt

 


GOING DEEPER

What are you scared of right now?

Why does it scare you?

What would happen if your fear(s) were to come true?

How would that impact your life?

What goal is your fear trying to achieve by coming into mind?

Close your eyes and imagine your fear is taking form. What does it look like?

You say hello to your fear and ask it, What do you want from me? Why? 

How can you and your fear can co-operate on what you are trying to achieve? Ask your fear form.

Saturday 19 December 2020

A Little Bit About Joy


 A few days ago, I participated in an Insight Timer live session with teacher Dr Patty Hlava (@AwakenPeace), all about joy, and that inspired me to write this article for you.

Regardless of our background, current circumstances, past experiences and health levels, we all have at one point (or more, hopefully) in our life, experienced joy. That's for sure.

But what is joy? How does it feel like?
According to dictionary.com, joy is "the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying".

So what is the difference between joy and happiness?
There are many explanations you can find online and in books, but to me, joy is more exuberant, more colourful than happiness, which I feel as more contentment and more a stable and durable state. I see joy as moments of bright light, flashes of colours, like your toddler walking his first steps with a big smile on his face and aiming for your arms while feeling so proud of himself.

While happiness feels to me as a constant lightness, openness and groundedness, joy feels more like little sparks popping here and there, more intense and more special. Obviously, these can mean and feel totally different to you, after all we are all unique human beings with different perceptions and ways of feeling what is going on around us and inside us. It is all good.

Dr Patty Hlava from @AwakenPeace Healing, on the Insight Timer app, led this live session on Tuesday 15th December 2020 (a replay may be available at some point in the future but, currently, is not available). Her guided meditation/ visualisation was so insightful, powerful and an open door to feeling joy.
Some of the highlights for me were the following:

Thinking about a joyful moment you have experienced in your past (remote or recent), visualising, reminiscing as if you were back there and focusing on how you feel.

Keeping that feeling in and gathering more by opening your hands, receiving more joy energy from the Universe, and bringing it in to your heart space, keeping going while you open up your hands/arms more and more each round.

I am quite an introvert at heart and only with very close friends and family will I be demonstrative; so as I was opening up to receive joy from the Universe, at one point in the meditation/visualisation, I actually caught myself having my arms wide open. My instinct had told me to let go of the restrictions and boundaries I put on myself, and just be literally open to receive what the Universe had for me. I know that it will sound for many people rather airy-fairy, and that's totally OK. It does not in any way diminish the experience for me. But it just shows that, instinctively, we all yearn for this feeling of joy, open up when it is there for us and that a lot of it is meant for each and every one of us - we just need to trust and open up to receive it without resistance, fear or mistrust.

If you're into guided meditation, on Insight Timer, I really like "Joy" by teacher Shelly McSween-White, MS - it is 1 hour and 20 minutes long so you go really deep. If this is too long for you or you are a beginner, I also recommend Lo Madigan's "5-Minute Meditation for Cultivating Joy" (the whole audio is less than 7 minutes) or Sono Lumin/Jonas Malvik's "Joy - Increase Vibrational Frequency" if you prefer music (only 9 minutes long).

From a vibrational point of view, joy is a positive, uplifting emotion of a high vibration and frequency. It is 540 Hz and is expansive, meaning that the more joy you feel, the more you get.
If you're into Chakras, it is the frequency closest to the Sacral Chakra (under the navel - 417 Hz) which corresponds to creativity and pleasure.

Practising gratitude regularly (ideally on a daily basis) can also help you connect with joy and raise your vibration to start your day. Smiling is also a great way to connect - more with happiness in my view, but it is still one step forward.

With so many ways, and more, to connect to and explore joy - try and observe your relationship with this emotion. Can you fully connect to joy? What events, people, experiences help you connect to joy? I invite you to explore with this emotion, visualise, meditate and journal so that you have an imprint of joy for when you need it the most.

Wednesday 16 December 2020

Affirmation Wednesday

 


GROUNDING PROMPTS 

Who do you matter to?

What is the type of relationship you have with each person who loves you?

How do they express their love for you?

How does it make you feel?

Is knowing you matter to them enough for you to feel loved? Why?

What do you need for you to truly feel loved?

How can you get it?

What about self- love? Do you matter to YOU?

Sunday 13 December 2020

Sunday Journaling Prompt

 


GOING DEEPER

Who does this memory involve?

What are you doing in this happiest memory?

What other feelings and qualities does it bring?

How can you re-create these conditions so that every day you have a happy memory?

What other happy memories can you draw on to help you re-create happy conditions for your evey day life?

Wednesday 9 December 2020

Affirmation Wednesday

 


GROUNDING:

What has influenced you in the past to make your decisions? 

What does currently influence your decision making?

How do these two (past and present) influences make you feel? 

Have they been good criteria to make decisions?

How could you have made better decisions? What would have the difference been in how you felt about it and the results?

Were your decisions made in line with your values and truer self? Why?

What would it mean for you to make your decisions/choices from a place of love and truth?

How can you start doing this?

Sunday 6 December 2020

Sunday Journaling Prompt

 


GOING DEEPER

What cause you to have these thoughts? What happens?

How do these thoughts make you feel?

What can you do to turn them around or make them powerless over you?

What can you tell/reply to these thoughts?

What needs to happen for these thoughts to go away and leave you alone?

What will it feel like to have these thoughts gone? What will your life be like then?

Learning New Things

 


Learning is one of my lifelong passions. As far as I can remember, I've always loved learning as a child, in school, not so much for the social interactions, but mostly for the knowledge I had access to (there was no Internet in my days!). It helped me understand the world around me and what was possible.

Learning is not only to understand the world around us, our history, our beliefs, where we come from, how things work, but also to understand yourself, and how you want to fit in in all that. It is very hard to make an informed decision when you are not aware of the context.
Learning expands your knowledge, possibilities and horizons. Throughout my life, I have retrained many times in order to be able to work in conditions and environments that would fit my lifestyles at different times of my life.

Learning new things can be scary because we do not know what to do, and we fear that not knowing will make us look and feel weak, inadequate, imperfect. This is very often the main cause of fear of trying new things for many people. When you are in your comfort zone, you know what to do and you know that you have a far greater chance of success, projecting greater value of yourself to others, as well as yourself, bringing confidence and a higher sense of self-esteem. Doesn't it feel good when you know you are good at something, that you can do something effortlessly? So why on earth would you get out of that beloved, easy and safe comfort zone? Why risk being exposed to the unknown, where anything can happen, none of it we are prepared for? What can happen? What will I lose if I fail? We, humans, are creatures of habits and moving towards the unknown just seems and feels so very unnatural. There are so many things we cannot control in our lives, why move away from the things we can actually control? There is just no sense in that.

But learning new things not only helps us increase our flexibility in life (like I have done in my work life to suit my circumstances), as the more we learn, the more we know, the more we know, the more we can do, and the more we can contribute and help others, as well as ourselves.

It also strengthens the health of our brain. Indeed as we learn new things, our brain creates new pathways, strengthening each time we practice the new activity. We get used to it after a while, the pathways are strong, and it becomes almost a habit, and that is when we challenge ourselves, learn more, go deeper, to create even more pathways. This keeps our brain active in a healthy way, alive, and it has been demonstrated in recent years by many scientific studies that learning new things on a regular basis can help prevent degenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimer's. How many elderly people do you know who have been active all throughout their life through work, and when retirement comes, spend their days aimlessly and wither away? Lack of challenge will lead to our brain becoming less and less active. Constant GROWTH throughout our life is essential for our health and survival, on many levels.

The new things you learn do not have to be big like climbing Mount Everest or learning medicine, it can be researching a topic you want to learn more about and take notes (any learning needs to be active, not passive, to be memorised efficiently. Taking notes is a great way to move away from passive learning to active learning), practising a new type of crafts, hobby or new technique, starting an exercise routine, a new diet, or even trying a new recipe or new foods. New experiences will create new points of reference for you as well, new memories.

The beauty of learning new things is that you are always in a beginner's mindset. Very often when we learn something, our learning experience is affected by what we think we already know on the subject, which prevents us to be totally open and receptive to the learning. Our mind and learning are clouded by the misconceptions and assumptions we have. The beginner's mind lets you be completely open to receive the information, enabling a better retention in your memory.

Listing all the new things I have learnt in my lifetime would be just too long and too boring for you to read, and for me to recollect. Here are some of the recent new things I have been learning:

  • trying new mixes of fruits and vegs for my daily morning green smoothie once each week at least;
  • reading a variety of new books (as opposed to re-reading faves, which I am quite guilty of);
  • learning Japanese with my son (very early stage!);
  • reviewing my progress on goals and life in general on a regular basis (weekly) and making adjustments;
  • learning Sashiko (Japanese embroidery technique);
  • doing walks in nature as often as I can and notice something different each time and take a photo if I can (I walk the same route each time as there is only one park where I live that I can manage with my asthma);
  • learning aromatherapy, life coaching, and about energy healing;
  • trying new art supplies on different media;
  • practising bookbinding;
  • watching new TV series (recently, I have started watching various Japanese animes with my son, which is very different to what I usually watch. It is also a great opportunity for quality time together);
  • trying new musics to listen to (at the moment I'm into bird songs);
  • trying new scents and combinations in my essential oils diffuser;
  • trying a new cookies recipe and making adjustments/ experimenting with extra ingredients each time;
  • starting the Jennibellie Lunar class to learn to work with lunar cycles and have fun with it (I have never learnt about this before, not even in school);
  • trying new herbal teas;
  • learning to sew different items, by hand and machine (pencil cases, pouches, my new projects are to sew cats beds for my furry babies, a pillow and pillow case with a sashiko piece attached to it, and a Haori - a Japanese "jacket" worn over a kimono - without using patterns, so I have to work out the patterns by myself, using my own measurements);
  • learning remote access for work;
  • updating systems at work for quality standards continuous improvement;
  • having a mindful cup of tea at work to help me slow down and recharge (it only takes a few seconds);
  • planning meals for my lunches as I now avoid carbs during the day (I used to have leftovers from the previous night to bring to work for my lunches, usually carbs, so this is brand new to me, preparing meals without carbs);
  • trying new healthy practices like Tai Chi, energy healing and breathwork;
  • started a daily journaling practice, as well as checking in and cheching out;
  • trying new types of meditations, courses and visualisations on the Insight Timer app.
As you can see, this non-exhaustive list is quite varied, it can include personal growth on a spiritual, physical or emotional level, health, family, work, fun/hobbies, or practical. It can be from your own choosing or dictated by your responsibilities.

What new thing are you gonna try this week?
Have fun with it :-)


Wednesday 2 December 2020

Affirmation Wednesday

 


GROUNDING THE AFFIRMATION 

What kind of thoughts do you usually predominately have every day?

What do you tend to focus on?

How often do you have positive thoughts?

How does it feel when you have negative thoughts?

How does it feel when you have positive thoughts?

How much difference to your life would it make for you to have mainly positive thoughts?

What can you start doing to turn your negative thoughts into positives?

Challenge: focus on having at least 5 extra positive thoughts every day for a week and journal about your experience. What changes have you noticed? How does it feel? Keep adding every week for a more positive mindset and a happier life ❤️

Sunday 29 November 2020

Sunday Journaling Prompt

 


GOING DEEPER

What do you think your flaws are? How are they stopping you from doing what you long for?

What is the positive side of your flaws? How do they serve you in your life? How could they serve you if you feel they are not currently?

Do you think you are enough? Why do you think you are/are not?

What do people say about you? Do you believe them? 

What do you say about yourself? Why do you believe it?

How can you move past your negative self-talk? What can you do today to start having a more positive approach in your self-talk?

Wednesday 25 November 2020

Affirmation Wednesday

 


GROUNDING IN THE AFFIRMATION 

Do you currently feel your voice matters? Do you feel heard? Listened to? How does it make you feel? Why?

What is your message?

What do you want to say that you feel you can’t? What is stopping you?

Who do you want to be listened by?

How do you feel your communication skills are currently? Are you happy with the way you communicate? Why? Can you give some examples? 

How do you wish you could communicate? Can you give some examples of how you can visualise/imagine yourself communicating exactly the way you want?

How can you improve your communication skills so your voice can be heard? What support and resources do you need to achieve this?

What small step can you take TODAY to get your voice heard and acknowledged?

Sunday 15 November 2020

Sunday Journaling Prompt

 


GOING DEEPER:

What areas of your life do these achievements originate from?

Have they affected other parts of your life? Which areas? In what way? Was it planned?

Did you do it alone or did you get support/help? What steps did you take? What obstacles did you meet and overcome?

What made the difference so you could achieve these?

What do these achievements tell you? About your life? About yourself?

What did you have to give up or leave behind to achieve these? What difference did it make to the overall quality of your life, levels of happiness and fulfilment?

Where do you go from here?

Wednesday 11 November 2020

Affirmation Wednesday

 


ROOTING QUESTIONS 

How do you feel right now?

Have you ever felt centred? What does it feel like to you?

What can you do when you feel centred?

What small step can you do today to start to feel centred?

What is your truth? Where in your body do you feel it?

Sunday 8 November 2020

Sunday Journaling Prompt

 


GOING DEEPER:

What is your story?

What patterns do you see in your story? What do they tell you?

What parts of your life do you wish you would have done differently? Why?

What parts of your life are you happy with and/or grateful for?

What are the main lessons you have learnt in your life up to now?

How have these lessons shaped who you are today?

Saturday 7 November 2020

The Magic of Planning Sessions

 


Planning sessions are a practice that I have adopted for the last few months (since August). This was first introduced to me by Jennibellie's online class Creative Goal Journaling and I believe that I briefly mentioned this in the Goals, Planning, Scheduling & Reviewing article back in September.

The Planning session, per say, is like a brainstorming session. I have a dedicated Planning Sessions A4 notebook that I use only for these sessions.


You can organise a planning session for pretty much anything you need to get your head around to. I have had planning sessions for organising my coaching sessions with my son, what type of mentoring materials and support he would need from me for his goals, how I will be organising the sessions and what resources I have, working on fears, resistance and procrastination, what I wanted to do with my blog, how I will be organising my new Bullet Journal in 2021, on reviewing my goals' objectives and steps, on how I want to review and plan my weeks after I had access to different techniques. You could very well use it also to plan a trip - even though at the moment with the new lockdown the options are a little bit limited - , organise a house decluttering or redecorating, plan a birthday party or complete a school assignment where research is needed.
The brainstorming nature of these sessions seem, once you start playing with ideas, to flow naturally, which makes it a very organic process. I tend to use different coloured pens for different types of ideas or parts of the process. Here is my "Planning Sessions pencil case":


Using different colours enables you, when you go back, to identify quickly all ideas in one category. Some ideas of questions you could ask yourself to start the process if you're stuck are:
  • What do I want to achieve?
  • What resources do I have?
  • What can I do with them? How can I use them?
  • What other resources do I need?
  • What are aspects of this project that I need to think about? (that's very likely going to be your categories)
  • What could I do for each one?
No filtering, write down everything  that comes to your mind. Something that may seem silly or impossible could very well work as a starting point to develop a useful idea. Sometimes to find solutions, you will need to think outside the box. This process will just do that for you, and more. From one idea flows another, then another, then another...
Once you cannot think of anything else, go through all you have written. Can you expand on any of these ideas? Which ideas do you feel will help you towards your goal? Which ideas do you feel you can do? Organise your ideas. The next step will be to follow the Planning process in the Goals, Planning, Scheduling & Reviewing article from September 2020. These planning sessions can be done when needed.

From this process and also Jennibellie's class was born another, weekly, planning session practice, which I call Weekly Review/Plan. I started by using Jennibellie's template and, little by little, tweaked it to make it my own. Another type I created for my son's coaching/mentoring sessions can be found in the Reviewing part of the Goals, Planning, Scheduling & Reviewing article. Somehow, I couldn't imagine my 15-year old son being willing to answer questions like "What my inner critic said" and "what my higher self knows"! See what I mean?! Here is an example of the layout I have been using for the last few months and how I use it:




Recently, I have been watching the Live Planning Sessions of Creative Dream Incubator on Instagram (every Monday, 4pm UK time - @creativedreamincubator) and this is very different to what I have been doing. It focuses on really exploring your feelings to see what you need, either to heal, to realign yourself, get focused, get out of fear and resistance...  This is something that I definitely wanted to incorporate into my weekly Review/Plan sessions, so, again, my template has evolved to suit my current needs.
My new layout for my weekly Review/Plan session, starting this weekend:


This was the result of my last Brainstorming/Planning Session. Similarly to the other type of planning session, I also use different coloured pens (as you can see on the first layout photo). I find it easier to separate the information, rather than have just one blob of black writing over the 2 pages. And, as a stationary lover, I do have a separate pencil case for my Bullet Journal stuff:


It's all about making it fun ;-)

As we discussed in the Goals, Planning, Scheduling & Reviewing article, reviewing is essential to your process, any process, as it enables you to make the process current to where you are right now. This is not something that you should ignore as it will only create more resistance to your project. For instance, this week every day I have been focusing on responsibilities tasks and chores that, throughout the week, I have had to force myself to do. Doing my quick check-in to see how I felt (using one of the extra questions in the new template), I realised that, not only did I overschedule my days, and, as I usually start with the boring stuff to get it out of the way, only spent my days doing exclusively soul-draining, serious, "adult" and not fun activities. I really felt it in the way that, at the end of each day, I felt exhausted and didn't want to bother doing anything else, which led to scrolling down mindlessly on Instagram for over an hour. What I need is to be more balanced and realistic with what I plan in my days, but also that I need to incorporate PLAY activities where I am active as opposed to passive. Making chores fun is never an option for me (to me associating chores to fun is an oxymoron!), so, I do my chores first thing, out of the way, then I can write a poem, read a book, doodle or start setting up my Collections Bullet Journal - creative, fun endeavours for me - as a reward. I make sure that the serious tasks are done but I won't pile chores onto them to fill my days. I want, while I'm currently at home, at least a third of my day to be fun. If I had just stuck to my original template and not integrated this extra practice into my weekly Review/Plan, I would have never picked that up and would not have re-arranged my tasks in a more efficient way. Some coaching methods regard feelings as unreliable but I don't agree. They help you gauge where you're at and what you can achieve confidently. You cannot run a 20K marathon if you feel exhausted or unmotivated.
So feelings, in my opinion, do matter. They work a bit like a compass. You need to be aware of them and not be a prisoner to them.

This article is just to give you an example of what you can achieve with these two types of Planning Sessions.
Obviously there are many other ways to organise your planning sessions, just search online, which could give you some extra insights and ideas that you may like to try and experiment with - why not do a Planning Session on how to organise your Planning Sessions?!

Happy exploring...


Wednesday 4 November 2020

Affirmation Wednesday

 


Rooting into the affirmation:


How do you see your Future Self? What does (s)he like? What is (s)he doing?

How does it make you feel?

What has your future self gone through and overcome?

What do you want to ask your future self?

What can you do today for your future self?

How can you work towards becoming this future self you envision?

Sunday 1 November 2020

Sunday Journaling Prompt

 


GOING DEEPER:

How do you really feel?

What is preventing you to feel completely whole and healed?

Do you feel any fear or resistance? Towards what?

What is this fear/resistance telling you?

What needs to heal?

What first small step can you take this week towards healing?

What will your life look and feel like once you have healed?

What will you be able to do that you couldn’t do before?

********************************************

Happy exploring, my dear journal adventurers ❤️

Stay safe x

Wednesday 28 October 2020

Affirmation Wednesday

 


SUPPORTING QUESTIONS TO BETTER EXPLORE AND EMBRACE THE AFFIRMATION -

What does power mean to you?

What is your general attitude towards power? Your beliefs?

In your life, do you usually feel powerful or powerless? Why? What does it feel like?

If you usually feel powerless in your life, what do you think feeling powerful will feel like? Look like? Sound like? Smell like? Taste like?

What will it take for you to feel powerful?

What is one small thing you can do TODAY to make you feel more powerful in your life?

How do you see a difference between inner power and outer power, if you see any? 

Which type of power do you feel more comfortable with?

Think about someone in your life or celebrity/influential figure (alive or deceased) who, in your eyes, embodies power. What about them makes them seem powerful?

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🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Sunday 25 October 2020

Sunday Journaling Prompt

 


We all have this idea of who we want to be. 

Is it because of how you want to be perceived by others? If so, what will it bring you to be perceived this way?

Is this idea of who you want to be, true to who you really are deep down? 

What stories are you telling yourself about who you are now and this new YOU you want to be?

Why do you want to change and become this new person, this new YOU? What is it that you are not satisfied with who you are right now?

What do you need to do to become this new YOU?

What will it be and feel like to be this new YOU?

What will it bring to your life?

How will this new YOU interact with others?

After you become this new YOU, what next?

Some more ideas for you to explore this prompt...

Happy journaling and exploring ❤️❤️❤️

Saturday 24 October 2020

Project Miracle

 


I recently completed the online class from Creative Dream Incubator, Project Miracle. This 30-day class is labelled "a 30 day Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Style creative support system for calling in the shift you need right now".

The class includes printable worksheets that you can cut and glue in your journal, including mandalas for colouring meditations, as well as videos to introduce the principles of the class, and a lot of audio practices that you can use daily to evolve in the process of working towards your miracle. They are short visualisations, each covering an aspect of the process.

On the Creative Dream Incubator website, Andrea Schroeder's teachings focus on working towards your dreams. You can also call them goals if you prefer.
Miracle, to me, the way I understand it in the context of dreams and goals, is a condition that either you create, or creates itself, to move you forward in the process of working towards your goal. It is with this concept in mind that I worked through the class.

When working towards goals and dreams myself, I tend to experience A LOT of resistance, procrastination and fear, so I decided for my miracle to be "beat my fears, procrastination and resistance to be able to do what I plan for fulfilling my purpose and achieve anything I want in my life". Progressing into the practices, after a couple of weeks, my miracle was rephrased to "manage and understand in a compassionate way my fears, resistance and procrastination to be able to communicate with them so we can work together to do what I want to do". This is a major shift for me, so I'd say that definitely the class has worked for me.

Andrea's style of working is very focused on your feelings, which was a real revelation to me, to not push through no matter what but to LISTEN to how you feel and what the resistance is and wants from you. This was a totally game-changer for me. Most of the planning goals methods are very specific steps. logical orientated, whereas Andrea's techniques ALWAYS take into account how you feel, at that moment, and how you feel towards your dream/goal at that moment.

The visualisations in the Project Miracle class are very powerful. To someone not used to visualisations, they might sound a little airy-fairy (all visualisations seemed like that to me when I was starting doing visualisations a few months back) but you just have to play the game and go with the flow, and you will soon feel how powerful these visualisations can be and how much they make you realise about how you truly feel about your goals and steps to get there. To the question, is it real or am I making it up? The answer for visualisations is always YES - ie they are both the same.
With these visualisations, I realised that sometimes feeling resistance towards a step may mean that the step is no longer relevant in the pursuit of your dream, and needs to be changed - there is a better way out there for you to move forward, that's what it really means. And it's all OK.

The process of going through these visualisations can be very emotional and also quite funny. When doing the visualisation "Calling In Your Miracle", I felt 100% ready to call in my miracle and even receive it, but my miracle "decided" that I wasn't ready. The rest of my visualisation was basically like a Christmas pantomime going on in my head - "yes I am, no you're not, yes I am, no you're not..." That was and felt quite funny to experience. And, of course, my miracle was right; I wasn't ready for it just yet.
As the class was designed in this way, I was able to do earlier practices to build my foundations to be stronger, more grounding, so I could move forward, at my own pace, in my own time. There is something that Andrea says as one of the main principles that I deeply connected with, "IT TAKES THE TIME IT TAKES". In contrast with the SMART goals system, Andrea's system, while embracing in her own way some of the SMART criteria, gives you the time "it takes" for your dreams/goals to unfold naturally, not in a forced way, not cramming everything because on your planner you scheduled it for THAT date. Some goals and tasks are obviously already pre-determined for you as far as the due date is concerned, but what you build for yourself, usually is not. You have permission to take your time to let your dream roll its course in a way you are happy with.

Going through a process like this really brings you on a roller-coaster of varied emotions, that you obviously journal, but by feeling fully the process, this is how you work towards your dreams/goals more efficiently, without forcing anything.

I really love this process and have decided to keep my monthly subscription to carry on accessing Andrea's classes and work on a daily practice. Every day, you receive and email with some ideas and concepts you can explore and suggestions of practices you can do. So every day you can actually do the practice that you feel will serve you best for where you are. The sections Help! I'm Stuck and Having Trouble Getting Started are extremely helpful to get you up and running and choose a practice.

Access to this class is $33 for a month, but also includes access to ALL her other classes, as well as a Monthly group coaching call (with available replay).
I also love the options on her website to get a random Journaling Prompt to work on and a suggestion with the Oracle on what to work on if you don't know what to explore.

A MUST-HAVE/DO for soul explorers and dreamers.



Wednesday 21 October 2020

Affirmation Wednesday

 


For the last few months, I have been feeling depleted, without energy. While the current situation has obviously been trying for many people around the world on many levels, I have been lucky enough to stay at home, actually doing things I enjoy. So, to me, there doesn’t seem to be any reason why I have been feeling so tired. I have had periods of inactivity followed by many periods of productivity, so not turning into a sloth and not burning myself out running around like a headless chicken. I just can’t pinpoint it. I have been focusing on my health with healthy eating (which I usually do), meditation (which I also usually do), daily taichi, workouts every other day (at the moment I am following the Yoga Burn Core program, 3 days a week). I have also introduced recently an energy medicine practice and breathing exercises that I add to my meditation, as well as night time healing activation. Yes, I will admit, I don’t go outside, I don’t get fresh air very regularly. Could it be that? In any case I have been trying to stick to routines, introduce new ones in the hope that my vitality will turn up and grow exponentially. But it’s not coming. I get peaks and then drop back down. With this week’s affirmation, “I heal myself with love and respect “, I think that I finally got it. I’ve been going around it the wrong way. Yes, you need to organise and introduce healthy habits, but not in desperation, forcing it upon yourself to do it and beat yourself up if you miss one session. You need to go through the whole process of healing “with love and respect “, for your body, your mind, how you are currently feeling, what you are going through, what you feel is right and exactly what you need at that particular moment.

A totally new perspective for me, used to planning and organising and ticking boxes off my precious to-do list. I’m not sure yet how I’m going to go about it. I have started a “checking in/checking out” journal to take into account my current state and what I have planned to do. Will that be the answer? I guess I’ll soon find out.

Where do you feel you are right now as far as your healing is concerned?

When you say the affirmation to yourself out loud, does it feel true to you?

What does healing yourself with love and respect mean to you? What does it look like?

What do you feel is missing so that you can heal yourself with love and respect?

These journaling questions, I hope, will help you explore the background for the affirmation to set in. For weeks I felt some of my affirmations not really speaking to me, and I found out that it was because I wasn’t connecting to them fully. Asking myself these types of questions have helped me see where the affirmation fits in to my life, my current state and my feelings. You don’t have to have all the answers - as you can see from my intro, I certainly haven’t. And that is all OK. It is all part of the process, part of the magic...


Monday 19 October 2020

Inspirational Quote Monday


 Isn’t it why we journal? It certainly is the case for me. As we get to know ourselves, we know what is truly good for us, what we need at that particular moment, in that particular situation. By knowing ourselves, we get to open to others and understand them more, empathise and support more efficiently. We get to know that acting and speaking from the heart is EVERYTHING. We get to see that we are all connected; what is in others is also in me, for we are one, we all come from the same source, we all belong to the same universe.

Sunday 18 October 2020

Sunday Journaling Prompt

 


GOING DEEPER -

Where in the past are you stuck? How does it feel to be there still?

What patterns do you feel keep repeating over and over again?

What are these patterns and experiences you are so attached to teaching you?

How would it feel like if you were free of your past?

Are you ready to move forward and leave the past behind? If not, what is keeping you there?

What do you need to do? Forgive yourself? Forgive others? Make sense of the experience you’re stuck with? Let go? 

What is one small thing you can do TODAY to help you move forward?

It IS hard to work with our past, painful, disorienting, and sometimes discouraging. When you think you have found some resolution with an experience from your past, and a reminder comes up, and you feel like you’re back to it all over again. That’s what I’ll be working on this coming week with this prompt, and exploring the “going deeper” questions above.

Much love on your journaling journey with this prompt, and please remember that if anything comes up for you that could possibly be traumatic, first, it is normal, and also, always make sure that you have a support group or professional support to help you through this xxx

Tuesday 13 October 2020

Book Nuts #2

 


Since our last Book Nuts article in July, I have read/listened to a few more books that I'd like to share with you.

  • Tides of the Dark Crystal (J.M. Lee)
  • Songs of the Seven Gelfling Clans (J.M. Lee)





    As a Dark Crystal enthusiast, these books were a real joy to read. Tides of the Dark Crystal is part 3 of The Dark Crystal novels and did not disappoint. Telling the continuation of the story from yet another character's perspective gives you, little by little, the impression to understand each character in the main party, one book at a time. J.M. Lee's style is impeccable, poetic, clear and addictive. You just do not want to put this book down and finishing it is hard too. There is currently only one novel left from this series after this one. As Netflix decided recently to cancel Season 2 of the series Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, I expect a lot more books and comics to be created in order to continue the story. It just cannot stop there.
    The second book, Songs of the Seven Gelfing Clans, is a guidebook of each of the clans, with its rituals, beliefs, society organisation and traditional songs and poems. You would expect this type of book to be written in the manner of a reference book, with facts, figures, almost sterile, but, in the great tradition of J.M. Lee's literary style, the information is told through the eyes of a Gelfing songteller and traveller, telling about his experiences while visiting these worlds. Illustrated by beautiful drawings, this book is an absolute treat to the eyes and the soul of every Dark Crystal lover out there.

  • Facilitating SoulCollage in Groups (Seena B. Frost) (iTunes audiobook)


This audiobook, narrated by the author Seena Frost, creator of the SoulCollage practice, made perfect sense to me and was a natural listen. I have recently adopted a SoulCollage practice and aim at, one day (soon I hope, when I have managed to save enough money for the training), to become a SoulCollage facilitator and organise workshops. This audiobook was very informative to me on how to lead groups, what aspects of SoulCollage can be explored in workshops, and much more. It has strongly reinforced my desire to do the training.

  • Writing Down Your Soul (Janet Conner)


    This book is a fantastic book about journaling in a very intuitive, soulful and meaningful way, as opposed to record-keeping journaling. It is the next step in the evolution of your journaling practice - and mine. It has literally transformed my journaling practice in the way that, now, I include, mostly unconsciously - which is the point - some kind of an internal "dialogue" into my writing, helping me to make sense of what is going on (or not) in my life, my feelings, when I'm stuck. Through this book, Janet Conner tells her journaling story, how it has supported her in her life journey, and shares many ideas, concepts, techniques and exercises that you can easily try in your own journaling practice, whatever style you are faithful to. Loved this book. It has become a classics for me. If you want to go further, the author also has written a companion book called My Soul Pages, which I haven't bought (yet!) 

  • Awaken The Giant Within (Tony Robbins)


    I started this book last year and was taking notes, which made the reading process very lengthy. I stopped reading it to pause and "mix it up". After about a year or so, I decided to pick it up. I also picked up my note-taking practice that came with it.
    The reason why I take notes is that, apart from the fact that it has been written by the great, inspirational Tony Robbins who made coaching more widely known to the world - and whatever Tony Robbins says or writes is always gold wisdom to remember -, the other reason is that this book is literally a guide to having your most purposeful and happiest life. All aspects of your life are covered and many exercises help you integrate the principles. Anyone interested in improving the quality of their life, this is one of your books to have on your bookshelves.

  • Think Like A Monk (Jay Shetty) (Audible audiobook, narrated by the author)


    This new book by famous coach Jay Shetty has shot to Amazon's best selling books on its first week of release, and it totally deserves it.
    Jay tells his story with such honesty and humour that, even if you're not spiritual, you would still enjoy this book. Jay Shetty is one of these genuinely nice people - go to his Facebook page or Instagram account and you'll see - and it shines through his story and generosity to share his spiritual knowledge and teachings. Jay used to be a Buddhist monk and has practised many techniques of meditation and way of living. In this book, he's bringing all these teachings and makes them very accessible to the readers; even if you know nothing of spirituality, you will totally get this book. His chapter on Fear was an absolute game-changer for me. Highly recommend to every single human being on this planet.

  • A Guide to Shadow Work (Michelle Geldenhuys)


    This little book is constructed as lessons with exercises at the end of each session. If you want to start exploring your shadow side (we all have one, it is very normal), this book is a good start. Simply written, the techniques and concepts are very accessible and I really enjoyed the content and exercises. The style of writing is very supportive and encouraging. I bought this book without any particular expectations but was VERY pleasantly surprised.


  • Do The Work (Steven Pressfield) (Audible audiobook)


    For the last month or so, I have been exploring Fear, Resistance and Procrastination. Trying to understand them, to better tame them. Do The Work was THE resistance book mostly recommended in my research, so I decided to get the audiobook. Took notes, obviously! ;-) Although the book was originally designed to support writers, artists, the principles can be easily transfered to every person in the world (because, let's be honest, who doesn't experience resistance in their life), whatever their occupation or aspirations. It was a great guide to work through resistance and, obviously, it needs to lead to a certain practice to "do the work" and integrate the principles. I really enjoyed it, it is full of gold nuggets of wisdom and practical techniques, but I did find it, at times, rough, in the vein of "suck it up, buttercup" (in Jennibellie's words). I probably felt that way because I had just watched many Creative Dream Incubator videos on the subject, and Andrea Schroeder preaches a very soft, compassionate approach to resistance, fear and procrastination, encourages a dialogue. Nevertheless, many of my notes from this book have helped me understand (or start to, for it will be a long road, I know) a lot about my own fears and resistance. I still would recommend it as a first MUST read to start with on this quest.

  • Le Petit Prince (Antoine de Saint Exupery)


    Despite being a French national, and The Little Prince being such a major classics of French literature, I had never read it - Boohh you!!!
    The deed is now done, so I can be forgiven!
    This book was so refreshing. A fantasy story, a simple story, told from an adult's point of view but in a childlike way. I can't tell about the story, it would spoil it for you, but needless to say, you laugh, you cry, you understand, you sympathise, you feel you are not alone in this, you love. A simple lesson of life. Simply beautiful and touching.
    The author's original illustrations are also included and add fantastically to the mood of this book.

  • The Bhagavad Gita


    This little book is one of the staples of Hinduism literature. It recounts the dialogue between the god Krishna and the warrior Arjuna before the eve of a battle for a divided kingdom, dividing families, teachers, students, friends. This book is considered a must read for the teachings of yoga, the way to live.
    I really enjoyed it but was glad it was a short book (86 pages). The style of writing (a dialogue) reminded me of Vasistha's Yoga (one of the biggest books ever written in terms of pages), which I gave up on as, although truly beautiful to read, was just too dense for me. The Bhagavad Gita is a lot more "bitesized" and more manageable.

  • Journal Intime d'un Touriste du Bonheur (Jonathan Lehmann) (Audible audiobook) (in French - it has not yet, as of today, been translated into English)


    This book is the story of Jonathan Lehmann, a former lawyer in Wall Street and now a French meditation teacher, and his spiritual journey and travels to expand his spirituality.
    A lot of humour, very sincere, honest, and great teachings. If you can understand French, highly recommended.
    You can find Jonathan on the app Insight Timer by the way. That's how I discovered him, through a Live session. He has meditations and insights in French and English - also on his YouTube channel. His 10-minute morning meditation is just perfect for beginners.

    *********************************

    I hope these book reviews have inspired you to give them a try. I'd love to hear how you found these books.

    Until next time in my reading adventures...