June Challenge - Releasing the Past

This is probably going to be one of the most difficult challenges that I have attempted so far and it took me a few days to narrow it down actually I made my final choice about five minutes ago. I am going to release the past.  All last month I did affirmations where I stated over and over twice a day that I released the past and then blew my candles out and returned to talking about the past.  I am a storyteller and I always end up going into my past as a source for my stories well now I would like look forward instead of looking backwards. I would love to release traumatic stories, hurtful stories, sad stories from my childhood because they have been conjured up over and over again and every time I bring one of them forward, I subject my body to the physical and mental memories.  It is time to let those stories fall away, the past is over. "Hip hip hooray, there is joy in everyday," and that is what I plan to focus on for the month of June and beyond.

May Challenge-Daily Affirmations

So the month of May seemed to come to an end way too fast, I mean, the famous 2012 is already half over, how did that happen, I swear time is speeding up. I am so happy with the results of this challenge, I feel a lot more grounded and at peace.  I did affirmations every morning and at bedtime. The above photo is my new altar created for my morning and evening affirmation ritual.  This space is evolving and the poster represents my breaking out of the rut that I was in. I am continuing my affirmations because it really helps me to notice my mind/thoughts and to catch them before they get out of hand and end up creating dis-ease in my physical body.

May Challenge-Affirmations

May is already off and running and this new blogspot is getting on my nerves because I have already lost two posts trying to adjust and hitting the wrong things.  Anyway, this month is all about affirmations!!  I live in a living altar but last month thanks to the work I did with the book, "the Artist's Rule," by Christine v. Paintner, I felt I needed to create an altar for my morning rituals.  So, I started gathering sacred objects from the cottage and placing them on the little space in front of the fireplace.  This month I will do pre-selected affirmations after my morning and evening meditations. I have loaded myself down with all of these new activities so doing affirmations will be a lovely way to release, refresh, and heal myself.   

Week 4 Review

"I want to rise and fall like the ebb and flow of the ocean.  I want to shed parts of myself in the autumn,  to go deeply inward in the winter, to blossom into spring, and to shine forth and be radiant in summer.  I want to live my life in healing rhythms that honor the limits of my body, the pleasures of rest, and the delights of play."

This week was all about recognizes and embracing the seasons of life .  This chapter had a beautiful and sacred way of celebrating the four seasons everyday .   Dawn's direction is east and it is associated with spring, renewal, awakening,and with the breath/air.  Noon is associated with summer, fire and the direction is south if you are in the northern hemisphere and north if you are in the southern hemisphere. It is a time of fullness and the sun is at its peak, a time of illumination.  Anyway, you get the point and I am able to create rituals to honor the seasons in my life on a daily basis.    I already have rituals for dawn, the awakening and what the author refers to as the "hour of dark," which is associated with winter, the north in the northern hemisphere and the south if you are in the southern hemisphere, and with the element of earth.  It is the time of rest and stillness, a time to go inward, a time for grounding.  

I want to create rituals for noon time and also for  "dusk." Dusk is associated with autumn,  the west and with the element of water.
The chapter also dealt with monthly cycles, and yearly seasons and ways to use these sacred cycles/seasons, to deepen your creativity.

Week 2 Review

What if you cared less about achievements and being useful, and did more useless things? What would it mean for you to dance, make art, write poetry, and pray purely for the delight in the act of creation?" Amongst the many questions put forth in week two's chapter, these are the ones that resonated with me. Many people that I encounter would count their life as not worth anything unless they are doing something to benefit others because doing things simply for their individual joy is frowned upon. I am a woman of leisure and joy is my purpose in life and I want to create just for my own personal delight. It is useful to me and that is what matters.

"Awe, wonder and holy curiosity; visual explorations, poetry writing exploration," these are just a few of the topics/offerings in week two, but my favorite section is called, "Living in the Border Spaces." I love this section because it is all about living in the place that I call the fringes. The author refers to the border spaces as fertile ground that is filled with beauty and mystery. I am not interested in what the mainstream is doing in art or the ways in which they are choosing to be creative, I want my art to reflect my sense of life and not that of the status quo and by living on the fringes/border spaces, my mind becomes fertile ground.

My favorite quote from week two is:

"This border country is a place of intense vitality. It does not so much draw us away from the everyday world as it plunges us deeper into a reality of which the everyday world is like the surface....To live there for a while is like having the veils pulled away." So the border spaces are not necessarily a place(but they can be), as much as they are a state of being.

Have a wonder filled week.

Week 1 Review

Week one was a trip for me because I found myself dealing with a lot of fearful thoughts that threatened to over take me but I was able to get back on top by doing some spiritual reading. The lessons in the book had to do with finding the inner monastery, silence and solitude, walking meditation, sacred readings, visual art exploration, and some reflection questions. I am off to a shaky start but I did manage to do the visual art exploration and my own brand of sacred reading. I meditate twice a day everyday so in a sense, my mouth is silent even though my mind is full of thoughts rushing by and all too often, catching my attention. I do love spending my silent time in nature. I sat on the Tule Elk Reserve on the Point Reyes Seashore, in silence watching these beautiful beings and I was in total joy.

Each week, I will add a quote from the book that I enjoyed.

"Silence isn't something we do, although we can still ourselves to receive its gifts. It is not a personal capacity, although we can cultivate practices of becoming more present. Meister Eckhart described silence as 'the purest element of the soul, the soul's most exalted place, the core, the essence of the soul.' This is the inner monastery within each of our hearts, a place of absolute stillness, our soul's deep essence."

April Challenge-Monastic Wisdom?

Now, this is going to be a fun and unique challenge for me. This month's challenge will be to explore my creativity. I plan to have some fun by following the twelve week program in this book. Monastic wisdom as a path to my creative spirit seems like a pretty cool challenge. At the end of each week, I will do a post on what I actually did and what worked and didn't work for me, so, I am jumping right into this adventure! I will post my experiences on Sundays.