I would love to hear from you and, if you have been following, you know opening my comments is an issue right now. So if you want to share anything go here or e-mail me at sandi@lusciouslife.com.
I would love to hear from you and, if you have been following, you know opening my comments is an issue right now. So if you want to share anything go here or e-mail me at sandi@lusciouslife.com.
Your precious time, your skill, your creative energy.
You have the right to keep it to yourself.
You do not have to share it with anyone.
It can be your private solace, your personal sanctuary, your secret garden.
The world does not own your productivity, nor do you have any obligation to feed the insatiable beast of the world’s demands for more, more, more.
No one is entitled to your life expression.
It is your gift to do with as YOU please. As a creative, human soul, some bit, maybe a very large bit of your life expression will be shared. Freely, eagerly, joyfully, tentatively, slowly, loudly, elegantly, messily, or in a myriad of other “-ly’s”.
You will be so filled up with the energy you are harnessing, that you are stewarding, that you are manifesting, it will flow into the world because it must.
Not because what you are doing is perfect, or that you even feel ready, but because the energy of your creativity, passion, spirit, desire, purpose, will, devotion, is so ripe to be in the world it needs to move out through you.
Like the child who runs to her mommy to show off her latest painting, still dripping wet. Or the business you start, even though you are scared to death, because it is that important to you. Like the dance you must do when that one song comes on. What is inside needs to express itself in the world.
This is when you share. This is when you give. This is when the world can receive you as the abundant gift you are. Anything else carries the tinge of obligation, forcing, resisting, proving, controlling, and it creates psychic drag that builds up and it will weigh you down.
When you don’t feel you own the way you share yourself with the world you feel guilty when you say “no”. No, not right now. No, I don’t want to. No, that doesn’t work for me. No, not that but this. No, this is private.
For me a moment I learned that what I wanted to give was less important than what others wanted from me was in third grade.
***
My teacher was Miss Tyree. She was tall, had deep read hair styled in a practical bob, wore serious brown rimed glasses. She played piano every morning as we sang the Star Spangled Banner or My Country Tis of Thee after dutifully saying our pledge of allegiance. I loved her. I wanted to be like her. I wanted to play the piano.
I started taking lessons and not too surprisingly, daily practicing was not my favorite thing. The discipline challenged me. But I was also very shy and unsure of myself so practicing in house full of people who had opinions about the inevitable and many wrong notes was hard.
And then there were the recitals. I hated them. I did not want to play in front of a room full of people, I didn’t want to play in front of anyone. Because I was shy and unsure, but also because I wanted to play just because I wanted to.
For me. Only. I didn’t want to entertain the world.
I was told that wasn’t how it worked. If you take lessons playing in public came with the deal. It was implied that people wanted to hear me play so I owed it to them.
I got the message I couldn’t have my own private pleasures, my own just-for-me expression. If it had value outside of myself, I owed to those who wanted it.
I didn’t understand this. Why couldn’t this be just for me? My own private, beautiful thing?
But at 9 years old I couldn’t fight convention and parental decision so I did the recitals. For many years. And it took the joy of playing music away and replaced it with performance and anxiety.
***
What if my experience were different? What if I had been supported in being shy and needing more time to keep my fledgling skill private? With encouragement with out demand would I have become, if not comfortable playing for others, curious enough to try? If I were supported in my desire to have my playing be just for me would I have learned to trust myself and my innate desire more?
I don’t know. I do know that I didn’t have the same issues with my art being displayed. I was okay (if still nervous) sharing that part of my creative life. Now I use my photography in my blogging and e-letters even though I am far from a professional, but sharing my writing is an ongoing ebb and flow of a private and public dance. The more space I give myself for all the privacy I want, the sharing of my thoughts and bits of vulnerability feel natural, almost as if they require being shared.
Over the years I have witnessed this pattern of the upwelling in energy to the point of outward flow in my coaching of deeply feeling, creative, soulful women.
When allowed the space to sink in and find what is authentically calling them rather than what is expected of them (by themselves and the outer world) an organic and beautifully unique path unfolds.
Add to this the changing desires and energy at midlife and the pull to question the status quo in their life, a profound reclaiming of ownership of exactly how they share their precious selves with the world happens. With out guilt and with joy and homecoming. For some it is a grand coming out, for others an intimate returning in, but it always changes everything.
You have the right to keep it to yourself.
Your precious time, your skill, your creative energy.
You have the right to keep it to yourself.
You do not have to share it with anyone.
It can be your private solace, your personal sanctuary, your secret garden.
Until, and if, you chose otherwise.
If you are looking for support in finding your own beautifully unique life path, I may be able to help.
the sun is hitting the window at just the right angle to cause your head to turn
and you catch the glory of light bouncing off of and between
Nature
Just
Outside
Your
Window
and in that moment you find yourself
renewed, reminded, ready
to take your next step, your next glorious step into life
it only looks humble and mundane
like writing out bills
or doing the dishes
or getting ready for a meeting
but really it is the thing connecting you to everything you dream
*******************************************
Do you know I have a private corner in this virtual temple?
That is how I think of my Luscious Soulful Beauty e-letter.
I share more thoughts and ideas on living a connected and soulful life that I don’t share anywhere else, and it is the first place I announce exciting stuff.
I cleaned the house, the kind of cleaning that happens when guests come.
Today
I wondered why I am devoted to my guests coming into a clean and neat home and I am not equally devoted to giving this same thoughtfulness to myself.
Today
I chose to be curious instead of plop myself straight into failure-as-a-human land.
Today
When I chose to be curious instead of self judgemental, I noticed brief moments of contentment amidst tasks I hate.
Today
As I acted from devotion to another, I took wholehearted action in an area I typically aviod as much at possible. Because I want my guest to be welcomed with spaciousness and beauty in my home.
Today
I felt my heart break a little when I realized I do not hold the space of such devotion for myself.
Today
Because I chose curiosity instead of judgment I am left exploring how I would be different if I treated myself with the gracious consideration and devotion I give my guests.
1. I woke up before dawn from a very disturbing dream. I found watching the sun come up very soothing. Nature will always calm a jumpy mind.
2. Yesterday I had a ball of anxiety in my chest, perhaps the precursor to the dream this morning. Me thinks something big is getting ready to shift.
3. It was challenging to not chase away the anxiety and just let it have its corner of my day. I’ve been getting signals that I am trying to make change happen too fast, pushing for an outcome. My Priestess is reminding me that allowing is the energy to cultivate right now.
4. Allowing is not the same as waiting, abdicating responsibility, or avoiding action. Allowing is leaving the door to all-that-is open and inviting what comes though to sit and have a cup of tea.
5. Having a cup of tea is not a life long commitment. It is just a moment, this moment, right now. Breathe in, breathe out.
6. My pace right now is slow and internal. Trying to make it big and external is me trying to play by someone else’s rules. This never works.
7. This is what guidance looks like at times. Allowing all-that-is to have space in this moment, inviting even the uncomfortable in for tea and a bit of conversation.
Sometimes, if you allow it, the random is the guidance.
We think of guidance as a flash of insight, the wise words of a sage, a divine sign that eliminates all doubt and confusion.
I say this is the end result of guidance.
Guidance is a journey where the information, intuitions, synchronistic happenstance, all the subtle and not so subtle signs, point you to where you want to go- where you most need to go.
Guidance is a process that can only happen in willingness.
It is a sacred request from the Unseens to open to the wisdom needed at this time, in this moment, for these circumstances.
The pathway through which guidance finds you is not always logical, expected, or even practical in ordinary ways of thinking.
It requires Trust.
Discernment.
Courage.
Imagination.
Attention.
It asks you to pause and step outside the ordinary.
***********************************
The above is the opening to The Path of Guidance, a companion workbook to the Guidance Sessions, my newest service offering. This is a two part, sacred conversation blending the practical support of coaching with the intuitive insight of Tarot.
Sometimes you want some direction and clarity.
Sometimes you want to find your way back into alignment with your self and your life.
Sometimes you need some sacred space holding and a partner to tune you into the quiet truth of your heart.
If this sounds like you, if it is time to step outside the ordinary and find more of yourself, look and see if you are guided to have your own Guidance Sessions. Details here.
“My session with Sandi was one of the most powerful and magical experiences I’ve ever had in a coaching session — or a tarot reading.” Elena DuCharme, Attorney and Performance Coach.
