Most Livable City in the World: Copenhagen
My obsession with Denmark marches on. During my summer trip to Iowa for my grandma's funeral, I spoke with a number of family members who are in touch with our cousins and relatives who still live there. Many of the people I spoke to have done more family history research than I've been able to do so far and I'm working on tracking down the data that I can. I still dream of an epic trip that retraces the lives of my family members and introduces me to my living Danish relatives. Until then, I watch videos like the one below, produced by Monocle, and I know that this is home...
Trust. Creativity. Antique maps and moolah. #mondaymeditation
We swapped! Alexander has my art and I have his art and now we're arting up each other's art. You can see what I finally mailed to him and watch his reaction to our swap in this video he made. If you're wondering what I'm even talking about right now, here's a quick recap.
Alexander and I have had interesting conversations about fear, abundance, trust, creativity, art, expression, and everything that's become wrapped up in this unique experience. I mean, it all sounds really simple, right? Slap some paint on a canvas, ship it to your friend, he'll throw some more paint on it, we blog, we all move on. Right? Not really. Not when you decide to dive into the lessons that an experience like this can teach. I've worked my way through eight months of 2013 with an intentional focus on creativity and maintaining a mindset of abundance. Painting (for the first time ever) was the way I chose to retrain my brain to live in an abundant reality. All of that work is culminating in such a fascinating way in this collaboration. In the convos below, Alexander is white/left and I'm blue/right:
OM indeed. So, what am I doing with his pieces? He sent two sketches, one lion and one woman. I'm putting words in his mouth, but as I interpret these pieces, the lion is meant to be Alexander (a Leo) and symbolizes his power word: Viral Mindfulness. The woman is meant to be me and symbolizes my power word: Abundance. He could've meant something completely different, but again, this is the magic (and trust) of collaboration.
I feel like the woman has a brave, water energy. I love that we're standing behind her and it feels like all the possibility of this wide world is right in front of her. The ocean is a powerful, sacred space for me and so that's where this woman will live. My first reaction was to paint her environment.
Clearly abundance is about far more than money, but I wanted to infuse this collaboration with all types of abundance, including positive financial energy and abundance. Also, this was a great excuse to incorporate beautiful currency from all over the world that I found in an antique store in Salt Lake. I've had the map forever and I actually think it was used as wrapping paper on a gift from an ex-boyfriend. Cut. Cut. Rip. Rip. New energy. New stories.
What does all of this have to do with meditation? Well, when I texted Alexander about our swap and our anxiety about messing up each other's stuff, I was saying this to him as much as I was reminding myself:
This experiment with each other is our relatively low-risk way of practicing, practicing, practicing these concepts of being mindful and abundant, as opposed to going through life disengaged or fearful. There is no wrong answer when it comes to creativity. Someone will look at a Rothko and think it's utter crap and someone will look at it and their whole life will change. If we can learn to take that fearless, abundant, mindful attitude with us everywhere we go, not just into the microcosm of our creative workspaces, we will have created something far greater than a few shared canvases.
Love and cheers to no wrong answers,
gail
Follow my collaboration with Alexander and follow my adventures on Instagram @fourthirtyam.
Alexander and I have had interesting conversations about fear, abundance, trust, creativity, art, expression, and everything that's become wrapped up in this unique experience. I mean, it all sounds really simple, right? Slap some paint on a canvas, ship it to your friend, he'll throw some more paint on it, we blog, we all move on. Right? Not really. Not when you decide to dive into the lessons that an experience like this can teach. I've worked my way through eight months of 2013 with an intentional focus on creativity and maintaining a mindset of abundance. Painting (for the first time ever) was the way I chose to retrain my brain to live in an abundant reality. All of that work is culminating in such a fascinating way in this collaboration. In the convos below, Alexander is white/left and I'm blue/right:
OM indeed. So, what am I doing with his pieces? He sent two sketches, one lion and one woman. I'm putting words in his mouth, but as I interpret these pieces, the lion is meant to be Alexander (a Leo) and symbolizes his power word: Viral Mindfulness. The woman is meant to be me and symbolizes my power word: Abundance. He could've meant something completely different, but again, this is the magic (and trust) of collaboration.
I feel like the woman has a brave, water energy. I love that we're standing behind her and it feels like all the possibility of this wide world is right in front of her. The ocean is a powerful, sacred space for me and so that's where this woman will live. My first reaction was to paint her environment.
Clearly abundance is about far more than money, but I wanted to infuse this collaboration with all types of abundance, including positive financial energy and abundance. Also, this was a great excuse to incorporate beautiful currency from all over the world that I found in an antique store in Salt Lake. I've had the map forever and I actually think it was used as wrapping paper on a gift from an ex-boyfriend. Cut. Cut. Rip. Rip. New energy. New stories.
What does all of this have to do with meditation? Well, when I texted Alexander about our swap and our anxiety about messing up each other's stuff, I was saying this to him as much as I was reminding myself:
There is no wrong answer. You cannot possibly mess it up. It will be exactly what it wants to be. You will do everything right because you're doing it.
This experiment with each other is our relatively low-risk way of practicing, practicing, practicing these concepts of being mindful and abundant, as opposed to going through life disengaged or fearful. There is no wrong answer when it comes to creativity. Someone will look at a Rothko and think it's utter crap and someone will look at it and their whole life will change. If we can learn to take that fearless, abundant, mindful attitude with us everywhere we go, not just into the microcosm of our creative workspaces, we will have created something far greater than a few shared canvases.
Love and cheers to no wrong answers,
gail
Follow my collaboration with Alexander and follow my adventures on Instagram @fourthirtyam.
Workshops. Retreats. Mood lighting. #weekinphotos
|
| The artistic collaboration with Alexander marches on. Read all about it! |
 |
| Workshopping with my girlfriends. |
 |
| Emma Lou Thayne is the namesake and board ex officio for the organization I manage. I was fortunate to spend time with her in her family cabin at our annual board retreat. #rareselfie |
 |
| She was so surprised and delighted by the camera's reversed selfie mode she could barely stand it. #anevenrarerselfie |
 |
| The history and the stories in the Thayne family cabin...it's staggering. |
 |
| Thanks to my girlfriend who lent her boyfriend to me...I have a cute new addition in my condo. |
 |
| How I have managed to live here three years without a crystal chandelier is just beyond me. |
 |
| This situation calls for a thunderstorm and a good make out. Yes, sir, it does. |
Love and luxurious lighting,
me
New landing page: Collaboration with Alexander!
My artistic collaboration with Alexander is getting exciting, folks. We've swapped pieces and we're now working on each other's paintings and sketches, respectively. As we ramp up into the height of this project, I realized I want a landing page on this site to collect all of our posts and document our creative process. Well, ta-da...you can find that right here.
Follow along. Check back often. I have a post planned for this weekend to show you what I'm doing with Alexander's sketches. Hint: It involves antique maps and old paper currency from all over the globe.
For now, enjoy Alexander's experience of receiving my art and shipping his off to SLC.
As Alexander would say...
Love and namasgay,
me
Follow along. Check back often. I have a post planned for this weekend to show you what I'm doing with Alexander's sketches. Hint: It involves antique maps and old paper currency from all over the globe.
For now, enjoy Alexander's experience of receiving my art and shipping his off to SLC.
As Alexander would say...
Love and namasgay,
me
Humor helps. #mondaymeditation
Along with four of my girlfriends, I'm participating in a series of workshops based on the work of Robert Fritz. Specifically, we're reading his text Your Life as Art, and learning his framework of structural dynamics as a way to create what it is we want in our lives. The courses are taught by consultant / management coach Paula Ruffy. All of that might sound like a bit of word soup right now, but I'm planning a series of posts that will share with you what I'm learning through this adventure. We've only had one out of three total sessions so far and it's already pure awesomeness.
In the meantime, because I like to post meditation-ish posts on Mondays, I'll share this gem. It's stupid. It's funny. It helps me not take myself too seriously. I can get really wrapped up in the perceived weightiness of this whole mediative spiritual adventure. I mean, we're only exploring the whole meaning of life and stuff. This puts it all back in perspective...
.jpg)
Scroll through all 33 of these silly photos. It's worth a few chuckles and 2.5 minutes of your time.
Love and affirmations,
me
In the meantime, because I like to post meditation-ish posts on Mondays, I'll share this gem. It's stupid. It's funny. It helps me not take myself too seriously. I can get really wrapped up in the perceived weightiness of this whole mediative spiritual adventure. I mean, we're only exploring the whole meaning of life and stuff. This puts it all back in perspective...
.jpg)
Scroll through all 33 of these silly photos. It's worth a few chuckles and 2.5 minutes of your time.
Love and affirmations,
me
Business trip. Neighborhood cafe. Cloud porn. #weekinphotos
Follow the adventures in real time on Instagram @fourthirtyam. You can also join me on Flickr.
Love,
me
A Series of Adventures. It's official.
Those of you that've been with me for a while (or even from the beginning in 2007 (hi mom)) know that I've focused and refocused this blog down to a simple summary of its content:
Curating life as a series of adventures.
Specifically, most of my adventures tend to fall into the broad categories of globetrotting, photography, and sundry feats of creativity. There's also a bit of meditation, declaration, and Danish family history research going on as well.
To continue putting energy toward this adventurous focus, I've now established a custom domain for the site:
www.aseriesofadventures.com
I'm still using the blogger platform, but my design skills and desire for customization outgrew it a while back. I think Squarespace is inevitable, but the new domain will follow me regardless. So, ladies and gents, point your bookmarks and other such electronic organizers toward the new URL and let's do this.
Love and adventure,
me
Curating life as a series of adventures.
Specifically, most of my adventures tend to fall into the broad categories of globetrotting, photography, and sundry feats of creativity. There's also a bit of meditation, declaration, and Danish family history research going on as well.
To continue putting energy toward this adventurous focus, I've now established a custom domain for the site:
www.aseriesofadventures.com
I'm still using the blogger platform, but my design skills and desire for customization outgrew it a while back. I think Squarespace is inevitable, but the new domain will follow me regardless. So, ladies and gents, point your bookmarks and other such electronic organizers toward the new URL and let's do this.
Love and adventure,
me
Declaration of You Day: Recap #mondaydeclaration
To wrap up the experience I had with The Declaration of You Bloglovin' Tour, I participated in the Declaration of You Day. It was an all-day event hosted on Facebook, structured around moving all participants through each theme/chapter in the book. In the recapping words of organizers Michelle Ward & Jessica Swift, in 6 hours, 100 creative souls:
- Gave away 15 books (9 Declaration of You and others from Natalia KW, Alexandra Franzen, and Susannah Conway), and a 3-month subscription to Tiffany Han’s Love Letters.
- Chatted in real time with Kari Chapin, Colleen Wainwright, and Natalia KW.
- Did 8 “speed” projects and shared our photos with each other.
- Laughed our pajama pants off, made new friends and a big crafty mess.
Here's a glimpse into pieces of my Declaration of You Day:
.png) |
| Visioning board: In 5 minutes, cruise through a magazine and tear out anything that inspires you. |
.png) |
| Celebration Jar: Write down things you can do so celebrate your accomplishments... |
.png) |
| ta-da...Celebration Jar! |
.png) |
| Declaring your uniqueness: "If you're born a lion, don't bother trying to act tame" (Ani DiFranco). |
.png) |
| Power word. Amen. |
.png) |
| "Draw your alter ego..." |
To see what other people were up to...here's a few recap collages shared by Michelle and Jessica:
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
You can read all the other posts also included in the tour by clicking here.
Brunches. Antiques. Markets. #weekinphotos
I've been here...there...a little bit of everywhere in the past week. See for yourself...
 |
| Beehive Braintree class at Granary Row: The History of Jazz, part one. |
 |
| Food trucks at Granary Row. |
 |
| Art gallery at Granary Row. |
 |
| The Garden Lunch Box at Granary Row. |
 |
| Dinner at a new restaurant with an old friend. |
 |
| Sometimes my business meetings are held in ski lodges. Hey, I live in the Rocky Mountains. |
 |
| Participated in The Declaration of You Day! |
 |
| Backyard jazz with the girls. |
 |
| My friend came down from Boise and we had a girl's weekend full of gorgeous food, farmer's markets, flea markets, diy craft markets, antiquing galore...and more. SEE THE FULL SET ON FLICKR. |
I have a VSCO cam library full of adventures I've yet to sort through. It's been a busy week and an even busier weekend. Follow the fun on Instagram @fourthirtyam.
Love and pixels,
me
Love and pixels,
me
5 Sutras of the Aquarian Age
This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. Everybody sing! When the moooon is in the Seventh House, and Jupiter aligns with Maaaaars...
Okay, but seriously though, I spent an hour online with Gabriel Bernstein last night and today's #mondaymeditation is all about her recent keynote at the Wanderlust Festival.
She is a student of Yogi Bhajan's Kundalini Yoga, the guru known for ushering in the Aquarian Age. If your hippie flag doesn't fly quite as high as mine, the Aquarian Age is also known as the age of awakening. It's a pressure cooker, as Gabby describes it, of intense energy, consciousness, new paradigms, and a more authentic way of living with the earth and each other. It's an age of people deciding to become who they truly are. It's also, as she says, "not a time for creating disciples. This is a time for creating teachers and storytellers." The Aquarian Age has a feminine energy that's all about aligning yourself to the vibrations of The Universe (as opposed to convincing yourself that you are living your life well by mastering and conquering and controlling and other such masculine vibes).
Not to get lost in those weeds, whether you think it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo or whether you've tuned in, the five sutras (or threads/knots) of the age are still wise words. I'm sharing the notes that I scribbled as she spoke. Some bits are direct quotations and some bits are my reflections on what she said.
Sutra One: Recognize the other person is you
What we admire in others is a part of ourselves that we haven't fully developed yet. The light you see in someone else is an expression of the light you actually have within you. Pay attention to who inspires you and then learn to express that fully. What we don't like in others, on the other hand, is a disowned part of our shadow. Instead of attacking yourself or the other person, let yourself get to work and fix that part of your shadow. The more you wake up, the less you can vibrate with that crap anyway. It will start to make you sick to be around negative energy and you'll have less of it in your life.
Sutra Two: There is a way through every block
Tap into the conscious part of yourself that actually believes this. Clear all the clutter and chatter out of the way until you get to your core, where you know this is true. You'll be given creative ways to get through any block. Let creative spiritual energy flow through you and get out of your own way. Fear blocks everything. Love clears the way for everything.
Sutra Three: When the time is on you, start, and the pressure will be off
The Aquarian Age is a pressure cooker. You are not alone in feeling the intensified vibrations. Stop freaking out, stop trying to plan to the last detail what you're supposed to do about it, and stop trying to control everything. Just start. Start. Do something. Take a step in the direction you want to go. The pressure will be off as soon as you start, and the next step will unfold. Stop planning. Just go. Don't play small, either. Once you go for it, go.
Sutra Four: Understand through compassion or you will misunderstand the times
You don't truly know anyone's story. Everyone is fighting a hard battle. If you turn your back on people and if you fight back, you will misunderstand the energy of the times. "In my defenselessness my safety lies." The ego is the darkest and weakest part of us. We are safer and more secure when we let that go and feel defenseless (ie stripped of ego). The Universe will step in.
Sutra Five: Vibrate with the cosmos and the cosmos shall clear the path
When you're irrational, you're not vibrating with the cosmos. Thinking you are in total control of everything around you is irrational. You have to tap into The Universe around you and get out of your own crazy. You can decide in any given moment to vibrate high or low frequency. Whatever you're vibrating is coming right back at you like a boomerang. High frequency: Abundance, trust, love. Low frequency: Scarcity, fear, freak out.
OM. Love,
me
Okay, but seriously though, I spent an hour online with Gabriel Bernstein last night and today's #mondaymeditation is all about her recent keynote at the Wanderlust Festival.
She is a student of Yogi Bhajan's Kundalini Yoga, the guru known for ushering in the Aquarian Age. If your hippie flag doesn't fly quite as high as mine, the Aquarian Age is also known as the age of awakening. It's a pressure cooker, as Gabby describes it, of intense energy, consciousness, new paradigms, and a more authentic way of living with the earth and each other. It's an age of people deciding to become who they truly are. It's also, as she says, "not a time for creating disciples. This is a time for creating teachers and storytellers." The Aquarian Age has a feminine energy that's all about aligning yourself to the vibrations of The Universe (as opposed to convincing yourself that you are living your life well by mastering and conquering and controlling and other such masculine vibes).
Not to get lost in those weeds, whether you think it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo or whether you've tuned in, the five sutras (or threads/knots) of the age are still wise words. I'm sharing the notes that I scribbled as she spoke. Some bits are direct quotations and some bits are my reflections on what she said.
What we admire in others is a part of ourselves that we haven't fully developed yet. The light you see in someone else is an expression of the light you actually have within you. Pay attention to who inspires you and then learn to express that fully. What we don't like in others, on the other hand, is a disowned part of our shadow. Instead of attacking yourself or the other person, let yourself get to work and fix that part of your shadow. The more you wake up, the less you can vibrate with that crap anyway. It will start to make you sick to be around negative energy and you'll have less of it in your life.
Sutra Two: There is a way through every block
Tap into the conscious part of yourself that actually believes this. Clear all the clutter and chatter out of the way until you get to your core, where you know this is true. You'll be given creative ways to get through any block. Let creative spiritual energy flow through you and get out of your own way. Fear blocks everything. Love clears the way for everything.
Sutra Three: When the time is on you, start, and the pressure will be off
The Aquarian Age is a pressure cooker. You are not alone in feeling the intensified vibrations. Stop freaking out, stop trying to plan to the last detail what you're supposed to do about it, and stop trying to control everything. Just start. Start. Do something. Take a step in the direction you want to go. The pressure will be off as soon as you start, and the next step will unfold. Stop planning. Just go. Don't play small, either. Once you go for it, go.
Sutra Four: Understand through compassion or you will misunderstand the times
You don't truly know anyone's story. Everyone is fighting a hard battle. If you turn your back on people and if you fight back, you will misunderstand the energy of the times. "In my defenselessness my safety lies." The ego is the darkest and weakest part of us. We are safer and more secure when we let that go and feel defenseless (ie stripped of ego). The Universe will step in.
Sutra Five: Vibrate with the cosmos and the cosmos shall clear the path
When you're irrational, you're not vibrating with the cosmos. Thinking you are in total control of everything around you is irrational. You have to tap into The Universe around you and get out of your own crazy. You can decide in any given moment to vibrate high or low frequency. Whatever you're vibrating is coming right back at you like a boomerang. High frequency: Abundance, trust, love. Low frequency: Scarcity, fear, freak out.
OM. Love,
me
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)